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51 year old Warren Jeffs, leader of the largest
polygamous Mormon group, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (FLDS), was convicted on Tuesday 25 September of being
an accomplice to rape for performing a wedding between a 19-year-old
man and a 14-year-old girl.
As many as 10,000 of Jeffs' followers practice plural marriage and revere
him as a prophet and a true spiritual descendant of Joseph Smith, Mormonism's
founding prophet. After three days of deliberations the jury delivered
their guilty verdict. Prosecutors said Jeffs forced the girl into marriage
and sex against her will.
The testimony of the victim was disturbing. The girl at the centre of
the case, who is now 21, told how she was pressed by Mr. Jeffs in early
2001 into a "celestial marriage" she did not want, to a cousin she did
not like. She told how, at their wedding in 2001 at a Nevada motel,
she cried in despair when pressed by Jeffs to say "I do" and had to
be coaxed to kiss her new husband. She testified that FLDS girls receive
no information about their bodies or reproduction. She said she didn't
even know sex was the means by which women had babies.
The woman said the couple were married for at least a month before they
had intercourse, her husband telling her it was "time
for you to be a wife and do your duty."
"My entire body was shaking. I was so scared,"
she testified. "He just laid me on the bed and had sex."
Afterward, she slipped into the bathroom, where she downed two bottles
of over-the-counter pain reliever and curled up on the floor, she said.
"The only thing I wanted to do was die," she said.
Jeffs is also charged in Arizona with being an accomplice to both incest
and sexual misconduct with a minor for arranging marriages between two
underage girls and relatives of theirs. In addition, Jeffs is under
federal indictment in Utah on charges of fleeing to avoid prosecution.
He has not yet been sentenced, sentence expected in early November,
but he faces the prospect of up to life imprisonment.
It has been widely reported that polygamy was not on trial - on the
surface, but when you consider the dark history of the Mormon Church
it is clear that this is more than a case of one man's involvement in
sexual misconduct. The FLDS was founded after the mainstream Mormon
Church "officially" abandoned the practice of polygamy in 1890. It declared
that the teachings of Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith, had been forsaken
and vowed to continue the pure teachings and practices of Mormonism's
founder.
Jeffs is said to have as many as 70 wives, although no one seems really
sure of the number. He would claim that his church is being true to
"the principle" of polygamy as taught and practised by early Mormon
leaders from Joseph Smith, Mormonism's founder through to Heber J Grant,
Mormonism's seventh president. Today the Salt Lake Church distances
itself from polygamy, and it's attending problems, typically making
statements such as the following from Gordon B Hinckley, current Mormon
president:
"People mistakenly assume that this church
has something to do with it (polygamy). It has nothing whatever to do
with it. It has had nothing to do with it for a very long time. It's
outside the realm of our responsibility. These people are not members.
Any man or woman who becomes involved in it is excommunicated from the
church." (Larry King Live, Sept. 8 1998)
The truth is that it has everything to do with the Mormon Church and
Hinckley is being disingenuous, conveniently overlooking the fact that
early Mormon leaders, from Joseph Smith in the 1830s through post-1890
Declaration leaders, routinely broke the law to practice polygamy and
lied to hide it. Hinckley's public response also fails to address the
fact that official Mormon Scripture describes polygamy as an eternal
principle. The Mormon Church today portrays it as a temporary practice
that God commands from time-to-time, when in reality it is 'officially'
essential to all that would enter the highest degree of glory.
Polygamy
In the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants we read:
"Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been
reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that
we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one
husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry
again" (Doctrine and Covenants, section 101:4 1835 ed.)
This is in conformity with Book of Mormon teaching on the subject:
"Behold David and Solomon truly had many
wives and concubines which thing was abominable before me, saith the
Lord...Wherefore my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the
Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife"
(Jacob 2:24,27)
It is notable that the revelation was given because, "this church...has
been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy". It is
no wonder that such reproach was brought to bear because Smith took
Helen Mar Kimball for a wife at age fifteen.
