What does a TBM Mormon say if asked if they beleive in polygamy? They’ll give you the standard “we don’t practice polygamy any more” or “those who practice polygamy are excommunicated” answer and leave it at that. The fact is that in order to be a TBM Mormon, you must beleive in it. You must beleive that polygamy is divine and true doctrine.

As a missionary, I was asked that very question many times. I now understand how wrong my answers were then. I now understand that the “standard” answer is equal to lying. If I were truthful, I would have explained how Joseph Smith introduced polygamy in 1831, by divine revelation from God, and I “knew” that he was a prophet and that polygamy was a true doctrine. Then the saints were driven westward and ended up having to abandon the practice due to pressure from the United States in order for Utah to become a state. In fact, it took two different revelations, called Manifesto’s, in 1890 and 1904, in order to get the point across that the church no longer condoned polygamy.

These revelations were not intended on ending the “belief” or “doctrine” of polygamy, they intended to convince outsiders that the Church no longer “practiced” it. The practice of polygamy continued into the 1900’s as leaders in the church continued to take plural wifes and attempted to keep it hidden from outsiders.

This also brings us to another fascinating aspect of church history… the publishing of history that counters the faith-promoting version the church purports as truth. Michael Quinn, one of the September Six, was excommunicated from the church due to his publishing of research into post-manifesto polygamy. The content of the research has been invariably deemed as accurate. The problem the church has with such information is that it proves that they knowingly cast half-truths as whole-truths and try to twist the events of early church history so that its easier to beleive.