Polygamy (most often polygyny, called plural marriage by Mormon in the nineteenth century or the Principle by practitioners of modernist polygamist fundamentalists) is practiced by the leader. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for more than half of the nineteenth century, and practiced openly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families.
The practice of Latter-day Saint polygamy has become controversial, both within Western societies and the LDS Church itself. The Americans are equally fascinated and horrified by the practice of polygamy, with the Republican platform at one time referring to "the twin relics of barbarism - polygamy and slavery." The private practice of polygamy was instituted in the 1830s by the founder Joseph Smith. The general practice of plural marriage by the church was announced and defended in 1852 by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Orson Pratt, at the request of the president of the Brigham Young church.
For more than 60 years, the LDS Church and the United States have been at loggerheads over this issue: the church defends this practice as a matter of religious freedom, while the federal government aggressively seeks to eradicate it, consistent with prevailing public opinion. Polygamy may have been an important factor in the Utah War of 1857 and 1858, given the Republican attempt to paint Democrat President James Buchanan as weak in his opposition to polygamy and slavery. In 1862, the United States Congress passed the Anti-Bigamy Morrill Act, which banned plural marriages in those areas. Regardless of the law, Mormons continue to practice polygamy, believing that it is protected by the First Amendment. In 1879, at Reynolds v. The United States Supreme Court upheld the Morrill Act, stating: "Laws are made for government action, and while they can not disrupt only religious beliefs and opinions, they may be by practice."
In 1890, church leader Wilford Woodruff issued a Manifesto that officially stopped the practice of polygamy. Although the Manifesto did not dissolve the existing plural marriage, relations with the United States increased significantly after 1890, so Utah was recognized as a US state in 1896. After the Manifesto, some Mormons continued to marry polygamy, but eventually stopped in 1904 when the president the Joseph F. Smith church denied polygamy before the Congress and issued a "Second Manifesto", calling on all plural marriages in church to stop and establish excommunication as a consequence for those who disobey. Some small "fundamentalist" groups, which seek to continue practice, break away from the LDS Church, including the Apostolic Apostolic Brotherhood (AUB) and Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS Church). Meanwhile, the LDS Church continues its policy of isolating members from discovering polygamy practices, and today is actively trying to distance itself from the fundamentalist group that continues the practice. On its website, the church states that "the standard doctrine of the church is monogamous" and that polygamy is a temporary exception to the rule.
Video Mormonism and polygamy
Origin
Many early converts to religion include Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, and Lyman Johnson, noting that Joseph Smith taught private plural marriages as early as 1831 or 1832. Pratt reports that Smith told several early members in 1831 and 1832 that plural marriage was the correct principle , but the time to practice it has not yet come. Johnson also claimed to have heard the doctrine of Smith in 1831. Mosiah Hancock reported that his father was taught about plural marriage in the spring of 1832.
Versions 1835 and 1844 of the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church (D & C) prohibit polygamy and state that monogamy is the only acceptable form of marriage:
This church of Christ has been reproached with the crimes of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe that one man must have one wife; and a woman, but one husband, except in case of death, when she is free to remarry.
William Clayton, Smith's scribe, recorded an early polygamous marriage in 1843, including the union between Smith and Eliza Partridge, Emily Partridge, Sarah Ann Whitney, Helen Kimball and Flora Woodworth. Clayton recounts: "On the first day of May, 1843, I inaugurated at the office of an elder by marrying Lucy Walker with the Prophet Joseph Smith, at his own residence.In this period the Prophet Joseph took on several other wives Among the numbers I remember well Eliza Partridge, Emily Partridge, Sarah Ann Whitney, Helen Kimball, and Flora Woodworth All this, she admits, is her legal wife, the bonded wife, according to the heavenly order.His wife is aware of the facts of some, if not all, his wife, and he generally treats them very well. "
In early 1832, Mormon missionaries worked successfully to turn followers in Maine from polygamous religious leader Jacob Cochran, who hid in 1830 to escape from prison for polygamy practices. Among Cochran's marriage innovations is "spiritual magic", and "tradition assumes that he often receives spiritual counseling, and that such is always the most powerful and attractive woman in society". The majority of what became the Quorum of the Twelve in 1835 attended the Mormon conference held at the Cochranite center in 1834 and 1835. Brigham Young, the apostle of the church, became acquainted with the Cochran followers as he made several missionary journeys through the Cochranite region from Boston to Saco, and then married Augusta Adams Cobb, a former Cochranite.
