Posted by:
randyj
(
)
Date: October 28, 2014 08:03PM
Here's another old post of mine responding to John Widtsoe's and Gordon B. Hinckley's assertions that only about 2% to 5% of 19th-century Mormons practiced polygamy:
On my mission 25 years ago, when someone would ask us about Mormon polygamy, I was taught to respond with "The Mormons practiced polygamy because a lot of Mormon men were killed by persecutors, so other men took their widows and children into their own households. And, only about 4% of Mormons practiced polygamy, when at the same time, 7% of all Americans were, so it wasn't out of line." That response usually satisfied inquisitors. Unfortunately, there's not a shred of truth to it. It's simply another example of how Mormons are taught to "lie for the lord," and I'm personally ashamed that I repeated that lie many times throughout my LDS mission, albeit that my repetition was borne of ignorance, and blind trust in my superiors.
The Mormons didn't practice polygamy because men were murdered; Joseph Smith's first well-documented extra-marital relationship began in 1833, with a 16-year-old servant girl, Fannie Alger, who was unmarried; his second one was with Lucinda Morgan Harris, who was married to another Mormon man at the time. Not a single one of Joseph Smith's 33 known "plural wives" was the widow of a murdered Mormon man; in fact, 11 of them were currently married to other men at the time of their "sealing" to Smith. Smith sent several men on "missions," and while they were away, he "plural married" their wives without their knowledge, which when discovered, caused scandal and apostasy. Smith did not provide for any children of his "plural wives"; although some of those women did indeed live in his house, they also worked as servants or teachers. When Smith's legal wife, Emma, grew tired of her husband's blatant philandering, she ordered those "plural wives" from her home--making it obvious that the women weren't there to be "provided for," but rather to provide female company for Joseph Smith.
I have found no evidence that 19th-century Americans in general practiced any sort of "multiple wifery" to the degree of the "7%" that I was taught to repeat. If such a phenomenom had existed, it would be duly noted in our history and sociology textbooks. It's obvious that some Mormon apologist simply made up those figures to make Mormon polygamy appear to be a 19th-century norm.
As to your "2%" figure, that line was invented by LDS Apostle John A. Widtsoe nearly 100 years ago:
"Before 1890 there were no records showing the number of polygamists in the church. In 1890 it was found by careful survey that there were in the church 2,451 men with more than one wife. At that time the church membership was approximately 172,754 individuals. The men living in polygamy in 1890 were therefore 1.4 percent of the total church population....Probably, the reliable records for 1890 represent the general conditions in the years that polygamy was practiced." (Evidences and Reconciliations, p. 390.)
In his recent interview with Larry King, current LDS President Gordon B. HInckley repeated Widtsoe's lowball figure:
"The figures that I have are from, between, 2% and 5% of our people were involved in it. It was a very limited practice, carefully safeguarded."
Are those figures accurate? Let's examine the facts: In 1890, when Widtsoe's survey was allegedly taken, LDS leaders had the motivation to lowball the percentage of polygamists, to show the federal government that they were complying with their promise to end polygamy in order to qualify for statehood. Also by 1890, polygamy was on the wane; most of its first-generation practitioners had died (including Brigham Young, its chief advocate, in 1877). Polygamy had become less prevalent because of its obvious social unworkability; many older, higher-ranking Mormon men had taken many "plural wives", over four decades, often up to three dozen each, making it difficult for younger men to find wives their own age. Because of increased knowledge of Mormon polygamy and criticism from non-Mormon society, Mormon missionaries were no longer able to convert and import "plural wives" from Europe. In addition, Mormon male polygamists had been subject to arrest and imprisonment since the Reynolds decision in 1879, making it advisable for Mormon men to deny their polygamous situations; that fact, combined with those above, renders Widtsoe's 1890 estimate useless.
Also, note Widstoe's very dishonest use of numbers: he compares the number of confessed Mormon male polygamists to the total LDS population, to attain his "1.4%." Obviously, neither adult women nor unmarried children of either sex could be numbered as a polygamist, yet Widtsoe included them to derive his distortingly low percentage. A more honest and accurate percentage would have been derived if Widtsoe had only compared the total number of claimed married men to the number of married women; the difference between the two would have produced the number of polygamous men, assuming that respondents were honest about their situations. If we assume that unmarried children comprised 2/3 of Mormon population in 1890, then obviously, Widtsoe's figure is off by at least 2/3. But to repeat, even that number could be low, because since 1879, Mormons routinely denied their polygamous relationships. And, the recent revelations of possibly hundreds of secret "underground" plural marriages performed between 1890 and 1904 further invalidates Widtsoe's 1890 estimate.
