Polygamy and Polyandry
Polygamy is defined as a marriage that includes more than two partners. Typically this is one man and multiple wives. Polyandry is defined as a form of polygamy whereby a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time.
Polygamy was introduced as a doctrine by Joseph Smith back when he was prophet. The reasons I was taught Polygamy was introduced were the following (not my list, but sums up nicely)
At the time, Polygamy was illegal. This is the law at the time… “Most of Joseph Smith's polygamous marriages occurred in Illinois in the early 1840s. The Illinois Anti-bigamy Law enacted February 12th, 1833 clearly stated that polygamy was illegal. It reads:
"Sec 121. Bigamy consists in the having of two wives or two husbands at one and the same time, knowing that the former husband or wife is still alive. If any person or persons within this State, being married, or who shall hereafter marry, do at any time marry any person or persons, the former husband or wife being alive, the person so offending shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine, not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisoned in the penitentiary, not exceeding two years. It shall not be necessary to prove either of the said marriages by the register or certificate thereof, or other record evidence; but the same may be proved by such evidence as is admissible to prove a marriage in other cases, and when such second marriage shall have taken place without this state, cohabitation in this state after such second marriage shall be deemed the commission of the crime of bigamy, and the trial in such case may take place in the county where such cohabitation shall have occurred."
Revised Laws of Illinois, 1833, p.198-99”
Times and Seasons (LDS-owned newspaper)
"The law of the land and the rules of the church do not allow one man to have more than one wife alive at once." (Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 715, November 15, 1844.)”
The recent church essay on polygamy admits that it was illegal at the time, and it states... “In Joseph Smith’s time, monogamy was the only legal form of marriage in the United States. Joseph knew the practice of plural marriage would stir up public ire. After receiving the commandment, he taught a few associates about it, but he did not spread this teaching widely in the 1830s.”
MY THOUGHTS: The thing that was very surprising to me about this issue was found in the LDS’s new church essay regarding polygamy. In that essay, the church admits that Joseph Smith was married to children as young as 14, and he was married to 40+ women including his first wife EMMA. Some of these wives were already married to other men! This is called Polyandry.
WHY would GOD tell Joseph Smith to marry young girls first off? I’ve heard many arguments that it was more common for people back in that day to get married to younger women than what we are used to in our day. I've also researched and seen that this is simply not the case But if Polygamy was illegal at the time, why would God tell Joseph to marry 40+ women and go against his own article of faith stating that we should “honor, obey and sustain the law”?
Also, why would God tell Joseph to marry women who were already married to another man? Makes no sense to me at all. Do I believe in a god who would do this? That’s hard for me to say right now.
Another thing that doesn't make sense to me is the fact that Joseph Smith claimed that an angel of god came down and threatened him with a sword to kill him if he didn't practice polygamy. From the essay... "When God commands a difficult task, He sometimes sends additional messengers to encourage His people to obey. Consistent with this pattern, Joseph told associates that an angel appeared to him three times between 1834 and 1842 and commanded him to proceed with plural marriage when he hesitated to move forward. During the third and final appearance, the angel came with a drawn sword, threatening Joseph with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment fully.9 Fragmentary evidence suggests that Joseph Smith acted on the angel’s first command by marrying a plural wife, Fanny Alger, in Kirtland, Ohio, in the mid-1830s. Several Latter-day Saints who had lived in Kirtland reported decades later that Joseph Smith had married Alger, who lived and worked in the Smith household, after he had obtained her consent and that of her parents"
