“Plural marriage… is calculated in its nature to severely try the women even to nearly tear their heartstrings out of them…”
— Journal and Autobiography of Joseph Lee Robinson, p. 50
Mormon polygamy is a fraught subject. Not too long after Carol Lynn Pearson published her book, The Ghosts of Eternal Polygamy, Jane, my wife, and I spoke on a panel with her at a Sunstone Symposium. Our story, in my words, is on page 100 of her book. At this symposium, we shared how the principle of plural marriage affected our marriage because we had not been able to be sealed. Jane was already sealed to her first husband, who had passed away. In the LDS faith, a man can be sealed to more than one woman, but a woman cannot be sealed to more than one man—which is why President Dallin H. Oaks is sealed to both his deceased and current wife. Our children of birth were automatically sealed to Jane and Bart, despite never knowing him. Before I married Jane, I researched these sealing conundrums and concluded that despite what the “doctrine” on the subject said, God loves equitably, that temple covenants are more about assisting us in mortality, and that we don’t know nearly as much as we think we do about what happens after we die.
Over 13 years ago, during one of our FaithAgain gatherings, the scholar who was leading the discussion casually mentioned that Joseph Smith instituted polygamy. It wasn’t the topic, but a 20-30-year-old woman’s hand shot up and said: “Wait! Joseph Smith started polygamy? I attended seminary and institute and have been active all my life. I’ve never heard that before. This just rocked my world.”
I remember when the church created the Presidents of the Church teaching manuals for Priesthood and Relief Society. Neither the Joseph Smith nor Brigham Young manual said a word about polygamy. Most of the world associates Mormons or the Latter-Day Saints with polygamy. Apparently, church leaders thought at the time that it would slip into the past and be forgotten if it wasn’t spoken of.
Since then, the church has become much more transparent about its polygamous history along with other difficult historical issues it once avoided discussing. Its website has a Topics and Questions section where they continually add information about past and present concerns. The free-ranging internet, along with the disaffiliated as well as courageous LDS historians, helped get the church there. It is easy to forget how many programs and changes in the church have come about due to inspired or concerned members as well as agitators and antagonists.
Ironically, the church is now trying to fend off a growing group of Latter-Day Saints known as polygamy deniers. While they have some plausible reasons to doubt the church’s narrative, I find it difficult to believe in the vast, long, and complicated conspiracy that it would require to pull off what polygamy deniers assert—that Brigham Young and a group of his cronies instituted plural marriage and then made it look like Joseph Smith revealed and sanctioned it. I have friends who believe some version of this. These are smart friends who are sincere and who I respect and appreciate. Some are still active in the church. Some have resigned or been excommunicated. One of these friends has become prominent in advancing this theory through her podcast: 132 Problems: Revisiting Mormon Polygamy. She has interviewed people who sit on both sides of this issue.
Two LDS church historians recently addressed polygamy deniers in a Mormon Land interview. They have been involved in preparing the William Clayton Papers for publication. William Clayton had more to say about the origins and early practice of polygamy than any other contemporary of Joseph Smith. For most historians in or out of the church, the evidence leads them to conclude that Joseph Smith instituted polygamy. Like the Joseph Smith Papers Project, non-LDS scholars and critics who don’t have skin in the game also assess the information. This makes it even more difficult to buy into the denial theories.
Reading the ancient and contemporary history of great men and leaders—including those in the Bible—has given me an appreciation for their hubris and errors of judgment. While not a great man or leader, I too have thought I was following the inspiration of God only to discover in hindsight that I misinterpreted or misapplied what I had thought was divine guidance. Occam’s Razor suggests this simpler explanation rather than a much more complicated narrative of a vast conspiracy. The deceitful actions (but likely sincere in my estimation) of Joseph in his secret practice of plural marriage and those of his close associates are easier for me to believe than a much larger and more involved deception by hosts of LDS leaders lasting to today.
At the end of the day, I can live with either historical narrative. Religion is nothing if not perplexing. Both scenarios demonstrate that those at the highest levels who are called and ordained of God can get God’s will wrong and teach incorrect principles. Or that they can deceive in the name of God because they wrongly believe God wants them to. Regardless of which historical narrative you choose to believe, you have a challenge to an orthodox belief that our prophets will never lead us astray. That when they speak in the name of God authoritatively, they are speaking as if God himself were speaking. I haven’t believed this for some years now. I’m not sure that some of the current highest leaders would express their “revelation” that way now.
But I still desire to participate and practice within my community of faith despite its imperfect leaders and their, at times, improper behavior and false doctrines. Every religion suffers from the same dilemma. I check my certainty at my church’s door and do the best I can to suss out God’s will and discern what is true and good and what is false and harmful. I do the same with the door of science.
I am optimistic that the church that has blessed my life and so many others will continue to reform—or “restore”—as its leaders like to say. That it will become a less harmful, more transparent, and a more beneficial instrument in God’s hands. I hope the same for all the other often much larger and more influential churches and religions that God tries to guide and operate through. And I hope the same for myself.
Check out Faith Matters 5-part series on Unpacking Polygamy:
Episode 5 Episode 4 Episode 3 Episode 2 Episode 1
