Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 9

Response to claims made in "Chapter 9: More Than One Wife"


Chapter 8
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 Chapter 10

225

Claim
In Mormon theology, "creating" includes not only making a world, but peopling it through procreating, through sexual union with one's spouse.

Author's source(s)

  • Melodie Moench Charles, "The Need for a New Mormon Heaven," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 21 no. 3 (Fall 1988), 77-78. The reference to "sexual union" comes from Melodie Moench Charles, who is not representative of orthodox LDS teaching.

Response


226

Claim
The statement in the 1835 D&C condemning polygamy was "perhaps in an attempt to conceal Smith's affair."

Author's source(s)

  • D&C CI:4 (1835 edition), p. 251.

Response


233, 422n47

Claim
Mormons believed that plural marriage was necessary for deification in the Celestial Kingdom.

Author's source(s)

  • J.W. Musser, "The New And Everlasting Covenant Of Marriage: An Interpretation Of Celestial Marriage, Plural Marriage, Polygamy."

Response


233, 422n48-49

Claim
Brigham Young said, "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy."

Author's source(s)

  • Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 11:268-269

Response


237

Claim
"Although wives continued to live with their husbands, they would receive conjugal visits from Smith whenever the need arose."

Author's source(s)

  • Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 62.
  • Jedediah Grant, Journal of Discourses 2:14.

Response

  •  The author's claim is false: The sources quoted in the endnotes do not say anything about "conjugal visits" to women to whom Joseph was sealed who already had husbands for time.
  • Joseph Smith/Polygamy


237, 424n71

Claim
Zina Huntington married Brigham Young while still married to Henry Jacobs, and Henry stood as a witness.

Author's source(s)

Response


237, 425n73-75

Claim
"Wife swapping" was "wholly acceptable."

Author's source(s)

  • Jedediah Grant, Journal of Discourses 2:14.
  • Lee, Confessions of John D. Lee, p. 165
  • C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 1, p. 73.

Response


237

Claim
The Bible does not sanction or command polygamy. "Most Israelites were monogamous." Abraham's polygamy "portrays his acceptance of plural marriage as a mark of disobedience to, and a lack of faith in, God."

Author's source(s)

  • Author's interpretation.

Response


239, n. 80-83

Claim
"Early Mormon leaders" believed that Jesus and his apostles were polygamists.

Author's source(s)

Response


240

Claim
The Book of Mormon "seems to condemn polygamy," but Latter-day Saints "deny that this is the case."

Author's source(s)

  • Jacob 1꞉15
  • Jacob 2꞉24-27
  • Jacob 3꞉5
  • The author does not mention Jacob 2꞉30, which states "For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things" as the reason that Latter-day Saints "deny that this is the case."

Response


241

Claim
How could Jesus have been a god before he was born, before he had a physical body?

Author's source(s)

  • No source given

Response


241 - How could the Holy Ghost be a god, since he does not have a physical body?

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

How could the Holy Ghost be a god, since he does not have a physical body?

Author's sources: No source given

FAIR's Response

Question: Can the Holy Ghost not be fully God, because he does not have a physical body?

It is not known by revelation that it will be necessary for the Holy Spirit to receive a body at some point

Critics charge that since LDS doctrine teaches that a body is required for exaltation, the Holy Ghost cannot be fully God, because he does not have a physical body.

Modern scriptures indicate that having a body is necessary for a fullness of joy (D&C 93꞉33). It is assumed by some Latter-day Saints—but not known by revelation—that it will be necessary for the Holy Spirit to receive a body at some point, but the timeframe in which He does so is not particularly important. (To travel overseas to another country, one needs both a passport and an airplane ticket. It doesn't matter in which order one gets the passport or the ticket, but one must eventually have both in order to reach one's destination.)

Jehovah, the premortal Jesus Christ, was part of the Godhead before his mortal birth. He was the God of Israel, and his yet-future atonement was efficacious to those who were born, lived, and died prior to His crucifixion. The fact that it was effective should blunt any feigned requirement for sequence concerning the Holy Ghost's receipt of a physical body, a matter about which the Church has no official doctrine.


244 - "...nowhere in the Old Testament is polygamy linked with any mandates to practice it"

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

"...nowhere in the Old Testament is polygamy linked with any mandates to practice it."

Author's sources: *No source given.

FAIR's Response

245, n97 - Plural marriages were performed after the 1890 Manifesto

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

Plural marriages were performed after the 1890 Manifesto.

Author's sources: 1911 telegram to Reed Smoot from Joseph F. Smith, Apr. 1, 1911.

