I know, the subject you've all been waiting for. The juicy, controversial POLYGAMY.
I want to preface this by stating that there is nothing inherently wrong or harmful about polyamory or plural marriages. What we're talking about here is specifically The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which takes a firmly patriarchal stance on polygamy. Women cannot have multiple husbands; worthy priesthood men can have as many wives as they like. They give lip service to "women have a choice" but that is not how it has been practiced and it is not how it is discussed in the modern church. So, when we talk about polygamy in this thread, it has nothing to do with the potential for healthy relationships or love; we're specifically talking about the way Mormonism has practiced this and what they say about it.
Also, we are specifically talking about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Brother Jake on youtube does a great 9 min breakdown of the different offshoots of Mormonism but it's very messy and layered. Suffice it to say, when you see those young men riding on bikes about town, in clean white shirts, ties, and black badges, it is undoubtedly the main corporate church that they represent. The other offshoots of "Mormonism" don't have as big a presence or movement as the main corporate Salt Lake City Utah church does.
The problems with polygamy in the Mormon church are two fold.
1. There is a pattern of deceit surrounding the origins and eventual discontinuation of the practice. The church simply cannot get its story straight and would prefer everyone simply forgot about it, like it never happened.
2. There is a pattern of toxic patriarchy, misogyny, and abuse in the examples we have for its practice AND the current official narrative of how it should be practiced.
The church states, Although the Lord commanded the adoption—and later the cessation—of plural marriage in the latter days, He did not give exact instructions on how to obey the commandment.
(
source) Which is an odd thing for them to try to claim now when in actuality, Joseph Smith received very specific instructions on how to practice it and the revelation was canonized as official LDS scripture in
D&C section 132:61-65 revealed in 1843. Which is definitely an odd timeline, because Joseph Smith married his second wife, Fanny Alger (17), in 1832. So, Joseph began secretly practicing polygamy before he received revelation for it.
Does it seem convoluted and messy? That's because it is. Here is a timeline of polygamy in the LDS church:
Monogamy vs Polygamy timeline in the restored church. It is
exhaustive with links to sources for each point, so, it can be examined for legitimacy. A few other sources:
•
Exploring Mormonism Polygamy Timeline• Joseph Smith Wives GraphicA few points of note:
• February 12, 1833 - This year an Illinois state law was created relating to polygamy/bigamy. The crime would result in two year imprisonment and a $1000 fine for the married man who married a second wife, and one year imprisonment and $500 fine for the unmarried women who knowingly entered into a marriage with an already married man.
• August 1835 - Church publishes the “Article on Marriage” in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine & Covenants, which states “Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again”.
• April 6, 1836 - Joseph Smith Jr. “married or sealed” to Fanny Alger(16).
• June 1838 - Joseph Smith Jr. married to Lucinda Pendleton Morgan(37).
• October 27, 1838 - Lilburn Boggs (Missouri governor) issues “Missouri Executive Order 44” stating “the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description“.
• April 5, 1841 - Joseph Smith Jr. “married or sealed” to Louisa Beamon(26).
• October 27, 1841 - Joseph Smith is “married or sealed” to Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs(20).
• December 11, 1841 - Joseph Smith is married to Prescendia Lathrop Huntington(31).
• 1842 - Joseph marries Desdemona Wadsworth Fullmer(30).
• January 6, 1842 - Joseph Smith married to Agnes Moulton Coolbrith(33).
• January 16, 1842 - Joseph Smith Jr. marries Mary Elizabeth Rollins(24).
• February 8, 1842 - Joseph Smith married to Sylvia Sessions(23).
• March 9, 1842 - Joseph Smith married to Patty Bartlett Sessions(47).
• April 1842 - Joseph Smith married to Nancy Marinda Hyde(27).
• May 1842 - Joseph Smith married to Elizabeth Davis Durfee(50).
• June 29, 1842 - Joseph Smith is married to Eliza R. Snow(38).
• July 27, 1842 - Joseph Smith marries Sarah Ann Whitney(17).
• August 1842 - Joseph Smith married to Martha McBride Knight(37).
Joseph Smith married to Ruth Vose Sayers(33).
• September 1, 1842 - Joseph Smith writes a letter “To All the Saints in Nauvoo” telling the Saints that he is innocent of all charges against him (including polygamy and accomplice in Boggs’s murder attempt). Joseph Smith publishes a restatement of the Article on Marriage in the Times and Seasons emphasizing that monogamy is the only law of marriage in the church.
• February 1843 - Joseph Smith marries Ruth Daggett Vose(32).
