Alright, polygamy episode! Between
roughly 1833 until it's formal and in
1890, some members of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced
polygamy. One husband having multiple
wives. It's a controversial subject, and
I'm really not gonna defend it much.
Polygamy is unfair to women, I don't like
it,
anybody who practices it today is
excommunicated from the church. It's not
a thing anymore. But why, then was it a
thing? What do we do with this chunk of
unappetizing history? Let's dive in.
There are generally two extremes when it
comes to reactions about polygamy. On one
extreme you have the people that think,
"Yes, God commanded Joseph Smith to
practice polygamy, and he implemented it
among the Saints perfectly." On the other
the side is, "Joseph was a fraud and just
wanted to sleep around." I personally
think God did command it,
I don't think Joseph was just a creep,
but I also think Joseph made plenty of
mistakes trying to implement plural
marriage. Now, while there are a lot of
questions we can't answer, let's take a
look at some of the facts and see what
we can't answer. First, the fact is
Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, and probably
Moses all practiced polygamy. Why did God
allow it to happen? I don't know. But
we're talking about major figures of
Christianity here. At the very least, it
shows a precedent that God has permitted
past prophets to practice it. Oftentimes
Christian critics are quick to condemn
the historical Latter-day Saint practice
of polygamy,
while entirely overlooking their own
history of polygamy. Again, I'm not
endorsing polygamy, it's a gut-wrenching
practice to our modern sensibilities, but
history is history and polygamy if
you're Christian, happened. But even to
the sensibilities of those in Joseph
Smith's time, polygamy was an unsettling
practice. One early Saint, Mercy Rachel
Fielding said: "This subject when first
communicated to me tried me to the very
core all my former traditions and every
natural feeling of my heart rose in
opposition to this principle." Mary Hales
said, "The brethren and sisters were so
averse to polygamy that it could hardly
be mentioned." And it was hard for men, too: 
When Brigham Young first learned about
it he said, "...it was the first time in my
life that I had desired of the grave, and
I could hardly get over it for a long
time. And when I saw a funeral, I felt to
Envy the corpse its situation and to
regret that I was not in the coffin." The
quotes go on and on. Even Joseph Smith,
who was commanded by an angel to
institute the practice, was reluctant. The
Angel apparently had to visit him three
times, the last time with a drawn sword
threatening his life, before Joseph
complied. And even then, it seemed Joseph
tried to avoid fully
practicing polygamy. One of the ways he
seems to have done this was to marry
women who each already had a husband. In
Latter-day Saint theology we believe a
a couple is sealed together for time and
eternity. As the early church worked to
understand the sealing power, Joseph had
women sealed to him for time and /or
eternity. A few ceilings were for time, or
this life, only. Some were for eternity
only marriages that would take effect
after this life. And some were for time
and eternity. Every woman, he married that
was already married was an eternity only
marriage. They still each lived with
their husband and there is no evidence
whatsoever to suggest that Joseph was
intimately involved with any of them. If
Joseph was just a sex-crazed maniac, I
see little point in any of these distant,
eternity only marriages. It seemed more
like a way for him to sort of fulfill
God's command, while providing some
emotional relief to his first wife, Emma.
One motive behind many of Joseph's
ceilings was probably the idea of
creating one giant interconnected family
of saints. This seems to be one of the
reasons why one man, Heber C. Kimball,
wanted his fourteen-year-old daughter
Helen, married to Joseph, which she was
only about thirteen months before Joseph
was killed. Heber had a great desire to
be connected with the Prophet Joseph. Of
course the idea of a fourteen-year-old
bride is understandably shocking to us
in the 21st century. It was less shocking
in the 1800s. Still unusual, but not
nearly as unusual as something like you
know polygamy. Researchers frankly don't
know if their marriage was ever
consummated, though evidence suggests
that it probably was not. She continued
to live at home with her parents. Author
Bryan Hales says that "Helen wrote more
about plural marriage than any other
female author in the 19th century
defending it and Joseph Smith through
those pages Helen never describes even
one time being alone with the Prophet
without a chaperone." Now looking from the
outside in, it's easy to brush the whole
polygamy topic off and say, "Joseph just
wanted to sleep around. End of story."
