As Mormons what can we do to help people understand that no longer practice polygamy?

Question

I am tired of people bashing our Mormonism by bringing up that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young practiced polygamy.

Members of the Latter Day Saints no longer practice polygamy! Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were men like the rest of us and fell into the temptation of sex with many women. We can't blame them for only being human. We can only pray that God will forgive them and that non-believers can understand that they were just men with desires.

Mormonism have been around for almost two hundred years and will last for another two hundred if man is still alive:)

Answer 1

You're not even a member of the church, are you? Otherwise you wouldn't be posting false information. How low can you go?

And if you call obeying a commandment from God "falling into temptation," than sure that's what Joseph Smith and Brigham Young did.

It is true that not everyone understands that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints no longer practices polygamy, and it is wrong for you to say that it was wrong in the first place. You are not an authority to speak for the whole church (nor am I), so please refrain from doing so.

I personally would have an issue practicing polygamy, so I am grateful it is no longer part of our religion. However, I also do not hold it against those who did it in the past. And besides, a man could only take another wife if the woman he was already married to agreed to it, and Mormon women weren't suppressed as women in modern polygamy-practicing cults usually are.

Groups who call themselves Mormons and practice polygamy are not recognized by the church. If church members are found to be practicing polygamy, then they are excommunicated.

I also want to point out that polygamy was not against the law until a while after the Mormons started practicing it, and after a while, it was taken out of practice. When it began, the church members were well within their rights.

Again, while I am glad that it is no longer practiced, I am not ashamed of it, and absolutely do not believe that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young or any other faithful Latter Day Saint who practiced it during that time was committing a sin.

Anyone who practices it now is NOT recognized as a part of our church.

Answer 2

I AM A MORMON!!!
Jesus Christ is the Savior of all mankind. He died for our sins and after 3 days was resurected from the grave. Jesus Christ is our God. He is the Son of our Father in Heaven.

God has always revealed His word to mortal prophets. Joseph Smith was God's prophet on the earth from 1820 to 1845.

During that time God revealed the practice of plural marriage. It was a commandment that even Joseph Smith suppressed until God gavehim an ultimatim. Brigham Young said that he would rather die than practice plural marriage. But these men and many other men & women practiced it out of FAITH.

You need to read and understand why the practice of plural marriage was reinstated in the 1830's. Early church members who were given the responsibility to take plural wives did not do it out of lust.
The fact is that God commanded selected early Saints to practice plural marriage as it was practiced anciently.
It was done to test the faith of the members (both male & female), to increase the population, and to provide for the widow, fatherless and abandoned women.

The Church long abondoned the practice of plural marriage in the 1800's it is true. However many throughout the world are still under the impression that a Mormon man will have several wives.

There are several splinter groups who broke away from the church when the revelation to stop plural marriage was given. These so-called fundamentalist groups are not part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and therefore are not to be given serious consideration for speaking authoritatively.

To answer the quesion how to help people understand? I say learn the history of plural marriage for yourself before you go out and try to influence other peoples thinking.

Besides that I like the old saying that polygamy doesnt work because "No man can serve 2 masters".....

Answer 3

Ok.. Polygamy wasn't something that just the leaders of the church did because of their desires. It was a commandment at the time. Most of the time, it wasn't even about sex. It was about keeping land and homes in tact. During this period, a lot of the men went off to war. The women and children were left to fend for themselves. The laws at the time didn't allow women to hold titles for land or houses, so the women that lost their husbands would have been not just out a house, but out of care and support. That is where polygamy really came into play.

There was a lot of problems once the law was put into effect that made polygamy illegal. That was a hard time in church history. No one wanted to just leave the women and children alone with no support, so a lot of them went into hiding, so they could continue to support their families.

Now, NO ONE in the church practices polygamy. If they do, they are excommunicated. There are little branches that call themselves LDS, but they really aren't. They don't practice the same doctrine as we do, and they don't believe the same things we do. They call themselves FLDS, or Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints. They are the ones that are still practicing, and they are the ones who's leader is in jail right now, facing many felony charges. It's a bad deal with them, and not something we are at all affiliated with.

Even with saying that, there will be lots of people who don't hear the details, they see anything with LDS in the title, or said, and they just assume it's the main branch of the church. There will always be misunderstand about everything in the church. That won't change. No matter how much we say we believe in Christ, or that He's our savior. He is divine, and we do believe in the Bible, there will be people saying we don't, and that will try to "tell" us what we "really believe". As if we don't know!!

