I found this an intriguing question. The practice had so many critics and opposition that I can't make sense of why JS, BY and the rest of the leadership continued to pursue it. Women didn't like it, it was harder to maintain more wives and children, the law was against it... so many people lied and where deceived it only for the cause of such a thing. Polygamy... what a shot in the foot!

It seems polygamy was a lie to cover up JS's affairs. BY liked the idea too and propagated it under the false pretense of revelation.

Yes, I was thinking maybe he just wanted to have sex with other women but why not do it like the rest of the people do having an affair?. Maybe he couldn't afford to be caught. I wonder what his parents, brothers, other relatives and the leaders of the time thought about it and if it made any to resign or leave the church.

Why polygamy? Why do rock stars sleep with groupies? I am sure JS and BY had their share of female admirers. Polygamy as a doctrine provided moral cover for the activity. It was used with some women to convince them that it was ok to have sex with the prophet. Notice that it was kept quite for as long as possible. JS knew it would not go over well with the general public.

Guiltless adultery.

Also, for the sex.

Initially, at least for Horney Joe, it was to have sex with virgin teens. Just ask Fanny.

Lets face it, Mormons are all about sex, and back in the 1800 people were more horny than they are today. To make up for that they changed and made sex dirty. They call it sacred but thats just code for dirty sex.

Not just sex, but sex for the top leaders only. In Nauvoo, there were only about 1000 people involved. They were an inner circle, a church within a church.

Can you imagine the ego trip of being one of the chosen few?

Sex is often about power.

I always felt it was not only for the sex,,but for the control and athority trip. To keep the women inside the mormon faith and turn out big families. Control..power,,

+1

There was no shortage of men. What's the diff, if you want a
big family' between one old horn dog marrying 12 wives or 12 old horndogs marrying one wife?

To turn out big families for the most powerful men - a way to flex their muscle in society.

They did it to make as many Mormons as humanly possible and as fast as possible with the most familial roots to Mormon power. Its simple - how many children did BY have? A shit ton - for sure - and they all lay claim to his blood line and leadership prestige and power, even up to now. All those major early church leaders allowed the inner circle to wildly practice polygamy so as to increase strong tribal bonds as fast as possible.

+

You are forgetting that these people lived in an agricultural society. Children were an ASSET, not a liability back then -- they were free farmhands (that you would never have to support through expensive college)!

There were no pensions, social security or health insurance in those days, the more children and wives you had, the more you had to fall back on in your old age, or in the event of sickness.

As for the wives, how would you like have a dozen wives bringing their paychecks home to you, and you giving back only whatever you felt they needed? They may not have earned actual cash, but they may as well have: These wives were tending gardens, milking cows, cooking for you, and providing you with many of your clothes etc.

It was a form of white slavery. Wives and children couldn't quit, most didn't accumulate private savings enough to ever gain their independence. You owned them and all their productivity!

For the man - it was the more the merrier!



(And we have't even mention all the free sex that men got from the "help".)

+

Polygamy ironically produces FEWER children for a society than monogamy.

A woman in polygamy will have on average 1 less child than her sister in monogamy in the same community with the same values.

BY had 105 kids, but each wife only an average of less than two - far fewer than monogamous Mormon women of that day.

It grows an alpha male's family, but not the religion.

to protect the sanctity of marriage

Many, many cult leaders follow the same line. Having sex with all the women in the group is taken as a right by the leader. I think it propagated from JS to his close underlings so that they wouldn't make waves about him doing it. It was elevated to a religious rite to make it look legit.

David Koresh slept with all the women at Mt. Carmel in Waco...

Never married them...

JS wanted to be a King. Kings don't just have women, they own them. He wanted control over them.

He didn't have enough money to keep the married ones to himself, so he let them stay with their husbands. Well, kind of. That is except for the years he sent them to foreign countries on missions.

And the other men liked the holy adultery.

Remember, it was only the elites who had multiple wives. To the victors, the spoils.

The worst part was that Js invented garments to identify those men took who partook in plyg.

It worked because Joseph Smith used the stories in the Bible to justify it. The idea is that you become spiritually stronger by more responsiblity of taken care of more women.

Of course it was about the sex drive of Joseph Smith, not Abraham and the men in the Old Testament, but the members at the bottom didn't know that.

The women sacrificed their identity as a way of feeling more righteous, struggling with jealousy that they believe they should not have. The struggle made them "stronger". FLDS women today will give that reason.

In terms of religious faith, to confront a person who justifies plural marriage from the Bible, one must first answer why the men in the Bible practiced it, and its purpose, before a TBM can actually see the error of it and change. As long as they believe it is a "higher" form of marriage practiced by the ancients, they will not change their position.

occams razor

The interesting thing is how early the initial groundwork was lain for polygamy. Even Jacob 2 backs off and say polygamy could be OK sometimes. Then, as I recall, revelations/statements as early as 1831/1832 indicated polygamy was a possibility.

Otherwise I would think of it just being a reaction to Joseph & Fanny getting caught fooling around.

Most things I've read indicate that Joseph & Emma had a rather difficult marriage from the start and a very difficult marriage in the end.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2013 08:25PM by bc.

Sex, sex, sexy sex.

Heber C Kimball = non sexy sex

The sex, sure. There is also a way that breaking taboos makes people feel powerful. It puts you counter to the prevailing culture and makes you feel important and set apart.

Mormons weren't the only ones experimenting with alternative sexual mores. Check out the Oneida Community:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community

One more thing: People who break taboos together become tightly bonded and if you are the one who gives them that permission, you become powerful to them.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2013 09:32PM by robertb.

One aspect that gets overlooked is control.

If you can get your followers into relationships that totally
remove them from the rest of society then they are more or less
FORCED to be in your cult. My grandfather was approached by
the High Council and told it was time for him to "enter into
the principle." He told them he really didn't want to. They
said that didn't matter, it's from God etc. He said, I don't
know anyone. One of the High Councilmen said, I have a
daughter.

That's how my grandmother, at age 17, was forced into an
arranged "marriage" (not even a legal one) with a man twice her
age who was already married.

As a footnote, my grandmother's life story tells of how her
"husband" didn't support her and she had to work all her life
for her support and that of her children.

So it turns out to be the total OPPOSITE of what the Morgbots
say: "they only married old widows so they could take care of
them." She was a teenage girl, not an old widow and he DIDN'T
take care of her.

Sex

A sick mind that used prophecy to feed his perversion.

Sir Richard Burton (the explorer, not the actor), after visiting SLC in BY's day, wrote, "Servants are rare and costly; it is cheaper and more comfortable to marry them."

well here is the BS MORmON excuse of why. which when examined shows what a farce that Joe SMith and his MORmONISM really was

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmhjgaB2Hi8

oh and BTW JOe NEVER practiced polygamy, what Joe did was ADULTERY
according to the bible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqG5skfZcrE