The Law of Adoption

From FAIRMormon

Jump to: navigation, search
FAIRwiki portal
Plural marriage
Image:plural_marriage1.jpg
FAIRwiki

Joseph Smith era:

Post-Joseph Smith:

Post-Manifesto–present

FAIR Wiki Topical Guide
FAIR web site
FARMS web site
  • [Pending]
Additional reading
Other portals

Contents

Criticism

Critics point to the early practice of sealing men and women as children to prominent LDS leaders as an example of changes in LDS belief.

Source(s) of the criticism

 [needs work]

Response

Joseph Smith was exceedingly anxious to have the Saints sealed—since few of the Church members had ancestors within the young Church, they often chose to seal themselves to prominent Church leaders such as Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. The key understanding was that an unbroken chain of sealing was required, to bind the whole world into a single human family.

President Wilford Woodruff explained how he and other Church presidents had felt about the matter:

I have not felt satisfied, neither did President Taylor, neither has any man since the Prophet Joseph who has attended to the ordinance of adoption in the temples of our God. We have felt that there was more to be revealed upon the subject than we had received. Revelations were given to us in the St. George Temple, which President Young presented to the Church of God. Changes were made there, and we still have more changes to make, in order to satisfy our Heavenly Father, satisfy our dead and ourselves. I will tell you what some of them are. I have prayed over this matter, and my brethren have. We have felt as President Taylor said, that we have got to have more revelation concerning sealing under the law of adoption."
President Woodruff then announced to the General Conference and particularly to the presidents of the four temples in Utah that he had gone "before the Lord" to know who he should be adopted to and that the "Spirit of God" instructed him that he should be sealed to his natural father. Prior to this time it had been the practice to be sealed to the "prophets and apostles" in the Church. President Woodruff now pronounced the prior practice an incorrect procedure and called upon the membership of the church to accept as a revelation this announcement, which incidentally he had previously presented to his counselors and to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.[1]

The Church believes in modern prophets, which would be a superfluous fixture of the Church were it not for the belief in on-going revelation:

For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.(2_Ne. 28:30)

Critics—often coming from a fundamentalist perspective—assume that nothing should change in the Church. But, the Church is a revealed religion that believes in on-going revelation. The Saints consider change in practice and expansion of doctrinal understanding to be a strength, not a weakness. Those who want no change in their religious practice or understanding will likely be disappointed in the Church of Jesus Christ.

There may also have been some important reasons for understanding the Law of Adoption differently in previous times. The Saints' understanding of adoption in Brigham Young's day contributed to the solidarity and interdependence that helped them cross the plains to Utah—the Saints' understanding of the "law of adoption" as a social order helped them to survive.[2] When circumstances allowed them to expand their understanding, this was revealed to the prophet.

Conclusion

The Saints' understanding of the Law of Adoption has grown and expanded. They are not ashamed to say that they now understand more clearly. Indeed, they insist upon such a perspective and rejoice in it. The Saints also continue to believe that the Lord " will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." Articles of Faith 1:9

This is not a change in LDS belief: the Church still believes that all mankind must be sealed into an unbroken chain, a great eternal family. But, the Church understands more clearly how the Lord wishes this to be accomplished—via proxy sealing of children to parents as far as is possible. Sealing beyond that will await the Millennial years of the Lord.

If prophets cannot expand our understanding of key matters such as this, and modify them as circumstances require, what use are they? Critics should cease trying to impose their inerrantist expectations on the Church.

