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Untangling polygamy
The church’s earlier practice of polygamy continues to spur more questions than Brigham Young had wives (over 50, by the way).
A Q&A recently released on the topic attempts to answer nine of those questions.
Here are key takeaways from that webpage:
• Most Latter-day Saints did not live in polygamous households.
“Over a period of about 50 years,” the page states, “20% to 30% of Latter-day Saint men, women, and children lived in families that practiced plural marriage.”
• The church didn’t necessarily adopt polygamy in order to up the faith’s birthrate.
“The Lord did not reveal his reasons for restoring plural marriage,” it says. But it “did result in the birth of many children into faithful Latter-day Saint families in a relatively short time.”
• Yes, Latter-day Saint polygamy began under founder Joseph Smith, not Brigham Young.
(The Utah State Historical Society) This photo of Brigham Young and many of his wives is from 1898.
“Credible contemporary sources document Joseph’s practice of plural marriage,” the page matter-of-factly declares. “Later, many faithful men and women who knew of Joseph’s practice of plural marriage gave sworn testimony of it.”
• Joseph’s wife Emma was no fan of the practice.
“According to accounts of others, Emma opposed plural marriage,” it says, “except for a short period of time when she consented to at least four of her husband’s plural sealings. Ultimately, she rejected the practice.”
• Polygamy isn’t needed to enter the highest heaven, but a monogamous marriage is. And if you don’t have a spouse here, you can have one in the hereafter.
“In the 19th century, some church leaders taught [that plural marriage was a celestial prerequisite],” the webpage acknowledges. “Since that time, however, the consistent, unanimous teaching of church leaders is that only monogamous temple marriage is necessary for exaltation. They have also emphasized that such a marriage will eventually be available to all who worthily seek it.”
• There will be no “unwanted marriages” in heaven, though exactly who ends up with whom might remain an earthly mystery.
“God will not force anyone to enter or remain in a marriage relationship he or she does not want,” explains the resource, citing the church’s General Handbook. And sometimes messy family arrangements “will be worked out in the eternities according to the justice, mercy, and love of God and the agency of those involved,” it adds, referencing a 2019 General Conference sermon by senior apostle Dallin Oaks.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Handwritten copy of the statement given by Lorenzo Snow in General Conference proposing acceptance of the Manifesto as issued by Wilford Woodruff to abandon polygamy. It was written on Central States Mission stationery during Samuel O. Bennion’s tenure as president of the mission from 1906 to 1934.
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Read the story and columnist Gordon Monson’s commentary, and listen to the podcast.
Cutting back on water usage
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A meetinghouse in Salt Lake City before and after a shift to a water-wise landscaping.
Water-wise landscaping. Smart sprinkler systems. Drought-tolerant grass.
Those are some of the ways the church aims to save 500 million gallons of water a year at its meetinghouses in the Intermountain West, a news release notes. That equates to more than 1,500 acre-feet of water.
Solid savings, to be sure, but enough to supply only about 4,600 U.S. households a year — a drop in the conservation bucket. Clearly, all water users have more work to do.
In 2023, the Utah-based faith permanently donated 20,000 acre-feet of water shares toward saving the shriveling Great Salt Lake. That translates to nearly 60,000 households.
The church also recently gave away 2,000 gallons of another type of precious liquid — milk — to the East Texas Food Bank in Tyler, KLTV reported last week.
From The Tribune
• A watchdog group alleges the church owes the IRS up to $90 million in taxes.
• With billions invested in an artificial intelligence giant, the church’s Ensign Peak Advisors stock portfolio reaches a record high.
• Don’t let A.I. write your sacrament meeting talks, apostle Gerrit Gong counsels at BYU Education Week.
(Francisco Kjolseth |The Salt Lake Tribune) Apostle Gerrit W. Gong addresses the positives and negatives of A.I. at BYU Education Week.
• The church plans to pull down a hotel and put up a parking lot in time for the 2027 Salt Lake Temple open house.
• A mission president is hospitalized after being shot at home by a robber.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) R. Tyler and Elizabeth Wallis, leaders of the Mexico Mexico City West Mission. He was wounded in a robbery attempt at home.
• Social media is becoming the new pulpit for Christian music.
• This Latter-day Saint artist fulfills her life’s mission by painting a “historically accurate” Jesus.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Artist Rose Datoc Dall in her Utah studio.