Editing Mormonism and polygamy (section)

== Teachings about polygamy ==

=== Theology ===

==== Salvation ====
Polygamy was taught as being essential for [[salvation]].<ref name=":2" />{{rp|186}} Polygamy was seen as "more important than baptism" and the practice of polygamy was required before the [[Second Coming|Second Coming of Christ]]. Brigham Young said that any male member of the church who was commanded to practice polygamy and refused would be damned.<ref>{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=112}}</ref> Other leaders of the church taught that men who refused to have multiple wives were not obeying God's commandments and that they should step down from their [[Priesthood (Latter Day Saints)|priesthood]] callings.<ref>{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|pp=112–113}}</ref> Church president Joseph F. Smith also spoke about the necessity of practicing polygamy in order to receive salvation.<ref>{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=113}}</ref> Members of the church in St George, Utah report being taught in the late 1800s that there is no [[Exaltation (Mormonism)|"exaltation"]] without polygamy.<ref>{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=114}}</ref> In a church-owned newspaper, an article speculates that men and women who refuse to practice polygamy will have a lesser station in the afterlife.<ref name="Hardy 2007 117">{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=117}}</ref>

Polygamy was also explained as being a commandment of God that was received by divine revelation and that polygamy was a part of God's plan.<ref name=":8" />{{rp|44}}

==== Women's place in heaven ====
Latter-day Saints believed that a woman could secure her place in heaven by being sealed to a righteous man who held the priesthood. Some women embraced polygamy because of this teaching and their desire to receive divine blessings.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Ulrich |first=Laurel Thatcher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/955274387 |title=A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870 |publisher=Knopf |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-307-59490-7 |edition=1st |oclc=955274387}}</ref>{{rp|132}} The salvation of women was understood to be dependent on their status as wives.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Sarah Barringer |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51831976 |title=The Mormon question : polygamy and constitutional conflict in nineteenth-century America |date=2002 |isbn=0-8078-7526-0 |oclc=51831976|page =98|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press }}</ref>

==== Posterity ====
One reason given for the practice of polygamy is to increase the Mormon population by childbirth.<ref name=":8" />{{rp|44}} In the [[Millennial Star]], a church owned and operated newspaper, an article teaches that monogamous marriages result in offspring that are physically and mentally lesser than offspring of polygamous marriages.<ref name="Hardy 2007 117"/><ref name=":2" />{{rp|187}}

==== Morality and preventing temptation ====
An early church leader argued that polygamy has historically been the main form of marriage and that polygamy is the most moral form of marriage.<ref name=":8" />{{rp|44}} Polygamy was sometimes explained as a way to prevent men from falling into sexual temptation,<ref name="Hardy 2007 117"/> while monogamy was immoral and increased the likelihood of sexual temptation.<ref name=":8" />{{rp|44}}

==== Biblical precedence ====
Some who practiced polygamy defended it as a religious practice that was taught in the Bible.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nash |first=Brittany Chapman |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1245247408 |title=Let's talk about polygamy |date=2021 |publisher=Deseret Book |isbn=978-1-62972-823-0 |oclc=1245247408}}</ref><ref name=":8" />{{rp|44}}