Endnotes

  1. [back]  Messages of the First Presidency, edited by James R. Clark, Vol. 3, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966), 251 (emphasis added). GospeLink GL direct link
  2. [back]  Richard E. Bennett, We'll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus 1846–1848 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1997), 77–83. ISBN 1573452866. GL direct link

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

Plural marriage wiki links

FAIR web site

Plural marriage FAIR links
  • FAIR Topical Guide: Polyandry FAIR link
  • FAIR Topical Guide: Polygamy FAIR link
  • Suzanne Armitage, "O that my voice could reach the ears of those uninformed and misinformed." FAIR link
  • Claudia Bushman, "Lives of Mormon Women," FAIR presentation transcript, 2006. FAIR link
  • Michael W. Fordham, 'Ask the Apologist'—Plural Marriage in the Book of Mormon and D&C" FAIR link
  • Gregory Smith, "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." FAIR link PDF link (Key source)
  • Allan Wyatt, "Zina and Her Men: An Examination of the Changing Marital State of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young," FAIR presentation transcript, 2006. FAIR link (Key source)

External links

Plural marriage on-line articles
  • James B. Allen, "Line upon Line," Ensign (July 1979): 32–40. off-site
  • Edwin B. Firmage, "The Judicial Campaign against Polygamy and the Enduring Legal Questions," Brigham Young University Studies 27:3 (Summer 1987): 91–113. PDF link
  • Danel Bachman, Ronald K. Esplin, "Plural Marriage," Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 3:1091–1095. ISBN 002904040X. off-site off-site off-site
  • Stephen R. Gibson, "Does the Book of Mormon Forbid Polygamy," lightplanet.com. off-site
  • Gordon Irving, "The Law of Adoption: One Phase of the Development of the Mormon Concept of Salvation, 1830–1900," Brigham Young University Studies 14:3 (Spring 1974): 291–314. off-site
  • Stephen E. Robinson, Are Mormons Christians? (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1993), 90–96. off-site FAIR link GospeLink
  • Gilbert W. Scharfs, The Truth About “The Godmakers”: A Response to an Inaccurate Portrayal of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1986). FAIR link
  • W. John Walsh, "Is Plural Marriage Necessary for Exaltation?" off-site
  • Mormon-polygamy.org off-site

Printed material

Plural marriage printed references
  • Danel W. Bachman, “A Study of the Mormon Practice of Polygamy Before the Death of Joseph Smith,” (1975) (unpublished M.A. thesis, Purdue University).
  • Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997). ISBN 156085085X. The introduction and prologue are available online at the Signature Books web site.
  • Reviews of In Sacred Loneliness:
    • Richard Lloyd Anderson and Scott H. Faulring, "The Prophet Joseph Smith and His Plural Wives (Review of In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith)," FARMS Review of Books 10/2 (1998): 67–104. off-site PDF link
    • Alma G. Allred, “Variations on a Theme,” Presentation to Mormon History Association, 1999, updated on-line version of 6 December 1999. PDF link
    • Danel W. Bachman, “’Let No One…Set On My Servant Joseph’: Religious Historians Missing the Lessons of Religious History,” Presentation to Mormon History Association, 22 May 1999.
    • Danel W. Bachman, "Prologue to the Study of Joseph Smith's Marital Theology (Review of In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith)," FARMS Review of Books 10/2 (1998): 105–137. off-site PDF link
    • Kathryn Daynes, “Review of In Sacred Loneliness,” Pacific Historical Review 68 (August 1999): 466–468.
    • Todd Compton's response to Anderson and Faulring off-site
    • Todd Compton's response to Jerald and Sandra Tanners' Review of In Sacred Loneliness off-site
  • Stephen R. Gibson, One-Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers, 1995).
  • Jeni Broberg Holzapfel and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, eds., A Woman's View: Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History (Provo: Religious Studies Center, BYU, 1997). ISBN 1570083576. ISBN 978-1570083570. GospeLink
  • Joseph Fielding McConkie, Answers: Straightforward Answers to Tough Gospel Questions (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1998), 27–28. GospeLink
  • John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations: Aids to Faith in a Modern Day, arranged by G. Homer Durham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1960), 340–344. ISBN 088494073 GospeLink GL direct link
  • John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations: Aids to Faith in a Modern Day, arranged by G. Homer Durham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1960), 390–393. ISBN 088494073 GospeLink GL direct link
Retrieved from "http://en.fairmormon.org/The_Law_of_Adoption"
Personal tools