• March 4, 1843 - Joseph Smith marries Emily Dow Partridge(19).
• March 8, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Eliza M. Partridge(22).
• Spring, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Flora Ann Woodworth(16).
• April 12, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Olive Grey Frost(27).
• May 1843 - Joseph Smith Jr. marries Helen Mar Kimball(14).
• May 1, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Lucy Walker(17).
• May 11, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Maria Lawrence(19) and Sarah Lawrence(17).
• June 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Hanna Ellis(29).
• June 1, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Elvira Anie Cowles(29).
• June 12, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Rhoda Richards(58).
• July 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Desdemona Fullmer(32).
- Joseph Smith married to Nancy Maria Winchester(15).
• July 12, 1843 - Hyrum asks his brother to dictate the polygamy revelation by means of his seer stone, but Smith dictates it from memory. The revelation was supposedly dictated by Smith to his scribe William Clayton, and was shared with Emma Smith that day by Hyrym. Hyrum uses the written revelation to try to convert Emma Smith to accept the practice. Brigham says that Emma burned the revelation. Emma denies this. (canonized 33 year later as D&C 132 in 1876).
• September 20, 1843 - Joseph Smith married to Malissa Lott(19).
• November 2, 1843 - Joseph Smith “married or sealed” to Fanny Murray (56).
• June 27, 1844 - Joseph Smith Jr. dies. He has a count of approximately 33 wives by this point.
When first researching this topic, I could see a case might be made for "enemies of the church slandering Joseph's name with rumors" because for every secret marriage reported, there is multiple examples of Joseph preaching against or flat out denying polygamy is being practiced. But then the LDS church comes out and admits that Joseph Smith actually did in fact have multiple wives. So, these public denials are public lies according to Smith, in an attempt to hide what he was doing from the state. No matter which way you slice it, he either told the truth and had only one wife, Emma, or he had other wives and all the times he said he didn't, he was lying. The church cannot retain Joseph's moral character if they admit to him having multiple wives.
I don't give much credence to the claim that "dissenters simply claim Joseph married any woman he had remote contact with" or implying that it was impossible to marry that many women in the time frame he did. We have a much firmer record of Brigham Young's wives and he married 50.
• July 8, 1862 - Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Law. Note that the Mormons hated Lincoln ( and the Republicans ), and denounced Lincoln in the harshest terms.
• October 1871 - Brigham Young was indicted for adultery. He was under house arrest from January to April 1872. ( B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History 5:394 – 415 ). The charges were dismissed ( Quinn, Extensions p 767 ).
• July 7, 1878 - Joseph F. Smith condemns those not living in polygamy.
• March 23 1882 – President Chester A. Arthur signs into law The Edmunds Act (also called the “Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882“) declaring polygamy a felony in Federal territories, “bigamous” or “unlawful cohabitation” a misdemeanor, prohibits voting, public office, or jury inclusion for those found guilty.
• April 1884 - At a special priesthood meeting at the April conference, prophet John Taylor asked all monogamists serving in ward Bishoprics or Stake Presidencies either to make preparations to marry a plural wife or to offer their resignation from Church office, and he called out the names of monogamous Stake Presidents.
• September 27, 1886 – John Taylor receives a revelation stating that God will never change his mind about polygamy.
• March 3, 1887 – The Edmunds-Tucker Act (also called the “Anti-Polygamy Act of 1887”) goes into effect and becomes enforced within all US federal territiries, and remains in place until 1978.
• November 24, 1889 – Wilford Woodruff, as church president, receives revelation, which continued the defiant discourse with the church’s enemies. He says that Jesus Christ himself promised protection for the church’s practice of polygamy.
• June 1890 - The LDS Church’s First Presidency issues memos to church leaders informing them that they are no longer allowed to perform plural marriages in the United States.
• June 10, 1890 – Brigham Young Jr. Marries 6th wife in direct conflict with Wilford’s message that no new plural marriages are performed.
• September 24, 1890 – Wilford Woodruff denounces polygamy in a pres release called “The Manifesto”.
• November 12, 1891 – President Woodruff publicly declares that violating the Manifesto by living with polygamous was not allowed, and would result in excommunication. Privately, he tells the Quorum that any man who abandons his plural wives will be dismissed from the church.
• 1895 – LDS Mexico colonies to preserve polygamy are started. The marriages continue until 1905.
• March 1904 – The Reed Smoot hearings begin, which will last for just under 3 years. Senator Reed Smoot (an LDS Apostle and monogamist) was elected to the US Senate, which was met with opposition on charges of him being a polygamist.
