The #Givethanks Anti-Polygamy Posts: Intro
In 2021, I did a 10-day series of posts leading up to Thanksgiving to share resources, quotes, and stories about how I deconstructed the doctrine of LDS Mormon Polygamy, or as the early Latter-day Saints called it “the Practice.” I used the hashtags #givethanks for each of these posts because then-Prophet Russell M. Nelson had just hyped up members to receive a modern day prophecy which consisted of him suggesting that all members of the Church do some humble-bragging missionary work with that hashtag in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. As far as I know, Church Members are still circulating this hashtag around Thanksgiving as a way to signal their loyalty to the Church when posting about the holiday.
These posts were a bit more passive aggressive than normal for me, since I generally try/tried to be very gentle with Church Members. I know how it feels to be in that tender balance of earnestness + cognitive dissonance while being overloaded with Church chores and family duties. My goal even as I deconstructed, was to be hard on the system but soft with people. However, getting a full face of gushing gratitude about Temples and the General Authorities and Joseph Smith every day when I went to Social Media was pretty grating and ultimately, these 10 posts were an attempt to communicate with the community I come from by using the “in-speak” of the Church while inviting critical thinking, rather than herd-compliance.
Day 1
In honor of D&C 132 coming up for study in “Come Follow Me” I will be turning my Facebook into a week long #givethanks stream for all the sources and stories that have helped me deconstruct “the practice.”
Enjoy!
Transcription of the image:
“But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is exposed, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfill the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified.”
Joseph Smith, Revelation on Polygamy in Doctrine and Covenants 132:63
The youngest [polygamous wife of Joseph Smith], daughter of Joseph’s close friends Heber C. and Vilate Murray Kimball, who was sealed to Joseph several months before her 15th birthday.”
“Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo” (from the Church’s Gospel Topics Essay in 2021)
Notes on Context:
In 2021, the Church was emphasizing “Come Follow Me.” At the time, this was the new manual for home-study on Church topics. The year I wrote these posts, the LDS scriptural book “Doctrine and Covenants” was being used as the focus of study. The Doctrine and Covenants is a book of transcriptions of supposed revelations from God as given through Joseph Smith and is considered scripture by believers. One section of this book, now called “section 132” used to be called “the Revelation.” It was a loose document passed around secretly by Joseph, his brother, and other key male Church leaders in the 1840s to induct new followers into the secret ring of polygamy (or as Joseph insisted on calling it “plural marriage”). Later, once most of the Saints were isolated in Utah, Brigham Young enshrined that document to become part of Mormon scripture and Mormons have officially been polygamous ever since, though they haven’t practiced in with living spouses since about 1904.
To outsiders, this is pretty zany history and sounds really obviously predatory.
That’s because it was (and is) predatory.
However, for those raised in the Church and indoctrinated through years of romanticizing/worshipping Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Church Priesthood (like I was), it can be very challenging to see that pattern and to put it into words. Growing up in the Church, we were heavily conditioned never to speak plainly about the misbehavior of Church Leaders or even think that a Church leader had done something –gasp– wrong! Thus, the crafting of these Facebook missives was difficult both for me to write and for my believing network to read.
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