Joseph Smith publicly condemned polygamy, refused his involvement in it, and the participants were excommunicated, as recorded by the records and publications of the church. But church leaders began practicing polygamy in the 1840s, especially members of the Quorum of the Twelve. Sidney Rigdon, when he was exiled from the church, wrote a reply to Messengers and Lawyers in 1844 who condemned the Quorum of the Twelve churches and their alleged relationship with polygamy:
It is a well-known fact that the Twelve and their followers have sought to run the business of this spiritual wife... and have gone into the most embarrassing and desperate way to be taken care of by the public. First, insulting innocent women, and when they hate insults, these monsters in human form will attack their character by lying, and false oaths, with many people desperate to help them influence the destruction of those they despise, and all of this to enable them to keep these corrupt practices out of the world.
At that time, the practice was kept secret from non-members and most church members. Throughout his life, Smith has publicly denied having multiple wives.
However, John C. Bennett, a recent convert to the church and the first mayor of Nauvoo, used the idea of ​​an eternal and plural marriage to justify seduction, adultery and, in some cases, the practice of abortion under the guise of "spiritual wifery." Bennett was called to be recorded by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and was ostracized from the church. In April 1844, Joseph Smith called polygamy "the system of John C. Bennett's spiritual wife" and warned "if anyone wrote to you, or preached to you, a doctrine contrary to the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, he is a master of deceit. "Renung Smith
we can not but express our admiration that every elder or imam who has been in Nauvoo, and has had the opportunity to hear the principles of righteous truth, should for a moment give confidence to the idea that anything like a crime is practiced, let alone taught or approved, by the authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The practice was publicly declared in Salt Lake City, Utah County, in 1852, about five years after Mormon arrived in Utah, and eight years after Smith's death. The doctrine authorizing plural marriage was published in the 1876 version of the LDS Church Teachings and Treaties.
The doctrine of many wives of God and Jesus
Top leaders use the polygamy examples of God the Father and Jesus Christ to defend them and these teachings about God and the polygamy of Jesus were widely accepted among the Mormons in the late 1850s. In 1853 Jedediah Grant who later became a member of the First Presidency stated that the main reason behind the persecution of Christ and his disciples was due to the practice of their polygamy. Two months later the apostle Orson Pratt taught in an official church periodically that "We have now clearly shown that God the Father has a number of wives," and that after his death, Mary (the mother of Jesus) may have become another immortal polygamy. wife of God. He also states that Christ has many wives as further proof in defending polygamy. In the following two years, the apostle Orson Hyde also stated during two general conference talks that Jesus practiced polygamy and repeated this in an address 1857. This teaching was alluded to by Brigham Young church president in 1870 and then a member of the First Presidency Joseph F. Smith in 1883.
Maps Mormonism and polygamy
Plural wedding of early church leaders
Joseph Smith
The revelation revelation of 1843, published posthumously, advises Smith's wife Emma to accept all Smith's plural wives, and warns of destruction if a new covenant is not observed. Emma Smith openly and personally opposed the practice and Joseph may have married some women unnoticed by Emma before. Emma openly denied that her husband had ever preached or polygamized, which later became a clear distinction between the LDS Church under Brigham Young and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS Church, now known as the Community of Christ), led by Joseph Smith III. Emma Smith remained affiliated with the RLDS Church until her death at the age of 74. Emma Smith claims that the first time she became aware of the revelation of polygamy in 1843 was when she read it in the publication of Orson Pratt The Seer in 1853.
There is a subtle distinction between "sealing" (which is a Mormon priesthood rule that binds individuals together in eternity), and "marriage" (a social tradition in which men and women agree to be husband and wife in this life). In the early days of Mormonism, general practice and doctrine were not well-defined. Even among those who accept the views of conventional historians, there is disagreement about the exact number of Smith's wives: Fawn M. Brodie lists 48, D. Michael Quinn 46, and George D. Smith 38. The distinction is made by the lack of documents to support the alleged marriage to several wives named.
A number of Smith's "marriages" occurred after his death, with his wife sealed to Smith through a proxy who supported him. A historian, Todd M. Compton, documents at least 33 plural marriages or seals during Smith's lifetime. Richard Lloyd Anderson and Scott H. Faulring filed a list of 29 Joseph Smith wives.
