Editing Polygamy (section)

====Latter Day Saint movement====
{{LDSpolygamy}}
{{main|Mormonism and polygamy}}
{{see also|List of Latter Day Saint practitioners of plural marriage}}
In accordance with what Joseph Smith indicated was a revelation, the practice of plural marriage, the marriage of one man to two or more women, was instituted among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1840s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng&old=true|title=Polygamy (Plural Marriage) {{!}} LDS Church Perspective on Polygamy|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org|access-date=2017-04-18|archive-date=28 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728085801/https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng&old=true|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite Smith's revelation, the 1835 edition of the 101st Section of the ''Doctrine and Covenants'', written after the doctrine of plural marriage began to be practiced, publicly condemned polygamy. This scripture was used by [[John Taylor (1808–1887)|John Taylor]] in 1850 to quash Mormon polygamy rumors in [[Liverpool, England]].<ref>Three nights public discussion between the Revds. C. W. Cleeve, James Robertson, and Philip Cater, and Elder John Taylor, Of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, At Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France. Chairman, Rev. K. Groves, M.A., Assisted By Charles Townley, LL.D., and Mr. Luddy. pp.&nbsp;8–9</ref> Polygamy was made illegal in the state of [[Illinois]]<ref>Greiner & Sherman, Revised Laws of Illinois, 1833, pp.&nbsp;198–199</ref> during the 1839–44 [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]] era when several top Mormon leaders, including Smith,<ref name="Compton1996">{{cite journal |first=Todd |last=Compton |author-link=Todd Compton |title=A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith's Thirty‑three Plural Wives |journal=Dialogue |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=1–38 |date=1996 |doi=10.2307/45226184 |jstor=45226184 |s2cid=254388739 |issn=0012-2157 |oclc=929467668 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Smith1994">{{cite journal |last=Smith |first=George D |author-link=George D. Smith |title=Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841–46: A Preliminary Demographic Report |journal=Dialogue |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=1–72 |date=1994 |doi=10.2307/45228320 |jstor=45228320 |s2cid=254329894 |issn=0012-2157 |oclc=367616792 |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V34N0102_135.pdf |access-date=22 June 2018 |archive-date=13 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013041433/http://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V34N0102_135.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Brigham Young]] and [[Heber C. Kimball]] took multiple wives. Mormon elders who publicly taught that all men were commanded to enter plural marriage were subject to harsh discipline.<ref>[http://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v5n03.htm Times and Seasons, vol.&nbsp;5, p.&nbsp;423] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807095056/http://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v5n03.htm |date=7 August 2007 }}, 1 February 1844</ref> On 7 June 1844 the ''[[Nauvoo Expositor]]'' criticized Smith for plural marriage.

