Category: Moral Issues
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Q&A: John Taylor’s 1886 Revelation on Polygamy
On September 27, 1886, John Taylor received a revelation on the permanence of the doctrine of plural marriage. In 1933 the First Presidency denied its existence and called the “purported text” for it a “pretended revelation.” The LDS Church finally conceded its existence on June 14, 2025.
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Age Disparity Among LDS Polygamists
Note: The following was originally printed in the January/February 2023 edition of Mormonism Researched. To request a free subscription, please visit here. Polygamist Samuel Bateman was raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), and though this organization is not associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headquartered in Salt…
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A PR Nightmare? The LDS Church and Its Support of a “Marriage Bill”
Listen to a three-episode Viewpoint on Mormonism series titled The LDS Church and the Respect for Marriage Act Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 that aired November 28-30, 2022. On November 15, 2022, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints decided to publicly support a “marriage” bill that includes those involved in same-sex unions.…
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A Change Made to a Controversial “Policy”: God’s Directive or a Political Adjustment?
The leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) reversed a church “policy” in 2019 that had been implemented just three and a half years earlier. The original policy made on November 3, 2015 stated how “a natural or adopted child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship, whether…
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Latter-day Saints Continue To Grapple With Mormon Polygamy
Richard Ostling is perhaps best known for his past career as a religion reporter for TIME Magazine and the Associated Press, and for the landmark book he coauthored in 1999 with his wife, Joan Ostling, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise. Mr. Ostling today maintains a blog titled Religion Q&A where he answers religiously-themed…
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Why a Fourth Gospel Topics Essay on Plural Marriage?
Note: The following was originally printed in the July/August 2021 edition of the Mormonism Researched, a bimonthly periodical of MRM that is free upon request. To request a free subscription to Mormonism Researched, please visit here. Between October 2013 to December 2015, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published 13 official “Gospel Topics essays”…
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Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Below is the Gospel Topics Essay currently listed on the LDS Church website. Black is what was copied from one of the original three essays. Purple is what has been added. Strikeout is what was taken out from the original essay. From Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo Overview Latter-day Saints believe that monogamy–the marriage…
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Plural Marriage and Joseph Smith: A PR Nightmare
November 2015 Publicly mention the religion of Mormonism and the first thought to come to mind is “polygamy” or, as it is also called, plural marriage. This common perception linking Mormonism with the practice of one man marrying two or more women has caused the public relations department of The Church of Jesus Christ of…
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Why the LDS Church Needs To Take a Tougher Stance on the Issue of Abortion
I believe the LDS Church should take a tougher stance on the issue of abortion. According to the the church’s website, most types of abortions are wrong but there are three exceptions: Church leaders have said that some exceptional circumstances may justify an abortion, such as when pregnancy is the result of incest or rape,…
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That Polygamy Doctrine that Just Will Not Go Away
Note: The following was originally printed in the January/February 2020 edition of Mormonism Researched. To request a free subscription, please visit here. By Bill McKeever The topic of “eternal polygamy,” the doctrine stating that a faithful Latter-day male can be sealed to two or more faithful LDS women, came up in the October 2019 general conference. Dallin…
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Joseph Smith’s Polygamy and Jacob 2:30
Note: The following was originally printed in the July/August 2019 edition of our bimonthly newsletter. To request a free subscription to Mormonism Researched, please visit here. The Foundation for Apologetics Information and Research (FAIR) is an apologetics organization dedicated to defending the truth claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On its official…
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The Bible and the Practice of Polygamy
By Eric Johnson Nobody doubts that polygamy played a vital role for the second half of the nineteenth century in the religion of Mormonism. Because the practice sounds unnatural, many Latter-day Saints are very protective of this teaching. A common tactic that is used is to utilize the Bible to show how the biblical saints married…
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Suicide and Mormonism
Suicide is a growing problem in American society today. Many people have been greatly affected in one way or another by this issue, having lost a friend, family member, or coworker who, for whatever the reason(s), decided to end their life. In this article we will take a closer look at the issue of suicide…
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Citations on Polygamy (Plural Marriage)
The following are sections out of Bill McKeever’s book In their Own Words: A Collection of Mormon Quotations. Standard Works “Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of…
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Whatever Happened to Emily and Eliza Partridge?
Note: The following was originally printed in the September/October 2017 edition of Mormonism Researched. To request a free subscription, please visit here. In early Mormonism, you might say some of the women who became plural wives were kept as a set. Several Mormon leaders, including Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, married sisters. When Edward Partridge, Mormonism’s first bishop, died…
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Was Polygamy Necessary Because the LDS Church Needed To Have Its Growth “Jump-Started”?
According to some Mormon apologists, polygamy instituted by the LDS Church in the 19th century was necessary in order for the church membership to grow. According to LDS pollster Gary Lawrence in his book Mormons Believe…What? Because original Christianity needed to be re-established to be the forerunner for the Second Coming of the Savior in…
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Was Polygamy Necessary in the 19th Century Because There Were More Women Than Men?
If you speak to some Latter-day Saints regarding the issue of polygamy (the marriage on one man to multiple women), one of the most common arguments still used is pointing out how there were more women than men in the 19th century Utah. If that’s the case, single women needed to have a husband too. Right? Polygamy to…
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Book Review: The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy
Note: The following was originally printed in the November/December 2016 edition of Mormonism Researched. To request a free subscription, please visit here. Issues related to Mormon polygamy have long been discussed and dissected, both inside and outside of the LDS Church. Once an official requirement for a bigger and better eternal glory, the practice of plural marriage was…
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Forever Families?
Check out a two-part Viewpoint on Mormonism series airing August 24-25, 2020. Part 1 Part 2 Last week (3/22/16) Mormon blogger and author Mette Ivie Harrison answered the question, “Do Mormons Still Practice Polygamy?” Her “short answer” was “No.” But she followed up with another 1,000 words explaining that, in some cases, the answer is…
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Did God Command Polygamous Relationships in the Old Testament?
Polygamy, or plural marriage, is a sticky issue for many Mormons. Some have become deeply embarrassed when they found out how their founder, Joseph Smith, married at least 34 girls and women. In fact, a third of his marriages were to teenagers and another third were to women who were already married to living husbands.…