It is not clear how many of Smith's wives had sexual relations with her. Many contemporary accounts from the time of Smith show that he was involved in sexual relations with some of his wives. In 2007, there were at least twelve early Latter-day Saints who, based on historical documents and indirect evidence, had been identified as potential Smith breeds of plural marriage. In a 2005 and 2007 study, a geneticist with the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, a scientific organization founded by LDS Church member James L. Sorenson in collaboration with Professor Scott R. Woodward of Brigham Young University (a private university owned and operated by the Church Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), declared that they had shown "with 99.9 percent accuracy" that five of these people were not actually the descendants of Smith: Mosiah Hancock (son of Clarissa Reed Hancock), Oliver Buell (son of Prescindia Huntington Buell)), Moroni Llewellyn Pratt (son of Mary Ann Frost Pratt), Zebulon Jacobs (son of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith), and Orrison Smith (son of Fanny Alger). The remaining seven have not been tested with certainty, including Josephine Lyon, for whom current DNA testing using mitochondrial DNA can not provide conclusive evidence. Lyon's mother, Sylvia Sessions of Lyon, left her daughter a death certificate saying that she is the daughter of Smith.
Other early church leaders
President of the LDS Church Brigham Young has 51 wives, and 56 children by 16 of the wives.
Apostle LDS Heber C. Kimball has 43 wives, and has 65 children from 17 of their wives.
AS. federal government action against polygamy
1857-58 Utah War
When the LDS Church settled in the territory that became the Utah Territory, it was ultimately subject to the power and opinion of the United States. The first friction began to be seen in the reign of James Buchanan and federal troops arrived (see Utah War). Buchanan, who anticipated the Mormon opposition to a newly appointed territorial governor to replace Brigham Young, sent 2,500 federal troops to Utah to seat a new governor, thus mobilizing a series of misconceptions in which Mormon felt threatened.
1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act
For the most part, the rest of the United States considers offensive plural marriages. On July 8, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Anti-Bigamy Morrill Act into law, which bans practice in the US territory. Lincoln made a statement that he had no intention of enforcing it if the LDS Church would not interfere with him, and so the problem was allowed to rest for a while. But rhetoric continues, and polygamy becomes a barrier for Utah to be recognized as a state. Brigham Young preached in 1866 that if Utah would not be accepted at the Union until he left polygamy, "we will never be accepted."
After the Civil War, immigrants to Utah who were not members of the church continued the contest for political power. They are frustrated with the consolidation of the members. Forming the Liberal Party, non-Mormons began to push for political change and seek to undermine the church's dominance in the region. In September 1871, Young was charged with committing adultery because of his plural marriage. On January 6, 1879, the Supreme Court upheld the Morrill Anti-Bigam Act in Reynolds v. United States .
1882 Edmunds Act
In February 1882, George Q. Cannon, a prominent leader in the church, was denied a non-voting seat in the US House due to his polygamous relationship. This revives the issue of polygamy in national politics. A month later, the Edmunds Act was passed by Congress, amending the Morrill Act and making polygamy crimes punishable by a fine of 500 dollars and five years in prison. "Unlawful Kohabitasi", where prosecution need not prove that a wedding ceremony has taken place (only that the couple live together), is a crime punishable by a $ 300 fine and six months in jail. It also deprives the right of polygamy to elect or hold office and allow them to be punished without due process of law. Even if people do not practice polygamy, they will be deprived of their rights if they profess to believe. In August, Rudger Clawson was jailed for continuing to live with the wife he married before the 1862 Morrill Act.
1887 Edmunds-Tucker Act
In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act permitted the incorporation of the LDS Church and the seizure of church property; it also further extends the penalties of the Edmunds Act. In July of the same year, the US Attorney General filed a lawsuit to confiscate all church assets.
The Church loses control of the territorial government, and many members and leaders are actively pursued as fugitives. Without being able to perform in public, leaders are allowed to navigate "underground".
Following the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, the church found it difficult to operate as a viable institution. After visiting priesthood leaders in many settlements, church president Wilford Woodruff left for San Francisco on September 3, 1890, to meet prominent businessmen and politicians. He returned to Salt Lake City on Sept. 21, determined to gain divine affirmation to pursue courses that seemed increasingly clearer. When he explains to members of the church a year later, his choice is between, on the one hand, continuing to practice plural marriage and thus losing the temple, "stopping all the ordinances in it," and, on the other hand, stopping the plural marriage in order to continue performing important ordinances for the living and the dead. Woodruff hastened to add that he had acted only when the Lord directed:
I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I was supposed to go to my own prison, and let everybody else go there, not the Lord of heaven commanding me to do what I did; and when the time came I was commanded to do that, everything was clear to me.
