Mormon Polygamy
Polygamy has been forbidden in the Church for over a century (those who practice polygamy are excommunicated), but it was an important part of Mormon doctrine in the nineteenth century. The practice began during Joseph Smith’s lifetime, but was not such a widely-known issue until Brigham Young was prophet 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 and he inquired prayerfully to the Lord about it in the 1830s. Eventually, the Lord would give a commandment to reinstate the practice.
The practice of polygamy was not comfortable for the Mormons, all of which had been raised in monogamous homes. They struggled as much with the concept as most western families would today. Brigham Young would later have many wives and children, but admitted dreading the principle of plural marriage.
Historian Richard E. Turley Jr. believes that the trust that these early converts to Mormonism had in their leaders must 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 all families, but it was practiced by enough settlers in and around Utah Territory that it began to draw political opposition elsewhere in the United States, including from the government itself. 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) confiscated. Utah territory could, also, never become a state while plural marriage remained a practice.
In 1890, the fourth president of the Church, Wilford Woodruff received a revelation from God to discontinue 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, you would have had no use for … any of the men in this temple … for all (temple sacraments) would be stopped throughout the land. … 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."
"Media and other commentators often suggest polygamy was discontinued in return for statehood," Turley says. "That makes no sense. Church members endured tremendous persecution, but it was nothing they had not seen before. The idea that the Church would abandon a key principle for statehood is untenable. Any change had to come by revelation." And, thus, Mormons believe, a revelation was given.
With this revelation, attitudes toward the Church eased and Utah was given statehood in 1896.
The Church did not and will not apologize for the practice of polygamy in Mormon history, as it was a commandment given and followed. Mormons do not see polygamy as a mistake, but as a doctrine that is no longer in practice by the command of God. And as the practice of polygamy is illegal and no longer part of the Church’s practices, polygamists are never considered Mormons.
Current 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 at our source: Polygamy: Latter-day Saints and the Practice of Plural Marriage