Polygamy in the church

Polygamy

            OK, we all know that polygamy was practiced early in the church. We have D&C 132 telling us the rules about it. And now we also have 2 different essays from the church on the topic. The first one is a general essay on plural marriage, and the second is more focused on plural marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo.

            Growing up, as well as on my mission, I was taught that the point of these plural marriages was to help raise up children, as well as the fact that many of the men had died or been killed along the way, and that is what was taught in D&C 132. I don’t even know where to start with this chapter in the D&C, there is so much just strange stuff. I guess I will take them one by one and pick out some key points or issues:

1.      God justified Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon in having multiple wives as well as concubines

3.      “…for all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same.”

4.      Either live polygamous or be dammed

8.      “Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.”

15.  Married for time is earth only, not bound by the same after this earth life.

16.  So, if you are not married by God (sealed) you can only be an angel in heaven and a servant of “those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory.” Also, you can’t get married in heaven.

20.  Man becoming Gods, and having the angels from verse 16 being subject unto them.

37.  “Abraham received concubines, and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.”

38.  “David also received many wives and concubines, and also Solomon and Moses my servants, as also many others of my servants, from the beginning of creation until this time; and in nothing did they sin save in those things which they received not of me.”

39.  David only sinned with Uriah and his wife (the woman washing on the roof).

51.  This one lost me. Apparently God had Joseph offer something to Emma, now he is saying to not partake of it, it was to “prove you all, as I did Abraham.”

54.  Emma is told to cleave unto Joseph and none else.

56.  Emma is told to forgive Joseph of his trespasses.

61.  If a man is married, and wants another wife, she must be a virgin. It also shows that the first wife has to consent to him taking a second wife.

62.  Again, as long as each wife is a virgin upon the marriage, there is no problem.

63.  The whole point of the polygamy is to multiply and replenish the earth.

64.  A wife “shall believe and administer unto” her husband.

Sticky points:

            1 & 37-39. God allowed and even gave all these Old Testament prophets multiple wives and concubines. The only time this was a problem is when David also had a married woman (Uriah’s wife). Other than that, all of these extra marriages were condoned and blessed of God.

            My biggest issue here is the complete contradiction that we find with these verses and those found in Jacob 2:24- “Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.” Right here it says literally the EXACT opposite as what we find in the D&C. So in my mind, we have either an error in the “most correct book, or an error in a direct revelation that was given to, and written by a prophet of God.

Continuing on in that same chapter in Jacob starting in verse 26:

26. Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.
27. Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none;
28. For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.

Again, this states rather clearly that God is against having multiple wives. If God truly is unchanging, why does this seem to be a point of difference between two modern day scriptures (BOM and the D&C)?

OK, back to other sticky points brought up from D&C 132:

3-4. So are we all damned since we don’t live that way anymore? Again, if God is the same     yesterday, today and forever, shouldn’t we all be in trouble?

39. David only sinned when he was with a married woman? But other than that, everyone else was alright.

54. Why is Emma told to cleave unto her husband, while her husband get sealed to other women who are already married?

56. What is it that Joseph has done that would require Emma to forgive him?

61. So, the second wife must be a virgin. Another key point, the first wife needs to consent to him taking another wife(s).
           

We have record of Joseph being sealed to 11 women who were already married (thus likely not virgins). Also, records show that Emma was not informed, nor happy with him having multiple other wives.

            There is also an account of Joseph not wanting to follow the initial revelation of polygamy. “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.” This message, or threat, was then forwarded on to the women that Joseph ended up being married too; he told them that if they didn’t marry him, the angel with a flaming sword would kill him. This sounds like blackmail to me. Now it is on her head that she didn’t agree to marry him, so he would die and it would be her fault?

There is also the account of the 14 year old bride, Helen Mar Kimball, being told that if she were to marry Joseph that it would, “…ensure your eternal salvation and exaltation & that of your father’s household & all of your kindred.” That is a huge amount of pressure to place on the head of a 14 year old. This seemed to happen an number of other times as Joseph proposed to other women, “Joseph Smith’s to Helen resembles others recorded by the Prophet’s wives; each reported that he couched his proposal in the language of revelation, obedience to God’s law, and the promise of eternal rewards. Joseph Smith’s proposals, in other words, mirrored the 1843 revelation on celestial marriage, which highlighted law, obedience, and afterlife blessings.”

            I am really at odds with all of this information. If it clearly states in D&C that the whole point was to raise up righteous seed, and that the first wife needed to approve prior to the second marriage, and that the subsequent wives need to be virgins. It seems that Joseph Smith didn’t even follow his own rules! There is a theory that all of these marriages by Joseph was just for the linking of the multiple major families in the church, to create a “family web” as it were. If that was the case, then we would expect Joseph to have been sealed alone, and not “consummate” the marriage. This was not the case, “Latter-day Saints marshaled convincing evidence that at least some of the plural marriages had been consummated.” So again, what was the need for Joseph to be married to 40+ women?

            The next problem on this topic is the timing of the whole thing. D&C 132, with the rules and orders to live this way, was recorded in 1843. Right in the chapter heading is says that there was, “evidence indicates that some of the principles involved in this revelation were known by the Prophet as early as 1831.” Joseph was married to Fanny Alger in 1833, 10 years prior to recording the chapter in D&C. This was even prior to the restoring of the keys from the prophet Elijah in April of 1836. So again I ask, if there was no power to be sealed to a spouse until 1936, why was Joseph married to multiple women well before that time? And why did it take even longer to come out with the revelation about polygamy until 1843?

When it boils down to it, yes, I knew polygamy existed in the church. Where my problems lie is with the fact that it didn’t seem to follow the law as given in the D&C. If the Lord took the time to lay out the parameters and rules that should be followed, why did they not do that? And it wasn’t like Joseph started once he first caught wind, then stopped the general sealings and then followed the letter of the law when it was given; he continued to marry whomever he chose, virgin or not, married or not, underage or not, and with or without the approval of Emma.

            The practice of polygamy was finally stopped in 1890, following the dispatch known as the Official Declaration 1 as sent forth from Wilford Woodruff. This was reaffirmed by Gordon B. Hinckley when he stated, “More than a century ago God clearly revealed unto His prophet Wilford Woodruff that the practice of plural marriage should be discontinued, which means that it is now against the law of God.”