Reason #96: Modern Polygamy justified by Joseph Smith’s teachings
Irene Spencer, author ofShattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife pointed out that based on the teachings of the Doctrine and Covenants 132:62, the current mainstream LDS Church could justify — as have the polygamists — the marrying of ten “virgin” girls by middle-aged men. Spencer in a 2008 radio interview recounted her acquaintance with a polygamous Mormon man who married a previously-married woman, and then married her two daughters – age 9 and 11; and fathered children with all three. A recent radio interview with Irene concerning her new book about polygamy, Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets and Blood Atonement can be heard on the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program of WNYG (Long Island, NY). Click here to listen to...
Reason #94 Timing of Polygamy Revelations in D&C
The revelation commanding polygamy was not announced to the LDS Church as a whole until 1852, eight years after the death of Joseph Smith. It was not until 1876 that it was added to the Doctrine and Covenants and assigned the section number 132. Up until that time, though, there was another revelation (numbered 101 in the 1835 edition and 109 in the 1854 edition) which flatly denied that polygamy was practiced among Mormons, stating: . . . 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 the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again. This revelation was dropped from the Doctrine and Covenants when the...
Reason #93: Rewriting Biblical history to fit LDS doctrine
Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants purports to be God’s explanation of why ancient prophets were allowed to have multiple wives and concubines. The revelation is in the form of an answer to Joseph’s question. Verse 1 sets the tone for the entire section by assuming that God approved heartily of the “doctrine” of polygamy: Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, David, and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines (italics mine). Thus, with no prefatory argument, Joseph Smith resolved for the LDS mind the question of...
Reason #50 — Because of the Book of Mormon and Polygamy
Probably one of the hottest areas of controversy rages around the Book of Mormon”‘s teachings on polygamy. Those unfamiliar with the teachings of this book might be surprised to learn that polygamy was flatly condemned in the book of Jacob. Jacob was a Nephite prophet who said polygamy was abominable (2:24), and equated the practice with whoredoms (2:28). Modern Mormons, though, twist verse 30 of this same chapter”"For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people, otherwise they shall hearken unto these things”"”to provide for possible future endorsement of the practice God considered so abhorrent. The earlier Jaredites, however, had no teachings we know of on polygamy, but several things...
Reason #46 Why I Won’t Return to Mormonism — Big Love and the Introduction of Polygamy into American Culture
Big Love, indeed. Mormonism, in all its incarnations, institutionalized what many people see as the inevitable successor to legalized same-sex marriage: the legalization of plural marriage, which many people are calling “the next civil rights battle.” In the words of polygamist Owen Allred, “The man who wants several women to be his sexual partners can have children by them, and the state will support those children. He remains free of any legal accusation ““ until he marries more than one wife. Marry them, and he becomes a criminal. It is the marriage that becomes the crime.” An Internet search reveals that this civil rights issue is being pushed by many groups outside the Latter-day Saint tradition. Ironically, perhaps...
