How could our Church be good and true if some members in our ancient history practiced Polygamy?”
“But, Elder Hunt, what about Polygamy; if a small percentage of the members of your church had more than one wife, way back during part of the early history of your church up until 1890 – – about 130 years ago, how can your Church and all of it’s members not all be evil?”
Please pause to consider that that there are several books in the Bible that God brought to us through prophets and other men who had more than one wife, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Solomon, which is certainly clear proof that God can give us parts of His word or revelations through men who had more than one wife, isn’t it? That part of Bible history is hard for most of us Christians to understand why some of those who wrote parts of the Bible had more than one wife, and yes, so is that part of the long-ago, past history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. No plural marriages were performed in our church after October 6, 1890, so 133 years ago, so why judge us and our members over something that a small percentage of the members of our church did over 130 years ago?
My wife and I are thankful that we have not been asked by God to live polygamy, and I am thankful that no one in our church has been asked or even allowed to enter into polygamy for the past 130 plus years. There are a couple of small groups in the United States, who do practice polygamy in recent years, and the media often refers to them as “Mormons”, but none of them are members of our church. Even the Book of Mormon teaches against polygamy, except when the Lord commands it in isolated situations, as quoted below from the prophet, Jacob:
“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; For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts. Wherefore, this people shall keep my commandments, saith the Lord of Hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes. 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.” Jacob 2:27-30
As you can read above, the Book of Mormon, prophet Jacob, made it clear that no one should have more than one wife, – – – – except in certain instances that God may command his people to practice polygamy for a time to, for example, “raise up seed unto me/Him”.
The first part of that teaching to only ever be devoted to your own one wife, is easy to understand for us members of the church, and we love it. To tell you the truth, the 2nd part of that teaching from the Book of Mormon, – – – and also that principle from prophets who gave us parts of the Bible for that matter, is much harder for us to understand and feel comfortable with, that God would ever ask any of His people to have and take care of more than one wife. Many people in these modern days, don’t want to take on the big responsibility (and joy) of taking good care of even one wife, so they choose to never get married.
For the small percentage of members of our church, who were asked for a period in the early days of our church, to care for more than one wife, it was also initially a very uncomfortable and very hard thing for them to understand and to be willing to practice. Most of us have a hard enough time financially supporting, and keeping one wife happy with their financial, emotional, and other needs all of the time. Imagine how hard and complicated it would be for both the husband and the wife, to be asked to take care of another wife? I have never met anyone in our church who would wish that he would be asked to take care of more than one wife.
My dear wife and I, and all of the members of our church that I know of, are so very thankful that no one in our Church is being asked to practice polygamy for the past 130 plus years. I truly don’t quite fully understand why God asked Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other prophets from the Bible or some men in our Church during part of the 1800’s to have and take care of more than one wife.
The following experiences do help me to somewhat understand why God might in certain situations ask some people to take care of more than one wife:
My 30 Day Survival Class/experience at BYU (Brigham Young University): When I was a BYU student, they offered a 30 day survival class, where our group spent 30 days, learning to survive and work together in the remote high desert area in Southern Utah, near the little town of Boulder. There were about 20 incredible, tough, classy, and righteous young ladies in our group and 10 good and kind-hearted young men. Our group became incredibly close friends during those 30 days, as we worked together trying to survive and help each other, and ponder and pray a lot about our lives and our futures. I remember toward the end of that 30 days, having the thought come to me; – – – what if our little group was stranded together forever in a remote place, instead of just for 30 days? Don’t each of these 20 good and righteous ladies deserve a good and righteous husband some day? Yet, half of them would never have that opportunity, if there were twice as many ladies as men, right? I remember thinking; that I was finally able to somewhat understand, why in certain situations, God might want a good and righteous man to care for more than one wife. What if in the highest reward place in Heaven, for example, that we call the Celestial Kingdom; what if there are about twice as many good and righteous ladies who qualify to be there as men – – – like there were twice as many ladies as men in our survival group, – – – because it seems that for ladies, it is easier and more natural for them to develop the Christ-like qualities of true compassion, concern, unselfish service, real love, forgiveness, kindness toward all, etc. Consider that God taught in the Bible that it is not good for man (or woman) to be alone. Would God, in a situation like that, possibly ask some good and righteous men to care for more than one wife?