1890 Manifesto prohibits plural marriage
The last element of Woodruff's preaching experience came on the night of September 23, 1890. The following morning, he reported to some common rulers that he had fought all night with God on the path to be pursued. The result is a 510 word handwritten manuscript stating its intention to obey the law and deny that the church continues to commemorate or justify plural marriages. The document was later edited by George Q. Cannon from the First Presidency and the other up to 356 of his present words. On October 6, 1890, it was presented to the Latter-day Saints at the General Conference and unanimously approved.
While many church leaders in 1890 regarded the Manifesto as inspired, there was a difference between them about its scope and sustainability. Contemporary opinions include the assumption that the manifesto is more related to efforts to achieve statehood for the Utah region. Some leaders are reluctant to end old practices that are considered divine mandates. As a result, more than 200 plural marriages were conducted between 1890 and 1904.
1904 Second Manifesto
It was not until 1904, under the leadership of church president Joseph F. Smith, that the church actually forbade new plural marriages all over the world. Not surprisingly, the rumors about marriage were made after the Manifesto of 1890, and beginning in January 1904, the testimony given in the Smoot trial explained that plural marriages have not been completely extinguished.
The ambiguity ended in the April Conference of April 1904, when Smith issued the "Second Manifesto", a declaration strictly prohibiting plural marriage and declaring that offenders would be subject to church discipline. It states that anyone who participates in additional plural marriages, and those who lead, will be excommunicated from the church. Those who disagree with the Second Manifest include apostles Matthias F. Cowley and John W. Taylor, both of whom quit the Quorum of the Twelve. Cowley retained his membership in the church, but Taylor was later excommunicated.
Although the Second Manifesto ends the formal practice of new plural marriages, existing plural marriages are not automatically dissolved. Many Mormons, including prominent church leaders, retained the plural marriages that existed in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1943, the First Presidency learned that the apostle Richard R. Lyman lived with a woman other than his lawful wife. Apparently, in 1925 Lyman started a relationship which he defined as a polygamous marriage. Unable to trust others to lead, Lyman and the woman swore secretly. In 1943 both were in their seventies. Lyman was excommunicated on November 12, 1943, at the age of 73. The Quorum of the Twelve provides newspapers with the announcement of one sentence, stating that the basis for excommunication is a violation of the law of chastity.
Remnants in cult
Over time, many of those who rejected the release of the LDS Church from plural marriage formed a small, tight community in the Rocky Mountains. These groups continue to practice "Principles". In 1940, the apostle of LDS Mark E. Petersen coined the term "Mormon fundamentalist" to describe such people. Fundamentalists practice as individuals, as families, or as part of an organized denomination. Today, the LDS Church objected to the use of the term "Mormon fundamentalist" and suggested the use of the term "polygamous sect" to avoid confusion as to whether the main body of Mormon believers teaches or practices polygamy.
Mormon fundamentalists believe that plural marriage is a requirement for exaltation and entering into the highest degree of celestial kingdom. This belief is derived from statements by the Mormon authorities of the 19th century including Brigham Young (although some of these leaders provide contradictory statements that a monogamy may get at least a lower level of "glorification" through only confidence in polygamy).
For reasons of community relations, the LDS Church has tried hard to break away from Mormon fundamentalists and plural marriage practices. Although the LDS Church has requested that journalists not refer to Mormon fundamentalists using the term "Mormon", journalists generally have not obeyed it, and "Mormon Fundamentalists" has become the standard terminology. Mormon fundamentals themselves embrace the term "Mormon" and share their religious heritage and beliefs with the LDS Church, including the canonization of the Book of Mormon and the claim that Joseph Smith was the founder of their religion.
Modern plural wedding theories in LDS Church
Although the LDS Church has abandoned the practice of plural marriage, it does not abandon the underlying polygamy doctrine. According to the sacred texts and church statements by its leaders and theologians, the church opens the possibility that one day may re-institute the practice. It is still a monogamous Mormon couple's habit to be sealed with each other. However, in some circumstances, men and women can be sealed to several couples. Most commonly, a man can be sealed to many wives: if his first wife dies, he may be sealed to a second wife. A dead woman can also be sealed to many men, but only through sealing representation if they too have died.
The reason for polygamy
In the publishing of the Book of Mormon in 1830, the teaching of the Latter-day Saint states that polygamy is only permissible if it is commanded by God. The book of Jacob condemns polygamy as an adultery, but lays open the provision that "For if I will, so Master of Hosts, hymn me, I will rule my people; otherwise they will listen to these things." Thus, the LDS Church today teaches that plural marriage can only be practiced when specifically approved by God. According to this view, the Manifesto 1890 and the Second Manifesto cancel the previous authorization of God given to Joseph Smith.
