Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto - Hardcover

Hales, Brian C.

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9781589580350: Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1589580354 ISBN 13: 9781589580350

Publisher: Greg Kofford Books Inc, 2007

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This book provides the background for understand the practice of polygamy by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and charts new ground in the study of Mormon Fundamentalism since polygamy’s official discontinuation in 1904. The Allreds, the FLDS Church, the Kingstons, the LeBarons, the TLC Church, and other splinter groups are all scrutinized in this study.

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About the Author:

Brian C. Hales, co-author of the 1992 publication The Priesthood of Modern Polygamy, an LDS Perspective, works as an anesthesiologist at the Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, Utah. An active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former full-time missionary, he is the webmaster of mormonfundamentalism.com, a website dedicated to provided viewers with a historical and doctrinal examination of Mormon fundamentalist topics including the practice of polygamy. Brian has presented at the Mormon History Association meetings and at the Sunstone Symposium on polygamy-related topics. His articles have also been published in Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought and the Journal of Mormon History. In addition to his historical works, Brian has authored three books on doctrinal themes entitled The Veil (Cedar Fort, 2000), Trials (Cedar Fort, 2002), and Light (Cedar Fort, 2004) He is the father of four children.

Chapter 1

Plural Marriage Restored

One of the more controversial doctrines taught by the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith was that, under the proper circumstances, the marriage of one man to more than one wife was sanctified and holy.1 For puritan mentalities of nineteenth-century America, the practice was virtually unheard of except as an exotic practice of the "heathen Turks," and resistance was high.2 Nevertheless, Joseph Smith felt compelled to teach a new form of marriage which he believed the Lord had restored to the earth through him. Called the "New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage," it described how husbands and wives may be joined together in a bond that transcended death. Included as a part of this new marriage covenant was plural marriage as had been practiced by Old Testament patriarchs.3 Joseph Smith and Plural Marriage

Precisely when Joseph Smith learned of the correctness of plural marriage is not known. He published the Book of Mormon in 1830, which states: "For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none. . . . 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). While specifying monogamy, this statement leaves the door open for future polygamy should God command it.

It appears that Joseph Smith may have asked the Lord about plural marriage as early as 1831. In that year Joseph felt inspired to revise the Bible wherein he reviewed the accounts of the ancient patriarchs who practiced polygamy.4 Abraham was married to Sarai (Sarah) and had two additional wives: Hagar (Gen. 16: 1-3) and later Keturah (Gen. 25:1) and concubines (Gen. 25:6). Jacob, (renamed Israel by God), had twelve sons by four wives and concubines (Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah). Moses too was a polygamist (Exod. 2:21; Num. 12:1). Early Church member Lyman E. Johnson recalled that "Joseph ...

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