Where Did You Learn About Polygamy (Or Multiple Sealings) From?

[KevinG]

Just for grins where did you first hear about LDS polygamy (or multiple sealings) from?

I heard about it as a youth from LDS friend. He was a descendant of polygamous Mormons and his g-grandfather spent some time in a Utah jail for his troubles.

It didn't affect my faith- I joined the Mormons several years after I learned about polygamy from my friend.

Edited July 6, 2012 by KevinG

[Calm]

Grandmother probably, was quite young so not sure. Her grandparents were in a polygamous relationship. She would talk about her "auntie".

[omni]

I don't remember when exactly I learned about polygamy, but I assume it was sometime as a child. Growing up I never had any problems with it. I always thought, well they did it in the Old Testement, there must be a reason for it. However as a grown adult having learned about polyandry and the age of many of joseph's wives, it is now one of the things that I struggle most with about the church.

[Libs]

I knew that Mormons were polygamous (in their history) long before I joined the LDS Church, but I didn't know the specifics until I had been in the church for about six years. I learned about it from an outside source.

[Madmardigan]

Normally a lurker on here but thought I would weigh in.

I knew about it as a teen but didn't reaaly care because, well, I was a teenager.

I started learning about it more in my senior year in high school as some evangelical friends were throwing some anti stuff my way. Didn't bother me though.

I started learning more about the polyandry and the younger women sealed to Joseph in my 20's (I'm 31 now). I guess I could say it tested my faith a little but not in the extreme where I thought I was lied to or I thought about leaving. I found it more interesting than anything and it kinda made me delve deeper into more church history.

[why me]

However as a grown adult having learned about polyandry and the age of many of joseph's wives, it is now one of the things that I struggle most with about the church.

Do the spiritual confirmations that these women received when they prayed about the principle have any impact on you? I have often wondered why mormons who believe in prayers being answered have a difficult time in accepting the spiritual confirmation that was received by these women when they prayed over the principle. Without that confirmation, many would not have said yes.

For example, here is lucy walker stating that she:

"received a powerful and irristable testimony of the truth of the mariage covenant called 'Celestial or plural mariage'” and "I afterwards married Joseph as a plural wife and lived and cohabitated with him as such."

I don't remember where or when I leaned about the principle to answer the OP question.

Edited July 6, 2012 by why me

[Bob Crockett]

From my mother. Her grandfather was a post manifesto polyg. From my freshman high school seminary teacher who was my stepfather.

[TAO]

I don't remember when I heard it, or from whom, but I suspect it was from family or friends, or perhaps in church. I had some trouble with it over moral qualms when I was discovering my religious self, until I discovered several possible reasons that God asked us to participate in it (this was before I knew of the board, or even of critics). From then on, it's been cool.

By the time I met with critics arguments, I had a strong testimony, and that can't really be punched through easily.

Edited July 6, 2012 by TAO

[Damien the Leper]

Kevin,

I first learned about polygamy when I was in the 4th or 5th grade. I don't remember how old I was. I don't believe that it really ever impacted my belief in the church but I can't remember off the top of my head all of my reflections on the matter. I believe it was an aunt of mine who was talking about it but I don't remember the context in which the conversation originated.

[Stargazer]

I was a convert to the church at age 14, the only member of my family to join. I don't remember for certain when I ever heard about polygamy, and I cannot identify a time when I didn't know that the Mormons had at one time practiced plural marriage. But the Mormons have always been associated in my mind with polygamy.

When I joined the church I was fully informed about it, and had no problem with it. My great grandmother taught me to read by reading to me out of the Bible, and I remember well that the Israelites practiced plural marriage, and God did not seem to have a problem with it. It did not seem any great stretch that if God called a prophet, then God was fully capable of telling him to again practice polygamy.

[Duncan]

The first I heard about Joseph Smith' s marriages was from this man who seemed a tad nuts we tracted into when I was serving a mission in LA. He claimed he was a descendant of Joseph and I somehow knew he was fibbing.

[Stargazer]

I don't remember when exactly I learned about polygamy, but I assume it was sometime as a child. Growing up I never had any problems with it. I always thought, well they did it in the Old Testement, there must be a reason for it. However as a grown adult having learned about polyandry and the age of many of joseph's wives, it is now one of the things that I struggle most with about the church.

I suppose the idea of polyandry and the age of some of Joseph's polygamous wives might give someone, especially in this age, a little problem.

When I heard about the former, which wasn't so very long ago, I was intrigued but not necessarily shocked. After all, God and Jesus appear to a 14 year old farm boy and tell him he's going to restore the true Gospel of Jesus Christ! That's shocking enough. If true, then whatever comes out of that restoration must be seriously considered, even if you do have a personal "thing" about it. I read up as much as I could about it, and concluded that while unusual, it didn't seem to exceed any bounds which the Lord might set. I mean, read the Old Testament sometime and you'll find outrageous things that one might have had a problem with --- one prophet cursing some young men and as a result a she-bear comes out and seriously injures or kills several of them? All beause they mocked his bald head? And check out Levirate marriage for goodness sake! A man takes his childless brother's widow and despite whoever else he might be married to himself, makes her pregnant, and the child inherits from the deceased and not his biological father? Wow. And that wasn't simply allowed, it was commanded, with failure to follow through a serious offense.

As to marriage age, good heavens. My own stepmother married her first husband at age 14. Legally. Just because that's a tad young these days, doesn't mean that there wasn't a time when it wasn't more common, and accepted during the time it occurred.

I think that we are sometimes egregiously guilty of centering on our own time and mores, and expect that THAT is the accepted norm, when throughout previous human history it wasn't at all like that.