Later researchers have disputed Widtsoe's figures. For example, LDS historian Stanley Ivins commented: "Visitors to Utah in the days when polygamy was flourishing were usually told that about one-tenth of the people actually practiced it...Of more than 6,000 Mormon families, sketches of which are found in a huge volume published in 1913, between fifteen and twenty percent appear to have been polygamous. And a history of Sanpete and Emery counties contains biographical sketches of 722 men, of whom 12.6 percent married more than one woman. From information available from all sources, it appears that there may have been a time when fifteen, or possibly twenty, percent of the Mormon families were polygamous." (Western Humanities Review, "Notes on Mormon Polygamy," vol. 10, p. 230.) LDS writer T. Edgar Lyon estimated the true figure to be "six or eight times" Widtsoe's, and late Utah Senator Wallace F. Bennett, using Census figures, estimated eight to ten percent.
During the inception and height of Mormon polygamy, LDS leaders taught that the practice was "essential to salvation." Joseph Smith's "revelation on celestial marriage" stated "as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant,...he that receiveth a fulness thereof must and shall abide the law, or he shall be damned, saith the Lord God" (Doctrine and Covenants 132: 6.) Brigham Young repeated that mandate when he preached that "the only men who will become gods...are those who enter into polygamy." Young, Heber C. Kimball, and other leaders often rebuked men who were reluctant to enter into polygamy, "counseling" them to "do their duty." The claimed necessity of plural marriage even prompted Mormon leaders to advocate the idea that Jesus Christ himself had been a polygamist. And Joseph F. Smith, who was the LDS president until 1918, stated emphatically that a man with only one wife could not receive "an exaltation as great and glorious..as he possibly could with more than one." (JoD, vol. 20, p. 28.) Until 1890, Mormon men clamored to be "sealed" to as many wives as possible, up to a stated "limit" of 99, on the hope that those wives would be part of their "celestial inheritance." All of these statements put the lie to Gordon B. Hinckley's recent assertion that polygamy was intended to be a "very limited practice....carefully safeguarded."
Considering Mormon leaders' teaching that polygamy was "essential to salvation," it seems remarkable that today's Mormons should attempt to downplay the number of polygamist practitioners among their pioneer forefathers, because the modern LDS Church portrays its pioneer ancestors as being faithful, obedient, and willing to sacrifice everything for their religion. The claimed "2 to 5%" figure, if accurate, demonstrates that to the contrary to that desired portrayal, 19th-century Mormon men were not terribly obedient to the prophets' "revelations."
One may question why modern Mormons seek to downplay the extent and orthodoxy of polygamy among their forbears. The answer is revealed by considering the proselyting efforts of today's LDS Church. Hinckley, who has been a major force in his church's media relations efforts for more than half a century, wants the LDS Church to attain a status of being a worldwide, mainstream religion. Hinckley is well aware that the single greatest negatively-perceived aspect of Mormonism, throughout its history, is its polygamy practice; polygamy is therefore the biggest public relations hurdle that the LDS Church must constantly clear with the "buying public". That is why, when questioned about modern Mormon fundamentalist polygamists (estimated to number about 30,000), Hinckley treated them as somewhat less than dirt, even going so far as to say that polygamy "is not doctrinal" and "we have nothing to do with them." Hinckley wants the public to believe that his church bears no responsibility for the promulgation of the polygamy practice, which embarrasses the mainstream church today with its widely-reported arrests and legal cases.
It's also why, in recent LDS-published materials, all mention of polygamy among 19th-century Mormons has been obliterated. A 1997 church lesson manual based on the teachings of Brigham Young failed to even mention polygamy; and recent articles in the church's monthly "Ensign" magazine, on the lives and ministries of both Joseph Smith and Young, also failed to even hint at their polygamy practice, even though Smith's secret polygamy was a prime factor in his 1844 murder, and controversy over polygamy dogged Young to his death. And, to further demonstrate the church's downplaying of polygamy, the sum total of information on the subject on the church's official website is the following:
"Myth: Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are polygamists. Some early leaders and members of the Church entered into plural marriages during the latter half of the nineteenth century. After receiving a revelation, Church President Wilford Woodruff declared the practice should be discontinued in 1890. That position has been reaffirmed by every President of the Church since. Members of the Church who enter into plural marriage today face Church disciplinary action, including excommunication."
