If polygomy was re-instated today in the Church.

I can not help but wonder what would happen if polygamy was re-instated as a commandment of God. Would the members just agree with the practice? I have to be honest this has always been something I did not understand. When women are suppose to be 'so special' and yet I can be one of many? That makes me not special in my logical terms. I am a little frustrated that I was taught in Church and Seminary that this was a condition of exaltation. Then as I researched the Church on LDS.org I found this to have been changed in modern day. If it was commanded by God would God just change his mind?

Below is some of the information I have found about Joseph Smith stating it was a commandment of God and is a condition of exaltation. As well as modern day Prophets saying it is not a condition of exaltation. If they both are getting their information from God who is right? Is it an uncertainty? Then why the complete opposite statements?

First I found this hymn of the Joseph Smith Era

• "Now, sisters, list to what I say:
  With trials this world is rife,
  You can't expect to miss them all,
  Help husband get a wife!
• "Now, this advice I freely give,
  If exalted you would be,
  Remember that your husband must
  Be blessed with more than thee.
• "Then, O, let us say,
  God bless the wife that strives
  And aids her husband all she can
  T' obtain a dozen wives."

This made me feel upset and like women are not special in any manner. Others may not feel this way and I am not saying that others need to agree. This is my personal feeling on the hymn. It did not feel the same as a hymn of goodness such as "I know that my Redeemer lives" I always feel a closeness to God and Christ with this hymn. I believe that is the feeling a church hymn should invoke.

Now for the facts. You do not have to take them as fact but I do suggest you do your own research to know what the Church is saying.

What Joseph Smith taught of Celestial marriage;

"The same God that has thus far dictated me and directed me and strengthened me in this work, gave me this revelation and commandment on celestial and plural marriage, and the same God commanded me to obey it. He said to me that unless I accepted it, and introduced it, and practiced it, I, together with my people would be damned and cut off from this time henceforth. We have got to observe it. It is an eternal principle and was given by way of commandment and not by way of instruction." - Prophet Joseph Smith, Contributor, Vol. 5, p. 259


What I have been taught (right or wrongly by Church leaders and authorities)

I was always told it was the way of the world in Joseph Smith's time and that it was not illegal. I was also taught that it was because the women that had been widowed needed the name of marriage to protect and provide for them.  Since there were not enough men in the area.


The Census records show that there being more women than men is not accurate.

The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utah, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United States, as would be expected in a pioneer state. The births within the Church obey the usual population law - a slight excess of males.


An example from the U.S. Census records, which Elder Widtsoe referred to, indicates that in 1840 there were 5,169 males and 4,762 females in Hancock County, Illinois (Nauvoo being the primary population center). Counting just those persons between the ages of 15 and 40, there were 2,067 men and 1,828 women. 1850 Census information for Utah records 6,020 males and 5,310 females.

Polygamy was illegal:

Polygamists in striped prison uniforms, including George Q. Cannon (center with cane), William Gimbert Saunders (second from right), and William Morley Black (right of Cannon with white beard). These men were also known as "Prisoners of Conscience."

Why were these people, including First Presidency counselor George Q. Cannon in prison for practicing polygamy? Because polygamy was illegal.

Note: the photo is from an LDS supplementary lesson manual titled 'My Kingdom Shall Roll Forth: Readings In Church History', 1979, pages 53-60 deal with polygamy

Lorenzo Snow's testimony in the "Temple Lot Case", pp. 320-322:

"A man that violated this law in the Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 edition, until the acceptance of that revelation by the church, violated the law of the church if he practiced plural marriage. Yes sir, he would have been cut off from the church, I think I should have been if I had. Before the giving of that revelation in 1843 if a man married more wives than one who were living at the same time, he would have been cut off from the church. It would have been adultery under the laws of the church and under the laws of the state, too."

Joseph took many plural wives in secret before 1843. And of course polygamy was illegal after 1843 as well as before1843 as President Snow stated.

Remembering the Wives of Joseph Smith

Wife	Date	Age	Husband*
Emma Hale	Jan 1827	22
Fanny Alger	1833	16
Lucinda Morgan Harris	1838	37	George W. Harris
Louisa Beaman	Apr 1841	26
Zina Huntington Jacobs	Oct 1841	20	Henry Jacobs
Presendia Huntington Buell	Dec 1841	31	Norman Buell
Agnes Coolbrith	Jan 1842	33
Sylvia Sessions Lyon	Feb 1842	23	Windsor Lyon
Mary Rollins Lightner	Feb 1842	23	Adam Lightner
Patty Bartlett Sessions	Mar 1842	47	David Sessions
Marinda Johnson Hyde	Apr 1842	27	Orson Hyde
Elizabeth Davis Durfee	Jun 1842	50	Jabez Durfee
Sarah Kingsley Cleveland	Jun 1842	53	John Cleveland
Delcena Johnson	Jul 1842	37
Eliza R. Snow	Jun 1842	38
Sarah Ann Whitney	Jul 1842	17
Martha McBride Knight	Aug 1842	37
Ruth Vose Sayers	Feb 1843	33	Edward Sayers
Flora Ann Woodworth	Spring 1843	16
Emily Dow Partridge	Mar 1843	19
Eliza Maria Partridge	Mar 1843	22
Almera Johnson	Apr 1843	30
Lucy Walker	May 1843	17
Sarah Lawrence	May 1843	17
Maria Lawrence	May 1843	19
Helen Mar Kimball	May 1843	14
Hanna Ells	Mid 1843	29
Elvira Cowles Holmes	Jun 1843	29	Jonathan Holmes
Rhoda Richards	Jun 1843	58
Desdemona Fullmer	Jul 1843	32
Olive Frost	Mid 1843	27
Melissa Lott	Sep 1843	19
Nancy Winchester	1843	14
Fanny Young	Nov 1843	56
* Living Husband at the time of Marriage to Joseph Smith