However, Bruce R. McConkie controversially states in his 1958 book, Mormon Doctrine, that God will "clearly" re-institute polygamy practices after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It echoes previous teachings by Brigham Young that the main purpose of polygamy is to realize the Millennium. Official church materials today do not mention the re-institution of plural marriage in the future.
Lots of sealing when the previous couple has died
In the case where a man's first wife died, and the man remarried, and the two marriages involved sealing, the LDS authority taught that in the afterlife, men would enter into polygamous relationships with both wives. Apostle Dallin Oaks is an example of such a case.
Under the LDS Church policy, a man whose sealed wife has died does not have to ask for any permission other than to have a current temple recommend and an interview with his bishop to obtain a final permit for the ordinances of life, to be married in the temple and sealed to another. women, unless the circumstances of a new wife require cancellation of sealing. However, a woman whose husbands are sealed has died still bound by the original sealing and must request the sealing cancellation to be sealed to another man (see the next paragraph for exceptions to this after he dies). In some cases, women in this situation who want to marry again choose to marry the next husband in the temple "for just time", and not sealed to them, leaving them sealed to their first husband for ever.
However, in 1998, dead women may be sealed to more than one man. In 1998, the LDS Church created a new policy that a woman could also be sealed to more than one person. A woman, however, could not be sealed to more than one man while she was alive. She can only be sealed for the next couple after she and her husband (s) have died. So, if a widower sealed to her first husband remarried, she may be sealed by the representative for all her husband (s), but only after her and her husband have died. Proxy sealings, such as proxy baptisms, are only offered to people in the afterlife, indicating that the goal is to allow women to choose the right man to seet. Multiple seals in marriage end with divorce
A man sealed to a woman but then divorced should file a "sealing permit" from the First Presidency to be sealed to another woman. Accepting permission does not cancel or cancel the first sealing. A woman in the same situation will apply to the First Presidency for "cancellation of sealing" (sometimes called "temple divorce"), which allows her to be sealed to another man. This agreement invalidates the original sealing as far as the woman is concerned. Divorced women who do not submit sealing cancellations are considered to be closed to their original husbands. However, it is generally believed that even in the afterlife the marriage relationship is voluntary, so no one can be forced into an eternal relationship through the sealing of a temple they do not want. Divorced women can also be given a cancellation of the sealing, although they do not intend to marry others. In this case, they are no longer regarded as sealed persons and are deemed to have the same permanent status as unmarried women.
Proxy closure where both pairs have passed
According to church policy, after a man dies, he may be sealed by proxy for all the women he formally married while he was alive. The same applies to women; However, if a woman is sealed to a man while he is alive, all her husband must die before she can be sealed by proxy to them.
The doctrine of the church is not wholly specific about the status of the man or woman sealed by the representative of the double pair. There are at least two possibilities:
- Regardless of how many men or women are sealed by proxy, they will only stay with one of them in the afterlife, and that the remaining couple, who may still deserve the full benefit of exaltation that comes from being sealed, then will marry someone else to make sure each has an eternal marriage.
- This sealing creates an effective plural marriage that will continue after death. There is no church teaching that clarifies whether polyandrous relationships can exist in the afterlife, so some church members doubt whether this possibility will apply to women sealed by double-spouse representatives. The possibility for women to be sealed to many men is a recent policy change imposed in 1998. Church leaders do not explain this change, or its doctrinal implications.
Criticism of plural marriage
Examples of unhappy plural marriages
Criticism of polygamy in early LDS Church claims that plural marriage produces unhappiness in some wives. The LDS historian Todd Compton, in his book In Loneliness , illustrates examples where some wives in polygamous marriages are not happy with polygamy.
Means for male sexual satisfaction
Critics of polygamy in early LDS Church claims that church leaders set polygamy practices to advance their immoral desires for sexual satisfaction with multiple sexual partners. Criticism points to the fact that church leaders practiced polygamy secretly from 1833 to 1852, despite the written church doctrine (Doctrine and Covenant 101, 1835 edition) that denies polygamy and states that only monogamous marriages are allowed. Critics also cite some first-person accounts of early church leaders who tried to use the polygamy doctrine to enter into a dark relationship with women. The critics also affirm that Joseph Smith instituted polygamy to cover up the dark relationship of 1835 with his neighboring daughter, Fanny Alger, by taking Algeria as his second wife. Compton dated this marriage to March or April 1833, long before Joseph was accused of having an affair. However, historian Lawrence Foster dismisses Algeria's marriage with Joseph Smith as "a contentious argument" and not an "established fact".