==== Teachings on the multiple wives of God and Jesus ====
Top leaders used the examples of the polygamy of God the Father and Jesus Christ in defense of it and these teachings on God and Jesus' polygamy were widely accepted among Latter-day Saints by the late 1850s.<ref name="Desert">{{Cite book |last=Schelling Durham |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/desertbetweenmou0000durh |title=Desert Between the Mountains: Mormons, Miners, Padres, Mountain Men, and the Opening of the Great Basin, 1772–1869 |date=1997 |publisher=Henry Holt & Company, Inc. |isbn=9780805041613 |edition=1st |page=[https://archive.org/details/desertbetweenmou0000durh/page/182 182] |quote=Pratt clearly loud out arguments in favor of polygamy that the Saints would use for years to come. ... Pratt and others argued that Jesus had three wives: Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus' two sisters, Mary and Martha. Apostle Orson Hyde went a step further and preached that 'Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives, and that he begat children.' |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Swanson |first=Vern G. |title=Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Holy Bloodline |date=2013 |publisher=Cedar Fort, Inc. |isbn=9781462104048 |pages=247–259 |chapter=Christ and Polygamy |quote=Dr. William E. Phipps noted that the belief that 'Jesus married, and married often!' was used to encourage and promote the doctrine of polygamy amongst timid Latter-Day Saints ... By the late-1850s the idea that more than one woman was married to Jesus was widely accepted among Mormon circles. ... As if the concept of Christ's polygamy was not unsettling enough, Mormonism even taught in the nineteenth century that God the Father had a plurality of wives as well. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rss1CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT251}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=84}}</ref> In 1853, [[Jedediah M. Grant]]—who later became a member of the [[First Presidency (LDS Church)|First Presidency]]—stated that the top reason behind the persecution of Christ and his disciples was due to their practice of polygamy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grant |first=Jedediah |date=7 August 1853 |title=Uniformity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A18tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA345 |journal=Journal of Discourses |volume=1 |pages=345–346 |quote='The grand reason why the Gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ, was, because he had so many wives; there were Elizabeth, and Mary, and a host of others that followed him.' ... The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age.}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a primary source published in 1853 by a Latter-day Saint church leader|date=February 2024}}<ref name="Desert" /> Two months later, [[apostle (Latter Day Saints)|apostle]] [[Orson Pratt]] taught in a church periodical that "We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives", and that after her death, Mary (the mother of Jesus) may have become another eternal polygamous wife of God.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pratt |first=Orson |date=October 1853 |title=The Seer |url=https://archive.org/stream/seereditedbyorso01unse#page/158/mode/1up |journal=The Seer |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=158, 172 |access-date=9 October 2017 |quote=Inasmuch as God was the first husband to her, it may be that He only gave her to be the wife of Joseph while in this mortal state, and that He intended after the resurrection to again take her as one of his wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity. ... We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His First Born, and another being upon the earth by whom He begat the tabernacle of Jesus.}}</ref>{{Original research inline|date=February 2024}} He also stated that Christ had multiple wives—[[Mary of Bethany]], [[Martha]], and [[Mary Magdalene]]—as further evidence in defense of polygamy.<ref name="Desert" /> In the next two years the apostle [[Orson Hyde]] also stated during two general conference addresses that Jesus practiced polygamy<ref name="Desert" /> and repeated this in an 1857 address.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hyde |first=Orson |date=March 1857 |title=Man the Head of the Woman – Kingdom of God – The Seed of Christ – Polygamy – Society in Utah |url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/500/rec/1 |journal=Journal of Discourses |volume=4 |page=259 |quote=It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and on a careful reading of that transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than Jesus Christ was married on that occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with Mary and Martha, and the other Mary also whom Jesus loved, must have been highly unbecoming and improper to say the best of it.}}</ref>{{Original research inline|date=February 2024}}

=== Modern teachings of the church ===
In a teaching manual published by the church in 2015, the practice of polygamy is described as a "test of faith" that brought Latter-day Saints closer to God.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lesson 20: Plural Marriage |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/manual/foundations-of-the-restoration-teacher-manual/lesson-20-plural-marriage |access-date=2023-04-21 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org |language=en}}</ref>{{Original research inline|date=February 2024}} Other recent church documents point to an increase in children as being why Mormons believe God commanded them to practice polygamy. An article on the church's website states that early Mormons believed that they would receive blessings from God by obeying the commandment of polygamy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Polygamy: What Latter-day Saints Really Believe {{!}} LDS.org.ph |url=https://ph.churchofjesuschrist.org/polygamy-mormons-plural-marriage |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=ph.churchofjesuschrist.org}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=In light of the extensive historiography, this page could do better than an essay directly published on the denomination's website|date=February 2024}}