Mormons still practise polygamy sort of. They have “sealings” which is marriage forever, not just “'til death do us part”. If a widow is to remarry, she needs to break the sealing to her dead spouse if she wishes to be sealed to get new one (or she could stay sealed to her first spouse and only marry the second until death).
A widower, however, doesn’t need to break the previous sealing. He can be sealed to multiple women no problem. Essentially polygamy, but only in the afterlife.
Can confirm. If any Mormons are reading this and think it’s made up-- ASK YOUR BISHOP what happens if you were to die or have a civil divorce and you or your spouse wants to remarry in the temple.
They don’t teach this openly, and your bishop may beat around the bush but this is all true.
I’ve hung out with a bunch of Mormons and while they personally felt it was weird now, because they have grown up in a monogamous nation, the church itself would definitely gear up to switch back, if it was legal.
That would be a process, though. They are currently taught that it is morally fine, but following the laws of the land is important, and basically treat it like part of their history. On an individual level, the ones I know seemed fine with that, even those that had an active role in the church.
It’s also not that strange in more secular contexts, see this article about polyamory in general. So I think it makes sense for people to be okay with the concept of plural marriage, while not wanting to engage with it themselves (e.g. it wouldn’t work for me).
Yeah I agree. Religions have bonus rules related to that, but consent makes it fine, there’s no actual ick there innately. There’s plenty of room for a religion to make it creepy and not OK, but that’s not fundamentally tied to polygamy.
To be fair, Joseph Smith wrote “The Articles of Faith” well before polygamy was abolished, which states:
So the belief that polygamy still has value may remain. Or it may not. It’s hard to tell without a change in the law.
Mormons still practise polygamy sort of. They have “sealings” which is marriage forever, not just “'til death do us part”. If a widow is to remarry, she needs to break the sealing to her dead spouse if she wishes to be sealed to get new one (or she could stay sealed to her first spouse and only marry the second until death).
A widower, however, doesn’t need to break the previous sealing. He can be sealed to multiple women no problem. Essentially polygamy, but only in the afterlife.
Can confirm. If any Mormons are reading this and think it’s made up-- ASK YOUR BISHOP what happens if you were to die or have a civil divorce and you or your spouse wants to remarry in the temple.
They don’t teach this openly, and your bishop may beat around the bush but this is all true.
I’ve hung out with a bunch of Mormons and while they personally felt it was weird now, because they have grown up in a monogamous nation, the church itself would definitely gear up to switch back, if it was legal.
That would be a process, though. They are currently taught that it is morally fine, but following the laws of the land is important, and basically treat it like part of their history. On an individual level, the ones I know seemed fine with that, even those that had an active role in the church.
It’s also not that strange in more secular contexts, see this article about polyamory in general. So I think it makes sense for people to be okay with the concept of plural marriage, while not wanting to engage with it themselves (e.g. it wouldn’t work for me).
I suspect most of the time, non monogamy via religion is going to be shitty. It’s probably going to favor men and be controlling.
I know many people who do consensual non monogamy in real life. Personally I don’t like the DADT or strictly-hierarchical modes
People who aren’t familiar with it say some pretty wild things about it.
My take is if you can have multiple friends, and you’re okay with your friends having friends, you’re like 80% of the way there.
The last 20% is likely to crash into “it just is, stop asking me to introspect this is uncomfortable and I’m mad!”
Yeah I agree. Religions have bonus rules related to that, but consent makes it fine, there’s no actual ick there innately. There’s plenty of room for a religion to make it creepy and not OK, but that’s not fundamentally tied to polygamy.