# Understanding Mormon Polygamy



## JM (Mar 16, 2008)

YouTube - Understanding Mormon Polygamy Pt 1-Early LDS Church Polygamy


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## Thomas2007 (Mar 17, 2008)

Very interesting - thanks for posting this. Partly what she is calling "persecution" by the government, at least in the Utah Territory, is Reynolds v United States, 98 US 145, 1878

This, of course, was not persecution but a recognition that the laws of marriage at common law were subjective to Protestant Christian definitions and although the Mormons which held to heretical beliefs have the right to believe in polygamy as a religious tenet, they do not have the liberty under the "free exercise" clause to practice it as it is inconsistent with historic Protestant Christianity at English common law upon which the social order was built and was a criminal offense.

While this is a good decision by the court, it is important to understand that when carried to it's logical conclusion anything the State criminalizes means that you don't have that as a religious liberty. Today, to us, that can mean holding to the very historic Protestant Faith that this decision recognized as the foundation of the law, as it has now been perverted by subsequent decisions of the Courts (e.g., separation of Church & State, Sodomite marriage &c).

This was the first Free Exercise case of the United States Supreme Court, understanding this case is critical for Christians.


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## JM (Mar 17, 2008)

> It is well know, however, to the congregation before me, that the Latter-day Saints have embraced the doctrine of a plurality of wives, as a part of their religious faith. It is not, as many have supposed, a doctrine embraced by them to gratify the carnal lusts and feelings of man; that is not the object of the doctrine.
> 
> We shall endeavour to set forth before this enlightened assembly some of the causes why the Almighty has revealed such a doctrine, and why it is considered a part and portion of our religious faith. And I believe that they will not, under our present form of government, (I mean the government of the United States,) try us for treason for believing and practising our religious notions and ideas. I think, if I am not mistaken, that the constitution gives the privilege to all the inhabitants of this country, of the free exercise of their religious notions, and the freedom of their faith, and the practice of it. Then, if it can be proven to a demonstration, that the Latter-day Saints have actually embraced, as a part and portion of their religion, the doctrine of a plurality of wives, it is constitutional. And should there ever be laws enacted by this government to restrict them from the free exercise of this part of their religion, such laws must be unconstitutional.



JD 1:58 Celestial Marriage


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