Edited July 6, 2012 by Stargazer

[Buzzard]

My G-g-g-grandfather, a certain Israel Barlow, had 3 wives. And I have a lot of 4th cousins running around Colorado City. So plural marriage was part of family lore and culture growing up.

As a teenager, I knew that JS had been sealed to dozens of women, but it was only in the last few years that I have come to understand that only a few of those marriages involved physical intimacy. Finding out about the true nature of those plural marriages has actually increased my testimony.

[Somebodyz]

What age did you learn about Mormon polygamy?

Joined the Church at the age of 18. Knew shortly before I joined.

[Damien the Leper]

Polygamy became more real for me as I was first attending college in 2003. I obtained a family journal while doing family history. It appears that I am connected to Levi Hancock and some Brimhall. Don't know the first name of the Brimhall since I gave the journal to a first cousin a couple years ago.

[Storm Rider]

I first learned of of Mormon polygamy as a teenager. It really did not have much of an impact. My father's family was from the south; after the Civil War many people would be surprised at how many polygamous marriages, relationships, etc. existed. My great-great grandmother bore several children; all took her last name; and she, to our knowledge, was never civilly married to the father of each of those children.

I would also say that our family had an understanding of the Old Testament. If people actually understood half of it and what prophets and the chosen people of God did they would never bat an eye about Joseph Smith's actions or any other prophet.

[Tacenda]

I've always known of Brigham Young's polygamy and all the prophets after him, I distinctly remember a large photo of all of his wives as a child while visitng the Lion House, though I believe it's since been taken down. Then I only learned of Joseph Smith's polygamy since about 5 years ago. I remember reading The Work & the Glory series when he was commanded to live it but the book didn't say any more about it. And I just figured he died really young without really getting the chance to live it.

[Paddy]

I can't remember when I learnt about polygamy. I pretty much always knew about it. I did not learn that J Smith was a polygamist until I was on my mission. Read it in Lucy Smiths history. Totally made sense to me.

I did not know about polyandry until about 10 years ago and learn and got that from anti sites. Again did not really care about it. Figured grown adult can do what they want.

My only issue with polygamy is about some of the young ages some of the women were that were married.

Paddy

[Glenn101]

I learned about Joseph and Brigham Young's polygamy when I was a young child, from my mother. She was a very moral, upright, and devout woman but was not bothered in the least by it. She had an unshakeable testimony of Jesus Christ and of the restored gospel.

I learned about Joseph's "polyandry" about twelve years ago. I really knew about it much earlier, but I cannot pinpoint the exact time in my life. I do not consider being sealed to a woman for eternity but not for time and with whom he did not live with as husband and wife in this life as polyandry.

Glenn

[Whiskeypete]

It was early enough that I don't remember there being a time that I didn't know about polygamy. I visited the Lion House and Beehive House as a kid and knew that that's where the "wives" lived.

The issue of Joseph being sealed to other men's wives was a later learning experience. I look at that in much the same way as other parts of the gospel that evolved as Joseph received further knowledge. Rough Stone Rolling is a great resource if you want to get a better understanding of how his understanding of many aspects of doctrine and ordinances changed as he learned more.

[CV75]

I learned about it by third grade in P.S. 61 (New York City) from history lessons. And then periodically (when I was paying atention) throughout my public school education. It had little or no meanng to me then. It had little or no impact on me as I investigated and joined the Church as a young adult.

[BlueDreams]

I don't remember not knowing about it. I assume it was in a class that I first learned....I just can't see it coming up at home. We don't have any major direct polygamous relatives that I'm aware of, so I wouldn't hear about it. The earliest recollection was sometime pre-teenish in class. I remember we were all trying to remember/guess how many wive BY or someone had. I remember that the surprise was only the number, not the fact that he was polygamous, so I assume I knew it before then too. Polygamy's never mattered to me. Kinda that thing where you'll learn a new fact about it, think it's interesting, and then forget about it unless it comes up in conversation. The only thing that ever facsinated me was how it played into the suffrage and women's rights movements of that time.

With luv,

Bd

[DBMormon]

should have had the same survey regarding polyandry... now that would be interesting

[selek1]

I first heard it in high school- the joke was circulating that the second Mormon "prophet" was called "Bing'em Young" for a reason.

I was actually lucky enough to get my hand on an LDS-published history book (I think it was a BYU textbook) and do my research from there.

As a good little Baptist boy, dyed-in-the-wool conservative Republican, and boy scout, I found the concept repugnant, backward/primitive, and disturbing.

Several years later, as I was seriously exploring membership in the Church, I read and thought and prayed- and read and thought and prayed some more.

I do not consider polygamy a cross that I would want to bear, but I do believe that (as practiced by the Latter-day Saints) it was ordained of God at that time and in that place.

I eight wards in three different states, I have had absolutely zero difficulty finding learned people and scholarly sources within the Church willing to discuss the matter. The idea that knowledge of polygamy is in any way hidden, discussion of polygamy discouraged, or history "sanitized" is laughable in the extreme.

We are told in Scripture, "Knock, and the door shall be opened."

If you were unaware of the concept from within the Church, you weren't paying attention - or were comfortable in your own complacency.

[Craig Paxton]

I am desended from Mormon polygamists...so in a really freaky twist of history...I owe my very existance to Joseph Smith's polygamy.

While I think I've always been aware of polygamy in the church...and while I believe the church has always been good at disclosing Brigham Young's 50+ wives...for some reason they've been more protective of Joseph Smith polygamy, often framing it as a minor issue...in my mind he had only 2-3 wives. So while I learned on my mothers knee that I decended from polygamist and knew of Brigham Youngs situation I didn't become fully to the extent of Joseph's involvement until I was an adult.