This time they tried to make the topic more palatable to parents and adults. I’ll provide links below for you to read both versions of the lesson.
The beginning of both lessons begins with Joseph Smith reading the Bible and wondering why prophets had more than one wife, so he decided to ask the Lord about it. It’s interesting to note the subtitle for the original lesson is “Faith to obey a law from the Lord, even when it’s hard” and the subtitle for the current lesson is “A commandment for a time”.
Both lessons say that the Lord told Joseph that men should only have one wife and only practice plural marriage when He commands it. In the references, the lesson doesn’t give one example of God commanding anyone to practice polygamy.
This is because He never has expressed His will for men to practice plural marriage. He may have permitted men to take more than one wife, but His plan for marriage has always been one man and one woman.
In both lessons, you learn God wanted Joseph and the men in the church to practice polygamy. Both want you to know how completely devastated he was to hear this new commandment.
Something the original lesson included that the current one leaves out is Joseph telling the Twelve Apostles about the new commandment and their struggle to live it. I find this kind of funny considering some of the comments early Church leaders made about polygamy. It was something they were proud of, not something that was a hardship for them.
The original lesson includes Brigham Young, whereas the current one does not. In it, he is shown praying with his wife Mary about this commandment, and they too believed it should be practiced.
Both lessons go on to talk about church members going to prison because they practiced polygamy. They make it sound like non-Church members made laws against plural marriages just because they didn’t like the Mormons.
Both lessons conclude with Wilford Woodruff telling church members in 1890 that the Lord has told him they are to no longer practice polygamy. They said nothing about the legal and social pressures members of the church were facing, or their desire to have Utah become a state. These things alone led to them discontinuing the practice of polygamy, at least in this life.
Even though Mormons will say polygamy was just for certain church leaders during a certain time in the Church’s history they still believe a man can have more than one wife in heaven. If he remarries in the temple and is sealed to her after his first wife passes away, he will have two wives in the next life.
The Doctrine and Covenants taught early church members that polygamy was a requirement for exaltation into the highest kingdom of the Mormon heaven. Oddly enough this teaching seems to be ignored when section 132 is taught in their classes. It is still however part of their “standard works”.
Joseph Smith taught in verse 4 –
“For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory”
According to the description of the section, the new and everlasting covenant is also known as the “plurality of wives”.
As I conclude, these are just a couple of questions that come to mind as I read over this lesson.
Why are they grooming children to accept polygamy as something normal and from God?
Are they planning on bringing it back?
Why teach children about a topic they’re not old enough to understand and would lead to inappropriate conversations?
Mormons don’t do anything like this without a reason behind it.
In Christ,
Melissa Grimes melissa@lifeafter.org
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