Why must marriage be legal now if not then?

[_sock puppet]

Why does the Mormon Church insist that a man and a wife that get sealed in the temple now be legally married (either civilly beforehand in other some countries, or contemporaneous as a part of the sealing in others), when JSJr did not give two shakes about the fact that he was 'sealed' to and having sex with women that was adultery under the laws of the land?

Did elohim change his mind after JSJr, BY, and JT had got their jollies illegally?

[_Buffalo]

Why does the Mormon Church insist that a man and a wife that get sealed in the temple now be legally married (either civilly beforehand in other some countries, or contemporaneous as a part of the sealing in others), when JSJr did not give two shakes about the fact that he was 'sealed' to and having sex with women that was adultery under the laws of the land?

Did elohim change his mind after JSJr, BY, and JT had got their jollies illegally?

Excellent question. And even if we pretend that Fanny was a marriage and not a straight-up affair, it was done neither legally or through the auspices of the "sealing power" of the priesthood.

[_Corpsegrinder]

And did Joseph bother to divorce her before moving on to even younger conquests? Apparently not. (This assumes, of course, that theirs was a legitimate plural marriage.)

[_SteelHead]

If I remember correctly none of the marriages performed by the church in Illinois during the Nauvoo period were legal, and all of the polygamous marriages violated the state's anti-bigamy law.

[_Buffalo]

Now, the earliest Christians had no concept of "legal wedding" at all. That was a pagan Roman thing. So Joseph was consistent with that, though unknowingly. However, the church today considers a common-law couple to be living in sin, even though they're doing it the same way Joseph did it (but without the serial adultery) and the same way first century Christians did it.