The slopegraph below shows the ages of Joseph Smith (left) and the girls and women with whom he entered into extramarital relationships, commonly referred to as polygamous marriages. What does this chart illustrate?
Why Polygamy is Always a Bad Idea
Many Americans these days fear that gay marriage opens the door to the legalisation of polygamy. While this is a textbook example of the slippery slope fallacy (some people who advance this argument also fear the imminent legalisation of bestiality, incest and child molestation), very few pundits seem to be able or willing to refute the argument.
A Closer Look at the 1850 Census Data
Note 19 of the annotated Mormon essay Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo refers to “a sample from the IPUMS-USA database (Ruggles et al. 2010)”. This article takes a closer look at the sample.
Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo: An Introduction
The essay Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo is an attempt by the Mormon church to frame this part of its history in a way that is acceptable and justifiable to modern Mormons. To this end, the anonymous authors of the essay took as their starting point the main objections that are traditionally raised against Mormon polygamy.
Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo
This is an annotated version of the article Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo at lds.org. To display the annotation, click on the note numbers at the end of a paragraph (Note 1, Note 2, etc.). Click again to hide the note. The annotations are not part of the original article.
Latter-day Saints believe that monogamy—the marriage of one man and one woman—is the Lord’s standing law of marriage. In biblical times, the Lord commanded some of His people to practice plural marriage—the marriage of one man and more than one woman. Some early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also received and obeyed this commandment given through God’s prophets. Note 1
The Bible does not contain a single instance of God commanding polygamy. See note 1 to the article Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah on this site.
Latter-day Saints believe that monogamy—the marriage of one man and one woman—is the Lord’s standing law of marriage. In biblical times, the Lord commanded some of His people to practice plural marriage—the marriage of one man and more than one woman. Some early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also received and obeyed this commandment given through God’s prophets. Note 1
The Bible does not contain a single instance of God commanding polygamy. See note 1 to the article Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah on this site.
Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah
This is an annotated version of the article Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah at lds.org. To display the annotation, click on the note numbers at the end of a paragraph (Note 1, Note 2, etc.). Click again to hide the note. The annotations are not part of the original article.
The Bible and the Book of Mormon teach that the marriage of one man to one woman is God’s standard, except at specific periods when He has declared otherwise. Note 1
The Bible verses quoted in the endnote to this paragraph only indicate thatpolygamy occurred, not that God declared or commanded it. There is only one verse in the entire Bible (2 Samuel 12:8) that could be interpreted this way for one specific case. Every Bible story involving polygamy paints a grim picture of lovelessness, jealousy, deceit, adultery and murder. Most readers will not likely conclude from this that polygamy was a commandment from God.
The Bible does contain some regulations surrounding polygamy but there is little evidence that the Mormons followedthese. Leviticus 18, for instance, prohibits men from marrying a mother and her daughter, as well as marrying sisters, yet both practices were frequent among Mormons (Campbell & Campbell 1978; Daynes 2001, p. 70).
The Bible and the Book of Mormon teach that the marriage of one man to one woman is God’s standard, except at specific periods when He has declared otherwise. Note 1
The Bible verses quoted in the endnote to this paragraph only indicate thatpolygamy occurred, not that God declared or commanded it. There is only one verse in the entire Bible (2 Samuel 12:8) that could be interpreted this way for one specific case. Every Bible story involving polygamy paints a grim picture of lovelessness, jealousy, deceit, adultery and murder. Most readers will not likely conclude from this that polygamy was a commandment from God.
The Bible does contain some regulations surrounding polygamy but there is little evidence that the Mormons followedthese. Leviticus 18, for instance, prohibits men from marrying a mother and her daughter, as well as marrying sisters, yet both practices were frequent among Mormons (Campbell & Campbell 1978; Daynes 2001, p. 70).
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