Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Changing World of Mormonism/Chapter 9

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Chapter 8
A FAIR Analysis of:
The Changing World of Mormonism
A work by author: Jerald and Sandra Tanner
 Chapter 10

Claims made in Chapter 9: Plural Marriage

205

Claim
  • The 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants had a section denouncing polygamy.

Author's source(s)
  • Doctrine and Covenants (1835), Section 101
Response

207

Claim
  • Section 101 was replaced with Section 132 in 1876

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
  • The Saints believe in on-going revelation—Church policy may change from time to time.

207

Claim
  • A revelation on plural marriage given in 1831 was "suppressed" which said that the Indians would become "white and delightsome" though intermarriage with the Mormons.

Author's source(s)
  • Letter from W. W. Phelps to Brigham Young. August 12, 1861
Response

208

Claim
  • It was taught that the skin color of the Indians would change if they joined the Church.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

209

Claim
  • Spencer Kimball believed that the Indians were becoming a "white and delightsome" people.

Author's source(s)
  • Improvement Era, December 1960, pp.922-23
Response

212

Claim
  • Brigham Young believed that the Indians skin would become white through intermarriage.

Author's source(s)
  • The Abominations of Mormonism Exposed, Cincinnati, 1852, pp.58-59
Response
  • Church leaders did not realize until 1982 that Joseph Smith had edited a Book of Mormon verse in 1836 to avoid giving this impression.
  •  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints: The Saints do not believe in prophetic infallibility.
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language: A nineteenth century anti-Mormon work ("Abominations of Mormonism") is the only source

214

Claim
  • Church leaders did not approve of interracial marriage.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  • Church leaders have discouraged any marriage in which the social or cultural differences will prove serious obstacles to a successful marriage. Unfortunately, that was often the case with inter-racial marriages in the United States until quite recently.
  • Interracial marriage condemned?

215

Claim
  • Oliver Cowdery believed that Joseph had an improper relationship with Fanny Alger.

Author's source(s)
  • Letter written by Oliver Cowdery and recorded by his brother Warren Cowdery;
  • This source is vague and not much help to the reader. The actual source is: Oliver Cowdery to Warren A. Cowdery, "Dear Br. Warren," Far West, Missouri (21 Jan 1838); reproduced in "Letters of Oliver Cowdery." In New Mormon Studies CD-ROM (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1998).
Response

219

Claim
  • Lorenzo Snow said that anyone who had a plural marriage prior to the date of the revelation (July 12, 1843) was living in adultery.

Author's source(s)
  • Temple Lot Case, p.320
Response

219

Claim
  • It is claimed that Mormon leaders say that the 1843 revelation was actually received earlier, but History of the Church says that this was the date the revelation was received.

Author's source(s)
  • History of the Church 5:500-501
Response
  • The revelation was recorded on this date, but it is clear that Joseph knew and was teaching it earlier.
  • First teaching about plural marriage
  • Danel W. Bachman, "A Study of the Mormon Practice of Polygamy before the Death of Joseph Smith" (Purdue University, 1975).
  • Danel W. Bachman, "New Light on an Old Hypothesis: The Ohio Origins of the Revelation on Eternal Marriage," Journal of Mormon History 5 (1978): 19–32.

220

Claim
  • Brigham Young said that he lived "above the law."

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  Misrepresentation of source: Brigham claims he is obeying the law, while others seek to take away their rights. He nowhere says he is "above the law."
  • See Quote mining—Journal of Discourses 1:361 to see how this quote was mined.

220

Claim
  • Polygamy is forbidden by the Book of Mormon

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

220-221

Claim
  • Joseph F. Smith said that the Book of Mormon forbid polygamy.

Author's source(s)
  • Reed Smoot Case, vol. 1, p.480
Response

221

Claim
  • Orson Pratt said that the Book of Mormon condemned polygamy.

Author's source(s)
Response

222

Claim
  • Joseph took wives without his first wife's consent.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

225

Claim
  • It is claimed that LDS leaders were worried that the missionaries would "take the best women."

