Sandra Tanner joins John, Gerardo, and Jenn to discuss the context left out of LDS Church curriculum about early Mormon polygamy and to respond to the followHIM podcast featuring Church Women’s Historian Kate Holbrook.
Follow along with textual references to Doctrine and Covenants 132
Join us for Part 1
And Part 3!
Show Notes:
- “Doctrine and Covenants 129-132 with Dr. Kate Holbrook,” on followHIM
- followHIM podcast with Hank Smith and John Bytheway
- Full text of “The Happiness Letter,” Joseph Smith’s Alleged 1842 Letter to Nancy Rigdon
- “A Study in Religious Manipulation,” Jonathan Streeter on “The Happiness Letter”
- “Nancy Rigdon and the Happiness Letter,” on Mormon Discussion podcast
- Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
- “Kingdom Come,” by David Van Biema, Time, June 24, 2001
- A Woman’s View, Helen Mar Kimball Whitney’s Journals
- “Joseph Smith and Other Men’s Wives,” by Dan Vogel
- Full court transcript of the “Temple Lot Case”
- “‘Warts and all’ in Smith biography,” Deseret News, October 1, 2005
- Joseph Smith’s Polygamy by Brian Hales
- Let’s Talk About Polygamy by Brittany Nash
- “Polygamy and the Church’s Past,” Brittany Chapman Nash on All-In podcast
- “Rebuking Iniquity,” 1856 Brigham Young address threatening to divorce his wives if they didn’t stop “whining,” Journal of Discourses Vol. 4
- In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death by Samuel Brown
- In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith by Todd Compton
- “For Eternity Alone,” a poem by Helen Mar Kimball in which “for time” may mean she agreed to be sealed to Joseph, only to find out later that she was expected to have sex with him
- “The Joseph Smith-Sylvia Sessions Plural Sealing: Polyandry or Polygyny?” by Brian Hales, Mormon Historical Studies, April 2013
- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland at Sisters Devotional in Lima, Peru, in January 2020
- Utah Lighthouse Ministry
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9 Responses
Polygamy is Eugenics ‘Good genes’ compare with ‘Righteous seed’. That is the only rational (still poor and evil in my opinion) reason to perform it. It is what we do with ‘prize bulls’ in livestock. In Old Testament times David slew Goliath and was given many wives and concubines because Israel was wanting a King- and they wanted to make more people like David. There is one scripture that refers the prophet Nathan telling David that God gave David his wives and concubines.
I talk to an Orthodox Jew once why they stopped polygamy and why it was allowed in the first place. He explained to me that the Torah doesn’t specify that one cannot take more than one wife. He then said ‘they figured it out that it wasn’t good’ and then incorporated them into the Talmud (interpretation of the law). David and Solomon’s ‘seed’ caused a lot of problems.
Jesus taught ‘by their fruits she ye know them’. The fruits of polygamy are almost always (except for the patriarch) bad as outlined in the book ‘under the banner of heaven’. A close examination of Polygamy in Mormonism clearly shows that it was horrible. I don’t understand how women in the church can feel ok that their destiny in heaven is to become one of many that are involved in a Hitler like spiritual ‘birthing camps’. Very repugnant.
Brigham Young taught:
Now for my proposition; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is frequently happening that women say they are unhappy. Men will say, “My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife.” “No, not a happy day for a year,” says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years . . . that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, . . .
I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, Now go your way, my women with the rest, go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. “What, first wife too?” Yes, I will liberate you all. . . .
Sisters, I am not joking. I do not throw out my proposition to banter your feelings, to see whether you will leave your husbands, all or any of you. but I know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whining of many of the women in this territory; I am satisfied that this is the case. . . .
Prepare yourselves for two weeks from to morrow; and I will tell you now, that if you will tarry with your husbands, after I have set you free, you must bow down to it, and submit yourselves to the celestial law. You may go where you please, after two weeks from to-morrow; but, remember, that I will not hear any more of this whining. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, (1856), pp. 55-57)
Jen was a great addition to the podcast. I hope we can hear more from her in future podcasts as a regular member of the team.
Thank you!
Just finished this episode. It’s so disturbing that apologetics use Helen mar Kimballs continued faithfulness as a means to suggest gods hand was in her marriage to Joseph. Elisabeth Smart was already protecting her abusers after what a year or two? Imagine if she had been with Emmanuel and Wanda for her entire life. Do this documentary Netflix!!!!
In a court of law where they would have to stick to the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the three TBM spinmasters would not do well. I find them highly qualifed however for jobs on Fox News. They are dedicated to promoting their own agenda, and in doing so have no problem with leaving out what they know to be inconvenient truths, and have no problem with adding ridiculous rationalizations and blatant half truths into the mix. For them, truth, like beauty, seems to be in the eye of the beholder, and seems to have nothing to do with facts or common sense. In contrast, the x Mormn panel, especially Sandra Tanner, is delightful and makes us smile by cutting through the BS by simply stating the obvious. “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck . . . ” There is a big problem in relying upon feelings and faith versus the cold, hard facts. As Mark Twain said, “Faith is believing in what we know ain’t so.”
What about condoms? I really think they were around in the 1830 s. Also isn’t one affair aka polygamy enough?
As a faithful female member troubled by 132 for many years, thank you for making me laugh at how absurd this section is. Your panel was perfect. Everyone had fun or meaningful ideas to contribute and Sandra’s faithful christian perspective was an important addition.
What does it matter how strict the rules are if everything is permissible if the Lord commanded it? Objective morality looses all meaning under this understanding of morality.