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Eternal Polygamy

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When the subject of polygamy ever came up in church in the lessons or discussions, it was always quickly asserted that we don’t practice that anymore, that it was something in the church’s past because there were more faithful women than men, and that you will be excommunicated if you practiced it now. I always found it a difficult subject and wished that it hadn’t ever been practiced, though in the back of my thoughts I knew that the church taught that polygamy would be practiced in the eternities, and sometimes jokes would be made about someone being a second wife in heaven. The present president of the church and his councillor are both married to their second wives as their first wives passed away, but what about a woman whose first husband passes away, if she remarries she can’t have both husbands in the eternities. When I was about 20, living in England, I had a conversation with a sister of our ward in the ladies toilets. This sister had two young children but her husband was le

The first cracks in my Mormon shelf

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The first heavy item on my shelf was polygamy and I am sure that I will have to cover this topic in several articles. Growing up in the church you always vaguely knew about Brigham Young and his multitude of wives and I can remember my Mum saying that she didn’t really like Brigham Young, but you never heard about Joseph Smith and his polygamous affairs. I remember my Father in law asking me years ago if I knew that Joseph Smith had practised polygamy, Pa always had a problem with this subject and had even written several letters to the First Presidency about it. What he couldn’t understand were the contradictions about Joseph Smith’s wives, in some books he read about him having had more than 26 wives and in other sources he read quotes from Joseph Smith flat out denying that he had more than one wife. As an answer to his questions he received a copy of the list of women who testified in the Temple Lot case swearing that they were married to Joseph Smith, but this didn’t answer his re