Another experience: About 52 years ago, when I was a young teenager in about 1972, I heard a very interesting talk in a large Church youth meeting from a very sweet and very old lady – – about 90 years old, who would have been born in about 1880, so about 10 years before our church leaders stopped performing any plural marriages in 1890. Her father was an early apostle and later a prophet in our church, Joseph F. Smith. Her father had multiple wives, and she talked about the super-loving and peaceful home life that she grew up under as a child. She spoke about polygamy – – – not in support of it for our time, but in helping people to understand that she believed that during that early history of our church, that God had supported it and had asked some good and righteous men like her father, to marry and care for more than one wife. She said that some people try to say that polygamy was evil and selfish, but that her kind-hearted father, was amazingly righteous and kind, and sweet toward each of his wives, and each of his children, and that there was amazing love and peace between all of them in the big loving family that she grew up in. She talked about how they had homes very close to each other for the different wives, and that each of the other wives were also so very kind and loving toward her and toward each other. I believe she said she called the sister wives, her aunts.
Power quote to ponder on: “Personal integrity is who you truly are, and who God knows you to be. Reputation is who others say you are, which may or may not be true.” – – – especially in the case of the huge amounts of false negative slander against some of our past Church leaders and our Church members as a whole by the devil and his team of false slanderers. They try to give a bad reputation and negative perception about every leader and member of our Church. A few months ago, I saw a post on Facebook, by someone claiming that “Brigham Young had a horrible reputation regarding how he treated women, especially his own wives”, – – – and yes, according to the devil and his team of false slander spreaders against our Church; they have made up and spread all kinds of assorted false fabrications to try to destroy his reputation. Brigham Young was the second prophet of our Church, and is our early prophet (most well known for having a large number of wives, and the anti-Church of Jesus Christ people, have been spreading horrible false fabrications about him and others in our Church regarding plural marriage, and other fabricated issues. However, if you study the real and true facts about Brigham Young, you will realize that he was a man of the highest personal integrity, and he treated women with the utmost respect – – especially his wives. So, what are some of the true facts and direct quotes about Brigham Young from those who knew him best, such as his own children and wives? Do they agree with the false negative slander that the anti-Mormons have been teaching about Brigham Young for the past 180 years? – – absolutely not! Below are some actual quotes from people who knew Brigham Young best, from the book, “Brigham Young, An Inspiring Personal Biography” by Susan Evans McCloud:
(on page 1 – 2) “He was a strong . . patriarch who was vitally interested in every aspect of his family’s lives and welfare, keeping a private store for the use of his own households, maintaining an ‘open door policy’ with his fifty-six children so that he was available to them at any hour if they were to come seeking his aid.” “ He was so affectionate and understanding wrote his fifty-first child, Clarissa, “that we always looked forward to his coming among us and partaking of our pleasures and fun.”
“Brigham’s daughter, Clarissa, was effusive in her expressions of affection for him: “No child ever loved, revered, and cherished a father more than I did mine, but how could I do otherwise, knowing him as I did? My mother looked upon him as the embodiment of all that was good and noble. . . . he was the wisest, kindest, and most loving of fathers. His constant thoughtfulness for our happiness and well-being endeared him to all of us. The bond between my father and me was as close as if I had been his only child, and I am sure that each of the other children felt the same way. I shall always be grateful that I was born his daughter.”
(On page 108 – 109). After Brigham was first asked to live plural marriage, he said, “it was the first time in my life that I had desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time. And when I saw a funeral, I felt to envy the corpse its situation, and to regret that I was not in the coffin.” . . . “Because of his nature, it was essential for Brigham to reason the thing out for himself, explore every aspect and feature, then make an informed, intelligent, dedicated decision, from which he would never retreat. An opportunity came soon after the adoption of the practice for him to debate the issue with a professor (minister) from a southern university. . . . Brigham said, “We see in this life, that amongst Christians, ministers and all classes of men, a man will marry a wife, and have children by her; she dies, and he marries another, and another, until men have had as many as six wives, and each of them bear children. This is considered all right by the Christian world, inasmuch as a man has but one at a time. Now, in the resurrection this man and all his wives and children are raised from the dead; what will be done with those women and children, and who will they belong to? And if the man is to have but one, which one in the lot shall he have? His listener realized the efficacy of his argument, so Brigham continued: “Very well, said I, you consider that to be a pure, holy place in the presence of God, angels, and celestial beings, would the Lord permit a thing to exist in his presence in heaven which is evil? And if it is right for a man to have several wives and children in heaven at the same time, is it not a consistent doctrine that a man should have several wives, and children by those wives at the same time, here in this life, as was the case with Abraham and many of the old Prophets? Or is it any more sinful to have several wives at a time than at different times? This reasoning satisfied the minister, and it satisfied Brigham as well.”
