Only a few months after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published an illustrated explanation for children about the faith’s historic practice of polygamy, it has changed the images — and the messaging.
In its first rendition, the 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.”
It goes on to explain the struggles Emma Smith, his first wife, had with polygamy and that outsiders “made laws against it,” imprisoning Latter-day Saint leaders for following their prophet’s instructions.
It also depicted Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, who went on to become the most famous polygamist of the American West, praying and deciding to obey this commandment of plural marriage.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) This cartoon has been eliminated from a section teaching children about the faith’s history of polygamy. The panel read, "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."
The main message: God blesses those who heed him, even when it’s hard.
The revised site is much shorter and states that “usually a man should have only one wife. But sometimes the Lord commanded” otherwise.
The section eliminates mentions of Emma Smith or Brigham Young.
As before, the final cartoon notes the beginning of the end of polygamy in 1890, when “the Lord told Wilford Woodruff, the president of the church, that men should not marry more than one wife anymore.”
It concludes: “This is still the Lord’s commandment today — a man should be married to only one wife.”
Even the subhead on the new page is different: “Plural Marriage: A commandment for a time.”
Why the change?
This chapter “has been simplified to help the intended audience, specifically children, to understand that plural marriage was practiced for a time by some in the church,” spokesperson Irene Caso said Thursday in a statement, “and was discontinued in 1890.”
Valerie Hudson, a Latter-day Saint scholar who directs the Program on Women, Peace and Security at Texas A&M University, applauded the move.
“That revised subtitle is a great step forward,” Hudson, who has argued this exact point about polygamy, wrote in an email. “This change indicates that polygamy is a time-bound Abrahamic sacrifice, which precludes any idea that polygamy is the normative marital state in the eternities.”
The revisions also appear to address concerns voiced about gaining divine blessings for strict obedience to whatever God may command.
Tackling a tough topic
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) This cartoon remains in a section teaching children about the faith’s history of polygamy. 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 original cartoons about polygamy were part of “a revised, illustrated edition of ‘Doctrine and Covenants Stories,’” according to a Dec. 11 news release, along with accompanying videos, “40 years after the original illustrated edition was published.”
For the first time the official site focused on the faith’s 19th-century practice of polygamy for kids. The storybook chapter on plural marriage began with Joseph Smith and other Latter-day Saint leaders’ initial reluctance to take additional wives.
And then God told Joseph to marry other women, the account said, in addition to Emma.
“Joseph didn’t want to marry other wives. But he knew it was a commandment from the Lord,” one of the removed cartoons stated. “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, another deleted panel said. “Sometimes, Emma helped Joseph decide who he should ask to marry him. Other times, Emma did not want Joseph to marry other women.”
‘Still just a horrible stain’
“This doesn’t solve the problem for me,” Exponent II blogger Abby Maxwell Hansen wrote in an email. “Polygamy is still just as horrible a stain on the history of the LDS Church as it ever was, and I don’t think teaching it in a more palatable way somehow makes anything better.”
She argued that the “only way to repair the damage would be to apologize outright for the behavior of early church leaders and take accountability for having taught polygamy as a fact of heaven to girls and women since the 1800s.”
Hansen also is frustrated that the church didn’t acknowledge making the changes “because of public outcry.”
“I can see people in my ward getting to the polygamy lesson in primary this fall,” she added, “and thinking, ‘Why was Abby bothered by this? It’s not that bad.’”
