Plural marriage
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Plural marriage is a type of polygamy that was taught by Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement; some form of Plural Marriage has been practiced by selected followers of Joseph Smith. After the death of Joseph Smith, plural marriage was taught and practiced as polygyny by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until 1890, when the Church officially ended the practice as a doctrine of the Church. Plural Marriage continues to be practiced today, usually in the form of polygyny, by a number of splinter groups of Mormon fundamentalists in the western United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Plural marriage included polygyny and rare cases of polyandry[citation needed]. Most plural marriage relationships involved sexual relations between the husband and each of the wives, though some plural marriage relationships were said to be celibate. Group sex was not included as part of teaching of Mormon plural marriage. There is considerable dispute about how many members practiced polygamy in the religious movement's early years; the LDS Church maintains that most extensive use of plural marriage was by a minority of Mormon leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the mid- to late-19th century (approximately 4% to 6% of total Church membership). However, some suggest that the practice was in fact quite widespread in Utah during that time.
The Church officially renounced the practice in 1890 when then President of the Church, Wilford Woodruff, issued "The Manifesto," while under extreme political pressure from the United States government while the territory of Utah was applying for statehood. However, there is substantial evidence that the practice continued among some Mormons into the early 20th century. The Church began formally excommunicating polygamists around this time. While secularly renounced to comply with the Mormon's respect for law (Doctrine and Covenants 98:4-7) in 1890, Statehood was not granted for Utah until 1896.
There is little dispute that Joseph Smith, Jr. taught and practiced plural marriage based on the Doctrine & Covenants, Section 132. The general historical consensus is that Smith did, in fact, practice polygamy. For a discussion of this topic please see Joseph Smith, Jr. and Polygamy.
[edit] Origin
According to documents gathered by close associates of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the process of re-translating the Bible, Smith prayed about the polygynous practices of biblical figures such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A revelation from God regarding plural marriage (see The Doctrine and Covenants, Covenant 132) resulted, and a new commandment from God to take more wives. Compton, in his book In Sacred Loneliness recounts Joseph stating, "The angel came to me three times between the year of '34 and '42 and said I was to obey that principle or he would [s]lay me." Others, specifically Joseph B. Noble and Benjamin F. Johnson, recounted similar stories in the form of affidavits, but with an embellishment: the angel held a drawn sword. In 1842, at Nauvoo, a small pamphlet named The Peace Maker, with Joseph Smith as printer, expounded Bible verses in support of polygyny. This pamphlet was not well accepted, and Smith spoke against it, but many believe its real purpose was to open the way for church acceptance of polygyny.
[edit] The practice of polygamy
Polygamy was practiced by Joseph Smith as early as 1833 although the practice was not publicly taught until 1852, some five years after the Mormons arrived in Utah, and eight years after Smith's death. Smith introduced the doctrine to select individuals, some of whom (such as Brigham Young) were directed to take more wives. Some Mormon leaders at the time voiced their objection to the practice and left the Church. Others struggled with their consciences and agreed to the practice only after much prayer. Brigham Young famously said that after the doctrine was communicated to him, he would gladly have traded places with the body in a hearse he saw passing down the street, than embrace this new doctrine. The first mayor of Nauvoo, John C. Bennett, a recent convert to the church, was excommunicated for spiritual wifery, a very different practice than plural marriage. He had used the emerging teachings on eternal and plural marriage to justify seduction, adultery and, in some cases, the practice of abortion. No official Latter Day Saint denominations practice plural marriage today.[1]
Census studies of various Utah counties show that the percentage of the community practicing plural marriage in 1880 varied from community to community: for example, only 5% in South Weber, but 67% in Orderville. Studies suggest that the majority of Utah polygamists in the 19th century only had two wives, the man often being a local church leader and the second wife typically being younger[citation needed].
[edit] Joseph Smith's wives
Although there is some disagreement as to the precise figure, many estimates state that Joseph Smith was married to about 33 wives during his life. Smith's followers believe that he did not marry women to create a personal relationship, but rather to create a bond of related wives, children and other family members that would endure throughout eternity.