I was very upset when I got down to the 14 year old girl, she was a mere child. Then I read parts of her journal and I was in tears. My heart poured out to her. Then I read other exerts from many of the women that felt forced to live this way. I just can not believe that the most loving Heavenly Father would want all females to be sad and feel like if they suffer through the polygamy it may prove worth it in the end.

Joseph Smith's personal secretary records that on May 22nd, 1843, Smith's first wife Emma found Joseph and Eliza Partridge secluded in an upstairs bedroom at the Smith home. Emma was devastated. (William Clayton's journal entry for 23 May; see Smith, pp. 105-106)

Helen thought her marriage to Joseph Smith was only dynastic. But to her surprise, it was more. Helen confided to a close friend in Nauvoo: "I would never have been sealed to Joseph had I known it was anything more than ceremony. I was young, and they deceived me, by saying the salvation of our whole family depended on it." (Mormon Polygamy: A History by LDS member Richard S. Van Wagoner, p. 53.)

At this time, Helen was not a happy new bride for Joseph Smith, but a girl that had fallen into depression. She wrote in a poem:

...but pitying angels wept.
They saw my youthful friends grow shy and cold.
And poisonous darts from sland'rous tongues were hurled,
Untutor'd heart in thy gen'rous sacrafise,
Thou dids't not weigh the cost nor know the bitter price;
Thy happy dreams all o'er thou'st doom'd also to be
Bar'd out from social scenes by this thy destiny,
And o'er thy sad'nd mem'ries of sweet departed joys
Thy sicken'd heart will brood and imagine future woes,
And like a fetter'd bird with wild and longing heart,
Thou'lt dayly pine for freedom and murmor at thy lot;

Does that sound to you like Helen was blessed with the spirit of joy for giving herself to Joseph Smith? Where does that fit into the Plan of Salvation? Where are the scriptures or revelations to back that up?
However, Helen seems to have accepted her fate and the poem finishes as follows:

But could'st thou see the future & view that glorious crown,
Awaiting you in Heaven you would not weep nor mourn.
Pure and exalted was thy father's aim, he saw
A glory in obeying this high celestial law,
For to thousands who've died without the light
I will bring eternal joy & make thy crown more bright.
I'd been taught to reveire the Prophet of God
And receive every word as the word of the Lord,
But had this not come through my dear father's mouth,
I should ne'r have received it as God's sacred truth.

Helen Mar Kimball
Mormon Polygamy: A History, p. 53

Emma was very much against polygamy. Her story is told in the pro-LDS book: Mormon Enigma. When asked where the doctrine of 'spiritual wifery' came from she responded 'straight from the devil'. After Joseph died, she remarried a non-Mormon and had nothing whatsoever to do with polygamy again. Mormon Enigma

In the July 1838 edition of the Elder's Journal ("Edited by Joseph Smith") Joseph Smith answered some questions including the following:

"Question 7th. Do the Mormons believe in having more wives than one?
"Answer. No, not at the same time. But they believe that if their companion dies, they have a right to marry again. But we do disapprove of the custom which has gained in the world, and has been practiced among us, to our great mortification, of marrying in five or six weeks, or even in two or three months after the death of their companion.
"We believe that due respect ought to be had, to the memory of the dead, and the feelings of both friends and children."

(Elder's Journal, Vol 1, No. 3, p 43; reprinted in History of the Church Vol 3, p 38)

"We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." - 12th Article of Faith, written by the Prophet Joseph Smith

 Then why would he have practice an illegal act. It goes against the teachings in the 12th article of faith.

Mary Ann Angell

"God will be very cruel if he does not give us poor women adequate compensation for the trials we have endured in polygamy."
-Mary Ann Angell Young, Brigham Young's second wife

This is one of the most disturbing things I have come across in my research.

"Brethren, I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore. The brother missionaries have been in the habit of picking out the prettiest women for themselves before they get here, and bringing on the ugly ones for us; hereafter you have to bring them all here before taking any of them, and let us all have a fair shake."

- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, The Lion of the Lord, New York, 1969, pp 129-130. Original source: The New York Times, April 17, 1860

Yes, he really just stated he want a 'fair shake' at these women. This brings up a lot of feelings, non of which are good! It is sick and has nothing to do with love. When you read the writings and comments of these women, they found it a burden. That none felt good or special.

My conclusion:

This confirms to me I was not meant to be one of many. That I can not believe a father would want such treatment of his daughter(s).

I personally cannot think I am not important enough to be the only one. I cannot believe that God wanted my husband to have plural marriages either on earth or in Heaven. That would make 'Heaven' a hell for me. I think God knows I am more special than that. You do not have to agree I am just trying to be open about how I am feeling. I have had a problem with this as long as I remember. I have not changed my beliefs. I have just gotten a better understanding of what the church doctrine says and it doesn't fit my beliefs. It is okay if it fits yours.