In his book "Sidney Rigdon, Portrait of Religious Excess", Mormon historian
Richard Van Wagoner recounts the story of how the 37-year-old Smith
attempted to persuade 15-year-old Helen Mar Kimball (the daughter of
Heber C. Kimball) to be sealed to him as his wife. The young Kimball
stated that Smith told her, "If you will take this step, it will insure
your eternal salvation and exaltation and that of your father's household
and all of your kindred" (p.293). Helen would later regret that she
acquiesced to Smith's proposal. "I would never have been sealed to Joseph
had I known it was anything more than ceremony. I was young and they
deceived me by saying the salvation of our whole family depended on
it" (p.294).
What most Mormons do not realise is that Smith had sex with barely post-pubescent
girls, housemaids and other men's wives and all this while Smith was
already married to Emma. A recent DVD, "Jesus
Christ/Joseph Smith" compares Joseph Smith with Warren Jeffs and
the similarity is striking! The experience of the girl in this trial
would have been the experience of any 14 year old unfortunate enough
to come across the path of Joseph Smith.
On 12 July, 1843 Joseph Smith was given a revelation which was to become
Doctrine and Covenants Section 132, perhaps the most controversial of
all his teachings. A revelation of such importance, however, that those
who disobeyed it would be damned:
"For behold, I reveal unto you a new and
an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are
ye damned; for no-one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter
into my glory..."
Obedience, on the other hand, would bring nothing less than godhood:
"And again, verily I say unto you, if a man
marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting
covenant,...they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set
there, to their exaltation...
Then shall they be gods,..."
The nature of the covenant is that;
"-if any man espouse a virgin, and desire
to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse
the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then
he is justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him;
for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and
to no one else.
And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit
adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore
is he justified."
Although this revelation was given in 1843 it was not added to the Doctrine
and Covenants until 1876. It was at that time that the original revelation,
Doctrine and Covenants 101:4, was removed. This means that between 1843
and 1876 church leaders entered into polygamy in spite of the fact that
until 1876 their own published scriptures forbade it. Mormon leaders
lied to cover up their sexual practices, disobeyed the law of the land
and the published law of their own church.
When it is realised that, by the church's own admission, Joseph Smith
was probably married to at least 27 women prior to the 1843 revelation
one begins to realise the possible reason for the change in official
doctrine. As though to confirm our worst suspicions, we read in the
same revelation:
"And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive
all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous
and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were
pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God...
And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto my
servant Joseph,...But if she will not abide this commandment she shall
be destroyed, saith the Lord;... " (D&C 132:4,19,20,61,62,52,54)
The old has gone, the new has come. The order has been changed by means
of a, "new and everlasting covenant". But what about the Book of Mormon?
The Mormon Church, we have said, started in conformity with its teachings
viz:
"Behold David and Solomon truly had many
wives and concubines which thing was abominable before me, saith the
Lord...Wherefore my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the
Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife."
To this day these verses stand unaltered in the record of the Nephites.
In the Doctrine and Covenants however there is an altogether different
account of events:
"David also received many wives and concubines,
and also Solomon and Moses my servants,... and in nothing did they sin
save in those things which they received not of me.
David's wives and concubines were given unto him of me, by the hand
of Nathan, my servant, and other prophets who had the keys of this power;
and in none of these things did he sin against me save in the case of
Uriah and his wife;..." (D&C 132:38,39)
When challenged to reconcile these statements Apostle Legrand Richards,
author of "A Marvelous Work and A Wonder", said:
"I am afraid I can't adequately reconcile
these two statements. If the one in the Doctrine and Covenants had omitted
the names of David and Solomon, then I think I could reconcile the two
statements" (Letter from Legrand Richards to Morris L Reynolds, July
14, 1966. Source:Mormonism, Shadow or Reality,1982,p.205)
The Manifesto
The church suffered intense persecution as a direct result of their
polygamy doctrine. They stuck to their convictions however, suffering
great privations and loss rather than give up the "order of heaven".
