How Many Lds Believe Polygamy

[JarMan]

Either way you slice it, somebody is going to have to have multiple spouses if eternal marriage is to be available to everyone who qualifies. And in one sense I see the church's past practice of polygamy as sort of grooming us for the afterlife. So it stands to reason that eternal plural marriage would involve one man and multiple women.

[K-2]

I just thought I would mention these two verses from D&C 132 which relate to the question of whether plural marriage is an eternal principle:

39 David’s wives and concubines were given unto him of me, by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who had the keys of this power; and in none of these things did he sin against me save in the case of Uriah and his wife; and, therefore he hath fallen from his exaltation, and received his portion; and he shall not inherit them out of the world, for I gave them unto another, saith the Lord.

This verse says that David will not inherit his wives "out of the world" and that the Lord "gave them unto another" -- not "unto others" -- which to me clearly indicates the practice of plural marriage in the hereafter with divine approval.

63 But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified.

Here we read that wives are given to a man not only to "multiply and replenish the earth" but also "for their exaltation in the eternal worlds."

[Samurai2012]

Jarman:

Men differ somewhat from women in the type sins they commit, but I've seen no evidence that they don't commit sin to the same extent as men. Men are generally more violent than women. However violence is but one type of sin. IE; In the early yers of marriage women are more likely to commit adultry, while later on men are.

I would argue though, that it is debateable what part of gender roles are learned vs. what are by nature. I think, however, that the nature vs. nurture issue doesn't really have all that much of a clear answer though.

[thesometimesaint]

Samurai2012:

I don't believe there will ever be any resolution to that debate. However I from my personal point of veiw there is no difference. You can't have one without the other. Without nature it is impossbile to have nuture, and without nuture no of us woiuld last long enough to have much of a nature. IOW put Einstein is a closet, and you have a very smart man with plenty of hangups.

[Samurai2012]

Samurai2012:

IOW put Einstein is a closet, and you have a very smart man with plenty of hangups.

Okay, that statement was hillarious...

[Samurai2012]

Globally?

I served my mission in an area of the US where we baptised two men for every woman. In one of the wards I served in, the ward mission leader and every single ward missionary had a non-member wife.

When I was studying for my MA in America, our stake YSA group started off 3 to 1, male to female. After we worked hard to reactivate a few dozen people, we got it down to 2 to 1.

Before moving here, I was in a singles ward which averaged about 80 men but only 45 women in sacrament meeting each week.

In my current ward, we used to jokingly refer to our singles' Sunday-school class as elders quorum: 20 men but only 2 women.

For the above reason, we were pleased this past Sunday when attendance at the stake YSA fireside was 25 men and 15 women.

Sounds similar to my own branch. In fact, it's hard to be a YSA man and not feel a need to date outside the church in most of the regular YSA Branches I have attended, there's just so many more men who are members locally than there are women. Sometimes sisters do invite friends over, but I certainly agree that in places male membership can outnumber female membership by quite a bit. My current branch: 52 men, and a fluctuating number of 12-20 young single adult women, depending on whether or not it is summer.

[Deborah]

Valerie Hudson's Fair discussion on this sure puts a different slant on things.

[Hamba Tuhan]

Sounds similar to my own branch. In fact, it's hard to be a YSA man and not feel a need to date outside the church in most of the regular YSA Branches I have attended, there's just so many more men who are members locally than there are women. Sometimes sisters do invite friends over, but I certainly agree that in places male membership can outnumber female membership by quite a bit. My current branch: 52 men, and a fluctuating number of 12-20 young single adult women, depending on whether or not it is summer.

I hear you, mate. In fact, my experiences in small branches have been worse. In both of the last two branches I belonged to, all of the single members were men. In fact, in the first of these, we only had two married females in the branch. In both cases, the member husbands had married outside the faith and then patiently worked for years to help their wives eventually join the Church. The most recently converted of the two had both her eldest sons on missions before she finally softened enough to be baptised.

[K-2]

Valerie Hudson's Fair discussion on this sure puts a different slant on things.

Will it be available online sometime? Doesn't FAIR usually put transcripts up on their website after a few months?

[Neophyte]

Will it be available online sometime? Doesn't FAIR usually put transcripts up on their website after a few months?

A longer version of the talk can be found on Squaretwo.org website in the Sprng 2010 edition of the journal.

"Polygamy" is a chapter taken from her book "Women in Eternity, Women in Zion". You can also find an expanded treatment of Valerie's presentation last yesr of "The Two Trees" in this book as well.

[Fly Fisherman]

Will it be available online sometime? Doesn't FAIR usually put transcripts up on their website after a few months?

Here you go (the longer version from SquareTwo):

SquareTwo Article

Edited August 6, 2011 by Fly Fisherman