I have pretty much decided to just let it all roll off, explain when I can, and leave it at that. Then people can make up their own minds. Usually they will anyway, and there is nothing that I can personally do to change that.

Answer 4

Some people insist on being ignorant. I think the problem is that there ARE some people out there who are MORMON who DO practice polygamy. Just like there are SOME Christian groups who bomb abortion clinics and so on. As long as you have a small group of people who get all the attention, then that is the reputation you will probably have to live down.

People today can only stand to listen to about 5 minutes of the evening news (they must get back to their PS3 or their WII) and that is where they learn all about these "crazy Mormons". If people would watch ALL of the report they might learn that it is a very small number of Mormons that practice polygamy and the MAIN CHURCH itself DOES NOT practice polygamy.

The only way to help people understand is to tell them a couple times and if they still are ignorant then let it go. Most intelligent people figure out what is true and what isn't after a while anyway.

Answer 5

It seems that people get one or two things stuck in their minds and refuse to let go. They refuse to listen to anything else. There is little we can do to convince people that polygamy has been " 1998 President Gordon B. Hinckley answered this question:

"Question 4: What is the Church’s position on polygamy?

"We are faced these days with many newspaper articles on this subject. This has arisen out of a case of alleged child abuse on the part of some of those practicing plural marriage.

"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. They are in violation of the civil law. They know they are in violation of the law. They are subject to its penalties. The Church, of course, has no jurisdiction whatever in this matter.

"If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church. An article of our faith is binding upon us. It states, “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law” (A of F 1:12). One cannot obey the law and disobey the law at the same time.

"There is no such thing as a “Mormon Fundamentalist.” It is a contradiction to use the two words together.

"More than a century ago God clearly revealed unto His prophet Wilford Woodruff that the practice of plural marriage should be discontinued, which means that it is now against the law of God. Even in countries where civil or religious law allows polygamy, the Church teaches that marriage must be monogamous and does not accept into its membership those practicing plural marriage."

There is also a major misunderstanding regarding the Church's stand on blacks. One, there is nothing preventing blacks from joining the Church. The Church is quite large on the African continent. At one time the priesthood was withheld from certain men, based on their lineage, but since 1978, that has changed. It was a great worry for the prophets of the Church, but they were bound to obey the will of God. There was no racism involved. For some, this was a reason to not join the Church; but for others, they prayed that things would change, and they did.

Answer 6

Well, regardless of what you do now, it won't change the fact that many of the early founders of your religion (back when it was more properly called a cult) took advantage of the control they had and married multiple wives. They also used their religion to justify it. If you don't want people to bring it up, don't bring up your religion.
You may also want to try to get some of the reactionary sects of LDS that still practice polygamy to cool it.
Alternatively, you could simply become more comfortable with the idea of polygamy so that it doesn't bother you so much when people mention it.

Answer 7

As I understand it, the rationale was a perfectly sensible one about building up the numbers as fast as possible. Presumably with a little healthy horniness thrown in.

Obviously polygamy sticks out as a defining feature, which is why it comes up. A little envy in there too, perhaps.

I must say that this aspect of Mormonism has little impact on my feelings about the religion. There are so many other utterly daft things about it to dislike, after all.

And it's a religion, after all.

CD

Answer 8

Certain break-away segments of the Mormon Church do practice polygamy and the perception is that these segments represent the mainstream. I personally know this not to be the mainstream, but every time polygamy is mentioned in the media, its always tagged with, "The Mormon Church." Your Bible tells you and my Bible tells me that we are to "shake the dust from our feet," i.e., move on - put them behind us, not dwell on it. In other words, after we have made an attempt to bring people to Christ and they have rejected that message, the burden is no longer upon us, but upon those who rejected what God has to say through us.

Answer 9

I'm not mormon, but here's one idea.

There are small sects out in Nevada I think - I saw them on 60 minutes last year that call themselves mormon and definitely practice polygamy. You might want to think of educating those guys or making a clear distinction as to the fact that they are not true Mormons

Answer 10

For a start you can actually end the Polygamy that exist with the Mormans in Utah. And secondly you can apologize to all the young girls of whom were maried at ages as young as nine and getting pregnant soon after. And lastly you can apologize to all the young boys who have been kicked out of their homes for breaking the littlest rules so the elder men can marry all the woman they want without competiion.