But if we actually look at the history,
the evidence really disagrees with that
assumption. Joseph went to great lengths
to make sure
the practice was not driven by lust. For
example John C. Bennett was the mayor of
Nauvoo and a member of the church. Soon it
came to Joseph's attention that Bennett
was deceiving and seducing women in the
city. If Joseph was after the same thing
as Bennett, he could have made the
perfect accomplice. Instead, Joseph
excommunicated him. One author wrote,
"Contrary to the popular 19th century
notions about polygamy the Mormon harem
dominated by lascivious males with
hyperactive libidos did not exist the
image of unlimited lust was largely the
creation of travelers to Salt Lake City
more interested in titillating audiences
back home than in accurately portraying
plural marriage newspaper
representatives and public figures
visited the city in droves seeking
headlines for their eastern audiences
Mormon plural marriage proved to be a
rather drab lifestyle compared to the
imaginative tales of polygamy dripping
with sensationalism demanded by a
scandal hungary eastern media market." In a
podcast with Dr. Valerie Hudson I was
listening to, she made an interesting
observation. She said, "...one of Joseph
Smith's brothers appeared eager to
practice polygamy, and so his brother,
Joseph forbade him from practicing
polygamy, which I thought was really
interesting. So those men who were not
pure-hearted enough to see it as a test,
but rather as a perk were not allowed to
practice it." Maybe as a perk no it's just
me. And again the quotes continued the
idea that Joseph was driven by lust is
simply contradictory to what the
historical record shows. But we still
haven't answered the age-old question
why polygamy? Doctrine and Covenants 132,
the official revelation on polygamy,
gives us a few reasons. For example, it
was part of the restitution or
restoration of all things. (I don't
totally understand this one) It provided
some women the opportunity to have a
temple marriage when the otherwise might
not have been able to. (This makes a
little sense to me) Also, it was to
multiply and replenish the earth. (This
one makes a little more sense to me than
the others) The Book of Mormon explicitly
condemns plural marriage, unless the Lord
sanctions it for the purpose of raising
up seed, in other words, multiply and
replenish. Strangely there are zero
recorded children from any of Joseph
Smith's polygamous relationships. I suspect Emma may have had
something to do with that she
understandably struggled immensely with
polygamy. But other families definitely
had a ton of kids. I myself am evidence
of that because my great great great
grandfather was one of those polygamists,
without whom, I wouldn't be here. At the
end of the day doctoring Covenants 132
compares plural marriage multiple times
to an Abrahamic test. You remember the
story of Abraham and Isaac. God commands
Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham
wrestles with the commandment. Why would
God command this? It's wrong it doesn't
make sense it's contradictory. But he
steps up. Luckily his test ended before
having to kill Isaac, but sometimes that
doesn't happen. Another example of an
Abrahamic test might be when Nephi is
commanded to slay Laban. John Taylor who
is a polygamist, said polygamy, "...was one of
the greatest crosses that ever was taken
up by any set of men since the world
stood." Helen Mark Kimball, that 14-year
old we mentioned earlier, later wrote
that according to Joseph, "the practice of
this principle would be the hardest
trial the Saints would ever have to test
their faith." It was a test of faith, and
it is a test of faith. But again, it'd
be ignorant of me to pretend like these
situations are exclusive to the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
They're not. On rare occasions, God has
commanded people to do things that seem
to be flat-out wrong. I mean, if the Old
Testament is correct, God commanded the
Israelites to commit genocide for
heaven's sake. Frankly, that makes
voluntary polygamy look like small
potatoes. There are just some things that
religious people put on the proverbial
shelf until they receive a few more
pieces of the puzzle. We shouldn't ignore
these issues or pretend they don't exist,
but it's okay to not have all the
answers. It's easy for us to look back at
polygamy, point fingers and say, this was
obviously a horrible thing. But if we
acknowledge the experiences of those who
lived through this period, we see a
different picture. Multiple women
eventually wrote books defending
polygamy. Several women and men had
intense spiritual experiences comforting
them concerning the practice, including
angelic visitations, visions, and dreams.
The story of Heber and violet Kimball is
amazing. Look that up. If those people who
were initially repulsed by it were
eventually able to obtain a testimony of
it and even live it, then
I can at least come to the conclusion
that there are still things I don't
understand about it, and things I'm
probably not meant to yet understand
about it. So I'm willing to shelf it and
wait for more information. If you want
more information right now on this topic,
check out the links in the description.
There's weeks and weeks of information
there. And have a great day.
