Ohio pastor with 2 wives facing backlash after polygamy announcement: 'Raises questions about spiritual manipulation'

Pastor claims he and second wife had same dream about polygamy, but first wife took convincing

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, October 30, 2026

Ohio Pastor Israel Ford, who is facing public backlash after revealing he's been living in a throuple with his wife and a younger woman for the last three years, claims they all fasted and prayed for 40 days before embarking on their polygynous journey.

The 47-year-old pastor, who co-founded LifeWorks Church in Cleveland with his wife, Lydia Ford, 45, announced to his congregation on Sunday that he took on 28-year-old church minister, Shakayla Talley, now called Shakayla Ford, as a “second wife” while denouncing the practice of monogamy as "unbiblical."

His announcement made national headlines and elicited pushback from pastors and other Christians online. Among those was former NFL head coach and Hall of Famer Tony Dungy who wrote on X: “As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.” 

While the pastor did not respond to an interview request from The Christian Post earlier this week, he claimed in an interview with Larry Reid Tuesday that his marriage to Shakayla is spiritual. He said his first wife, Lydia, never had a problem with him admiring other women, and he fell in love with Shakayla as she spent time helping his wife in their home while she was sick.

“It went from there into like, Shakayla always being around, helping her (Lydia) when she was sick; cooking, cleaning, just doing different things. And to the point where when I fell in love with Shakayla, I told her, I said, you know, let me talk to you honestly from my heart,” the LifeWorks Church pastor recalled.

“I said, I can't see Shakayla going anywhere. And I said, I don't want to live outside of the covenant. I don't want to live outside, just being sinful. And I said, so I want to pray about it. And I actually started praying. I started fasting. Matter of fact, all three of us, we prayed and fasted for 40 days. We agreed to do a 40-day fast,” he reiterated.

Israel Ford claimed that during the middle of the fast, God approved the throuple arrangement but only confirmed it with him and Shakayla. Lydia never heard God's approval; she only agreed after further study and convincing.

“In the middle of the fast, God spoke to me and to Shakayla," the pastor said. We had a dream on the exact same night of God telling us. ... And the crazy part about it, he spoke to us, and he didn't speak to her [Lydia],” Israel Ford said.

“But I told her, I said, ‘I would never marry her until you are OK with it because I can't have two wives if I get a second one and the first one walks away. I'm still back at square root one.’ And so, I had to wait. And so after God gave me the OK, she was like, ‘Well, I just need a little time.’ And then when she was OK, … we crossed over,” he revealed.

Bishop Talbert Swan, pastor of Spring of Hope in Springfield, Massachusetts, is among the many Christian leaders who did not see Pastor Ford’s announcement as cause for applause.

In a statement on Facebook Tuesday, Swan questioned the relationship between Shakayla Ford and the couple, while pointing out that the pastor is a convicted domestic abuser in a case involving his then 17-year-old stepdaughter, according to court documents. The now-adult stepdaughter from that case, Kourtney Jones, also accused her stepfather of childhood sexual abuse, which he and his wife denied in a statement to The Shade Room.

“We are aware of Kourtney Jones’ public allegations and recognize the serious damage they can have. From our perspective, these are the same allegations she’s made for many years that have been alluded to in her online posts over several years. It’s not true,” the couple said.

“Now Pastor Ford, 47, is introducing Shakayla Ford, 28, as his second wife, a woman he publicly referred to just four years ago as ‘my hardest working daughter!’ So how did someone he apparently regarded as a spiritual daughter become his wife?” Swan asked.

“This entire situation raises disturbing questions about spiritual manipulation, pastoral authority, possible coercion, and the exploitation of vulnerable people under the guise of divine revelation. When a pastor goes from calling a woman his spiritual daughter to calling her his wife, while carrying a domestic violence conviction involving an actual daughter, and pleading guilty to other offenses arising from an incident involving his former ‘second wife,’ somebody needs to start asking some serious questions,” Swan insisted. “Stop confusing spiritual authority with divine permission to do whatever you please. A collar doesn’t cancel criminality, and calling something God’s will doesn’t make it holy!”

