
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 1, 1993                   TAG: 9403040001
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MRS. GALLIMORE

IN OUR divorce-crazy society, Janice Gallimore's petition to break with her husband wouldn't normally warrant much attention, were it not for her peculiar and publicized circumstances. She is married, of course, to Henry County preacher Elwood Gallimore, whose religious beliefs include the doctrine that it's OK for a pastor to take a 16-year-old member of his congregation as a second wife "in the eyes of God" while the first wife is still married to him.

The fact that his partner in second marriage is a minor had to alter this story's moral contours.

One can argue that polygamy among consenting adults ought to be allowed, that it particularly deserves legal protection if it flows from religious belief. One can argue, too, that women's progress over the past century should ironically allow for greater legal tolerance of such abuse. That is, women tend nowadays to have more rights, and to be more aware of them, than in the bad old days. State paternalism, thus, should be less necessary and more obnoxious.

But the seduction of a virtual child by her pastor, while her docile parents look on? That's beyond the pale.

The law was unable to stop Gallimore, but that was not the end of the affair. Legality and morality are not synonymous, nor are all bad things amenable to legal redress. Janice Gallimore had to take matters, finally, into her own hands.

Her decision to file for divorce Thursday, strictly considered, may violate her marriage vows, but it is a moral act. Besides offering retribution for her betrayal and defense of her dignity, her removal from the preacher's triangle also reduces Elwood Gallimore's sin to its most offensive core: the selfish, sexual manipulation of a girl by a man supposed to be her moral guide. Janice won't be party to that.

Many currents swirl under the surface of this man's obsession and the public's interest in it, including the potential power of charisma over people's lives, even over their autonomy; and organized religion's less than excellent track record in resisting male chauvinism.

This was an extreme, aberrational case, to be sure, but extremes can illuminate corners in our lives. Public interest was swelled not just by the case's legal peculiarities, but also by fascination - combining repulsion and envy - with a character who looks a little like Elvis, who makes his own rules and breaks society's.

Janice Gallimore's request for a divorce is a victory not just for her own self-respect, but for a society that should be offended both by male arrogance and by women's acquiescence in their victimhood.

by CNB