But there was a further development in 1890 when Church President Wilford
Woodruff issued a "Manifesto" putting a stop to the practice. Pressure
from the outside world had become unbearable and the President of the
church realised that the Mormons stood to lose everything if they continued
to defy, not only public opinion, but the law of the land. The official
church line is that it "suspended the general practice of it in the
Church, while still retaining it as a doctrine." (John J. Stewart, Brigham
Young and His Wives,pp.29-30)
This is a remarkable turnaround in light of the essential nature, not
only of the doctrine, but also of the practice of polygamy to the salvation
of Mormons. Consider that it has been said:
"When that principle [of plural marriage]
was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith...an Angel of God, with a drawn
sword, stood before him and commanded that he should enter into the
practice of that principle or he should be utterly destroyed..." (Joseph
F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, vol.20, pp.28-31)
Heber C. Kimball was once told by Joseph Smith that if he did not practice
polygamy "he would lose his apostleship and be damned" (Life of Heber
C. Kimball,p.336)
Heber C. Kimball went on to state that:
"You might as well deny 'Mormonism' and turn away from it, as to oppose
the plurality of wives... I speak of the plurality of wives as one of
the most holy principles that God ever revealed to man, and all who
exercise an influence against it, unto whom it is taught...will be damned...the
curse of God will be upon them". (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p.203
Journal of Discourses vol. 11, p.211)
And Brigham Young clearly taught that:
"The only men who become Gods, even Sons
of God, are those who enter into polygamy" (Journal of Discourses, vol.
11, p.269)
Now the order had changed back again as President Woodruff, in a statement
now known as Official Declaration 1, declared:
"There is nothing in my teachings to
the Church or in those of my associates...which can be reasonably construed
to inculcate or encourage polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church
has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has
been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to
the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden
by the law of the land" (Official Declaration-1, D&C, 1982, pp.291-2)
The first seven Presidents of the Mormon Church practised polygamy,
the last being Heber J. Grant who served as President from 1918 until
1945. He was convicted in 1899 of unlawful co-habitation, nine years
after the Manifesto, and in 1903 fled the country to avoid arrest. In
1906 President Joseph F. Smith was convicted of the same offence and
fined $300. This was sixteen years after the Manifesto (Tanner 284)
Today the Mormon Church struggles to persuade tens of thousands of Mormon
fundamentalists in Utah to comply with "church doctrine" and the law
of the land. In face of such hypocrisy amongst leaders of an earlier
generation the struggle seems doomed to failure.
The Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie has said:
"Any who pretend or assume to engage in plural
marriage in this day...are guilty of gross wickedness. They are living
in adultery, have already sold their souls to Satan and...they will
be damned in eternity" (Bruce R. Mcconkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1958, pp.522-23)
Early church leaders clearly taught that those who opposed polygamy
would be damned. Today's leaders teach the exact opposite. It seems
you're damned if you do and damned if you don't!
Early Church leaders taught that polygamy was essential to exaltation.
Today's leaders say: "Plural Marriage is not essential to salvation
or exaltation." (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1958, p. 523)
Polygamy is a doctrine they can neither embrace nor reject. To do the
former would be to go against the teachings of the Prophet who brought
them the word of God through the Manifesto. To follow the latter course
they would have to reject the Prophet who taught them polygamy, the
founder of their faith, and cast doubt on everything else he ever did.
The result either way would be catastrophic. It remains, therefore,
a "principle" of the gospel whilst its practice continues to be frowned
upon.
Conclusion
› When
FLDS Mormons practice polygamy they are doing what their official Mormon
forebears have done and practising what these leaders deemed an eternal
principle.
› When
FLDS Mormons defy and break the law to practice polygamy they are doing
what their official Mormon forebears did, from Joseph Smith to Heber
J Grant, to hide their practices.
› When
FLDS Mormon leaders go on the run from the law they are doing what their
official Mormon forebears did and when they lie to authorities to protect
themselves and their own they are following the examples of early Mormon
leaders. ¢
This does not make them right in what they do or excuse their lifestyle.
It does explain the true root of that lifestyle, from taking plural
wives through lying about what they do and breaking the law in doing
it.
"It's a Mormon thing make no mistake and
the Mormon Church have yet to take responsibility for what it has practised
and modelled to its followers, and what it yet expects to practise in
eternity."
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