Others conclude that many Latter-day Saints conduct plural marriages based on the belief that they are religious commands, not as an excuse for sexual license. For example, many of the most prominent figures associated with plural marriages, including church president Brigham Young and his counsel Heber C. Kimball, expressed disgust at the system when first introduced to them. Young famously states that after receiving orders to practice plural marriage in Nauvoo, he sees a funeral procession walking down the street and he hopes he can exchange places with corpses. He remembers that "I am not willing to shrink myself from any task, or fail to do anything that is commanded, but it is the first time in my life that I want a grave, and I can hardly forget it for a long time." When Kimball first heard of the principle, he believed that he would marry an elderly woman he loved and which would not be a threat to his first wife, Vilate. He was then surprised to learn that he was marrying a younger woman. His biographer writes that he "became ill in the body, but his mental misfortune was too great to allow him to retire, and he would walk on the floor until almost morning, and sometimes his suffering was so terrible that he would wring his hands and cry like a child small ". While his wife, Vilate, has a triumph of "sorrow to bear" as a result of his acceptance of plural marriage, she supports her husband in his religious duties, and teaches his children that "he can not doubt the marital order of marriage is from God, for God has revealed it to him in answer to prayer. "
Underage marriage
Critics of polygamy in early LDS church claim that church leaders sometimes use polygamy to take advantage of young girls for immoral purposes. Historian George D. Smith studied 153 men who took plural wives in the early years of the Latter-day Saint movement, and found that two of the girls were thirteen, 13 girls were fourteen, 21 were fifteen, and 53 sixteen. Historian Todd Compton documented that Joseph Smith married girls aged 13 or 14. Historian Stanly Hirshon documented the case of girls ages 10 and 11 who married older men.
However, it seems Brigham Young is trying to eradicate the practice of sealed people to too young girls. In 1857, he said, "I will not seal people as I did. Alread's father took three young girls aged 12 & 13, I would not seal them to them, they would not be tied together together... Many who get their unwanted waqf and this is the way Satan was made. "
Rises in bachelorhood
Because the type of polygamy practiced is primarily polygyny, early LDS Church critics argue that polygamy may have caused bridal shortages in the early LDS community, citing quotations by church leader Heber C. Kimball who is said to have said (speaking of missionary departures):
Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to understand that it does not happen as it happened before. The missionary brothers have a habit of choosing the prettiest women for themselves before they arrive here, and bringing those who are ugly to us; next you must bring them all here before taking one of them, and let's all have a fair wobble.
On another occasion, he says "You are sent out as a shepherd to collect the sheep together, and remember that they are not your sheep... do not make a choice before they are taken home and put in the folds"
The first quote above was not proven in Mormon sources, but first appeared in mocking articles at the New York Times on May 15, 1860. FairMormon, the LDS apologetic organization, considered "the prettiest woman" statement to be apocryphal, but that may be the paraphrasing of the authentic Kimball Journal of Discourses statement.
In the paragraph immediately after the above quote, Kimball said:
The plurality of wives will never disappear. Some sisters have a revelation that as this time passes and they go through the veil every woman will have a husband for herself. I hope more of our young men will take the wives of the daughters of Zion and not wait for us parents to take them all; go to a good young man and God bless you forever and make you bear fruit, that we can fill the mountain and then the earth with the righteous.
The exact number of participating in plural marriage is unknown, but research shows a maximum of 20 to 25 percent of Latter-day Saints Latinas are members of polygamous households. A third of married women and almost all church leaders are involved in this exercise.
Instance of coercion
Critics of polygamy in early LDS church have documented several cases where fraud and coercion are used to induce marriage, for example to quote Joseph Smith's case which warns some potential couples of eternal damnation if they do not agree to be his wife. In 1893, members of the married LDS Church John D. Miles went to England and applied for Caroline Owens, assuring her that she was not polygamist. He returned to Utah and participated in the wedding, only to find out after the ceremony that Miles was married. He ran away, but Miles chased him and raped him. He eventually escaped, and filed a lawsuit against Miles who reached the Supreme Court and became a significant case in the polygamous law case. Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brigham Young, claims that Young forced her to marry her by threatening her brother's financial ruin.
Incestuous plural marriage
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