• April 6, 1904 – President Joseph F. Smith declares the “Second Manifesto” denouncing polygamy and all participants. 31 plural marriages would be performed after this manifesto in Mexico.
• May 5, 1945 – Heber J. Grant passes away. He lived openly with his wives post manifesto and taking each wife on a different mission with him. This death ends the era of an uninterrupted line of polygamist prophets of the LDS church.
• December 26, 2004 – Gordon B. Hinkley tells Larry King that Polygamy “ended over 100 years ago”
• April 6, 2006 – President Russell M. Nelson (81) marries Wendy L. Watson (56), an unmarried virgin one year and 2 months after his first wife Dantzel dies of “unknown causes” while in his care. Nelson remains sealed to both women.
• October 2014 – The LDS Church publishes “Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo” as one of the official Church Gospel Topics Essays regarding polygamy admitting Smith married 14 year olds, that Brigham had sex with his wives, that some relationships were sexual, and that Smith had 40 wives.
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source)
Oh, I'm sorry, does that sound duplicitous and disingenuous to you? You tell me if it makes a difference to you or not that Joseph Smith, the most important man among these early LDS members and 37 years old, coming to a young girl of 14 and marrying her so that she would be his in the next life. She had righteous parents, so, it wasn't as if she was being folded into his righteous bloodline out of some attempt to keep her spiritually in the fold of the church. She has been quoted as saying,
"I heard him [Joseph Smith] teach and explain the principle of celestial marriage. After which he said to me, “If you will take this step, it will ensure your eternal salvation and exaltation and that of your father’s household and all of your kindred.” This promise was so great that I willingly gave myself to purchase so glorious a reward." (
source) So, not only is the prophet of God coming to her at such a young age but he also puts the weight of her family's exaltation on her shoulders in order to convince her that this is a right thing to do.
Even if he never laid a single finger on her, how is this not predatory and toxic? Why did he need to marry a 14 year old girl? If not for the purposes of "multiplying the saints and replenishing the righteous upon the earth" as D&C 132 states, why did he need to marry women other than his wife? The church now teaches that in the next life, people can be paired up and choose to say yes or no to being bonded and sealed to each other. Unmarried LDS women are consoled that in the next life, things will be taken care of and they'll be able to find a worthy husband, either becoming his singular wife or becoming a part of his harem of wives. I don't understand what the purpose of marrying a 14 year old would be if it was simply for the next life and had no bearing in this life. And you'd think that the guy who received this revelation from God would have a better understanding of it than anyone, so, he'd know there was no rush, especially if it was going to create such trouble and controversy for the church.
Also, as an aside, no, it wasn't "common" to marry 14 year old girls in the 1800's.
"Between 1800 and 1900, women generally married for the first time between the ages of 20 and 22. Less is known about the average age of first marriages for men during the 19th century. In 1890, when the U.S. Census Bureau started collecting marriage data, it was recorded that the average age of a first marriage for men was 26 years, and the average age of marriage for women was 22 years." (
source)
I also want to make clear that there is a slight difference between Mormon prophets and apostles and say a preacher or priest for other religions. Mormons don't just believe that these are good men or inspired men with a heart full of love for God. They literally believe that the prophets and apostles are called specifically by God to speak for Him on this earth, that God grants them divine power to lead His one true church. I don't mean to disparage those of other faiths by saying that if a priest makes a mistake, lies, or has an adulterous affair, that it is less meaningful or dire, because he has still betrayed the trust of those in his flock. But for Mormons, if a prophet or apostle lies or makes a mistake...this is the literal representation for God on earth. It calls everything into question, not only that man's specific God-granted authority, but the authority of the organization itself.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints makes truth claims that not only is it a restoration of Christ's church on this earth but that it is the ONLY true church of Christ on this earth since the last of Christ's apostles died. The only way to true happiness and the full exaltation in the Celestial kingdom is if you follow the prophet without question and obey the laws he sets down. If the prophet and past prophets have acted in deceptive ways, lying outright, it is not a simple matter of "men err and men make mistakes." Just like the leader of your country, you hold the leader of salvation to a higher standard, especially if God has deemed him special and righteous enough to speak His will to the people. I can't speak for God; He chose the prophet for a specific reason.
There is so much more we could get into in this, like Emma Smith not being aware of the marriages and disagreeing with those she found out about, the sister sets and mother-daughter sets that Joseph married, polyandry, the angel with a flaming sword that threatened him to obey this commandment, Brigham Young(just...everything Brigham Young), but for now, I'll leave it there for questions and discussion.
Topic: Mormonism (Read 1047 times)