=====The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)=====
After [[Death of Joseph Smith|Joseph Smith]] was killed by a mob on 27 June 1844, the main body of Latter Day Saints left Nauvoo and followed Brigham Young to [[Utah]] where the practice of plural marriage continued.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=http://www.mscbc.org/video/vid_lvp.htm |title=Lifting the Veil of Polygamy |year=2007 |publisher=Main Street Church |postscript=, |access-date=11 October 2009 |archive-date=23 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223034316/http://www.mscbc.org/video/vid_lvp.htm |url-status=live }} a video presentation concerning the history of Mormon polygamy and its modern manifestations.</ref> In 1852, [[Brigham Young]], the second [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|president]] of the LDS Church, publicly acknowledged the practice of plural marriage through a sermon he gave. Additional sermons by top Mormon leaders on the virtues of polygamy followed.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[Journal of Discourses]] |volume=11 |pages=119–128 |first=Brigham |last=Young |author-link=Brigham Young |date=18 June 1865 |title=Personality of God – His Attributes – Eternal Life, etc. |url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/4640 |quote=Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout Christendom, and which had been so fruitful a source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious. |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029200242/http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/4640 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|128}} Controversy followed when polygamy became a social cause, writers began to publish works condemning polygamy. The key plank of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]'s 1856 [[Party platform|platform]] was "to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery".<ref>[http://www.ushistory.org/gop/convention_1856.htm GOP Convention of 1856 in Philadelphia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010053517/http://www.ushistory.org/gop/convention_1856.htm |date=10 October 2007 }} from the Independence Hall Association website</ref> In 1862, [[37th United States Congress|Congress]] issued the [[Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act]] which clarified that the practice of polygamy was illegal in all [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States|US territories]]. The LDS Church believed that their religiously based practice of plural marriage was protected by the [[United States Constitution]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/05.html |title=Free Exercise Clause – First Amendment |publisher=Caselaw.lp.findlaw.com |access-date=13 September 2011 |archive-date=28 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628192616/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/05.html |url-status=live }}</ref> however, the unanimous 1878 [[U.S. Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] decision ''[[Reynolds v. United States]]'' declared that polygamy was not protected by the Constitution, based on the longstanding legal principle that "laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/98/145.html|title=FindLaw's United States Supreme Court case and opinions.|website=Findlaw|access-date=4 May 2006|archive-date=29 April 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060429103035/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/98/145.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Increasingly harsh anti-polygamy legislation in the US led some Mormons to emigrate to [[Canada]] and [[Mexico]]. In 1890, LDS Church president [[Wilford Woodruff]] issued a public declaration (the [[1890 Manifesto|Manifesto]]) announcing that the LDS Church had discontinued new plural marriages. [[Anti-Mormonism|Anti-Mormon sentiment]] waned, as did opposition to statehood for [[Utah]]. The [[Smoot Hearings]] in 1904, which documented that the LDS Church was still practicing polygamy spurred the LDS Church to issue a [[Second Manifesto]] again claiming that it had ceased performing new plural marriages. By 1910 the LDS Church [[excommunicate]]d those who entered into, or performed, new plural marriages. Even so, many plural husbands and wives continued to cohabit until their deaths in the 1940s and 1950s.<ref name=UHE-Polygamy>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Jessie L. |last=Embry |contribution=Polygamy |contribution-url=http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/p/POLYGAMY.html |editor-last=Powell |editor-first=Allan Kent |year=1994 |title=Utah History Encyclopedia |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher=[[University of Utah Press]] |isbn=978-0874804256 |oclc=30473917 |access-date=30 October 2013 |archive-date=17 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417163937/http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/p/POLYGAMY.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Enforcement of the 1890 Manifesto caused various [[Schism (religion)|splinter groups]] to leave the LDS Church in order to continue the practice of plural marriage.<ref>[http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/polygamy/The_Primer.pdf "The Primer"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070719143759/http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/polygamy/The_Primer.pdf |date=19 July 2007 }} – Helping Victims of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse in Polygamous Communities. A joint report from the offices of the Attorneys General of Arizona and Utah. (2006)</ref> Polygamy among these groups persists today in [[Utah]] and neighboring states as well as in the spin-off colonies. Polygamist churches of Mormon origin are often referred to as "[[Mormon fundamentalism|Mormon fundamentalist]]" churches even though they are not parts of the LDS Church. Such fundamentalists often use a purported [[1886 revelation]] to [[John Taylor (1808–1887)|John Taylor]] as the basis for their authority to continue the practice of plural marriage.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/NEWFILES/1886RevelationNew.htm |title=An 1886 Revelation to John Taylor |publisher=Mormonfundamentalism.com |access-date=13 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921072222/http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/NEWFILES/1886RevelationNew.htm |archive-date=21 September 2011 }}</ref> ''[[The Salt Lake Tribune]]'' stated in 2005 that there were as many as 37,000 fundamentalists with less than half of them living in polygamous households.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2925222 |title=LDS splinter groups growing |first=Brooke |last=Adams |date=9 August 2005 |work=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]] |issn=0746-3502 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113202411/http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2925222 |archive-date=13 January 2014 }}</ref>

