MORMON POLYGAMY - FROM MEN AND FOR MEN?
INTRODUCTION
At times members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints will defend their church's practice of polygamy
in the past (about 1832-1890) by saying there was a shortage of husbands
therefor some took on more than one wife. Others have said polygamy was
practiced to provide a husband for older women. Are these true? Did those
that practiced polygamy take their direction from the standard works, their
Scriptures? The answer to both of these questions is, "No."
THE DATA
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. Orson
Pratt, writing in 1853 from direct knowledge of Utah conditions, when the
excess of females was supposedly the highest, declares against the opinion
that females outnumbered the males in Utah. (The Seer, p. 110) The theory
that plural marriage was a consequence of a surplus of female Church members
fails from lack of evidence. (Evidences and Reconciliations,
Apostle John A. Widtsoe, p.307, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, fourth edition)
Another LDS reference says,
When the census was taken five years ago, there were 143,963 souls
in Utah Territory, not counting untaxed Indians. In this number there
was an excess of 5,055 males over the females. (The Juvenile Instructor,
Vol. 20, page 133 [approximately 1885], this was a Mormon publication;
as reported on page 208 of Mormonism - Shadow or Reality,
by Jerald and Sandra Tanner)
OF SMITH'S FIRST 12 WIVES 9 WERE ALREADY MARRIED
Not only was there not a surplus of women,
there is strong evidence that some of those who took polygamous wives took
women who were already married to faithful husbands. One author reported,
In the group of Smith's well-documented
wives, eleven (33 percent) were 14 to 20 years old when they married him.
Nine wives (27 percent) were twenty-one to thirty years old. Eight wives
(24 percent) were in Smith's own peer group, ages thirty-one to forty.
In the group aged forty-one to fifty, there is a substantial drop off:
two wives, or 6 percent, and three (9 percent) in the group fifty-one to
sixty.
The teenage representation is the largest,
though the twenty-year and thirty-year groups are comparable....These data
suggest that sexual attraction was an important part of the motivation
for Smith' polygamy. ....
Eighteen of Joseph's wives (55 percent)
were single when he married them and had never been married previously.
....
....one sees that of Smith's first twelve wives, nine were polyandrous
[married to other men]. So in this early period polyandry was the norm,
not the anomaly. (In Sacred Loneliness, The Plural Wives
of Joseph Smith, by Todd Compton, Signature Books, Salt Lake City,
pages 11, 15)
Note what this says - of Smith's first twelve wives nine were married to
other men.
ZINA DIANTHA HUNTINGTON
On page 80 of his book Todd Compton reports
that Zina Diantha Huntington "In early 1841 Zina married Henry Jacobs...
" and then in October of the same year she became one of Joseph Smith's
polygamous wives. On page 82 he reports, "When Zina married Joseph Smith,
she was some seven months pregnant...." Smith was killed June 27, 1844.
But Zina was not done with polygamy. She now became one of Brigham Young's
wives, while still married to her first husband.
On February 2, 1846, in an inner room
in the Nauvoo temple, Zina Huntington Jacobs stood by the side of Brigham
Young....Somewhat apart stood Henry B. Jacobs, whom Zina had married in
a civil ceremony in March 1841. She was now seven months pregnant with
their second child...That Henry Bailey [Jacobs] was inside the temple shows
that he was considered a faithful, worthy Latter-day Saint.
Zina and Brigham turned toward each
other and Kimball sealed (married) Zina to Joseph Smith for eternity; Brigham
stood proxy for the dead prophet, answering in his stead when the ceremony
required a response. Then as was customary in temple proxy marriages, Zina
and Brigham turned to each other and were sealed to each other for time.
Once again Henry stood as witness. ....
One suspects that none of the four participants
in these ceremonies understood their full significance. (ibid,
page 71, and repeated on page 86)
The faithfulness of Henry Jacobs was demonstrated again when he was ordained
one of the presidents of Seventy on January 19, 1845. (ibid, page 85).
On January 3, 1846 Henry and Zina received their temple endowments together.
A short time later, with many of the Mormons, Henry and Zina evacuated
Nauvoo and started west.
HENRY IS SENT ON A MISSION TO ENGLAND
Todd Compton now reports how, before they reached their destination,
Henry was sent on a mission.
