Church discontinued polygamy "officially" in 1890?

[_cinepro]

Would it really make a difference to anybody if the Church started using the date of 1906 or 1910 or whatever instead of 1890? I mean, after you get over the thrill of knowing just a sliver more about polygamy than most other people in the Church, it doesn't mean that much.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about "getting over the thrill of knowing" whatever, but I don't think the point is the date.

~dancer~

I wondered the same thing, but I figured it must have been a thrill for him to learn about post-manifesto polygamy. To each his own. It certainly wasn't thrilling to me.

Whenever someone mentions 1890 as the end of polygmay (especially in Church), I chuckle to myself and think "Guess what you don't know?". Other than that small and momentary feeling of mental superiority for having read an article in Dialog magazine, the date doesn't really make much difference to me.

I'm not trying to set myself up as a defender for the Church (and I'm sure the Church would decline the offer), but I just don't see the lag time as being significant. It's nothing more than a small footnote. If I believed that the Church still authorized sealings to more than one living wife, then I would make a big deal out of it. But whether the practice was discontinued 102 years ago or 118, not such a big deal.

I also think the mistaken date is perpetrated by tradition and ignorance, with no intent to deceive. My attitude may have been largely influenced by reading the book

Mormonism in Transition which documents the wild and crazy decades between 1890 and 1940 where everything was changing in the Church. Over time, I expect the 1906 date to become more widely known and accepted. [/url]

[_BishopRic]

[
I also think the mistaken date is perpetrated by tradition and ignorance, with no intent to deceive. My attitude may have been largely influenced by reading the book

I haven't read the book yet, so you may be correct. But it seems there is a pattern. I don't think the church wants to admit to breaking the law. Through the manifesto, Utah and the church survived by gaining statehood and the federal rights that go along with it. From an institution that preaches honesty and obedience to the laws of the land to admit to breaking them, well, a little egg on the face, no?

It's similar to the denial of Joseph's polygamy. While in Nauvoo, etc., polygamy was illegal. In "Deseret," Brigham Young et al could come clean with it as it was outside the US boundaries, thus no clear-cut law broken.

[_truth dancer]

Hi Cinepro... :-)

I also think the mistaken date is perpetrated by tradition and ignorance, with no intent to deceive.

Maybe I have grown too cynical these days but I just REALLY find it difficult to believe LDS leaders and historians don't know they are deliberately being deceptive as they "suggest" that the statement early church leaders made in 1890 was honest.

Do you REALLY, SERIOUSLY think they do not know what happened?

Again, the problem is not the dates it is the fact that early church leaders lied as they told the world they would stop polygamy.

Today, the practice of deception continues.

~dancer~

[_Scottie]

Did church leaders continue to add multiple wives after 1890, or did they just not dissolve the already polygamous marriages?

[_Dr. Shades]

They continued to marry polygamous wives--and officiate at & solemnize polygamous marriages--after 1890.

Even Wilford Woodruff himself took another wife.

[_cinepro]

Did church leaders continue to add multiple wives after 1890, or did they just not dissolve the already polygamous marriages?

The whole story is here.

The whole story of polygamy stinks, from it's murky start in the 1830's to it's temporal death in the early 1900's. In the grand scheme of shenanigans, I just don't see post-manifesto polygamy as being that big. But I may have just gotten used to the idea over the years...

[_rcrocket]

They continued to marry polygamous wives--and officiate at & solemnize polygamous marriages--after 1890.

Even Wilford Woodruff himself took another wife.

This is incorrect. Quinn is wrong on that last marriage. There is no evidence that the two were married in Woodruff's lifetime; Quinn is just guessing. Woodruff's biographer says they were never married.

My own interpretation of events is that Woodruff, who was over 90, was suffering from dementia and became infatuated with a non-member lecturer swinging through SLC who was in her 40s. He did not "woo" her or court her, but attended her lectures and invited her to take meals with him while she was in town.

This woman was not even a member of the Church during her lifetime. A friend of hers had her sealed to Woodruff after both had died -- I'm not sure the date but it would have been around 1920 or 1930. This is all explained in Waiting for World's End: The Diaries of Wilford Woodruff by Wilford Woodruff and Susan Staker.

Woodruff and all later presidents of the church adhered to the 1890 Manifesto. Whether they cohab'd with existing plural wives is a different question.

[_Jason Bourne]

They continued to marry polygamous wives--and officiate at & solemnize polygamous marriages--after 1890.

Even Wilford Woodruff himself took another wife.

While the polygamous marriages did continue they were severly limited and sporadic after the manifesto. it was really the beginning of the end.

I have yet to see convincing evidence the Woodruff took another wife after 1890.

[_capt jack]

Woodruff and all later presidents of the church adhered to the 1890 Manifesto. Whether they cohab'd with existing plural wives is a different question.

What about the other members of the First Presidency? I can't remember which one it was, but I'm pretty sure at least one married a plural wife after the First and before the Second Manifesto.

[_rcrocket]

Woodruff and all later presidents of the church adhered to the 1890 Manifesto. Whether they cohab'd with existing plural wives is a different question.

What about the other members of the First Presidency? I can't remember which one it was, but I'm pretty sure at least one married a plural wife after the First and before the Second Manifesto.

Which one?