Origin of Latter Day Saint Polygamy

Origin Of Latter Day Saint Polygamy

Polygamy, or plural marriage, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints probably originated with the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, Jr., who taught that polygamy (or at least polygyny) was a divine commandment. Smith practiced it personally, by some accounts marrying as many as 30 women. Evidence for Smith's position is provided by "sealing" records, public marriage licenses (in many cases notarized), affidavits, letters, journals and diaries, but Smith and the leading church quorums denied that he preached or practiced polygamy. Smith's son Joseph Smith III, his widow Emma Smith, and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS, now called the Community of Christ) challenged the evidence and taught that Joseph Smith had opposed polygamy. They instead claimed that Brigham Young introduced plural marriage.

Read more about Origin Of Latter Day Saint Polygamy:  1850s: Official Sanction, Expansion and Repudiation, Stance of Other Latter Day Saint Sects

Famous quotes containing the words origin of, origin, day and/or saint:

    In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    ... in any war a victory means another war, and yet another, until some day inevitably the tides turn, and the victor is the vanquished, and the circle reverses itself, but remains nevertheless a circle.
    Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)

    The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
    Alexander Pope (1688–1744)