Candidly explaining Mormonism’s complicated experience with polygamy to adults requires nuance, context and care. Introducing it to children can be even trickier, if not nearly impossible.
But that’s exactly what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has tried to do as members prepare for a yearlong study of the global faith’s history and its Doctrine and Covenants book of scripture beginning in January.
In mid-December, the church posted online “a revised, illustrated edition of ‘Doctrine and Covenants Stories,’” according to a news release, along with accompanying videos, “40 years after the “original illustrated edition was published.”
Many of the revisions are based on the church’s recently completed four-volume history titled “Saints.”
The illustrated stories, apostle Dale G. Renlund said in the release, help scriptures come alive for readers.
“These stories help us get to know the people we read about in the Doctrine and Covenants. We see the revelations from the Lord through their eyes. As a result, those revelations take on new meaning for us,” Renlund said. “... We get to know people like Mary Rollins, Elijah Able, Jane Manning, Susa Gates and Helvecio Martins — people who persevered through difficult trials.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) In this image from the illustrated “Doctrine and Covenants Stories,” Jane Manning embraces Emma Smith. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began digitally publishing the illustrated “Doctrine and Covenants Stories” in December 2024.
Though the faith’s earlier illustrated stories discussed polygamous biblical prophets such as Abraham and Jacob, the new edition includes for the first time a focus on the faith’s 19th-century practice of polygamy — called “plural marriage” — on its official website.
The illustrated chapter on plural marriage begins with church founder Joseph Smith and other Latter-day Saint leaders’ initial reluctance to take additional wives, followed by their ultimate “obedience” to what Smith said was a “commandment from the Lord.”
And that’s the main message: God blesses those who obey, even when it’s hard.
‘A rather whitewashed version’
The chapter is already getting plenty of pushback, including some mockery, on social media.
It is “a rather whitewashed version of history complete with cartoon images, as if this was all a fun children’s story,” Abby Maxwell Hansen writes on an Exponent II blog, “instead of systematic and institutionalized sexual abuse of women and girls.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who wrote a book about polygamy, “A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870,” praises the church for its attempt to be open with the next generation.
“The good news here is that kids who get this lesson in Primary [children’s Sunday school] won’t grow up surprised when they learn about plural marriage later,” Ulrich writes in an email. “This account reflects how the church has long explained plural marriage to grown-ups.”
But it also is “a story about sex as well as gender,” she states, and “that might make young children (or adults) more susceptible to ‘unrighteous dominion.’ For a very young child (and many adults) it may be hard to distinguish between the voice of a charismatic leader and the voice of God.”
A child-friendly approach
Here is how the Utah-based faith describes plural marriage in its storybook chapter.
Men usually have one wife, but “sometimes the Lord commanded his people to be in marriages of one man and more than one woman,” the chapter says. “... The Lord told Joseph that his people should only be in plural marriages if [God] commands it.”
And then God told Joseph to marry other women, the account says, in addition to his wife, Emma Smith.
“Joseph didn’t want to marry other wives. But he knew it was a commandment from the Lord,” it says. “When Joseph asked a woman to marry him, he told her to pray about it. He wanted her to know from the Lord that it was right.”
This “commandment” was hard for Emma, the text states.
“Sometimes, Emma helped Joseph decide who he should ask to marry him. Other times, Emma did not want Joseph to marry other women.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A scene from a cartoon released by the church to teach children about the faith’s history of polygamy shows church founder Joseph Smith praying. The panel reads, "A few years later, the Lord told Joseph to marry other women. Joseph didn’t want to marry other wives. But he knew it was a commandment from the Lord. When Joseph asked a woman to marry him, he told her to pray about it. He wanted her to know from the Lord that it was right."
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A scene from a cartoon released by the church to teach children about the faith’s history of polygamy shows Joseph Smith conversing with his wife, Emma. The panel reads, "This commandment was also hard for Joseph’s first wife, Emma. Sometimes, Emma helped Joseph decide who he should ask to marry him. Other times, Emma did not want Joseph to marry other women."
The practice among Latter-day Saints continued for decades — despite opposition.
Outsiders “made laws against it,” the text explains. Some members, including church leaders, “were put in prison. But the Lord blessed the families who obeyed his commandments, even when it was hard.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A scene from a cartoon released by the church to teach children about the faith’s history of polygamy shows Brigham Young praying with his wife, Mary Ann. The panel reads, "Brigham Young and his wife Mary Ann prayed a lot to the Lord about what to do. They learned that they should obey the commandment of plural marriage."
In 1890, God told then-church President Wilford Woodruff that men should have only one wife, the explanation says, and that remains the policy today.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) A scene from a cartoon released by the church to teach children about the faith’s history of polygamy shows then-church President Wilford Woodruff presenting a "revelation" that marked the beginning of the end to the practice of plural marriage. The panel reads, "In 1890, the Lord told Wilford Woodruff, the president of the church, that men should not marry more than one wife anymore. The leaders of the church shared this commandment with the Saints. This is still the Lord’s commandment today — a man should be married to only one wife."
The real problem
Latter-day Saint historian Benjamin Park, author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” says he has “some quibbles” with the storybook’s “historical facts.”
But the real reason people find the cartoon so troublesome “is the message,” Park says. “Any attempt to explain Joseph Smith’s practice of polygamy, especially to children, is going to clash with modern-day sensibilities. So long as the church regards polygamy as divinely sanctioned, there will be efforts to justify, contextualize and even massage that history, but such attempts will fail to eradicate the discomfort that is embedded within the story.”
The cartoon, in other words, he says, “fulfills the task that it aims to do. But it is the task itself that doesn’t sit well with today’s readers.”
Exponent II’s Maxwell goes further.
“Why are modern church leaders so reluctant to disavow something as obviously wrong as adult married men secretly courting underage girls?” she writes on her blog. “Why is the safety of young girls a sacrifice they’re willing to make to protect the reputations of men who have been dead for 150 years?”
Her only conclusion?
“If they admit their predecessors were wrong about polygamy,” Maxwell states, “they’ll finally have to admit that they can be wrong about other things, too.”