FAIR's Response
Articles about Plural marriage
Doctrinal foundation of plural marriage
Introduction of plural marriage
Plural marriage in Utah
End of plural marriage

Gospel Topics: "The Second Manifesto. At first, the performance of new plural marriages after the Manifesto was largely unknown to people outside the Church"

"The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage," Gospel Topics on LDS.org:

At first, the performance of new plural marriages after the Manifesto was largely unknown to people outside the Church. When discovered, these marriages troubled many Americans, especially after President George Q. Cannon stated in an 1899 interview with the New York Herald that new plural marriages might be performed in Canada and Mexico.40 After the election of B. H. Roberts, a member of the First Council of the Seventy, to the U.S. Congress, it became known that Roberts had three wives, one of whom he married after the Manifesto. A petition of 7 million signatures demanded that Roberts not be seated. Congress complied, and Roberts was barred from his office.41

The exclusion of B. H. Roberts opened Mormon marital practices to renewed scrutiny. Church President Lorenzo Snow issued a statement clarifying that new plural marriages had ceased in the Church and that the Manifesto extended to all parts of the world, counsel he repeated in private. Even so, a small number of new plural marriages continued to be performed, probably without President Snow’s knowledge or approval. After Joseph F. Smith became Church President in 1901, a small number of new plural marriages were also performed during the early years of his administration.[1]—(Click here to continue)

Gospel Topics: "The Church’s role in these marriages became a subject of intense debate after Reed Smoot, an Apostle, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1903"

"The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage," Gospel Topics on LDS.org:

The Church’s role in these marriages became a subject of intense debate after Reed Smoot, an Apostle, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1903. Although Smoot was a monogamist, his apostleship put his loyalty to the country under scrutiny. How could Smoot both uphold the laws of the Church, some of whose officers had performed, consented to, or participated in new plural marriages, and uphold the laws of the land, which made plural marriage illegal? For four years legislators debated this question in lengthy public hearings.[2]—(Click here to continue)

Gospel Topics: "Church President Joseph F. Smith took the stand in the Senate chamber in March 1904. When asked, he defended his family relationships"

"The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage," Gospel Topics on LDS.org:

The Senate called on many witnesses to testify. Church President Joseph F. Smith took the stand in the Senate chamber in March 1904. When asked, he defended his family relationships, telling the committee that he had cohabited with his wives and fathered children with them since 1890. He said it would be dishonorable of him to break the sacred covenants he had made with his wives and with God. When questioned about new plural marriages performed since 1890, President Smith carefully distinguished between actions sanctioned by the Church and ratified in Church councils and conferences, and the actions undertaken by individual members of the Church. "There never has been a plural marriage by the consent or sanction or knowledge or approval of the church since the manifesto," he testified.43

In this legal setting, President Smith sought to protect the Church while stating the truth. His testimony conveyed a distinction Church leaders had long understood: the Manifesto removed the divine command for the Church collectively to sustain and defend plural marriage; it had not, up to this time, prohibited individuals from continuing to practice or perform plural marriage as a matter of religious conscience.[3]—(Click here to continue)

Why were some plural marriages performed after the First Manifesto (Official Declaration 1)?

Summary: The leaders were agreed that President Woodruff had been right to issue it, and acknowledged his action of the Lord; the full implications of the Manifesto, however, were still the subject of discussion and debate.

Lisa Olsen Tait: The Manifesto and the end of Polygamy

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Gregory L. Smith, M.D., "Polygamy, Prophets, and Prevarication: Frequently and Rarely Asked Questions about the Initiation, Practice, and Cessation of Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"

Gregory L. Smith, M.D.,  FairMormon Papers

We note again that the Church and its members were in an impossible position–the government showed no concern for the women and children who would be left without support if government policies were obeyed. Members and leaders again had agonizing choices to make, in which all their moral duties simply could not be honored. Joseph F. Smith wrote to a member who faced just this dilemma, “The whole thing in a nut shell is this, you should keep your covenants with your family and you should also not violate the law. Now if you can comprehend it–you will grasp the situation.”


The situation–which critics and many modern members have not grasped–is that it was impossible to do both. A choice had to be made, the Saints chose whatever was most important, and most seem to have chosen support for families over being straightforward with the government.

President Woodruff continued similar tactics throughout the remainder of his administration. By July 1892 he had granted a few recommends for plural marriages in Mexico, and in June 1897 marriages sanctioned by the First Presidency were performed at sea, on the Great Lakes, and in Mexico. There is circumstantial evidence that President Woodruff himself married a plural wife at sea in September 1897. At times, President Woodruff seems to have maintained some “plausible deniability” by declining to personally approve a polygamous marriage, while referring the potential polygamists to his counselor, George Q. Cannon, for a recommend.

Click here to view the complete article

Gospel Topics, "Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah"

Gospel Topics,  Gospel Topics, (2013)

After the Manifesto, monogamy was advocated in the Church both over the pulpit and through the press. On an exceptional basis, some new plural marriages were performed between 1890 and 1904, especially in Mexico and Canada, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law; a small number of plural marriages were performed within the United States during those years. In 1904, the Church strictly prohibited new plural marriages. Today, any person who practices plural marriage cannot become or remain a member of the Church.

Click here to view the complete article


Source(s) of the criticism
Critical sources

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage," Gospel Topics on LDS.org
  2. ↑ "The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage," Gospel Topics on LDS.org
  3. ↑ "The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage," Gospel Topics on LDS.org

Notes


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