Mormon Polygamy and the Conflict with American Law

Introduction: Mormonism as an American Phenomenon

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) is an American curiosity. Founded in the early nineteenth century by Joseph Smith Jr., the faith blends traditional Christianity with visionary fervor. The Mormon Church diverges so much from mainstream American religion — and from Christianity in general — that it is widely regarded as a fringe faith. The church has come into frequent conflict with federal law, especially regarding plural marriage. Plural marriage has been a cornerstone of Mormon fundamentalism and one of the main reasons for the LDS Church's inability to reconcile itself with mainstream American society.

The policy of polygamy remains central to the Mormon core of beliefs but has been legally banned for over one hundred years. Although the church began in the 1830s, challenges to plural marriage did not arise with any significant political force until the 1870s. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints incorporated plural marriage as an integral part of religious duty. Founder Joseph Smith Jr. taught in the 1830s and 1840s that "polygamy was divinely commanded and a religious obligation" (Flowers 21). As a result, polygamy was "part of the theology of the church for the rest of the century" (Flowers 21).

Polygamy as Theological Doctrine

Female members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints did not have a choice about whether to enter into a plural marriage; it was simply expected of them. To resist the divinely ordained marital order risked social isolation and possibly being ostracized from friends and family. Givens relays the story of a Mormon wife who made her life story public: "Mercy's doubts nourished in secret, her resistance to polygamy, and her yearning for sublimity — all mark her as independent, different, alienated from her own people" (295).

According to Gordon, "Mormons believed in a distinct and different moral order based on new divine revelation. To many Mormons, polygamy was the most difficult and arguably the most exhilarating of the revealed Word in these latter days… [it] brought Mormons into direct and prolonged conflict with the law of marriage in the rest of the nation" (4). Early Mormons also believed that plural marriage was integral for "cleansing society of the scourge of prostitution" and for "elevating all of humanity" to a greater spiritual level (Gordon 4). Above all, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints portrayed plural marriage as a divine injunction — the foundation for an ideal social order.

In the late nineteenth century, concerns about polygamy were brought to the attention of the government in Washington. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints framed the issue in terms of the First Amendment. The LDS Church sheltered behind the libertarianism that prevailed, especially in frontier states like Utah. The Mormon Church championed the Bill of Rights, arguing that the United States Constitution protected the freedom of religious expression regardless of what that expression might entail. A limited federal government meant that the Church, by then centered in Utah, could advocate any marital structure it desired. States were permitted to "govern within their borders" (Gordon 6).

Federal Intervention and the Supreme Court

However, in 1878, the Supreme Court ruled in Reynolds v. United States that the federal government may intervene in religious practices even while protecting the freedom to worship. The Court portrayed polygamy as harmful "to persons or even the moral structure of society" and therefore outlawed plural marriage (Flowers 22). The decision seemed like a direct affront to the Mormon Church. Polygamy remains illegal throughout the United States, although prosecution of polygamy charges remains a matter of state jurisdiction.

Leaders of the Church initially viewed the 1878 ruling as a serious threat to religious freedom. In 1890, LDS president and "prophet" Wilford Woodruff felt "coerced into doing away with the doctrine of plural marriage by the godless government in Washington, D.C." (Krakauer 137–138). Many Mormons felt that the American Constitution was "perhaps not theirs after all" (Gordon 6).

By the turn of the twentieth century, polygamy had become socially as well as legally stigmatized even within the Mormon Church. The few fundamentalists who practiced — and continue to practice — plural marriage in private risk ongoing conflict with their religion's leadership, popular culture, and government. Indeed, polygamists who claim allegiance to the Church of Latter-Day Saints are not actually members of the LDS Church (Krakauer).