Page 40 Shall Women Day That Marriage Plural
I was interested to see what the Church had in its online DB about plural marriage. Especially an excommunicated Apostle being made an Apostle again! This is what I found:
The following information is provided to
help you if class members have questions about the practice of plural
marriage. It should not be the focus of the lesson.
The Lord's purpose for commanding His people to practice plural
marriageIn the Book of Mormon, the prophet Jacob taught: "For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife. "¦ [But] 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, Jacob 2:30). At various times throughout biblical history, the Lord commanded people to practice plural
marriage. For example, He gave this command to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon (D&C 132:1).
The revelation to practice plural
marriage in this dispensation
In this dispensation, the Lord commanded some of the early Saints to practice plural
marriage. The Prophet Joseph Smith and those closest to him, including Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, were challenged by this command, but they obeyed it. Church leaders regulated the practice. Those entering into it had to be authorized to do so, and the marriages had to be performed through the sealing power of the priesthood.
The Church's position on plural
marriage today
In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff received a revelation that the leaders of the Church should cease teaching the practice of plural
marriage (Official Declaration 1, pages 291-92 in the Doctrine and Covenants; see also the excerpts from addresses by President Woodruff that immediately follow Official Declaration 1).
In 1998, President Gordon B. Hinckley made the following statement about the Church's position on plural
marriage: "This Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church. "¦ If any of our members are found to be practicing plural
marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church" (in Conference Report, Oct. 1998, 92; or Ensign, Nov. 1998, 71).
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During this period the Church was undergoing severe persecution. Anti-Mormons living in Utah and elsewhere, along with the local and national press and many ministers of other religions, conducted a campaign of slander and hatred against the Church, centering around the doctrine of plural
marriage. As a result, the Federal government of the United States passed harsh laws that denied the right to vote, hold public office, or serve on juries, to those who lived in plural
marriage. Also, those who entered into plural
marriage could be sentenced to a fine of $500 and to five years in prison.
These laws were designed to discriminate solely against Latter-day Saints. Federal officials sent into Utah, along with anti-Mormons already living in the state, vigorously worked to identify and prosecute Church members who were living the law of plural
marriage. Wives and children were forced to testify in court against their own husbands and fathers. As a result, men who were law abiding were forced to go into hiding. Among these were many Church leaders, including President Taylor, and his first counselor, President George Q. Cannon.
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In Nauvoo, plural
marriage was another challenge to the family. Parley had been taught it as early as 1839. He took his first plural wife in 1843, and by 1856 had also married nine others. 13 The doctrine was especially difficult for Orson. While he was in England, his wife Sarah had become interested in John C. Bennett, who had self-servingly joined the Church and risen rapidly to prominence in Nauvoo's city government. When Orson learned of their involvement, they used the teaching of plural
marriage as a method of self-defense, accusing the Prophet of improper behavior to cover up their own guilty
relationship. Orson believed Sarah and refused to sustain the Prophet in a meeting on 22 July 1842. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith spent several hours with Orson, trying to change his mind; but he refused to budge. He and Sarah were excommunicated on 20 August 1842 and Amasa Lyman was ordained to replace him in the Quorum of the Twelve. (See Journals, pp. 176-82.)
As with Parley, though, Orson's basic testimony was unchanged, and soon his eyes were opened to John C. Bennett. Fully repentant,
he and Sarah were rebaptized and Orson was reordained an apostle. (See Journals, pp. 187-88, 493, 517.) Later Orson would marry an additional nine wives. 14
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