Note that the website states that some Mormons began entering into plural marriages "during the latter half of the nineteenth century." To the contrary, the first mention of polygamy in Mormonism came from Joseph Smith in 1831, and numerous LDS historians have affirmed that Joseph Smith's first "plural marriage" was as early as 1833. Smith eventually secretly "married" at least 33 "plural wives" until his 1844 death, while publicly denying the practice until his death.
Smith, Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, John D. Lee, and numerous other Mormon men took multiple "plural wives" before the expulsion of the Mormons from Illinois in 1846. The LDS website deceptively asserts a "latter half of the ninetenth century" beginning for polygamy because the church does not want its members and prospective converts to learn the extensiveness and orthodoxy of their early leaders' polygamy practice' they want the public to think that it was "highly restricted." Also, polygamy was illegal in the state of Illinois the entire time Smith instituted and practiced it there; if the LDS website publicly admitted that Smith practiced polygamy, it would also by default admit that Smith was a lawbreaker. A tenet of Mormonism is that "he that keepeth the commandments of God hath no need to break the laws of the land", and Smith's breaking of bigamy laws reveals him as contradictory and hypocritical.
The website article is also very careful to state that polygamy was ended after Wilford Woodruff "received a revelation" to cease the practice, while neglecting to inform the public that the mandate to practice polygamy was itself an alleged "revelation from God";and the "revelation on celestial marriage", instituting the polygamy practice, is "canonized" in LDS theology, while Woodruff's alleged "revelation" calling for the cessation of the practice, has never been published or canonized.
The website also fails to mention that LDS leaders fought the federal government for four decades over polygamy, and that to force the church to end the practice, the government disincorporated the church and seized its assets---thus making Woodruff's claim of receiving a "revelation" to cease the practice highly suspect. The website also fails to note that LDS leaders continued to sanction secret "plural marriages" until at least 1904, skirting the law by performing such unions in Canada, Mexico, or offshore, and that those unions were embarrasingly brought to light during the 1904 Reed Smoot hearings. That information refutes the idea that Woodruff's 1890 Manifesto was a "revelation from God," or else LDS leaders knowingly acted contrary to such a "revelation." And, the website fails to mention that LDS President Joseph F. Smith himself was convicted of unlawful cohabitation in 1906.
The website declares emphatically that Mormons who enter into polgyamy today are disciplined or excommunicated; but the website fails to note that the "revelation" commanding the practice is still "canonized" in LDS "scriptures", published and distributed to millions of Mormons to this day. It should go without saying that the maintaining of such a "commandment" in "modern scriptures," while simultaneously forbidding its actual practice, is extremely contradictory and hypocritical. One would think that LDS leaders, on the basis of their claim of "continuing revelation," could simply delete all portions pertaining to the mandate of "plural marriage." If they were to do so, they could end their "lying for the lord" about polygamy, and begin to erase the stigma which infests Mormonism.
This issue of the lowball percentage of polygamy practitioners is exemplary of how myths are created and perpetuated in Mormon culture. First, Widstoe invents a figure using highly suspect raw numbers and counting methods; he publishes it in a highly popular, widely-distributed book; nearly a century later, Gordon B. Hinckley (who claims to be knowledgeable in Mormon history) repeats those same suspect numbers, because Widtsoe, being a late apostle, is a "trusted source"; and then a young Mormon like Chip Snow repeats the figure, because Hinckley has done so before him. Chip trusts Hinckley, and Hinckley trusts Widtsoe. It's a syndrome that drives much of Mormon culture----an allegedly trustworthy Mormon invents an assertion, and because Mormons trust their leaders and forbears, they continue to repeat those assertions for 100 years, without ever pausing to question whether the assertion is valid to begin with. This culture of trusting in, and repeating speculative assertions or rumors, without verifying facts for one's self, is what makes Mormonism what it is today. For a "true believing Mormon," facts place a poor second to "faith-promoting" assertions.