Deidre Henderson, a Republican. Her proposal to make bigamy an infraction rather than a felony has gathered significant support. It was unanimously approved by a legislative panel Monday, despite resistance from former members of polygamous groups who said it could embolden abusers.
The mainstream faith abandoned the practice in under pressure from the U. The Manifesto marked a new relationship with the federal government and the nation: prosecution of polygamists declined, plural wives came out of hiding and assumed their married names, and husbands interacted more freely with their families, especially after U.
It said nothing about the laws of other nations. Ever since the opening of colonies in Mexico and Canada, Church leaders had performed plural marriages in those countries, and after October , plural marriages continued to be quietly performed there. Either one or both of the spouses who entered into these unions typically had to agree to remain in Canada or Mexico. Under exceptional circumstances, a smaller number of new plural marriages were performed in the United States between and , though whether the marriages were authorized to have been performed within the states is unclear.
The precise number of new plural marriages performed during these years, inside and outside the United States, is unknown. Sealing records kept during this period typically did not indicate whether a sealing was monogamous or plural, making an exhaustive calculation difficult. A rough sense of scale, however, can be seen in a chronological ledger of marriages and sealings kept by Church scribes.
Between the late s and the early s, during a time when temples were few and travel to them was long and arduous, Latter-day Saint couples who lived far away from temples were permitted to be sealed in marriage outside them. Almost all the monogamous marriages recorded were performed in Arizona or Mexico. Of the 25 plural marriages, 18 took place in Mexico, 3 in Arizona, 2 in Utah, and 1 each in Colorado and on a boat on the Pacific Ocean.
Overall, the record shows that plural marriage was a declining practice and that Church leaders were acting in good conscience to abide by the terms of the Manifesto as they understood them. The exact process by which these marriages were approved remains unclear.
For a time, post-Manifesto plural marriages required the approval of a member of the First Presidency. There is no definitive evidence, however, that the decisions were made by the First Presidency as a whole; President Woodruff, for example, typically referred requests to allow new plural marriages to President Cannon for his personal consideration.
Apostle Heber J. Grant, for example, reported that while visiting Mormon settlements in Mexico in , he received 10 applications in a single day requesting plural marriages.
He declined them all. At first, the performance of new plural marriages after the Manifesto was largely unknown to people outside the Church. When discovered, these marriages troubled many Americans, especially after President George Q. Cannon stated in an interview with the New York Herald that new plural marriages might be performed in Canada and Mexico.
Roberts, a member of the First Council of the Seventy, to the U. Congress, it became known that Roberts had three wives, one of whom he married after the Manifesto. A petition of 7 million signatures demanded that Roberts not be seated. Congress complied, and Roberts was barred from his office.
The exclusion of B. Roberts opened Mormon marital practices to renewed scrutiny. Church President Lorenzo Snow issued a statement clarifying that new plural marriages had ceased in the Church and that the Manifesto extended to all parts of the world, counsel he repeated in private. After Joseph F. Smith became Church President in , a small number of new plural marriages were also performed during the early years of his administration. Senate in The U.
Congress renewed its attack on polygamy by disincorporating the church and seizing its assets. In , church president Wilford Woodruff, fearful that the continuation of the practice of plural marriage would lead to the destruction of all Mormon temples, announced an end to official support for polygamy.
His "Manifesto" was reinforced by a decree threatening polygamists with excommunication; in response, the government returned church property, pardoned polygamists, and admitted Utah to the Union in The Manifesto, though never described as a revelation, has remained the official church position for more than years. Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America.
Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today. I n the summer of , hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies. By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history. Rising from humble beginnings in the s, the church now counts twelve million members worldwide. Mormon settlers began a westward exodus, escaping persecution, in the s.
When they arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, outside the boundaries of the United States, in , they finally found a home. Religions have differing views on marriage and polygamy. For example, because Buddhism does not regard marriage as a sacrament and only a secular affair, forms of marriage vary by country.
For example, Thailand legally recognized polygamy in , and Myanmar outlawed polygyny in In Christianity , the Roman Catholic Church condemns polygamy. The Lutheran Church accepts some polygamists.
The Anglican Communion ruled that polygamy was permissible in certain circumstances in In Islam, a Muslim man may have more than one wife at the same time, up to four wives, according to Islamic marital jurisprudence.
Hinduism allows polygamy with circumstances. For example, traditional Hindu law allowed polygamy if the first wife could not bear a son.
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