How did it end? This is from the LDS website… “In many parts of the world, polygamy was socially acceptable and legally permissible. But in the United States, most people thought that the practice was morally wrong. These objections led to legislative efforts to end polygamy. Beginning in 1862, the U.S. government passed a series of laws designed to force Latter-day Saints to relinquish plural marriage. In the face of these measures, Latter-day Saints maintained that plural marriage was a religious principle protected under the U.S. Constitution. The Church mounted a vigorous legal defense all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Reynolds v. United States (1879), the Supreme Court ruled against the Latter-day Saints: religious belief was protected by law, religious practice was not. According to the court’s opinion, marriage was a civil contract regulated by the state. Monogamy was the only form of marriage sanctioned by the state. “Polygamy,” the court explained, “has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe. Latter-day Saints sincerely desired to be loyal citizens of the United States, which they considered a divinely founded nation. But they also accepted plural marriage as a commandment from God and believed the court was unjustly depriving them of their right to follow God’s commands. Confronted with these contradictory allegiances, Church leaders encouraged members to obey God rather than man. Many Latter-day Saints embarked on a course of civil disobedience during the 1880s by continuing to live in plural marriage and to enter into new plural marriages. The federal government responded by enacting ever more punishing legislation. Between 1850 and 1896, Utah was a territory of the U.S. government, which meant that federal officials in Washington, D.C., exercised great control over local matters. In 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds Act, which made unlawful cohabitation (interpreted as a man living with more than one wife) punishable by six months of imprisonment and a $300 fine. In 1887 Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act to punish the Church itself, not just its members. The act dissolved the corporation of the Church and directed that all Church property over $50,000 be forfeited to the government. But as federal pressure intensified, many essential aspects of Church government were severely curtailed, and civil disobedience looked increasingly untenable as a long-term solution. Between 1885 and 1889, most Apostles and stake presidents were in hiding or in prison. After federal agents began seizing Church property in accordance with the Edmunds-Tucker legislation, management of the Church became more difficult. In May 1890, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, allowing the confiscation of Church property to proceed. President Woodruff saw that the Church’s temples and its ordinances were now at risk. On September 25, 1890, President Woodruff wrote in his journal that he was “under the necessity of acting for the Temporal Salvation of the Church.” He stated, “After Praying to the Lord & feeling inspired by his spirit I have issued … [a] Proclamation.” This proclamation, now published in the Doctrine and Covenants as Official Declaration 1, was released to the public on September 25 and became known as the Manifesto! The Manifesto was silent on what existing plural families should do. On their own initiative, some couples separated or divorced as a result of the Manifesto; other husbands stopped cohabiting with all but one of their wives but continued to provide financial and emotional support to all dependents. In closed-door meetings with local leaders, the First Presidency condemned men who left their wives by using the Manifesto as an excuse. “I did not, could not and would not promise that you would desert your wives and children,” President Woodruff told the men. “This you cannot do in honor.” Believing that the covenants they made with God and their spouses had to be honored above all else, many husbands, including Church leaders, continued to cohabit with their plural wives and fathered children with them well into the 20th century. Continued cohabitation exposed those couples to the threat of prosecution, just as it did before the Manifesto. Under exceptional circumstances, a smaller number of new plural marriages were performed in the United States between 1890 and 1904.”
MY THOUGHTS: Basically, the USA decided that they were going to go after the Mormon Church for breaking the law. The church members willfully disobeyed, and were TOLD to willfully disobey the law. When threat of seizing all of their property was upon them, the prophet at the time went and prayed. God told him to END polygamy. This was known as the Manifesto. After God told the prophet that they should end polygamy, members continued to willfully disobey the law (and GOD) and continue polygamy! The church continued to perform plural marriages despite being told not to. They stopped polygamy because they were in Utah, and they wouldn’t let Utah join the union if they were breaking all the laws. Crazy stuff!
The other issue I have with polygamy is that we still practice it today, except it's only in the temples. Men can be sealed to more than one lady. How is this not polygamy? I don’t agree with this practice. I do not want to be sealed to more than one lady and I don’t agree with sealing’s taking place on behalf of the dead either, especially to more than one person.
Here's a direct link to the 3 polygamy essays on lds.org for your reading enjoyment...
