Polygamy practice was based on an "excess women" theory

The "excess women" excuse is de-bunked

The Mormon apostle John Widsoe de-bunked the common explanation that polygamy was practiced in order to provide homes to a surplus of women in the church:

"The most common of these conjectures is that the Church, through plural marriage sought to provide husbands for its large surplus of female members. The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is NOT supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been MORE MALES than females in the Church..."

"The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of MALES in Utah, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United States, ...Orson Pratt, writing in 1853 from direct knowledge of Utah conditions, when the excess of females was supposedly the highest, declares against the opinion that females out numbered the males in Utah..."

"Another conjecture is that the people were few in numbers and that the Church, desiring greater numbers, permitted the practice so that a phenomenal increase in population could be attained. This is not defensible, since there WAS NO SURPLUS OF WOMEN."(Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, pages 390-392)

From an LDS publication:

"But then the proportion of the sexes in Utah would not, at present, admit of an extensive practice of plural marriage. When the census was taken five years ago, there were 143,963 souls in Utah Territory, not counting untaxed Indians. In this number there was an excess of 5,055 MALES over females. This does not have the appearance of permitting an extensive practice of plural marriage,..." (Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 20, page 133)

Brigham Young gives Mormon women 2 week ultimatum

to quit complaining about polygamy:

"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 AHAPPY DAY FOR FIVE YEARS. It is said that women are tied down and abused: that they are misused and have not the liberty they ought to have; 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 go 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....

"I wish my women, and brother Kimball's and brother Grant's to leave, and every woman in this Territory, or else say in their hearts that they will embrace the Gospel —the whole of it....say to your wives, 'Take all that I have and be set at liberty; but if you stay with me you shall comply with the law of God, and that too WITHOUT ANY MURMURING AND WHINING. You must fulfil the law of God in every respect, and round up your shoulders to WALK UP TO THE MARK WITHOUT ANY GRUNTING.' "Now recollect that two weeks from to morrow I am going to set you at liberty. But the first wife will say, 'It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;' then I say IT IS TIME THAT YOU GAVE HIM UP TO OTHER WOMEN WHO WILL BEAR CHILDREN. If my wife had borne me all the children that she ever would bare, the celestial law would teach me TO TAKE YOUNG WOMEN that would have children....

"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. And if the women will turn from the commandments of God and continue to despise the order of heaven, I will pray that the curse of the Almighty may be close to their heals, and that it may be following them all the day long...."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." (Sermon by Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4., pp. 55-57; also printed in Deseret News, Vol. 6, pp. 235-236

Brigham Young brags about his virility:

"Brother Cannon remarked that people wondered how many wives and children I had. He may inform them, that I SHALL HAVE WIVES AND CHILDREN BY THE MILLION, and glory, and riches and power and dominion, and kingdom after kingdom, and reign triumphantly." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 8, page 178)

"I could prove to this congregation that I AM YOUNG; for I could FIND MORE GIRLS WHO WOULD CHOOSE ME FOR A HUSBAND THAN CAN ANY OF THE YOUNG MEN."(Journal of Discourses, Vol. 5, page 210)

"The next man who came on to the carpet wanted to know HOW MANY WIVES BROTHER BRIGHAM HAD. I replied, '... I will guess, if that will do you any good....if I may judge from APPEARANCES, I SHOULD PRESUME HE HAS SOME FIFTY OR SIXTY.'" (Mormon Apostle Ezra T. Benson, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, pages 80-81)

On February 19, 1854, Jedediah M. Grant, second councilor to Brigham Young, spoke in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, telling of Joseph Smiths demands for other men's wives:

