Polygamy, Racism, and Other Changing Doctrines of Mormonism

Because the LDS Church claims to be led by divine revelation, major changes in doctrine are startling. If LDS prophets are led by God, one might expect current prophets to agree with previous ones. But the LDS principle of continuing revelation allows new “truths” to supersede past ones. Yet changes in LDS teachings raise the question of whether past prophets were wrong. And what will be said in 50 years about the prophets Mormons revere and obey today? With this in mind, consider some major changes in Mormon doctrine over the years.

Polygamy 

The Book of Mormon expressly prohibits polygamy, Jacob 2:27-30: “There shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none.” The 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants (Section 101) agrees: 

Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again. 

Yet in the 1830s, Joseph Smith began exploring the possibility of polygamy. He formally (but secretly) introduced plural marriage in 1843. The doctrine was not embraced openly until 1852, when the Mormons were safely established in Utah. For the next 40 years, polygamy was taught as a requirement for the highest levels of heaven. By the 1880s, an estimated 20-30% of Mormon families practiced polygamy.

Yet polygamy was strongly rejected by the American public as a barbaric practice. The United States government applied increasingly stern measures against it. In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act made polygamy a federal offense and authorized the seizure of LDS Church assets. Polygamous men were imprisoned. Families moved to Mexico and Canada, or went underground. Under pressure to preserve the Church from destruction at the hands of the United States government, LDS President Wilford Woodruff released a statement in 1890 - called “The Manifesto” - declaring his intention to submit to the laws of the land, and advising members of the Church to refrain from entering any illegal marriage. Even so, plural marriages continued to be performed in secret, until polygamy was completed forbidden by the LDS Church in 1904.

Many people, out of faithfulness to Joseph Smith, continued to practice polygamy outside the official LDS Church. Known as “fundamentalists”, several close-knit polygamous communities survive across the western United States to this day. They believe that the mainstream LDS Church is apostate, while they represent original Mormonism..

While plural marriage is now strictly forbidden in the LDS Church, it was never renounced as an eternal principle. The Church permits men to be married in LDS temples “for eternity” to more than one wife. In fact, the current LDS prophet, Russell M. Nelson, is eternally sealed to two women.

After being a mainstay of Mormonism for 50 years, polygamy was shelved so that the LDS Church could survive. But marriage laws in the United States have changed considerably since 1890. Polygamy is no longer prosecuted as a crime. Will LDS prophets reveal that faithful Mormons should practice plural marriage again?

The LDS Church’s Gospel Topics Essays:

Plural Marriage in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage

Racism

For decades, men of black African descent could not hold the LDS priesthood. (In Mormonism, priesthood is the authority to administer key ordinances in God’s name. No women have ever been allowed to hold this priesthood.)

In the 1800s, Mormonism, like most American religions, had a mixed report card on racism. Some early Mormons were pro-slavery, some anti-slavery, and some neutral. During Joseph Smith’s time, two black men were ordained to the LDS priesthood, although this privilege was later revoked. The Book of Mormon reflects the view that dark skin is a curse from God in response to spiritual depravity. 

In the Utah period, Mormonism was marked by a demeaning attitude toward blacks. It was commonly taught, well into the 2oth century, that black skin was God’s curse on Cain (Genesis 4:11-15). In LDS thought, a great war in heaven divided God’s spirit children in the premortal existence. Those born black in this life were said to have been less valiant in that heavenly war. Brigham Young, the 2nd LDS Church President and Prophet, had a low view of blacks:

You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind. (Journal of Discourses: 7:290-291).

This is why interracial marriage was not allowed and social interaction between the races was officially discouraged well into the 1960s and 1970s. It is also the rationale for denying blacks the priesthood and not allowing them to receive temple ordinances.

Latter-day Saints will argue that the LDS position on blacks and the priesthood was not doctrine, but a matter of policy. Yet in 1949, the Church’s highest leaders spoke clearly against this view:

The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the Priesthood at the present time. (Statement of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, August 17, 1949, Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City.)

This changed in 1978, when LDS Prophet Spencer W. Kimball announced a revelation that allowed black men to receive the priesthood. Since then, the LDS Church has made several statements condemning racism. They have increased their missionary efforts in Africa and in black communities elsewhere. 

We can rejoice that the LDS Church has officially turned away from the evil of racism. But were the LDS prophets in the 1850s right or wrong? Was the First Presidency in 1949 telling the truth? It’s good for any church to change policies that are wrong. But what does it say about a church that claims to be led by divine revelation?

The LDS Church’s Gospel Topics Essay: Race and the Priesthood

Trinity

The historic position of Christianity, based on the Bible, is that there is only one God, who eternally exists in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Latter-day Saints deny this idea of God. They envision a “Godhead” of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost who are not one God in three persons, but separate beings who are one in spirit, purpose, and glory. But their view of God has changed over the years.

The way God is depicted in the Book of Mormon is much closer to biblical Trinitarianism. Here is a sampling of just a few examples:

And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. (2 Nephi 31:21)

And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name; for behold, verily I say unto you, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one. (3 Nephi 11:27)

Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. (Ether 3:14)

Modern Latter-day Saints interpret statements about “one God” and Jesus being “the Father and the Son” in support of current LDS doctrine, but on the face of it, the language itself suggests otherwise.

In the decade after the Book of Mormon was published, the LDS idea of God continued to develop. The Lectures on Faith - published in 1835 as part of LDS scripture - asserted:

• That the Godhead consists of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Lecture 5, Paragraph 1)
• That there are two "personages", the Father and the Son, that constitute the "supreme power over all things" (Lecture 5, Paragraph 2)
• That the Father is a "personage of spirit, glory, and power" (Lecture 5, Paragraph 2)
• That the Son is a "personage of tabernacle" who "possess[es] the same mind with the Father; which Mind is the Holy Spirit" (Lecture 5, Paragraph 2)

Over time, the current LDS view of God emerged. Most modern Latter Day Saints would never accept the idea of a two "personage" Godhead, with the Father as a spirit and the Holy Spirit as the shared "mind" of the Father and the Son.

Summary

Biblical Christianity has certainly changed in its practices over the years. But the core doctrines that define the Christian faith are rooted in the stability of the unchanging Bible. Different interpretations of the Bible come and go in different eras, but the Bible is always the definitive standard against which any interpretation is measured. God continues to speak to his people today, not through the changing ideas of mortal prophets, but through his timeless word, the Bible.