Polygamy was introduced as a doctrine by Joseph Smith back when he was prophet. The reasons I was taught Polygamy was introduced were the following (not my list, but sums up nicely)
- There were more women than men in the 1800's and polygamy provided a way for women, particularly widows, to have the benefits of a husband
- Polygamy was not practiced until after the Saints started immigrating to Utah, and done so that women, whose husbands had died from the exertions of the trek, could be taken care of
- Polygamy was not illegal in the 1800's and was not in violation of U.S. law or against the 12th article of faith, which supports obeying the laws of the land
- Polygamy was an acceptable way to rapidly increase the Church membership
- Restoration of a Biblical practice
- Commanded from God
At the time, Polygamy was illegal. This is the law at the time… “Most of Joseph Smith's polygamous marriages occurred in Illinois in the early 1840s. The Illinois Anti-bigamy Law enacted February 12th, 1833 clearly stated that polygamy was illegal. It reads:
"Sec 121. Bigamy consists in the having of two wives or two husbands at one and the same time, knowing that the former husband or wife is still alive. If any person or persons within this State, being married, or who shall hereafter marry, do at any time marry any person or persons, the former husband or wife being alive, the person so offending shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine, not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisoned in the penitentiary, not exceeding two years. It shall not be necessary to prove either of the said marriages by the register or certificate thereof, or other record evidence; but the same may be proved by such evidence as is admissible to prove a marriage in other cases, and when such second marriage shall have taken place without this state, cohabitation in this state after such second marriage shall be deemed the commission of the crime of bigamy, and the trial in such case may take place in the county where such cohabitation shall have occurred."
Revised Laws of Illinois, 1833, p.198-99”
Times and Seasons (LDS-owned newspaper)
"The law of the land and the rules of the church do not allow one man to have more than one wife alive at once." (Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 715, November 15, 1844.)”
The recent church essay on polygamy admits that it was illegal at the time, and it states... “In Joseph Smith’s time, monogamy was the only legal form of marriage in the United States. Joseph knew the practice of plural marriage would stir up public ire. After receiving the commandment, he taught a few associates about it, but he did not spread this teaching widely in the 1830s.”
MY THOUGHTS: The thing that was very surprising to me about this issue was found in the LDS’s new church essay regarding polygamy. In that essay, the church admits that Joseph Smith was married to children as young as 14, and he was married to 40+ women including his first wife EMMA. Some of these wives were already married to other men! This is called Polyandry.
WHY would GOD tell Joseph Smith to marry young girls first off? I’ve heard many arguments that it was more common for people back in that day to get married to younger women than what we are used to in our day. I've also researched and seen that this is simply not the case But if Polygamy was illegal at the time, why would God tell Joseph to marry 40+ women and go against his own article of faith stating that we should “honor, obey and sustain the law”?
Also, why would God tell Joseph to marry women who were already married to another man? Makes no sense to me at all. Do I believe in a god who would do this? That’s hard for me to say right now.
Another thing that doesn't make sense to me is the fact that Joseph Smith claimed that an angel of god came down and threatened him with a sword to kill him if he didn't practice polygamy. From the essay... "When God commands a difficult task, He sometimes sends additional messengers to encourage His people to obey. Consistent with this pattern, Joseph told associates that an angel appeared to him three times between 1834 and 1842 and commanded him to proceed with plural marriage when he hesitated to move forward. During the third and final appearance, the angel came with a drawn sword, threatening Joseph with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment fully.9 Fragmentary evidence suggests that Joseph Smith acted on the angel’s first command by marrying a plural wife, Fanny Alger, in Kirtland, Ohio, in the mid-1830s. Several Latter-day Saints who had lived in Kirtland reported decades later that Joseph Smith had married Alger, who lived and worked in the Smith household, after he had obtained her consent and that of her parents"