Author's source(s)
Response
I wish more of our young men would take to themselves wives of the daughters of Zion, and not wait for us old men to take them all; go-ahead upon the right principle, young gentlemen, and God bless you for ever and ever and make you fruitful, that we may fill the mountains and then the earth with righteous inhabitants. That is my prayer, and that is my blessing upon all the saints and upon your posterity after you, for ever: Amen."[1]

226

Claim
  • Heber C. Kimball remarked on the "great sorrow" of plural marriage.

Author's source(s)
Response

226

Claim
  • Brigham Young spoke of the "problems" of plural marriage.

Author's source(s)
Response

228

Claim
  • Brigham Young offered to let any wife go who wanted to.

Author's source(s)
Response
  • Brigham would not require any woman to remain in any marriage against her will. Utah had some of the most liberal divorce laws in the Union. Many polygamous women who divorced a husband entered into polygamy again.[2]

230-231

Claim
  • Joseph and Emma fought about plural marriage.

Author's source(s)
  • Journal and autobiography, Joseph Lee Robinson
  • Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits Volume First: Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886), 57-58.
Response

231

Claim
  • Joseph had between 27 to "sixty or more" wives.

Author's source(s)
Response
  • The higher number is exaggerated. Many women were sealed to Joseph after his death, but he was probably married to around 33 wives in life.
  • Joseph Smith/Polygamy
  • Relying on Brodie's figures is foolish; her standard of evidence was low, and she has been shown to be wrong in many cases.

231

Claim
  • There is a rumor that Emma beat Eliza Snow with a broomstick and caused her to fall down the stairs, preventing her from having Joseph's child.

Author's source(s)
  • Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits Volume First: Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886), 57-58.
  • Intimate Disciple, a Portrait of Willard Richards, 1957, p.407
Response

232

Claim
  • Joseph was sealed to a large number of women after his death.

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph Smith and Polygamy, p.47
  • Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, Single Volume Edition, 1960, pp.342-43
Response
  • This is certainly true, and may explain some of the underlying theology of plural marriage—sealing the faithful into one extended family. The Widtsoe reference explains this, but the authors do not mention it:
Women no longer living, whether in Joseph's day or later have also been sealed to the Prophet for eternity. The request for such unions has usually come from relatives or friends who would have their loved one share eternity with the Prophet, rather than with anyone else. Unscrupulous and unreliable writers have even added such marriages to the list of Joseph's wives.

233

Claim
  • Brigham Young had "fifty or sixty" wives, and boasted of his ability to obtain more.

Author's source(s)
Response

234

Claim
  • Mormon men believed that they "could have all the wives they wanted." Heber C. Kimball said that in the resurrection, he could have "thousands" of wives.

Author's source(s)
Response

236

Claim
  • Joseph asked for other men's wives, such as the wife of Heber C. Kimball

Author's source(s)
  • Jedediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses 2:13-14.
  • Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits Volume First: Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886), 70-72.
  • Life of Heber C. Kimball, pp.333-35
Response

237

Claim
  • Joseph married Heber C. Kimball's daughter, Helen.

Author's source(s)
  • Life of Heber C. Kimball, pp.339
Response

239

Claim
  • Joseph married Zina, the wife of Henry Jacobs.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

239

Claim
  • Brigham Young publicly told Henry Jacobs to find another wife?

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  The author's claim is false: historical evidence does not support this claim.
  • Zina and Henry Jacobs
  • Allen 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

239-240

Claim
  • Some women who were associated with Joseph claimed that they did not know who the father of their children were.

Author's source(s)
  • Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 19, or the Story of a Life in Bondage...(Hartford, Conn.: Custin, Gilman & Company, 1876), 70-71.
Response

243

Claim
  • Joseph performed a "pretended" marriage for time for Sarah Ann Whitney to Joseph Kingsbury.

Author's source(s)
  • The History of Joseph C. Kingsbury
Response
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language: Joseph was sealed to Sarah Ann. Kingsbury agreed to act as a "surrogate" husband to spare Sarah the difficulty of refusing suitors while plural marriage was still a secret in Nauvoo.
  • Plural marriage and secrecy

245-246

Claim
  • The Bible prohibited a man from marrying sisters or mothers and daughters, therefore Mormon polygamy was not Biblical.