"When the family organization was revealed from heaven—the PATRIACHAL ORDER of God, and JOSEPH began, ON THE RIGHT AND ON THE LEFT, TO ADD TO HIS FAMILY, what a quaking there was in Israel. Says one brother to another, 'Joseph says all covenants are DONE AWAY, and NONE ARE BINDING BUT THE NEW COVENANTS; now suppose JOSEPH should come and say HE WANTED YOUR WIFE, what you say to that?' 'I would tell him to go to hell.' This was the spirit of many in the early days of this Church....""What would a man of God say, who felt aright, when JOSEPH ASKED him for his money? He would say, 'Yes, and I wish I had more to help to build up the kingdom of God.' Or if HE CAME AND SAID, 'I WANT YOUR WIFE?' O YES,' he would say, 'HERE SHE IS, THERE ARE PLENTY MORE.'... Did the PROPHET JOSEPH WANT EVERY MAN'S WIFE HE ASKED FOR? He did not,... If such a man of God should come to me and say, 'I want your gold and silver, OR YOUR WIVES,' I should say,' HERE THEY ARE, I WISH I HAD MORE TO GIVE YOU, TAKE ALL I HAVE GOT.'" Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, pp. 13-14)

Monogamy is evil

Heber C. Kimball, second councilor to Brigham Young,

on how monogamy makes a man wither and dry up:

"I have noticed that a man who has BUT ONE WIFE, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to WITHER AND DRY UP, while a man who goes into PLURALITY looks fresh, YOUNG AND SPRIGHTLY. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honors his word. Some of you may not believe this, but I not only believe it but I also know it. FOR A MAN OF GOD TO BE CONFINED TO ONE WOMAN IS SMALL BUSINESS,... I DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD DO IF WE HAD ONLY ONE WIFE APIECE." (Deseret News, April 22, 1857)

Brigham Young declares monogamy a

system established by robbers:

"Monogamy, or restrictions by law to ONE WIFE, IS NO PART OF THE ECONOMY OF HEAVEN AMONG MEN. Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman empire....Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. Thus this MONOGAMIC ORDER OF MARRIAGE, so esteemed by modern Christians as a HOLY SACRAMENT and DIVINE INSTITUTION, is nothing but a system established by a SET OF ROBBERS...."Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, and the Lord's servants have always practised it. 'And IS THAT RELIGION POPULAR IN HEAVEN?' IT IS THE ONLY POPULAR RELIGION THERE,..." (The Deseret News, August 6, 1862)

George A. Smith - Monogamists should be ashamed:

"We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, NARROW MINDED, PINCH-BACKED RACE OF MEN, WHO CHAIN THEMSELVES DOWN TO THE LAW OF MONOGAMY AND LIVE ALL THEIR DAYS UNDER THE DOMINION OF ONE WIFE. They ought to be ASHAMED OF SUCH CONDUCT, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices; and it is not to be wondered at that they should envy those who so much better understand the social relations." (Deseret News, April 16, 1856)

Brigham Young - Monogamy is the source

of prostitution and whoredom:

"Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this MONOGAMIC SYSTEM which now prevails throughout Christendom, and which had been so fruitful a source of PROSTITUTION AND WHOREDOM throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious."(Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, p. 128)

From the Mormon church paper Millenial Star:

"... THE ONE-WIFE SYSTEM NOT ONLY DEGENERATES THE HUMAN FAMILY, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; IT IS A LURE TO TEMPTATION, AND HAS ALWAYS PROVED A CURSE TO A PEOPLE." (Millennial Star, Vol. 15, p. 227)

Mormon apostle Orson Pratt explains that

the debauched state of Europe

is due to monogamy:

"Some of the nations of Europe who believe in the one wife system have actually forbidden a plurality of wives by their laws; and the consequences are that the whole country among them is overrun with the most abomi[na]ble practices? adulteries and unlawful connections prevail through all their villages, towns, cities, and country places to a most fearful extent." (The Seer, p. 12)

George Q. Cannon - Monogamy responsible

for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire:

"It is a fact worthy of note that the shortest lived nations of which we have record have been monogamic. Rome...was a MONOGAMIC NATION AND THE NUMEROUS EVILS ATTENDING THAT SYSTEM EARLY LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR THAT RUIN WHICH EVENTUALLY OVERTOOK HER."(Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, p. 202)

Apostle Orson Pratt:

"This law of MONOGAMY, or the MONOGAMIC SYSTEM, laid the foundation for prostitution and the evils and diseases of the most revolting nature and character under which modern Christendom groans,..." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, page 195)

Brigham Young - Adam was a polygamist:

"Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and Sinner! When OUR FATHER ADAM came into the the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, ONE OF HIS WIVES WITH HIM." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, page 50)

Jesus was a polygamist (!!!)