Under the doctrine of plural marriage, the first wife's consent should be sought before a man marry another wife. A revelation given to Joseph Smith says, "then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed...and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt" from having her permission (Doctrine and Covenants 132:64-65). Smith's first wife, Emma Hale Smith, was publicly opposed to the practice and Joseph may have married some women without Emma knowing beforehand[citation needed].
Some of Joseph's wives were older women and some of them younger, the youngest known being Helen Mar Kimball, who was 14. Although such a marriage would be viewed as unacceptable almost everywhere in current Western culture and is illegal in most United States jurisdictions, girls occasionally wed at that age in the 19th century. No evidence exists that Smith had or did not have sexual relations with Helen Mar. Accounts of the marriage strongly suggest that one of the primary reasons was to join the Smith and Kimball families into the eternities through the sealing of marriage. Initially believing the marriage applied to eternity and not this life, Helen Mar stated she was surprised that she was not allowed by family to attend a youth dance. If there had been sexual relations at that point in the marriage, it seems unlikely she would have had this confusion. Heber C. Kimball, Helen Mar's father, was a devout Church member, Church leader, and close friend of Smith. Heber C. Kimball later married thirty-nine wives. (Stan Kimball lists 43 wives in his biography of Kimball.)
Anthropologist Richard Francis Burton, who visited Salt Lake City in 1860, believed that the wives in a plural marriage were amenable to the practice because it imposed fewer burdens on each individual wife - sexual or otherwise.
[edit] Polyandry, sexual relations and fathering children
About eight of Smith's wives were also married to other men (four were Mormon men in good standing, who in a few cases acted as a witness in Smith's marriage to his wife) at the time they married Smith. Typically, these women continued to live with their first husband, not Smith. Some accounts say Joseph may have had sexual relations with some of his other wives and one wife later in her life stated that he fathered children by one or two of his wives.[2]
[edit] Groups continuing the practice
After the death of Joseph Smith, there was confusion as to who was heir to leadership of the church. As a result, several factions formed. Of these, only two continued the practice of plural marriage. The best-known was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led by Brigham Young. However, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (*Note: no hyphen and difference in capitalization) a.k.a. Strangites, led by James J. Strang, also adopted the practice. This began after John C. Bennett, the former mayor of Nauvoo, joined the group, and informed Strang that Smith had been involved in it. Strang himself took five wives. When Strang was shot to death in 1856, the practice effectively ended within this group.
[edit] Abandoning the practice
As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled in the Utah Territory, they began to participate in national politics. The general opinion of the rest of the United States was that the practice of plural marriage was offensive. On July 8, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act into law, which forbade the practice in US territories. President Lincoln told the church that he had no intentions of enforcing it if they would not interfere with him, and so the matter was laid to rest for a time. After the Civil War, immigrants to Utah who were not members of the church began contesting for political power. They were frustrated by the consolidation of the members. Forming the Liberal Party, they began pushing for political changes and to weaken the church's advantage in the territory. In September of 1871, President Brigham Young was indicted for adultery due to his plural marriages. On January 6, 1879, the Supreme Court upheld the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in Reynolds v. United States. The decision was not well-received by the members and leadership of the church.
In February of 1882, George Q. Cannon, a prominent leader in the church, was denied a seat in the House of Representatives due to his polygamous relations. This revived the issue in national politics. One month later, the Edmunds Act was passed, amending the Morrill Act by revoking the right of polygamists to vote or hold office, and allowing them to be punished without due process. Even if people did not practice polygamy, they would have their rights revoked if they confessed a belief in it. In August, Rudge Clawson was imprisoned for having entered into polygamous marriage before the 1862 Morrill Act, which imprisonment was in clear violation of the constitutional ban on ex post facto laws. In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act seized control of the church and further extended the punishments of the Edmunds Act of 1882. In July of the same year, the U.S. Attorney General filed a suit to seize the church and all of its assets.
