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Polygamy, Prophets, and Prevarication POLYGAMY, PROPHETS, AND PREVARICATION: FREQUENTLY AND RARELY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE INITIATION, PRACTICE, AND CESSATION OF PLURAL MARRIAGE IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS by Gregory L. Smith, M.D. Introduction ................................................................... 2 Wilford Woodruff’s Pre-Manifesto Polygamy is Non-Christian .......................................... 3 Administration ......................................................... 32 Writing the Manifesto .............................................. 34 Polygamy was Illegal ..................................................... 3 Principles of Church Government and the Civil Disobedience in Context ..................................... 3 Manifesto ................................................................. 35 Doctrine and Covenants 134 and Civil Wilford Woodruff’s Post-Manifesto Disobedience ................................................................ 6 Administration ......................................................... 38 Court Decisions and Civil Disobedience ..................... 7 Lorenzo Snow’s Administration .............................. 39 False Analogy with the “Gay Marriage” Debate .......... 9 Joseph F. Smith’s Administration ............................ 40 Don’t Die On Every Hill ............................................ 10 After the Second Manifesto ..................................... 42 Polygamy and Lying ................................................... 10 Conclusions About Lying ........................................... 43 Lying About Polygamy during the Nauvoo Era ......... 11 Polygamy as Lasciviousness ....................................... 44 Didn’t Joseph Deceive Church Members? .............. 11 Secrecy, Polygamy, and Threats of Violence Implementation Problems .......................................... 46 against the Saints ..................................................... 13 Nineteenth Century Variations on a Theme ............... 46 Lying and Biblical Prophets .................................... 14 What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Lying for the Lord? .................................................. 15 Like This? ................................................................... 47 Lying About Polygamy in Utah, Prior to 1890 ........... 16 Polygamy and Depression .......................................... 48 Conditions Preceding the Manifesto of 1890 .......... 17 Hiding History ............................................................. 49 How Critics Viewed Mormons Prior to the Final Thoughts—What was the Purpose of Manifesto of 1890 .................................................... 19 Plural Marriage? ......................................................... 51 The Morrill Act ........................................................ 21 Obedience ................................................................... 51 Post Civil War Measures: The Reynolds Case ........ 23 “Raise Up Seed” ......................................................... 51 The Edmunds Act .................................................... 24 Sociological ................................................................ 52 Assault on Due Process ........................................... 25 Abrahamic Test .................................................. 52 Indefinite Punishment ....................................27 Extension of Legal Problems beyond Utah ...28 Further Reading .............................................. 53 The Edmunds-Tucker Act ..............................28 Notes .................................................................. 56 Legal Summary ..............................................31 About the Author ............................................. 65 Lying About Polygamy after the 1890 About FAIR ...................................................... 65 Manifesto ..........................................................32 The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research 2 Polygamy, Prophets, and Prevarication INTRODUCTION 4. Lascivious. This attack charges that Joseph Smith (and possibly his successors) pursued plural Perhaps no practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of marriage for purely base motivations. Such a charge Latter-day Saints proved more volatile and divisive than is usually accompanied by appeals to the above plural marriage, or “polygamy.” First revealed to Joseph criticisms, to imply that Joseph and his successors’ Smith in the early 1830s, it was implemented in at least a conduct was questionable on many grounds, and few relationships by the mid-1830s and more widely dur- therefore is best explained by their sexual appetite ing the Nauvoo period of the 1840s, though secrecy still rather than sincere religious conviction. surrounded its practice.1 Publicly announced in 1852, it served as a focal point for legislators, social reformers, 5. Implementation. This attack is often an adjunct and anti-Mormon agitators throughout the latter half of the to others; some of the supposed or real negative nineteenth century. consequences of polygamy are enumerated with the argument that such consequences are evidence that Despite a vigorous campaign in the courts, the members the practice was not divinely commanded. of the Church were unsuccessful in having plural marriage 6. Hiding history. Closely related to criticism 3, tolerated—indeed, it was outlawed and such laws were this is normally an attack on the modern Church upheld as constitutional. The Manifesto of 1890, together and its leadership, added as the coup de grâce by with the “Second Manifesto” of April 1904, put an end the “friendly and helpful” critic. Since the critic to polygamy in the Church. Though polygamy currently has provided information of which the reader was plays little role in most discussions of LDS theology and is previously unaware, the claim is then made that the forbidden to any member on pain of excommunication, it Church has been “hiding” the truth, or “lying” to its continues to be a live issue for some. As in the nineteenth unsuspecting members. Thus the critic can resurrect century, “the Principle” continues to attract the fascina- the polygamous past to attack the Church in the tion, amusement, distaste, or scorn of general society. It present. also serves as a target for enemies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and the Church he established. An understanding of polygamy has not always been helped by the tendency of some LDS authors to gloss over many Attacks upon Joseph Smith and the Church regarding po- of the very real difficulties associated with this period in lygamy have generally taken one or more of the following Church history, though this tendency is not as exaggerated forms: as some suppose. 1. Irreligious. Popular among sectarian critics, this It is my contention that the discovery and dissemination of attack appeals to western sensibilities which favor historical materials at variance with the standard or “folk” monogamy, and argues that polygamy is inconsistent understanding of polygamy common in the twentieth and with biblical Christianity or (ironically) the Book twenty-first century Church is no threat to a faithful ap- of Mormon itself. Even some secular histories preciation of polygamy as a divinely mandated practice occasionally fall victim to this tendency.2 during the formative years of the Church. Indeed, I do not think that it is the “additional information” that causes 2. Illegal. This criticism asserts that the Church and problems for faithful Latter-day Saints who are sincerely its members participated in polygamy despite such troubled by what the historical record tells us. Rather, it relationships generally being illegal under state and/ is the persistent—and often unmet—need for still more or federal law. It is argued that the Church thereby information and context, which some authors have been abandoned its commitment to “obeying, honoring, 3 unable or unwilling to provide. The sole “danger” which and sustaining the law.” historical information poses to members or sincere inves- 3. Lying. According to this criticism, Joseph Smith tigators occurs only if they stop their research too soon. and his successors made repeated public statements Church critics are quite happy to lead their marks part of in which they hid or openly denied the practice of the way, only to abandon them when the story is just get- polygamy, despite knowledge to the contrary. It is ting good. argued that this “dishonesty” is morally dubious and inconsistent with the principles which the Church This paper is a modest attempt to address these concerns claims to espouse. within the context of the available historical sources.4 I do not proceed in strict historical order, but have rather cho- Copyright © 2005 by FAIR Gregory L. Smith 3 sen the six-pronged thematic approach outlined above (the There is extensive, unequivocal evidence that polygamous themes consistently followed in criticisms of the Church), relationships were condoned under various circumstanc- but I don’t consider the first complaint of “irreligion,” es by biblical prophets, despite how uncomfortable this except in passing, since this concern has been addressed might make a modern Christian. Elder Orson Pratt was elsewhere.5 widely viewed as the victor in a three-day debate on this very point with Reverend John P. Newman, Chaplain of Initially I’ll focus on seeing the Church and its members’ the U.S. Senate, in 1870.7 actions in the context of civil disobedience from a his- torical,
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