After the Manifesto - and polygamy that remains

The 1890 Manifesto did not end authorized plural marriages, and the doctrine is still canon.

What the Church claims

President Wilford Woodruff ended plural marriage by revelation in 1890.

Once the evidence is in, this claim: Weak. Conceded by the Church's own essay; the remaining dispute is about scale and who authorized what.

The record

  • The Church concedes that after 1890 plural marriages 'continued to be quietly performed', mostly in Mexico and Canada, and that 'the exact process by which these marriages were approved remains unclear'.
  • Joseph F. Smith was questioned about post-1890 marriages at the Reed Smoot Senate hearings in 1904 and then issued the Second Manifesto making new plural marriage an excommunicable offense.
  • Apostles John W. Taylor and Matthias Cowley continued to perform plural marriages; Taylor was excommunicated and Cowley restricted.
  • D&C 132 remains canonized scripture, and its plural-marriage promises for the next life have never been withdrawn.

The moving target

  • 1890-10: Advised members to refrain from marriages forbidden by law.
  • 1904-04: Prohibited new plural marriages on pain of excommunication.
  • 2014-10: Concedes the 1890-1904 marriages, presenting them as few and hard to get approved.

The exchange

Gospel Topics essay

The Manifesto began a process; leaders were torn between covenant and law; post-1890 marriages were few and mostly outside United States jurisdiction.

The answer: The essay concedes both halves of the problem: the marriages continued, and the process by which they were approved 'remains unclear' - which is to say they were performed under leadership authority while the Church's public position was that plural marriage had ended. That is why the Smoot hearings were so damaging. And 'mostly outside United States jurisdiction' concedes the rest: the practice was hidden, not ended.

What they get right: The essay is comparatively candid; this is one of the better-handled topics.

Gospel Topics, 'The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage'; standard Latter-day Saint teaching

Official Declaration 1 was a public declaration of intent addressed to the United States government, not a revelation abolishing the doctrine. The doctrine remains canonized in section 132 and is understood to be suspended rather than revoked.

The answer: This is accurate and it is the problem. If the Manifesto was a legal declaration rather than a revelation, then the claim under test — that a prophet ended plural marriage by revelation in 1890 — is not what happened, and the Church's own essay concedes as much by describing more than a decade of authorized marriages afterward, performed in Mexico, Canada and on the ocean, some by apostles. The suspension reading also means the Church excommunicates members today for practicing a principle it still canonizes and still expects to resume. Both readings cannot be preached at once, and the Church preaches whichever one the audience requires.

What they get right: The Second Manifesto of 1904 was enforced, and two apostles were removed over it, so the leadership did eventually make the policy real.

Both cases at full strength

The skeptics' case

The Church told the United States government and its own members in 1890 that plural marriage had stopped, while senior leaders kept authorizing it for fourteen years. The pattern of public denial and private practice repeats Nauvoo. The doctrine has never been renounced.

The apologetic case

Ending a practice believed to be divinely commanded took a generation; the Second Manifesto and the removal of two apostles show the leadership ultimately enforced it, and the Church has excommunicated polygamists for more than a century.

What would change this

Evidence that the 1890-1904 marriages were unauthorized acts of individuals rather than sanctioned by the presiding quorums.

Closely related

Sources

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