Apostle Orson Hyde:

"I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent me as a great blasphemer, because I said, in my lecture on Marriage, at our last Conference, that JESUS CHRIST WAS MARRIED at Cana of Galilee, THAT MARY, MARTHA, AND OTHERS WERE HIS WIVES, AND THAT HE BEGAT CHILDREN.(Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, page 210)

Brigham Young, answering critics who claimed

polygamy as a relic of barbarism:

"Yes, one of the relics of Adam, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, David, Solomon, the Prophets, OF JESUS, AND HIS APOSTLES." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, page 328)

Brigham Young:

"The Scripture says that He, the LORD, came walking in the Temple, with HIS TRAIN; I do not now who they were, unless HIS WIVES AND CHILDREN;..." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, page 309)

Apostle Orson Pratt:

"...it will be seen that the GREAT MESSIAH who was the founder of the Christian religion, WAS A POLYGAMIST, ...the MESSIAH chose...by MARRYING MANY honorable WIVES himself, show to all future generations that HE approbated the PLURALITY OF WIVES under the Christian dispensation, as well as under the dispensation in which His Polygamist ancestors lived. "We have now clearly shown that GOD THE FATHER HAD A PLURALITY OF WIVES, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His first Born, and another being upon the earth by whom He begat the tabernacle of Jesus, as his only begotten in this world. We have also proved most clearly that the Son followed the example of his Father, and became the great Bridegroom to whom kings' daughters and many honorable wives were to be married We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit THEIR WIVES IN ETERNITY as well as in time;... And then it would be so shocking to the modesty of the very pious ladies of Christendom to see Abraham and his wives, Jacob and his wives, JESUS AND HIS HONORABLE WIVES, all eating occasionally at the same table, and visiting one another, and conversing about their numerous children and their kingdoms. Oh, ye delicate ladies of Christendom how can you endure such a scene as this?... If you do not want your morals corrupted, and your delicate ears shocked, and your pious modesty put to the blush by the society of POLYGAMISTS and their wives, do not venture near the New Earth; for POLYGAMISTS will be honored there, and will be among the chief rulers in that Kingdom."(The Seer, page 172)

Brigham Young - To become a god, one must be a polygamist:

"The ONLY MEN WHO BECOME GODS, even the Sons of God, are those WHO ENTER INTO POLYGAMY."(Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, page 269)

My Thoughts Are:

I'm glad I wasn't a Mormon a hundred years ago.

Why has the current church deviated from this "restored gospel"? Supposedly God has suspended the practice of polygamy, but it is still part of their doctrine, and is still practiced in the temple marriages; for example: a man can be married to his deceased wife and to a new wife and be considered a practitioner of polygamy, thereby ensuring his place in the Celestial Kingdom (CK). Women are not allowed to do this if their husbands die first and they remarry, they can only be sealed to their first spouse and the second has to enter into the marriage understanding that his wife belongs to the first and any children they have together belong to the first sealing. Who would marry a young widow in the Mormon church knowing this?

Yes it does matter, because these members believed they were part of a restoration of all things and that they were elite, special, set apart, a peculiar people, etc...and this was God's true church. Looking at it today, it is as if they gave their lives defending principles and teachings that were never going to remain a part of the church. Why would they have had to sacrifice so much to belong to this faith if 100 years later it wasn't going to be practiced or preached anyway?

Suppose 50 years from now the church announces that temple ordinances are no longer required for admittance to heaven, and tithing is to be paid voluntarily? How would some long time members feel after sacrificing and adherance to these teachings all their lives just to have it disposed of for the sake of becoming more mainstream and acceptable to society? What's the point of taking the prophet's word so seriously about wearing only one pair of earrings, when another prophet 25 years down the road will just proclaim his words null and void?

