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Social And Political Reactions To Mormon Polygamy

April 29, 1996

Social and Political Reactions to Polygamy
"We are a peculiar people," Elder Bruce R. McConkie once said (McConkie 25).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of a few "odd" Christian religions.
Many of its practices have created much persecution and political reaction, polygamy
being one of these. It created much social and political persecution of the Mormons.
Most of this persecution had come from anti-polygamist Christians. This is ironic
because the anti-polygamists believed in the Bible, but not polygamy, one of its teachings.
Many of God's righteous followers in the Old Testament practiced polygamy. Abraham
married Hagar, Sarai's handmaiden (Genesis 16:1-3). Jacob was married to Leah,
Rachel, Billah, and Zilpha all at the same time. In the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of
modern revelation used as scripture by the LDS church, it states that "in nothing did they
[the Old Testament prophets] sin save in those things they received not of me
[God]"(132:38). Quickly one sees that God gave those women to the prophets of old
because they were righteous.
So what exactly is the justification and reason for polygamy? Mormons believed
that when a couple or family is sealed in the temple of the Lord by one holding God's
priesthood keys of sealing, that the bond is not "until death do us part," but rather for all
eternity. If this is true, then when a man is widowed and he marries a second wife, he
then has two wives. The Mormons believe that if a man can have multiple wives in
heaven, then the same should be true on Earth. "According to the Lord's law of marriage,
it is lawful that a man have only one wife at a time unless by revelation the Lord
commands plurality of wives in the new and everlasting covenant" (McConkie5770). If a
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