FUNDAMENTALIST MORMONS & POLYGAMY

Matthew Aquino Jose Alvarado

Brandon Washington Selena PalomaresJeannae Carmichael Alison Gutierrez

HISTORY OF POLYGAMY WITHIN THE MORMON

CHURCH

Joseph Smith• Founder of LDS• Translated the Book of Mormon

• (Golden Plates)• Seen as a prophet to followers• Seen as a charlatan to outsiders

DEATH OF JOSEPH SMITH

MO RMO NS O STR ACIZ ED (HISTO RICALLY)

•Multiple objections to Mormonism (Mainly Polygamy)

•Faith-based objections

•Family-values-based objections

•Political Objections (Masking a greater debate)

THE CIVIL WAR

•Civil war background for Mormon question

•North wanted Government intervention

•South wanted government to stay out of the issue of Polygamy

REPRESENTATIVE ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS OF GEORGIA

“If we discriminate to-ay against Mormons, to-morrow, perhaps, we shall discriminate

against Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, or Catholics. The evils of such discrimination …have been wisely provided against in the

Constitution.”

SMITH TEACHING POLYGAMY

•The affair with Fanny Alger

•Keeping quiet

•Recurring Visions

•Afraid of both outcomes

•Eventually taught polygamy as the word of God

BRIGHAM YOUNG

•Successor of Mormon church

•Adopted Polygamy through Smith’s teaching

•BYU

•Was a key leader after Mormon’s migrated to Utah

HISTORICAL POLYGAMY

•Mormon acceptance was slow

•Societal acceptance was near impossible

•Brigham Young was one of the finest candidates

•Freeing for women in some respects

•Unusual to have more than 4 wives (Most had 1-2)

SECTION OF ORDER 44

 ”…the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten your operation with all possible speed. The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace--their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may consider necessary.”

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

•Many objections to the Mormon faith

•The LDS had long history of Polygamy before the abandonment of the practice

•They had a long history of persecution, especially regarding Polygamy

•This persecution became more heated and prevalent due to the similarly tied issues of the civil war

•This most likely causes the Fundamentalist Mormons to be more resolute and not give in to societal pressures

THE SPLIT OF POLYGAMY AND THE MORMON

CHURCH

Mormon Fundamentalists• Seek to uphold tenets and practices no

longer held by mainstream Mormons (members of the LDS Church)

• Principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage

THE SPLIT OF POLYGAMY AND THE MORMON

CHURCH

• Many of the views are essential for obtaining the highest degree of exaltation in the celestial kingdom.

• Today, the LDS Church will excommunicate any of its members who practice plural marriage or who otherwise closely associate themselves with Mormon fundamentalist practices.

START OF FUNDAMENTALIST

MORMONISM

Laws Passed Against Polygamy:• 1862 – The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act• 1874 – The Poland Act• 1882 – The Edmunds Act• 1887 – The Edmunds-Tucker Act• 1904 – “Second Manifesto” by Joseph

Smith

WARREN JEFF'S

Born: December 3, 1955

After his fathers death, he became the prophet

He was raised to be the “Chosen One"

WAR RENS’ BEL IEFS /R OL ES IN POLYGAMY

He ran everything in his “colony”• Jobs• Education• Money• Children• Wives

WARRENS’ BELIEFS CONTINUED

Jeffs was later arrested for sexually abusing the young girls.

Warren Jeffs is currently in Jail for the things he did in the “colony” with the women.

• Sexual Abuse• Forced Marriage• Plural Marriages

WARREN JEFFS NOW..

He continues to run the church from jail

He still continues to arrange marriages

POLYGAMY TODAY

•Polygamy in the US has been present for a very

long period of time

• When the European settlers, came they very

often took native wives and since these native

wives allowed them to do it, they have adopted the

practice

POLYGAMY TODAY

•Some of these tribes have also continued to use the

polygamy practice in the 20th century also.

•There are presently a few polygamists groups that still exist

in the United States

• More precisely members of the Fundamentalist Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) still participate in

polygamy today

BUSTING MYTHS

Not proving wrong, but rather exposing lack of hard evidence

Sex and Polygamy (Celestial Sealing)

Polygamy and Harems

Frontier Life

POLYGAMOUS FAMILIES

Sister Wives• The family at the center of the reality show Sister

Wives is celebrating after a federal judge ruled that key parts of Utah’s anti-polygamy laws are unconstitutional, and that polygamous families could no longer be arrested on felony charges.

WORKS CITED