Author's source(s)
  • Millennial Star vol. 19, pp.473-74
Response
  • Latter-day Saint plural marriage did not rely on biblical authority or interpretation (though they used biblical parallels to explain and understand the command which they believed they had received from God via a modern prophet.)
  • Marrying two sisters was quite frequent, possibly because sisters had already learned to get along together, which made for more harmonious plural families. One researcher noted:
Marriage to the wife's sister, defined as incest only by Anglican canon law, is the only form of polygamous marriage of the [potentially 'incestuous] categories...that occurs in significant numbers.[3]

246-247

Claim
  • Joseph sealed brothers and sisters together.

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph Smith's diary, October 26, 1843
Response
  •  History unclear or in error: The authors do nothing to explain this practice. They want it to appear bizarre or repulsive.
  •  Presentism or anachronism: Joseph seems to have used marriage in the way that we know use "sealing." Thus, a "marriage" did not always imply a sexual or marital relationship.
  •  Misrepresentation of source: the authors hide the fact that a long list of living and deceased persons are part of the sealing. This is not a marriage, but a sealing into eternal family relationships.
  • Incestuous sealings of brother and sister?

248

Claim
  • Brigham said that monogamy was a "fruitful source of prostitution and whoredom"

Author's source(s)
Response
  • Brigham was pointing out that Christian critics of the Church, while attacking the LDS for the practice of polygamy, were tolerating and even indulging in moral wickedness.
  • The authors fail to point out that Brigham was also discussing the evidence that Protestant reformers realized that polygamy was not unbiblical.
  • See Quote mining—Journal of Discourses 11:128 to see how this quote was mined.

249

Claim
  • Some Mormons believed that Joseph taught that Adam had two wives.

Author's source(s)
Response

249-251

Claim
  • Early Church leaders taught that Jesus was married to more than one wife.

Author's source(s)
Response

258

Claim
  • Brigham Young said that the "only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy."

Author's source(s)
Response

258-259

Claim
  • Polygamy was practiced in secret and denied publicly.

Author's source(s)
  • Times and Seasons, vol. 3, p.909
  • History of the Church 6:354-55
  • History of the Church 6:411
  • Times and Seasons, March 15, 1844, vol. 5, p.474
  • Millennial Star, vol. 3, p.74"
Response

262-263

Claim
  • John Taylor stated that he believed in keeping every law except the law against polygamy.

Author's source(s)
Response
  • The Saints regarded polygamy as a religious belief which harmed no one, and which they were thus entitled to practice.
  • Civil disobedience and polygamy
  • Modern legal scholars have recognized that the legal treatment given the Saints was probably improper.
    • Edwin B. Firmage, "The Judicial Campaign against Polygamy and the Enduring Legal Questions," Brigham Young University Studies 27 no. 3 (Summer 1987), 91–113.
    • Stephen Eliot Smith, “The ‘Mormon Question’ Revisited: Anti-polygamy Laws and the Free Exercise Clause” (LL.M. thesis, Harvard Law School, 2005).

263

Claim
  • Brigham Young said the polygamy would never go away.

Author's source(s)
  • Deseret News, November 7, 1855
Response

270-281

Claim
  • Polygamy was practiced after the Manifesto was issued.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

289

Claim
  • Modern Church leaders teach that polygamy is not essential for exaltation.

Author's source(s)
  • Mormon Doctrine, 1958, p.523
Response
== Notes ==
  1. [note]  Eugene E. Campbell and Bruce L. Campbell, "Divorce among Mormon Polygamists: Extent and Explanations," Utah Historical Quarterly 46/1 (Winter 1978): 5; citing Box containing nine folders, numbered 1 to 917, plus several ledgers, Archives Division, Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City.
  2. [note]  Jessie L. Embry, "Ultimate Taboos: Incest and Mormon Polygamy," Journal of Mormon History 18/1 (Spring 1992): 93–113.
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