Branham Cult Polygamist Community Exposed

In 2011, a polygamist group of William Branham's "Message" cult followers at the Evangelistic Tabernacle in Henry County was exposed on Washington's WUSA Channel 9 and the Roanoke Times.  

Read the full article here:
https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1993/rt9301/930117/01170144.htm 

Branham cult leader Elwood Gallimore admitted that he slept with multiple women.

Everybody says, "Well, they're all sleeping together," Gallimore said of his critics during an interview Friday. "But Sabrina [the teen-ager] goes to one bedroom, Janice goes to another, and whichever one I want to sleep with, I sleep with."[1]

According to Armando Trull, reporter for Channel 9, Gallimore believed that he was under attack as other polygamist compounds in Texas were raided by the Federal government.

This Virginia polygamist community has existed quietly for decades, in the foothills of the Appalachians just hours from Washington, D.C.  They describe themselves as "God-fearing folk" and they say they are under attack from an "ungodly society and unfair government".[2]

Viewers watched in disbelief as the Branham cult leader warned his congregation, "They will hate you!" As he stood in front of a picture of William Branham.  Branham, who allegedly supported polygamy throughout his ministry began openly supporting polygamy in 1965.  According to Branham, the "covenant of polygamy" was introduced after the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden lowering the status of women to "become what she is now".  Gallimore defended his beliefs by stating that he was simply preaching the doctrine of Branham and that the Bible "sanctions polygamy".[3]

Then when the double covenant was made by man and woman, through sex, another covenant altogether (not the original covenant, but another covenant), now what's introduced? Polygamy, in all. Then, after the beginning, polygamy was introduced both in man and in beasts; after the beginning, the fall. God now, secondarily, sets a new nature again, by sex. God created the first without sex. Do you believe that? [Congregation says, 'Amen. '—Ed. ] Now it's another covenant with nature, He sets it in another order, by sex. Second covenant: one male, many females; one buck deer, a whole harem of does. Is that right? One bull, a whole herd of cattle, cows; one rooster, a yardful of hens. Is that right? One David, after His Own heart, with five hundred wives; with a hundred children born to him, in one year, of different women, a man after God's Own heart. One Solomon, with a thousand wives. But notice now, it wasn't so at the beginning, but now it's 'after' the beginning. The woman has done this, then she just becomes what she is now. See?
- Branham, William. 1965, Feb 21. Marriage And Divorce. 

According to the Roanoke Times, William Branham's sons Joseph and Billy Paul Branham denied that their father made these statements.

Billy Paul Branham, contacted Friday by telephone, was stunned to learn Gallimore was preaching polygamy and justifying it with his father's teachings."Two living wives? At the same time?" Branham asked. "That's what we call polygamy. We absolutely do not believe in that."Branham went on to say that Gallimore's interpretation of his father's preachings was "totally the opposite" of his father's intent. In fact, Branham said his father's followers are taught that they can remarry only if a spouse dies.[4]

Willard Collins, who was pastor at the Tabernacle in Jeffersonville Indiana at the time, also denied that Branham made these statements.

Willard Collins is the pastor of Jeffersonville's Branham Tabernacle, which was founded by William Marrion Branham. Collins said Branham was "one of the cleanest-living men" and would never have sanctioned multiple marriages.Branham, Collins confirmed, even refused to marry a divorced person whose former spouse was still alive. Collins had never heard of a wedding like the Gallimore-Simpkins event."That just seems so ridiculous to me," he said. "Is there anything we can do to stop it? I tell you, it's ridiculous, especially connecting himself to Brother Branham."[5]