The church was losing control of the territory government, and many members and leaders were being actively pursued as fugitives. Without being able to appear publicly, the leadership was left to navigate underground. Teaching new marriage and family arrangements where the principles that could not be openly discussed, compounded the problems. Those authorized to teach the doctrine had always stressed the strict covenants, obligations and responsibilities associated with it—the antithesis of license. But those who heard only rumors, or who chose to distort and abuse the teaching, often envisioned and sometimes practiced something quite different. One such person was John C. Bennett, an earlier mayor of Nauvoo and adviser to Joseph Smith, who twisted the teaching to his own advantage. Capitalizing on rumors and lack of understanding among general Church membership, he taught a doctrine of "spiritual wifery." He and associates sought to have illicit sexual relationships with women by telling them that they were married "spiritually," even if they had never been married formally, and that the Prophet approved the arrangement. These statements were false. The Bennett scandal resulted in his excommunication and the disaffection of several others. Bennett then toured the country speaking against the Latter-day Saints and published a bitter anti-Mormon exposé charging the Saints with licentiousness. Those that twisted teachings of polygamy over the years often caused serious problems and acted as a fuel for distress over the issue, associated rumors, and misunderstandings.
Following the aforementioned passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887, the Church found it difficult to operate as a viable institution. Among other things, this legislation disincorporated the Church, confiscated its properties, and even threatened seizure of its temples. After visiting with priesthood leaders in many settlements, President Woodruff left for San Francisco on September 3, 1890, to meet with prominent businessmen and politicians. He returned to Salt Lake City on September 21, determined to obtain divine confirmation to pursue a course that seemed to be agonizingly more and more clear. As he explained to Church members a year later, the choice was between, on the one hand, continuing to practice plural marriage and thereby losing the temples, "stopping all the ordinances therein," and, on the other, ceasing plural marriage in order to continue performing the essential ordinances for the living and the dead. President Woodruff hastened to add that he had acted only as the Lord directed: "I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I should have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me".
The final element in President Woodruff's revelatory experience came on the evening of September 23, 1890. The following morning, he reported to some of the General Authorities that he had struggled throughout the night with the Lord regarding the path that should be pursued. "Here is the result," he said, placing a 510-word handwritten manuscript on the table. The document was later edited by George Q. Cannon of the First Presidency and others to its present 356 words. On October 6, 1890, it was presented to the Latter-day Saints at the General Conference and approved.
While nearly all Church leaders in 1890 regarded the Manifesto as inspired, there were differences among them about its scope and permanence. Some leaders were understandably reluctant to terminate a long-standing practice that was regarded as divinely mandated. As a result, a limited number of plural marriages were performed over the next several years by those struggling to understand the scope of the change. Not surprisingly, rumors of such marriages soon surfaced, and beginning in January 1904, testimony given in the Smoot hearings made it clear that plural marriage had not been completely extinguished.
The ambiguity was ended in the General Conference of April 1904, when the First Presidency, under President Joseph F. Smith, issued the "second manifesto," an emphatic declaration that prohibited plural marriage and proclaimed that offenders would be subject to Church discipline. They declared that any who participated in additional plural marriages, and those officiating, would be excommunicated from the church. Those disagreeing with the second manifesto included apostles Matthias F. Cowley and John W. Taylor who both resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve. Cowley retained his membership in the church, but Taylor was later excommunicated.
In 1943, the First Presidency discovered apostle Richard R. Lyman was cohabitating with a woman other than his legal wife. As it turned out, in 1925 Lyman had begun a relationship which he defined as a polygamous marriage. Unable to trust anyone else to officiate, Elder Lyman and the woman exchanged vows secretly. By 1943, both were in their seventies. Lyman was excommunicated on November 12, 1943 at age 73. The Quorum of the Twelve provided the newspapers with a one-sentence announcement, stating that the ground for excommunication was violation of the Law of Chastity, which any practice of post-Manifesto polygamy constituted.
[edit] LDS position
Although plural marriage as practiced by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is believed to be correct doctrine in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the LDS church teaches it can only be practiced when specifically authorized by God. For example, two references to this doctrine in LDS scripture are "Abraham received concubines [...] and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, because they were given unto him, and he abode in my law;"[3] and "For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people;"[4] which are pointed out in a standard Sunday School manual.[5]
Joseph Smith, Jr. is quoted "I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise." President Joseph F. Smith stated, "The doctrine is not repealed, the truth is not annulled, the law is right and just now as ever, but the observance of it is stopped..." and also that "[p]lural marriages have ceased in the Church. There isn't a man today in this Church or anywhere else outside of it who has authority to solemnize a plural marriage, not one."