The following day [May 21 1846] the
next crucial event affecting Zina's and Henry's marriage took place. Though
Henry was halfway across Iowa, driving a covered wagon for his wife and
two sons, one of them newborn....but now he was sent overseas to England.
It is documented that Henry was sent by the de facto First Presidency....
(ibid, page 88).
Zina, with her parents, continued on the trip west. Compton then says,
The final episode in Henry's marriage
to Zina was approaching. Zina now knew that she was going to live as Brigham's
earthly wife, not as Henry's, but Henry apparently did not understand this
fully. (ibid, page 91)
Compton then reports in the following pages how Zina had a child by Brigham
Young, traveled extensively with him and functioned as a wife (pages
92-102). Henry also married again. Todd Compton's information about Zina
Diantha Huntington Jacobs is also supported by other sources, Encyclopedia
of Mormonism, 4:1612 and Mormon Polygamy - A History, by Signature
Books, by Richard S. Van Wagoner, 1986, pages 41-43
Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Young was not
an isolated event. Van Wagoner describes the experience of Augusta Adams
Cobb, who became a Mormon in 1832 and lived in the Boston, MA area. She
became one of Young's wives November 2, 1843, before she divorced her husband,
who did not become a LDS (ibid, page 45; four more examples are given on
page 46).
Apostle Parley P. Pratt is an example of a
Mormon leader trying to take another man's wife. Pratt was killed by Hector
McLean in Arkansas, "....on the 13th of May, near the line, between Indian
territory and the state of Arkansas...", in 1857 when he tried to take
McLean's wife, Eleanor Jane McLean (The Kingdom or Nothing, by Samuel
W. Taylor, Macmillan, 1976, pages 189-190; Comprehensive History of
the Church, Vol.4, Ch.100, p.155, B. H. Roberts; BYU Studies,
Kenneth L. Cannon II; Vol. 22, No. 1, pg.82 and Steven Pratt, Vol. 15,
No. 2, p.225f).
Do these events sound like what one would
expect from honorable men, from men who were practicing, as claimed by
the Mormon church, a sacred ordinance from God?
WAS THE PRACTICE SUPPORTED BY SCRIPTURE?
As you consider this thought, keep in mind
the following information. When one examines the Scriptures (the standard
works) of the Mormon church during the period polygamy was practiced
it can be seen that there was no support for this practice. In fact the
1835 Doctrine & Covenants, and following editions, condemned such practice.
...Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with
the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that
one man should have one wife; and one woman but one husband except in case
of death.... (1835 Doctrine and Covenants 101:4, page 251; 1844 D&C
109:4, page 439; 1866 European D&C 109:4, page 331.)
The European 1866 edition of the D&C may have had the same content
as the U.S. 1844 edition which had added eight new revelations not in the
1835 edition (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol 1, page 426). This
would account for the section on marriage both being numbered 109 (CIX).
At the same time the Book of Mormon also condemns polygamy - Jacob 1:15,
2:24; Mosiah 11:2; Ether 10:5.
With the addition of eight new revelations
to the new 1844 edition, why was the old teaching on marriage (one wife)
left in and the revelation on the "new and everlasting Covenant", allowing
more than one wife, (now D&C 132, dated July 12, 1843) not included?
The practice of polygamy was made public in the United States in 1852.
If the "new and everlasting covenant" on polygamy (D&C 132) was from
God why were the Mormons afraid to place it in the 1844 D&C? Why did
they wait until 1876 to place it there and then wait until 1880 to have
a membership vote to accept it?
If what is now D&C 132 was being
followed, even though it was not an approved revelation, why was verse
61 ignored? It required that wives be virgins and "vowed to no other man."
Why did they ignore Article of Faith # 12 which says, "We believe in being
subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring,
and sustaining the law."
SUMMARY
All these events tell me that polygamy was
tainted with activities that were totally inconsistent with a sacred ordinance
and the laws of the land. At least some of it appears to have been used
to satisfy the flesh of men. It is also clear that it was not practiced
to make up for a shortage of men or primarily to give older women husbands.
It was also practiced while it was clearly condemned and contradicted in
the Mormon church's Scriptures, the standard works. D&C 132 is still
in the standard works, but not practiced at this time (1998).
John Farkas
Berean Christian Ministries; P.O. Box 1091; Webster, NY 14580
E-mail: bcmmin@frontiernet.net
Web page: http://www.frontiernet.net/~bcmmin
art/polyg3, 3-14-98