Woe to You Eves!

Journal of Discourses 12:97; “I do not wish to say much upon this subject, but I say, woe to you Eves if you proclaim or entertain feelings against this doctrine! Woe to every female in this Church who says, ‘I will not submit to the doctrine that God has revealed.’ You will wake up by and by and say, ‘I have lost the crown and exaltation I might have gained had I only been faithful to my covenants and the revelations which God gave. I might have been crowned as well as you, but now I must go to another kingdom.’” – Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, June 30, 1867

Leviticus 20:12; “And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.”

Oh what a tangled web we weave… 

Mr. Young should have kept his mouth closed by proclaiming someone will earn damnation upon their souls for not practicing polygamy. 

God indeed proclaimed many things about polygamists and the things He revealed weren’t necessarily in Young’s favor. The OT is totally bereft of commandments from God telling men they must live a polygamous lifestyle and the NT has numerous passages telling bishops and elders should be the husband of only one wife. 

The one remarkable commandments of God is when He told the Israelites not to marry their mothers-in-law. It’s as if that particular commandment fell on deaf ears. Four of Joe Smith’s wives fell into just such a category with the Sessions and Woodworth women.

Moms and Daughters

Patty Bartlett Sessions

Sylvia Porter Sessions Lyon

Phoebe Watrous Woodworth

Flora Ann Woodworth

This is but one example of the sinful behavior of how Mormon polygamy operated. You can find other horror stories of men marrying their daughters-in-law, or marrying their step daughters. Brigham Young even did the same thing. He married the ex-daughter-in-law of wife #4. 

 Every woman whose shadow darkened the doorstep of Mormonism was fair game in the polygamy world. Joe Smith’s uncle John was another notorious example who married his son’s wife.

Before they sing the praises of polygamy, they should’ve read what God really had to say about it.