The LDS church teach that even during periods when plural marriage was sanctioned, several individuals disobeyed the word of the Lord in the way they entered into it. David, Solomon, and Rehoboam, among others, married women that were not the will of the Lord for them. David's mistake in coveting Bathsheba, then arranging for her husband to go away to war is an example of this.[6] LDS point to the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob for specific teachings about when plural marriage is allowed.[7]
Current church leadership asserts that only a small percentage of the LDS pioneers that settled in Utah actually practiced plural marriage (the figure cited is usually around 2%-5%); that those who did usually had only two wives; and that these men often helped support widows, or women that were struggling on their own. However, there is evidence to suggest that it was far more prevalent — as high as 20%-25%, involving virtually all church leadership at the time[8]
Officially, the LDS church has not tolerated plural marriages since the Manifesto was declared more than a hundred years ago. However, all of the First Presidency and almost all of the apostles continued to maintain multiple families into the twentieth century. Polygamy was gradually discontinued after the second manifesto as no new plural marriages were allowed and as the older polygamists died off. Since the second manifesto, some LDS members who involved themselves in plural marriage were excommunicated. Once all the old polygamists died off, all who practiced polygamy were excomunicated. The current LDS church does not practice plural marriage, nor does it have any formal ties with splinter groups that do.
[edit] Fundamentalist beginnings
Over time, many of those who rejected the LDS Church's relinquishment of plural marriage formed small, close-knit communities in areas of the Rocky Mountains. These groups continue to practice 'the principle' despite the ostensible opposition, and consider the practice to be a requirement for entry into the highest heaven, which they call the "first degree" of the Celestial Kingdom. These people are commonly called 'Mormon fundamentalists', although not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often called the 'Mormon Church'; and may either practice as individuals, as families, or as part of organized denominations.
In consequence of the tendency of outsiders to confuse the LDS church with the breakaway groups, the LDS church seeks vigorously to disassociate itself from the practice of plural marriage. Moreover, the LDS church has requested that journalists not refer to them as the 'Mormon Church', or the various polygamist sects as 'Mormons' or 'Mormon fundamentalists'; as such titles may become confusing when differentiating between denominations. Multiple churches and sects use the term 'Mormon', as their religious beliefs involve canonizing 'The Book of Mormon', as well as a shared belief with the LDS church of Joseph Smith's calling as a modern-day prophet.
[edit] Critical views
According to sympathizers, Smith, Young and other prominent Church leaders were reluctant to embrace the practice of plural marriage especially given their strict Victorian morals. Some critics contend that Smith at first committed adultery with Fanny Alger, a young maid in the Smith household, and later relied on the Biblical rationale of plural marriage to legitimize his immorality.
Some critics, expecting the LDS Church's formal departure from plural marriage to equate with a doctrinal renunciation, see the church's current policy as disingenuous for several reasons: Plural marriage is still a seminal doctrine to Mormons, even if it is not practiced and is officially discouraged from being taught. Moreover, in the case of death, and sometimes in cases of civil divorce or excommunication, men or women may be sealed in LDS temples to more than one spouse simultaneously (see next section) —devout Latter-day Saints consider such sealings to be eternal, outlasting mortal life and civil marriages.
Some critics of the LDS church believe that it is inappropriate for the church to ask that the term Mormon not be applied to persons that believe in the Book of Mormon who practice plural marriage.
[edit] Relationship of Current Practice Regarding Temple Sealings to Plural Marriage
[edit] Marriages ending in divorce
A man who is sealed to a woman, but later divorced must apply for a "sealing clearance" from the First Presidency in order to be sealed to another woman. This does not void or invalidate the first sealing. A woman in the same circumstances would apply to the First Presidency for a "cancellation of sealing," (sometimes incorrectly called a "temple divorce") allowing her to be sealed to another man. This approval voided the original sealing as far as the woman is concerned. Divorced women who have not applied for a sealing cancellation are considered sealed to the original husband, however it should again be noted that the LDS Church teaches that even in the afterlife the marriage relationship is voluntary so it is evident that no man or woman can be forced into an eternal relationship through temple sealing that they do not wish to be in. On occasion, divorced women have been granted a cancellation of sealing, even though they do not intend to marry someone else. In this case, they are no longer considered as being sealed to anyone and are presumed to have the same eternal status as single women who are not married.