Restored gospel? I don't think so. More liked "disposed of" gospel. There is no reason to adhere to a system that proclaims itself to be a duplicate of the original church, when it has slowly evolved over time to be a mishmash of doctored history, cast-away teachings, and men who were not speaking as a prophet, just merely expressing their personal views.

If a man is going to claim to be a prophet, he had better act as such, and be able to pass the test, like maybe having a prophecy come true. When is the last time an LDS prophet actually "prophesized" anything?

The LDS church isn't special. It isn't a 'restored' gospel. It's just the result of one man's opinions and a book he wrote trying to keep from starvation. People believed him because of his ability to tell the story, and for his charisma and charm. They elect presidents and congressmen the same way. And when a president or a congressman is found to have lied to the people, through outside investigations and media interrogations, the people cast him out. This is NOT ALLOWED in the LDS church. There is no scrutiny, no questioning of "the Lord's Annointed", or you risk your membership in the club. The threat is 'loss of Spirit', being cast out into "outer darkness" and losing your family to another worthy male who can claim your wife and children because of your unbelief. What a mindfuck.

Let's pretend you're a judge, not a lawyer. That means you take ALL evidence into account, not just the set of statements that support your views. Weigh the evidence, pro and con. Put the church on trial, and if it's true it should be able to back up all their teachings with fact, not feelings. Appeal to the emotions is what ties the members to the church. They promote "truthiness" in the pews. Whatever promotes good feelings and maintains your testimony becomes "true". Whatever causes doubts and casts a shadow of fear must be therefore "false". This is not how real life is. Judges don't throw criminals into jail based on their looks or personality, they have to weigh the facts and follow the law, regardless of their personal feelings.

Why do I continue to rant about the church? Because I am making a stand against something I feel tore my own family apart. I truly believe that the church is the cause for strife within many families, splitting them up into "believers" and "non-believers". Even if I were to come back, I would have to accept that my own children couldn't be sealed to me and my spouse, and I couldn't be an "eternal family" by the Mormon standards, so why the hell would I return? They already failed to deliver on the promise by waiting until I got through the last hurdle to tell me that even though I was a good and faithful member of the church, I still will be unable to attain the CK with my family in tact because not all believe. I think it is a colossal waste of time to work and slave away for such an unreachable goal. If I am doomed to a lesser kingdom anyway, then why should I pay tithing, go to the temple, keep up on callings, attend interviews and be subjected to their rules? According to their own standards, I will never be worthy to enter the HOLY OF HOLIES because I won't be able to get the Second Annointing anyway, because it is reserved for General Authorities and their spouses, to make their calling and election sure. Does anyone know why regular members have never heard of this ordinance? Because they don't qualify for it anyway, so why would they tell anyone it exists in the first place? And I don't believe them when they say they don't practice it anymore, because if it used to be a requirement 100 years ago, there is no reason to believe it is no longer required, or else the church fails to live up to it's own standard of claiming to be a 'restored gospel'. If Jesus had to do it, SO DOES EVERYONE. There is a HOLY of HOLIES in EVERY TEMPLE that the General Authorities would attend. They have all received this ordinance, and regular members would not be informed of it for the simple fact that they can't ordain everyone, there has to be an upper crust and a special class of Mormon, and there has to be souls to inhabit the Terrestial and Telestial Kingdoms, right? Treating everyone the same and allowing everyone to partake would take away that special uniqueness and higher authority that the GA's give themselves. They all have special secret knowledge that only a select few ever learn, and the regular members think they have this when they get their garments and endowments. There is so much more to the church than the average member knows, and it is only through careful research and sorting the facts from feelings that one can be able to remove themselves from this boxed in "limited reach" system.

This is NOT Christ's way. He preached acceptance and inclusion to all those who come to him. There were no temple ordinances, no recommends and interview processes. There were no meeting attendance mandates, or holding multiple callings. His only requirements were:

1.Belief

2.Repentance

3. Baptism

Why can't it be that simple again?