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Monday, April 18, 2011

Mormon Theology no. 29 - Polygamy and the LDS Church

With the myriad of articles about the Polygamist groups and their Trust Fund issues saturating the press, The Mormon Eagle feels to announce the LDS Church's official policy on Plural Marriage or Polygamy.

At one time the principle of Plural Marriage was sanctioned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for a time was connected with the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage, but is no longer connected therewith.  Therefore, Plural Marriage is no longer a policy of The Church of Jesus Christ.  President Wilford Woodruff stated in 1890, "We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice" (Official Declaration - 1).

President Joseph F. Smith had this to say in 1904, after hearing that new plural marriages were being conducted after the issuance of the Manifest in 1890.  He said, "I hereby announce that all such marriages are prohibited, and if any officer or member of the Church shall assume to solemnize or enter into any such marriage, he will be deemed in transgression against the Church, and will be liable to be dealt with according to the rules and regulations thereof and excommunicated therefrom" (Conference Report, April 1904, p. 97).

In the October 1998 General Conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley said, 

If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose.  Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church. . . . There is no such thing as a "Mormon Fundamentalist."  It is a contradiction to use the two words together.  More than a century ago God clearly revealed unto His prophet Wilford Woodruff that the practice of plural marriage should be discontinued, which means that it is now against the law of God.  Even in countries where civil or religious law allows polygamy, the Church teaches that marriage must be monogamous and does not accept into its membership those practicing plural marriage.

Thus The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' position is stated clear as day, shining as the Sun in a cloudless sky, that none be led astray or brought into the buffetings of Satan.  

I know that the principle of Celestial Marriage is of God, and at this time God has stated that Plural Marriages are to be non-existent in His Church.  If they were to be reinstated, Heavenly Father would make it known through His chosen Prophet, the President of the Church, who at this time is President Thomas S. Monson - chosen because he is the only man on Earth authorized by God to exercise all the Priesthood keys.  In the Name of Jesus our Savior, amen.  

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