Brigham Young's statements regarding plural marriage

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Brigham Young's statements regarding polygamy

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• Question: Did Brigham Young and Joseph Smith say that polygamists were allowed to go beyond normal bounds of social interaction?
• Question: Did Brigham Young boast about his ability to get more wives even though he was married to 50-60 women?
• Question: Why did Emma Smith and Brigham Young dislike one another?
• Question: Why did Brigham Young say that women "have no right to meddle in the affairs of the Kingdom of God"?
• Question: Did Brigham Young believe that one could not enter the Celestial Kingdom unless they were a polygamist?

Question: Did Brigham Young and Joseph Smith say that polygamists were allowed to go beyond normal bounds of social interaction?

Jump to details:

• Question: Did Brigham Young and Joseph Smith say that polygamists were allowed to go beyond normal bounds of social interaction?
• Joseph’s point is clear—men, like Brigham, who have reached a certain degree of faithfulness may be asked to do even more difficult things
• Brigham was thus past the bounds because he had done all that God required and more, not because he would violate moral limits
• Brigham sees the matter as a command that he does not wish to fulfill—he would prefer to be dead—but that God confirms as his will
• Further evidence: Heber C. Kimball

Question: Did Brigham Young boast about his ability to get more wives even though he was married to 50-60 women?

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• Question: Did Brigham Young boast about his ability to get more wives even though he was married to 50-60 women?
• The references do not support the claims
• Journal of Discousces 5:210
• Journal of Discourses 8:178

Question: Why did Emma Smith and Brigham Young dislike one another?

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• Question: Why did Emma Smith and Brigham Young dislike one another?
• The animosity between Brigham Young and Emma had multiple grounds: personal, religious, and financial
• Brigham also doubtless considered Emma dishonest and a liar because she continued to insist that her husband had never taught the doctrine of plural marriage
• Brigham and Emma did not agree on the disposition of Joseph's estate

Question: Why did Brigham Young say that women "have no right to meddle in the affairs of the Kingdom of God"?

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• Question: Why did Brigham Young say that women "have no right to meddle in the affairs of the Kingdom of God"?
• Brigham's intent has been distorted
• The author relies on presentism, since Brigham and virtually all of his contemporaries (men and women) likely had attitudes about women's roles which would strike us as "sexist"

Question: Did Brigham Young believe that one could not enter the Celestial Kingdom unless they were a polygamist?

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• Question: Did Brigham Young believe that one could not enter the Celestial Kingdom unless they were a polygamist?
• Wilford Woodruff: "President Young said there would be men saved in the Celestial Kingdom of God with one wife with Many wives & with No wife at all"
• Wilford Woodruff: President Young...said a Man may Embrace the Law of Celestial Marriage in his heart & not take the Second wife & be justified before the Lord

Brigham Young and plural marriage

Summary: It is claimed that the Church's manual, The Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, attempts to "hide history" by portraying Brigham Young (a well-known polygamist) as having only one wife.

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• Question: Does Church manual, The Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, attempt to "hide history" by portraying Brigham Young (a well-known polygamist) as having only one wife?
• Question: What does The Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young say about Brigham's wives?

Brigham Young 8 October 1861 discourse on plural marriage

Summary: Notes on BRIGHAM YOUNG's Unpublished Sermon of 8 October 1861.

Joseph Smith's Polygamy: "Brigham Young Seeks a Plural Wife", by Brian C. Hales

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