Mormons and Polygamy: Why They Did It

There I was just minding my own business, sitting on my bed, as my fiancé watches a documentary--most likely a "Vice" documentary-- on God knows what. So I'm just sitting there when I hear, "So, according to Joseph Smith, the more wives you had, the better Heaven would be."

Now, maybe I could have said things sweeter, but my fury was ablaze. 

Gloriously irate, I plop my iPad down and say (in a very stern, 'don't you dare interrupt me ' tone), "that is ENTIRELY untrue. You wanna know why Mormons had several wives? Because women's husband were going off to the war and dying. Women were not allowed to own land or any property at this time. There weren't many men who hadn't gone to war, and most of those few were already married. So the women married men who were already married, not to have sexual relations--almost none of them did have any sexual relations with these men--but to ensure they and their children had homes and land to survive on. That is why polygamy was legal in the Church."

Too many people only look at our actions and not at our hearts. Polygamy was never meant to let men fool around with as many women as they could marry. And, most certainly, Joseph Smith NEVER said to have as many wives as possible to have a better Heaven. Everything we believe in is always scrutinized at the most elementary of levels. 

Please, stop looking like fools. 

Never has any missionary said, "That's a dumb question."

Ask questions. I'm a new convert to the Church (baptized September 7, 2013) and, although I am inactive at the moment, I constantly ask questions about why things were done they way they were. I surely don't have all the answers, and I never will, but I do know that everything has has a purpose--just as you and I do.