They don't prevent every member from drinking tea. They can't stop everyone from shopping on Sunday. They can't force everyone to wear garmies 24/7. And they certainly are not interested in publicly investigating and publicly ousting every polygamist who scrubs toilet for them or teaches priesthood lessons.

Mainstream and fundamentalis mormon thinking overlap. The idea of personal revelation means that there will always be members who give in to the polygamous lifestyle. They want to feel more special and important than the slackards at church who have never read the BofM and who wear shorts on hot days.

The hard core believers want to be the ones who inheret the CK and who are the most chosen of the saints in all of Zion. The men also like the idea of having sex on their terms with many women and being able to use their power to control "their" women and children.

"Regular" mormons are fooling themselves if they think all polygamous compounds look like FLDS or that all polygamists are exed if they participate and contribute to the Monson mormons.

Try attending a ward in Hurricane or St. George or Cedar City sometime for a look at the obvious. Lot's of cowboy farmers with lots of family down there.

Low gene pool theory suggests that they won't be getting high marks in the IQ department if it is multi generational.

If it's a first time deal in the family it could be motivated by the added sex. It's like swinging except ya don't have to hunt down other willing couples at a bar.

Polygamy.....and I'm a Mormon too.

Are you guys kidding? Is this true? I've always been assured that polygamy is a no-no and anyone found practising it would be exed. Are you saying that someone in St. George for example could be in a polygamous family and still have a good standing status at church, even attend the temple?

BTW, I visited St. George once and even did a session at the temple, they treated me poorly.

Your key words were "found practising." As with all cults, secrecy rules.

I lived nowhere near the larger famous compounds when I was attending both plyg meetings and normal ward activities.

Wards where I knew this was happening were in Kaysville, Roy, Clearfield, Bountiful, Murray, Mona, Ogden, Weber, Farr West, and SLC. My associations were limited and I only knew a small percentage of plygs in good standing in the so-called mainstream mormon wards.

My brother and one of his wives finally confess and were rebaptized, but most of their kids and other relatives are still involved in polygamy and some of those go to church with people you likely know.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2011 11:40AM by Cheryl.

is personal friends with a number of families in Orem & Provo that practice polygamy but are still members of various wards.

How does it work? Does the husband sit with the first wife and kids, all the other wives are just single moms? How do their younger kids with the other wives know not to acknowledge him as "dad" there? Or is it just blatant and a general congregational blind eye is turned to the obvious?

It's common for the wives to be in separate homes spread over a wide area including more than one than one state.

When a husband attends with one wife and her family, the ward would assume she was the man's only wife and kids.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2011 11:44AM by Cheryl.

He splits his time between two places in Utah. Those who do not know him that well chalk his one location up to commuting a long distance for work. The more I got to know him it became obvious that there is more going on in his work city than just work.

Like the guys you describe he attends church and nobody knows the difference. He and his wife that I personally know keep a pretty low profile at church. They do get into discussions with people about polygamy sometimes and their true feelings are never hidden very well.

On one of her shows, Doris Hansen (host of "Polygamy: What Love is This?") said that in Utah, there are (some) polygamists in *every* mainstream Mormon ward! The man comes to church with his legal wife and their children; they look like any other mainstream family. The family’s activity in the church and the monogamous impression which that gives, assists in keeping the polygamist’s other wives and children secret.

Only if word gets out is the man excommunicated.

But I wouldn't be surprised if it did occur in many or most wards.

I do know of two wards in the Sacramento area of California where polygamists were arrested for child abuse.

The OP seems shocking at first glance, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

I knew people in Bountiful as a child that fit the profile, as well as people who had lost family (someone who's pregnant sister had been killed when she tried to leave). It always seemed to be hovering just around the edges, if you knew where to look.

It was always easy to go into thrift stores or discount food stores in SLC and spot the women in pioneer dresses. If they were wearing regular clothing and normal hair, though?

The cases you mention sound very suspect to me.

I have been questioning a family I grew up with now since I really started reading about Polygamy. When I was young two of my best friends were children of a man who had been married once before to a woman in our ward,then susposedly got a devorce and married another lady who had worked for him and his first wife in their store. This man and his first wife could not have any children but after he remarried he and his new wife who was a widow had my two friends. The strange thing was the man and his first wife were still very close and she remained in the apartment attached to their store. The first wife was our sunday school teacher and my two friends called her aunt (---). The man and his second wife lived two blocks from the store and they all worked together in the store. Later in life one of my friends became openly a Polygamist along with one of her sisters who was a child of the secound wife and her first husband. The sister would have been young and impressionable when her mother married the second man. Just saying seems strange to me now..

Also, my mother's family in the the mainstream church talked about "Aunt Jane," the plyg wife of my Grandfather's father. He didn't separate from her after the 1890 manifesto nor the second manifesto (I think that one was 1904?.) Aunt Jane lived until about 1950 and though I never met her, I did hear many stories about her life and her devotion to my G-Grandfather and his first wife and kids.

You only get ex'd if you pull a Tom Greene and go public with your lifestyle. Embarrass TSCC and they will take punitive action.

"I'll buy that for a dollar". This stuff is indeed priceless.