Listening with open mouth to the Mormon Stories interview with Lindsay Hansen Park. She opines that there are several people living polygamy secretly in every Mormon ward.

Any take on this, exmos? As a nevermo this is a bit of a shocker, I'll admit.

(and why is a nevermo listening to Mormon Stories? I can't even tell you. My fascination mystifies me.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2015 05:04AM by cattofthegarage.

I kind of doubt if that's true. As much as ward members are all up in each others business it would be impossible to hide.

Some wards and areas of Utah have a predominance of polygamists in them. Others have one or none.

I have polygamist relatives and grew up on a farm with trailers out back which housed polygamist wives. No one in the ward I attended knew this or that we had polyg group meetings in our living room.

Most of my brother's children are still living that way. They're polygamists who attend normal wards but don't talk about it at church.

I think there are far more polygamists than most Mormons realize. Single mothers are approached by couples to become polygamist wives more often than you think. And some do. The wife befriends the single mother and gradually sounds her out. This happened to me years ago. Also, when you have a single mother in your ward they may be a polygamist and you would never know it. I was surprised at how often study led people to one of two conclusions: either it was all crap or polygamy was doctrine.

I don't think there were many in Texas when I was growing up there. I can't imagine a polygamist in Maryland.

Here's another way to view polygamy. In my ward growing up, one of the leaders seduced his babysitter by telling her polygamy was of God, blah blah blah. He had her and his wife totally convinced. The girl even moved in during the summers to "Nanny". Eventually it all blew up when the girl got wise. This was a country club neighborhood, much like many parts of Maryland.

Sounds like he was following the Joseph Smith script.

Yes it does.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2015 11:43AM by Templar.

I too grew up in Tx and now live in MD. Should have been the other way around.

Polygamists lived openly on the corner of the street where I grew up. They had a last name that is well known in Mormon circles as associated with polygamists. Dh also grew up in a neighborhood with well-known polygamists. And, later, my brother lived in a home with polygamists as his neighbors. It is very common and prevalent in the Salt Lake area.

As for the ones on our corner, everyone knew they were polygamists. They held their own church meetings at their house on Sundays. Their kids often participated in our ward youth activities.

The Mormon wives on our street were outraged when the father began pursuing one of the teens in our youth group to be his next wife. She lived in a nearby trailer park, was from a broken home and I suppose he saw her as more vulnerable than the other teen girls in our group.

Of course, in the 70s outraged Mormon wives did nothing but complain to their husbands -- who laughed about it and likely made crude jokes in priesthood meetings. (Not sure outraged Mormon wives do much more these days, but I've been out so long I wouldn't know.)

I doubt there's '1' in every ward -- a polygamist family unit would by definition be at least 3 people.

Considering activity rates, that's something like 1-3% of the entire active church, or something in the neighborhood of 50-100,000 people. The formal polygamist sects count about 20,000-40,000 people among them, including children.

Something along the lines of one polygamist family per stake I could believe, but one per ward stretches credulity.

My father pursued young women and hoped to recruit more wives. We held meetings in our home run by a polygamist "prophet." No one in the ward suspected anything. We told lies about the prophet and his wives out back and about the women and children who sometimes hid out inside our home when they felt threatened.

I am sure almost every ward has "celestial polygamist " those that were sealed to a second or third wife at the death of a previous wife.

As far as the living. We had a very elderly polygamist couple in the 60s attend our ward. A man, his wife and her "sister". They were in their later 80s at the time.

As I got older and learned names of prominent polygamist groups I was surprised to realize a girl in elementary belonged to one, she was popular and seemed normal. I also had a funny experience of dating a guy from a polygamist group. I had never heard of the Jessops (yes, I was naive). So, a few dates in and the guy tells me he has fifty brothers and ten sisters. Not thinking I say, "Your poor mom!" He laughed and had to explain that no his dad had five wives and that was why. It was at that point we stopped dating.

I think there are polygs in every ward.

However, since polygamy is unlawful in all states, it should be called by the correct term of "swingers"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2015 11:18AM by deco.

My high school buddy's father was a descendant of one of Brigham Young's brothers and spent half the year in SLC with my friend's mother to whom he was legally married in Utah and the other half year with his so-called "ex-wife" whom he lived with in Idaho. He was a fully active TBM and high priest until his death at 97.

Truthfully, TSCC has never done away with polygamy which D&C 132 says is the only way to become a god. They just took it underground. I'm sure the reason that the Utah authorities, who are mostly active Mormons, don't go after fundamentalist polygamists is that it could blow up in their face. What if the fundamentalists were to point out active Mormon polygamists they are aware of as part of their defense?