[edit] Sealed marriages ended through death
In the case where a sealed marriage ends through the death of one of the spouses, the requirements are different. A man whose sealed wife has died does not have to request any permission to be married in the temple and sealed to another woman, unless the new wife's circumstance requires a cancellation of sealing. However, a woman whose sealed husband has died is still bound by the original sealing and used to have to request a cancellation of sealing to be sealed to another man. In some cases, women in this situation who wish to remarry choose to be married to subsequent husbands in the temple "for time only," and are not sealed to them, leaving them sealed to their first husband for eternity. It would seem that after death the presumed status of widowers who are re-sealed is an effective plural marriage. If a man leaves this life having been sealed to two or more women, and having been faithful in life to both of them, one would presume that in the hereafter those relationships would continue.
[edit] Proxy sealings where both spouses have died
According to Church policy, after a man has died, he may be sealed by proxy to all of the women to whom he was legally married to while he was alive. The same is true for women; however, if a woman was sealed to a man while she was alive, all of her husbands must be deceased before she can be sealed by proxy to another man.
Church doctrine is not entirely specific on the status of men or women who are sealed by proxy to multiple spouses. There are at least two possibilities:
- Regardless of how many people a man or woman is sealed to by proxy, they will only remain with one of them in the afterlife, and that the remaining spouses, who might still merit the full benefits of exaltation that come from being sealed, would then be given to another person in order to ensure each has an eternal marriage.
- These sealings create effective plural marriages that will continue after death. However, the Church does not teach that polyandrous relationships can exist in the afterlife, so this possibility would probably not apply to women who are sealed by proxy to multiple spouses.
It should be noted that the LDS Church teaches free agency is given to all, and it seems clear that those in the afterlife would have a choice to accept the marriage sealing performed for them, or not.
[edit] Implications
Theological issues are likely to exist when any church endorses the notion that marriage relationships continue into an afterlife, yet endorses people having more than one spouse during life. In this light, a doctrine of multiple marriage relationships in the afterlife does not necessarily imply an endorsement of plural marriage during life.
It should be noted that the LDS Church teaches that even in the afterlife the marriage relationship is voluntary so it is presumed that no man or woman can be forced into an eternal relationship through temple sealing that they do not wish to be in.
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.mormon.org/question/faq/category/answer/0,9777,1601-1-114-1,00.html
- ^ http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=290&mp=T
- ^ http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/132/37#37
- ^ http://scriptures.lds.org/jacob/2/30#30
- ^ http://beta.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b3bc55cbf541229058520974e44916a0/?vgnextoid=32c41b08f338c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=3c66b0be2b7fb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&chapterId=9e66b0be2b7fb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
- ^ http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/132/38-39#38
- ^ http://scriptures.lds.org/jacob/2/23-30#23
- ^ Bachman, Daniel W., Esplin, Ronald K. (1992) "Plural Marriage", in Ludlow, Daniel H, Encyclopedia of Mormonism 3: 1095. New York:Macmillan Publishing Co.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Polygamy: Latter-day Saints and the Practice of Plural Marriage - an official LDS church statement on Plural Marriage
[edit] References
- Richard S. Van Wagoner; Mormon Polygamy: A History; Signature Books; ISBN 0-941214-79-6 (Paperback, 2nd edition, 1992)
- Jessie L. Embry; Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle; University of Utah Press; ISBN 0-87480-277-6 (Hardcover 1987)
- Todd Compton; In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith; Signature Books; ISBN 1-56085-085-X (Hardcover, 1997)
- Anne Eliza Young; Wife No. 19 (1876); Ayer Co Publishing ISBN 0-405-04488-7 (Hardcover, 1978); Kessinger Publishing, LLC ISBN 0-7661-4048-2 (Paperback, 2003)
- Martha Sonntag Bradley "Four Zinas" ; Signature Books; ISBN 1-56085-141-4 (Hardcover, 2000)
- B. Carmon Hardy "Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage"; University of Illinois Press; ISBN 0-252-01833-8; (hardcover)
- D. Michael Quinn, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 9–105
- Thomas G. Alexander, "Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930", University of Illinois Press.