Lydia Ford, who has been married to Israel Ford since 2013, said she and her husband began discussing polygyny around 2021 or 2022. She said when her husband first brought the idea to her, she told him, “ain’t no way.”

“He [Israel] was studying the Word. God revealed it to him. He brought it to me. I was like, ‘Ain't no way. I ain't doing that. That's not for me. Like absolutely not,’” she said. “After us talking and talking and praying and praying, I just remember saying, ‘God, I'm not listening to this man. Like, you going to have to talk to me.’”

Lydia Ford said that after she immersed herself in research on the topic, she finally agreed. 

“I think it was a matter of me understanding, like more on the spiritual side. I know my husband. I know how he’s built. I know how he's set up; like most men, they want options,” she said. “I was raised this way [monogamy]. This is what I always been taught. It was all of that to where I couldn't reconcile my mind [with] what I knew from growing up to him telling me like this isn't sin.”

Israel Ford also challenged Scripture, like 1 Timothy 3:2, where the Apostle Paul outlines the qualifications for church leadership. While Scripture states that a bishop must have one wife, Israel Ford contends it is largely culturally based advice.

“1) I'm not a bishop, nor am I a deacon; 2) if that's actually what that meant, then that will only pertain to those who are on that level of leadership. But the truth of the matter is, I know that it's the way that they're (critics) seeing it because they put that same standard on everybody in the church. So, it's not about being a bishop. It's about that's how we've been taught,” he argued.

The Christian apologetics website Got Questions states that not only is polygamy wrong, but a pastor who enters into such an arrangement is disqualified. "In the New Testament, a polygamist is ineligible for church leadership (1 Timothy 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6)."

Jason Cook, another Christian polygamist, praised Israel Ford in a statement on Facebook.

“Pastor Israel Ford, whom I have personally met, publicly acknowledged something that will bring criticism, condemnation, and attacks from those who have allowed centuries of religious tradition to dictate what Scripture teaches,” Cook declared.

“Biblical polygyny is not a modern invention, nor is it sinful simply because modern feminism rejects it. Abraham, Jacob, David, and 40+ other biblical patriarchs in Scripture had multiple wives. God even regulated the practice in His Law (Exodus 21:10; Deuteronomy 21:15–17), and never issued a prohibition against it,” he argued. “You may disagree, you may not understand it, and you may have been taught your entire life that marriage can only ever involve one man and one woman. But your traditions are not Scripture, and your discomfort is not a commandment of God.”

Got Questions also addresses the argument made by Cook about major biblical figures having more than one wife by explaining that Christians "must remember that allowance is not the same as approval."

In patriarchal societies, it was nearly impossible for an unmarried woman to provide for herself. Women were often uneducated and untrained. Women relied on their fathers, brothers, and husbands for provision and protection. Unmarried women were often subjected to prostitution and slavery.

So, God may have allowed polygamy to protect and provide for the women who otherwise may have been left destitute. A man would take multiple wives and serve as the provider and protector of all of them.

In his interview with Larry Reid, Pastor Ford said he decided to go public with his new family arrangement to be transparent.

“I came out for two reasons: The first one is because I believe that if you do something and you preach something, you should live it. And so I think transparency is everything. The second part was there's so many people who are living a polygamous life, but they're just doing it the wrong way, and they're doing it behind closed doors or they're just watching porn or they're doing it as a coward, and they don't want to do it honorably. And so, I just know I needed to step out,” he said.

“I know people think, ‘Oh, it's an abomination.’ It's like, please show me one Scripture where it says that,” Pastor Ford contended. 

Shakayla Ford, who prefers to stay in the background, explained that she sees her role in the throuple as a supportive one, and her plan in joining the family as a “second wife” wasn’t to replace Lydia Ford. She added that while their unorthodox family arrangement has challenges, it also has many benefits.

“Obviously, before we became a family, I was single. So, as a single woman, you do everything on your own. You take care of yourself, you taking out the trash, you paying your bills, you doing all that on your own. So when a husband finds you or you do become married, that's already a benefit because there's a responsibility that's taken off.

“And then on top of that, I mean, you're being provided for, you're being protected. So that's whether you're monogamous or polygynous, that’s a benefit. So not only did I gain a husband, but the sisterhood of it. I have a forever best friend,” she said.