How did it end? This is from the LDS website… “In many parts of the world, polygamy was socially acceptable and legally permissible. But in the United States, most people thought that the practice was morally wrong. These objections led to legislative efforts to end polygamy. Beginning in 1862, the U.S. government passed a series of laws designed to force Latter-day Saints to relinquish plural marriage. In the face of these measures, Latter-day Saints maintained that plural marriage was a religious principle protected under the U.S. Constitution. The Church mounted a vigorous legal defense all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Reynolds v. United States (1879), the Supreme Court ruled against the Latter-day Saints: religious belief was protected by law, religious practice was not. According to the court’s opinion, marriage was a civil contract regulated by the state. Monogamy was the only form of marriage sanctioned by the state. “Polygamy,” the court explained, “has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe. Latter-day Saints sincerely desired to be loyal citizens of the United States, which they considered a divinely founded nation. But they also accepted plural marriage as a commandment from God and believed the court was unjustly depriving them of their right to follow God’s commands. Confronted with these contradictory allegiances, Church leaders encouraged members to obey God rather than man. Many Latter-day Saints embarked on a course of civil disobedience during the 1880s by continuing to live in plural marriage and to enter into new plural marriages. The federal government responded by enacting ever more punishing legislation. Between 1850 and 1896, Utah was a territory of the U.S. government, which meant that federal officials in Washington, D.C., exercised great control over local matters. In 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds Act, which made unlawful cohabitation (interpreted as a man living with more than one wife) punishable by six months of imprisonment and a $300 fine. In 1887 Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act to punish the Church itself, not just its members. The act dissolved the corporation of the Church and directed that all Church property over $50,000 be forfeited to the government. But as federal pressure intensified, many essential aspects of Church government were severely curtailed, and civil disobedience looked increasingly untenable as a long-term solution. Between 1885 and 1889, most Apostles and stake presidents were in hiding or in prison. After federal agents began seizing Church property in accordance with the Edmunds-Tucker legislation, management of the Church became more difficult. In May 1890, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, allowing the confiscation of Church property to proceed. President Woodruff saw that the Church’s temples and its ordinances were now at risk. On September 25, 1890, President Woodruff wrote in his journal that he was “under the necessity of acting for the Temporal Salvation of the Church.” He stated, “After Praying to the Lord & feeling inspired by his spirit I have issued … [a] Proclamation.” This proclamation, now published in the Doctrine and Covenants as Official Declaration 1, was released to the public on September 25 and became known as the Manifesto! The Manifesto was silent on what existing plural families should do. On their own initiative, some couples separated or divorced as a result of the Manifesto; other husbands stopped cohabiting with all but one of their wives but continued to provide financial and emotional support to all dependents. In closed-door meetings with local leaders, the First Presidency condemned men who left their wives by using the Manifesto as an excuse. “I did not, could not and would not promise that you would desert your wives and children,” President Woodruff told the men. “This you cannot do in honor.” Believing that the covenants they made with God and their spouses had to be honored above all else, many husbands, including Church leaders, continued to cohabit with their plural wives and fathered children with them well into the 20th century. Continued cohabitation exposed those couples to the threat of prosecution, just as it did before the Manifesto. Under exceptional circumstances, a smaller number of new plural marriages were performed in the United States between 1890 and 1904.”
MY THOUGHTS: Basically, the USA decided that they were going to go after the Mormon Church for breaking the law. The church members willfully disobeyed, and were TOLD to willfully disobey the law. When threat of seizing all of their property was upon them, the prophet at the time went and prayed. God told him to END polygamy. This was known as the Manifesto. After God told the prophet that they should end polygamy, members continued to willfully disobey the law (and GOD) and continue polygamy! The church continued to perform plural marriages despite being told not to. They stopped polygamy because they were in Utah, and they wouldn’t let Utah join the union if they were breaking all the laws. Crazy stuff!
The other issue I have with polygamy is that we still practice it today, except it's only in the temples. Men can be sealed to more than one lady. How is this not polygamy? I don’t agree with this practice. I do not want to be sealed to more than one lady and I don’t agree with sealing’s taking place on behalf of the dead either, especially to more than one person.
Here's a direct link to the 3 polygamy essays on lds.org for your reading enjoyment...
REFERENCES:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyandry
- http://www.mormonthink.com/joseph-smith-polygamy.htm#whatmost
- https://archive.org/stream/revisedlawsofill00illi#page/198/mode/2up
- http://www.mormonthink.com/joseph-smith-polygamy.htm
- http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/teen_polygamy.htm
- http://classroom.synonym.com/age-marriage-us-1800s-23174.html
- https://www.lds.org/topics/the-manifesto-and-the-end-of-plural-marriage?lang=eng
- http://exmormon.org/d6/drupal/Mormon-Church-Falsely-Claims-1890-Manifesto-Ended-Polygamy
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_marriage
- http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/ldsleadersbelievepolygamyinheaven.htm