On 13 December 2013, US Federal Judge Clark Waddoups ruled in ''[[Brown v. Buhman]]'' that the portions of Utah's anti-polygamy laws which prohibit multiple [[cohabitation]] were unconstitutional, but also allowed Utah to maintain its ban on multiple marriage licenses.<ref name=yyyuhs>{{cite web | url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/191409187/Utah-Polygamy-Decision | title=Utah Polygamy Decision &#124; Mormonism and Polygamy &#124; Polygamy | access-date=8 September 2017 | archive-date=6 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306052340/https://www.scribd.com/doc/191409187/Utah-Polygamy-Decision | url-status=live }}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=December 2013}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Schwartz |first=John |date=14 September 2013 |title=A Law Prohibiting Polygamy is Weakened |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/us/a-utah-law-prohibiting-polygamy-is-weakened.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=13 January 2014 |url-access=limited |archive-date=12 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140112161433/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/us/a-utah-law-prohibiting-polygamy-is-weakened.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Mears |first=Bill |date=14 December 2013 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/14/justice/utah-polygamy-law/ |title='Sister Wives' case: Judge strikes down part of Utah polygamy law |publisher=CNN |access-date=13 January 2014 |archive-date=12 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140112161550/http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/14/justice/utah-polygamy-law/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Stack |first=Peggy Fletcher |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |date=14 December 2013 |url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=57264020&itype=CMSID |title=Laws on Mormon polygamists lead to win for plural marriage |work=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]] |issn=0746-3502 |access-date=13 January 2014 |archive-date=6 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806062415/http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=57264020&itype=CMSID |url-status=live }}</ref> Unlawful cohabitation, where prosecutors did not need to prove that a marriage ceremony had taken place (only that a couple had lived together), had been the primary tool used to prosecute polygamy in Utah since the 1882 [[Edmunds Act]].<ref name=UHE-Polygamy/>

=====Mormon fundamentalism=====
The [[Council of Friends (Woolley)|Council of Friends]] (also known as the Woolley Group and the Priesthood Council)<ref>''Religious Sects, and Cults That Sprang from Mormonism'' (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers Central Company, 1942).</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Joseph W. |last=Musser |author-link=Joseph White Musser |title=Factions |journal=Truth |volume=9 |issue=24 |date=September 1943 |pages=94–96}}</ref> was one of the original expressions of [[Mormon fundamentalism]], having its origins in the teachings of [[Lorin C. Woolley]], a dairy farmer excommunicated from the LDS Church in 1924. Several Mormon fundamentalist groups claim lineage through the Council of Friends, including but not limited to, the [[Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]] (FLDS Church), the [[Apostolic United Brethren]], the [[Centennial Park group]], the [[Latter Day Church of Christ]], and the [[Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].

=====Community of Christ=====
The [[Community of Christ]], known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) prior to 2001, has never sanctioned polygamy since its foundation in 1860. [[Joseph Smith&nbsp;III]], the first Prophet-President of the RLDS Church following the reorganization of the Church, was an ardent opponent of the practice of [[plural marriage]] throughout his life. For most of his career, Smith denied that his father had been involved in the practice and insisted that it had originated with Brigham Young. Smith served many missions to the western United States, where he met with and interviewed associates and women claiming to be widows of his father, who attempted to present him with evidence to the contrary. Smith typically responded to such accusations by saying that he was "not positive nor sure that {{bracket|his father}} was innocent",<ref name="Launius1987">{{cite journal |first=Roger D. |last=Launius |author-link=Roger D. Launius |title=Methods and Motives: Joseph Smith&nbsp;III's Opposition to Polygamy, 1860–90 |journal=Dialogue |volume=20 |issue=4 |page=112 |date=1987 |doi=10.2307/45228113 |jstor=45228113 |s2cid=254387866 |issn=0012-2157 |oclc=365871238 |quote=When challenged this way he typically responded .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. 'I am not positive nor sure that he was innocent'. |doi-access=free }}</ref> and that if, indeed, the elder Smith had been involved, it was still a false practice. However, many members of the [[Community of Christ]] and some of the groups that were previously associated with it are not convinced that Joseph Smith practiced plural marriage and they believe that the evidence which indicates that he practiced it is flawed.<ref name="Promeet2013">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://academic.eb.com/EBchecked/topic/498278/Community-of-Christ |title=Community of Christ |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=6 October 2013 |access-date=1 February 2016 |first1=Dutta |last1=Promeet |first2=Yamini |last2=Chauhan |location=London |orig-year=1st&nbsp;pub.&nbsp;14 June 2007 |url-access=subscription |quote=The Community of Christ .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. claims that polygamy was introduced by Brigham&nbsp;Young and his associates and that the revelation on polygamy, which was made public in 1852 by Young in Utah .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. was not in harmony with the original tenets of the church or with the teachings and practices of Smith. |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728085828/https://academic.eb.com/?target=%2Flevels%2Fcollegiate%2Farticle%2FCommunity-of-Christ%2F63220 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.restorationbookstore.org/jsfp-index.htm|title=Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy|website=restorationbookstore.org|access-date=2 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218120109/https://www.islamonline.in/2020/06/polygamy-in-islam.html|archive-date=18 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>