Unpacking Polygamy: Our Evolving Sealing Practices, with Nate Oman

Today, we’re honored to welcome Nate Oman—law professor, scholar, and co-founder of the pioneering Latter-day Saint blog, Times and Seasons.

Our conversation begins with a bold idea: that experiencing a stupor of thought, or being troubled, is very often a prelude to revelation. For Nate, facing discomfort head-on—naming it and wrestling with it—has become a sacred part of his discipleship and a path to deeper faith.

And so in that spirit, today we’re taking a hard and honest look at the doctrine of sealing—where it came from, the ways it’s evolved, and how it became intertwined with plural marriage. Nate helps us trace its roots and earliest iterations in Latter-Day Saint theology, and he wrestles openly with what it all means for us now.

While this episode doesn’t offer easy answers, it reveals how our efforts to connect the human family throughout our history have been both human and divine. And that if we’re willing to look closely—even at the messiness—we might find ourselves stretched toward greater light, deeper understanding, and a more generous, expansive faith.

You can find Nate’s books Law and the Restoration: Law and Latter-day Saint History and Law and the Restoration: Law and Latter-day Saint Thought and Scripture on Bookshop.org or on Amazon.

This episode is part of a five-part series on polygamy. We invite you to listen to all five episodes for a range of perspectives and voices on this important topic. You can find even more resources on our website, faithmatters.org.