I released and later excommunicated a bishop.

He had secretly become a member of 'The Church of the First Born' and, with his wife's full support, was preparing young single sisters (RMs) in his ward to be his plural wives.

Thank you, Tom. You proved my point. I'm sure the fundamentalist groups know a lot of Mormon polygamists that are under the radar.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2015 03:38PM by Templar.

I'd be surprised if there were polygamists in even 10% of wards in the U.S. Maybe 10% of the wards in the morridor.

There are a bunch of polygamists that live near me, but they have their own church. They all look like Mennonites, so they'd stick out in any LDS ward.

They wear normal clothing and hair styles. They talk and act like any other Mormons in the wards they attend.

Yes Cheryl, and they like to use the TSCC temples, at least they did in the UK.

The polygamists believe in temple rites but the little groups can't afford temples of their own. The different groups don't usually share temples if one is prosperous enough to build one. If they attend a regular ward and pay tithing, they can have TRs and wear garments. This is a point of pride with them and they think it gives them prestige with God in the hereafter.

there are 30-40k mormon polygamists attending LDS wards in the SLC valley.

Dallin Oaks is sealed to two women.

(Don't ask him to apologize.)

Well, this is an eye-opener!

A few people have given figures for numbers of polygamists attending LDS wards - do you have sources?

It's a strange world we live in...

It would take an aggressive widespread effort to compile accurate statistics on something that most Mormons and almost all polygamists want to remain a secret blacker than outer darkness.

All we can do is report our own observations and estimates based on keeping our eyes and ears open and questioning official Mormon assumptions.

when I first read that line I thought "no way"
But I know lindsey has researched this extensively so now I'm hesitant to say no.

I'll have to give it a listen and see what I think.

Definitely worth listening to! She's encountered some crazy stuff.

And a Cadillac for every member.

""Now, we are generous with the Negro. We are willing that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I would be willing to let every Negro drive a Cadillac if they could afford it. I would be willing that they have all the advantages they can get out of life in the world. But let them enjoy these things among themselves. I think the Lord segregated the Negro, and who is man to change that segregation? It reminds me of the scripture on marriage, 'What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.' Only here we have the reverse of the thing--What God hath separated, let not man bring together again."

http://exmormon.org/d6/drupal/Blacks-Cadillacs-Racist-LDS-History

How awful. I'm still in shock every time I hear stuff like this. I can't believe that the church I once loved is so full of hate.

TBMs need to realize that their god never did away with polygamy. Carefully read the Manifesto. It say nothing about the will of god. It was very carefully worded. All it really says is that members of the church will be "advised" to follow the laws of the land.

Shortly before I went on my mission in 1960, a number of missionaries (both male and female) serving in France were excommunicated for getting involved in polygamy. Some joined polygamous groups after leaving the mission field.

We were strongly warned in the Salt Lake Mission Home to not investigate polygamy or statements of early church leaders. Apparently, that's what caused these missionaries to realize that polygamy (i.e. "celestial marriage") is the true order of god and the commandment to practice it has never been removed.

While the recent Tom Hanks produced "Big Love" tv show is fictional, much of it is based on how polygamy in Utah is actually practiced today. In one episode (which the church tried unsuccessfully to block), the first wife used another persons temple recommend and went through a temple session with her TBM mother to make her feel better.

When it comes to polygamy, TSCC has two faces. There's a reason the D&C Section 132 has never been dropped. Some consider it to be the most important revelation that Joseph Smith ever gave. It clearly indicates that men can only become gods by "the New and Everlasting Covenant" which is celestial (i.e. plural) marriage. Some members think this means what today is referred to as temple marriage, but they are wrong. Early members were not married in the temple, they were "sealed" for eternity which is something completely different. Some were already legally married to someone else. They were married in common public marriages, some of which Joseph Smith personally conducted.

Many brides are shocked to learn (as some have posted on this board) that TSCC considers them "married" when they turn over their marriage license before the endowment begins. In most European counties this foolishness isn't acceptable as a marriage and couples there are required to also have a publicly witnessed wedding.

There's an entire group in SLC, The Kingston clan, that is right under everyone's noses. The leaders "marry" their half- sisters, cousins, nieces...and they look like everyone else. 3 young women who are sisters managed to escape and they now help others escape the cult.

Jay Osmond is sealed to two women.