Polygamy is forbidden in Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and has been for over a century. Needless to say, those who practice polygamy are excommunicated. Plural marriage was, however, practiced in the late 1800s by a few members of the Church. The practice began during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. It was not a widely-known issue until Brigham Young became President of the Church.
The founder of the Church, Joseph Smith Jr., had always been willing to ask the Lord for guidance on matters he was unfamiliar with or that he did not understand. The practice of plural marriage in the Old Testament was something Joseph wondered about, so he asked the Lord in prayer about it in the 1830s. Joseph received the principle of plural marriage, but did not teach or practice it until about nine years later, by commandment from the Lord.
The practice of polygamy was uncomfortable for many Mormons. Some struggled as much with the concept as western families would today. Brigham Young would later have many wives and children, but admitted dreading the principle of plural marriage. Joseph Smith did not reveal or teach the principle for , but he did it because he believed it to be a commandment from God.
Historian Richard E. Turley Jr. stated that the trust these early converts had for the leaders of Mormonism had to have been great for polygamy to be accepted at all, let alone faithfully practiced.
“Latter-day Saints practiced plural marriage because they believed that God had commanded them to do so,” he says. “Plural marriage was a religious principle. This is the only valid explanation as to why the practice was maintained in spite of decades of persecution.”
Plural marriage wasn’t practiced by everyone. In fact, only less than 3% of Mormons were allowed to have more than one wife. The practice began to draw political opposition from the United States government. The anti-polygamy campaign grew incessant. A group of Mormon plural wives, at one point, surprised Eastern U.S. women by publicly demonstrating in 1870 for their right to live within Mormon polygamy, shaking the perception that Mormon women were simply oppressed.
But the campaign did not cease. Polygamy was outlawed by the government; Church officials were jailed and Church property (including temples) were confiscated. Utah territory would never be able to become a state while plural marriage remained a practice.
In 1890, Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of the Church, received a revelation from God that discontinued the practice.
“The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice,” Woodruff told Mormon Church members. “If we had not stopped it . . . Confusion would reign . . . and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice.”
With this revelation, attitudes toward the Church eased and Utah was given statehood in 1896.
Just as Abraham and Isaac did not apologize for having more than one wife, the Church did not and will not apologize for the practice of polygamy in Mormon history–it was a commandment given by the Lord. Mormons do not see polygamy as a mistake, but as a doctrine that is no longer in practice by the command of God. Because the practice of polygamy is illegal and no longer part of the Church’s practices, polygamists are not Mormons.
Former Church president, Gordon B. Hinckley, said,
“I wish to state categorically that this Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church. Most of them have never been members . . . If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose . . . More than a century ago God clearly revealed . . . that the practice of plural marriage should be discontinued, which means that it is now against the law of God.”
Gordon Hinckley further noted that polygamists should be fully subject to the consequences of civil law.
Read more on this topic: Polygamy: Latter-day Saints and the Practice of Plural Marriage