Early Mormon Views on Polygamy
The historical record
Taken from the bulletin board system of www.exmormon.org on July 21, 1999
Posted by Joe on July 21, 1999 at 04:53:08:
In Reply to: here's something posted by nonyabiz on July 20, 1999 at 22:07:13:
: You know that post a while back about polygamy?
Yes. I was the author.
For the historical record, for several decades (1850s to 1880s), the teaching of the LDS church was that EVERY MAN IN THE CHURCH should enter polygamy and take at least one extra wife and EVERY WOMAN WHO TRIED TO REFUSE PERMISSION FOR HER HUSBAND TO ENTER POLYGAMY should be scolded, pressured, humiliated, counseled and mentally beat into submission until she gave in to "the will of the Lord".
For example, Joseph F. Smith (polygamist Apostle and later prophet) said:
"I understand the law of celestial marriage to mean that every man in this Church, who has the ability to obey and practice it in righteousness and will not, shall be damned, I say I understand it to mean this and nothing less, and I testify in the name of Jesus that it does mean that." - Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, p 31
A lot of men and women gave in to the pressure. We know that there were thousands of divorces from polygamous marriages. A lot of times, this is what happened: a man takes a second wife to fulfill the "commandment" and get the lunatic polygamous fanatics off his back. Later it didn't work out and one of the wives (not necessarily the second) asked for and received a divorce.
Virtually all apostles, as well as numerous other high ranking church officials (bishops, stake presidents, etc) were all polygamous. This was no coincidence. The fact was that if a man wasn't a polygamist, he probably would not be considered for a high church position. I don't have an exact quote for this next part, but I read somewhere about Brigham Young and his counselors getting agitated because a lot of Bishops and other leaders they had been pressuring were resisting polygamy. One of them said something like this: Let's just release the whole lot of them and replace them with some of the faithful brethren [polygamists].
What the hell kind of lunatics were these church leaders over 100 years ago?
Despite the intense pressure, why did most men never enter into polygamy??
A few reasons:
First, some of the top leaders (like Brigham Young and Heber Kimball) had dozens of wives and were "hogging the women" so to speak.
No doubt, many of the sane, level-headed men knew in their heart that polygamy was not right for them and simply refused to even try to get a second wife.
Many women had enough spunk (not to mention common sense) to refuse to grant permission for their husbands to take more wives.
Finally, there simply weren't enough women to go around!!!!! Even if 80% or 90% of the brethren decided to become polygamists and beat their first wives until they got permission, THERE WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH WOMEN FOR SECOND WIVES!!
To provide more women as eligible second wives, missionaries were sometimes encouraged to try especially hard to convert women or girls who could become polygamous wives. Gee, I wonder if missionaries told the full story to investigators of what they were getting into. SOME THINGS IN THE CHURCH (DECEPTIVE MISSIONARY TACTICS) NEVER CHANGE.
Some of the brethren in Utah actually complained that missionaries were converting and sending the fat and ugly women back to Salt Lake, while arranging to marry the good looking ones themselves (or promising them to their relatives).
WHAT A CHURCH!!!!!! Gee...I wonder why the church doesn't like members or investigators to find out about the true history of what went on in the early days of the church.
This next quote by LDS Apostle Orson Pratt (and almost certainly endorsed by Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith, Heber Kimball and all those guys) almost single-handedly convinces me that Brigham Young's LDS church in Utah could not possibly be the one and only true church of God on the face of the earth:
"God has told us Latter-day Saints that we shall be condemned if we do not enter into that principle; and yet I have heard now and then -- a brother or sister say, 'I am a Latter-day Saint, but I do not believe in polygamy.' Oh, what an absurd expression! What an absurd idea! A person might as well say, 'I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I do not believe in him.' One is just as consistent as the other. If the doctrine of polygamy, as revealed to the Latter-day Saints, is not true, I would not give a fig for all your other revelations that came through Joseph Smith the Prophet; I would renounce the whole of them, because it is utterly impossible,....to believe a part of them to be divine--from God--and a part of them to be from the devil;....The Lord has said that those who reject this principle reject their salvation, they shall be damned, saith the Lord." - Journal of Discourses, vol. 17, pp. 224-225)
I may sound like an anti-polygamy crusader, but actually I would support full religious freedom, including the religious right to practice polygamy as long as participants were allowed free will and teenage girls weren't forced into it against their will. Obviously, I don't buy into the LDS doctrine that polygamy is what God wanted the members of His true church to practice for roughly the last 50 years of the 19th century.
Finally, a very good post by Nonyabiz. Thanks for your thoughts.
Joe
Page Modified July 21, 1999