On page 248 – 249: “Once when her daughter (Clarissa) asked her mother how she handled all that was required of her, she replied, ‘If your father wasn’t the most wonderful man in the world, I couldn’t do it.’
(On page 250): “Susa’s words ring with a depth and sincerity which cannot be belied: “In all my life in that beloved home I never heard my father speak an unkind or irritable word to one of his wives. . . . I never heard one of my father’s wives chastise or correct another wife’s children. I have heard the children quarrel, naturally, but very little of that indeed, for we were not a contentious family. Much less did I ever hear or see anything but the utmost courtesy and kindliness between my father and his wives. Correct his children he did, but each with dignity and deliberation that neither humiliated the child nor lowered his own self respect. . . No other fact of father’s life was so profound a proof of his true nobility and greatness as his life at home and the influence which he radiated there.” . . . “Only such consistency, based on high and pure principles, could have moved Susa (Brigham’s daughter) to observe and record: “His beautiful courtesy was never more in evidence than when he approached any of his wives whom he loved and who loved him.”
I have prayerfully studied the real life and teachings of Brigham Young, and I am so very impressed with his teachings and his example of sharing kindness and love and unselfish service to as many children of God as he could. I believe that he lived a very dedicated life of giving his best effort to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ in every area of his life.
Have you noticed that you ladies by nature, are far more emotional and have more emotional needs than us men? Have you heard and pondered on the quote: “Happy wife equals Happy life?” – – -meaning if a man is able with all of his best efforts to meet his wife’s emotional and physical needs, etc., and keep her happy; then the husband and children will also normally be pretty happy and at-peace also, making it a “happy home”. Aren’t you very impressed like I am, that Brigham Young was amazingly very successful at meeting the emotional and physical needs of his multiple wives and 56 children. He must have been quite an honorable, kind-hearted, righteous, loving, impressive, industrious and attentive husband and father, as those who knew him best describe, which is the opposite of what the devil and his team describe. How many of us could really keep multiple wives happy and fulfilled each day – – so that we could enjoy a happy home? Wouldn’t it be wise to trust the words of those who knew Brigham Young and Joseph Smith best, far more rather than to trust the false negative slander about them by the anti-Mormons?
“Some may also wonder, how could our Church be good and true if there was a period in our history when blacks were not ordained to the priesthood?”
Power Quote to ponder on from the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 26:33: “he (God) inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.”
Some have accused our church of being prejudice against the blacks, because for a time, they were not ordained to the priesthood or leadership positions in our Church. During the early history of our church during the 1830’s, most of the members of our church had gathered together in Jackson County, Missouri. During those years, our members were being accused of having too much compassion and love for the blacks, who in those days were treated horribly in many parts of the United States, and were even bought and sold in slavery in 15 slave states, including in Missouri, where most of our members had gathered. With so many members of our church settling in Missouri, many who supported slavery were panicking that all of our church members who were moving in, would oppose and vote against slavery, which is true, because we have always believed as taught in the Book of Mormon, that “all are alike unto God”. One of the reasons all of the members of our church were driven out of Missouri by force in the middle of a bitter cold winter in 1838, was because of our compassion and love for the blacks, and the fact that we opposed slavery. Some brave members of our Church were severely abused and beaten in Missouri, when they dared to show up to vote at one of the polls, after being threatened to not dare voting or suffer severe abuse.
During that part of the history of the United States, many people were able to get away with abusing and even murdering both blacks and members of our church without much if any legal consequence.
There was a time in the Old Testament part of the Bible when only the Levites were ordained to the priesthood. It is true that during the early history of our church; blacks were not ordained to the Priesthood, but us members of our church were delighted and deeply thankful; when the Revelation from our church leaders came out on June 8, 1978 announcing that: “all of our brethren who are worthy may receive the priesthood, and witnessing the faithfulness of those from whom the priesthood has been withheld, we have pleaded long and earnestly in behalf of these, our faithful brethren . . . supplicating the Lord for divine guidance. He has heard our prayers, and by revelation has confirmed that the long-promised day has come when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood, with power to exercise its divine authority, and enjoy the holy priesthood. . . Accordingly, all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color.”
One of the fastest areas of growth in our church in recent years, is among the blacks on the African continent. Growth of the Church in Africa has continued at a strong rate for the past 30 years, with about 750,000 members of the Church there now, and continuing to grow very rapidly. Our church leaders teach us to show love and kindness toward every precious and dearly beloved child of God all over the world, of every color, race, nationality, etc.