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Jun 2008 Issue
By Brian C. Hales
During the past few weeks, media coverage of the raid in Texas of the compound owned by The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) has created identity confusion between them and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). LDS Church members may especially wonder about the differences between the two groups. They may puzzle over the allegations that their religion has lost fundamental principles that are reportedly being perpetuated by dissenters. If something is currently missing from the doctrines and practices of the LDS Church, members want to know what it is and why it was jettisoned. And if the accusations are false, there is desire to comprehend the distinctions. Below are ten important contrasts between the FLDS and the LDS Church, some are historical while others doctrinal.
1. Historically the FLDS and other fundamentalists have ignored fundamental doctrines that Joseph Smith emphasized like missionary work and temple work. Fundamentalist leaders have never sent missionaries to baptize. Yet Joseph Smith taught that in the eternal economy, serving as missionaries is infinitesimally more important than the practice of polygamy. Equally, performing temple work has always been deemed more important than plural marriage. Some fundamentalists manifest an elitist attitude believing that their attempts to practice polygamy exempt them from these fundamental gospel responsibilities.
2. The FLDS and other fundamentalists believe that plural marriage is always required for salvation, irrespective of where and when a person lives on earth, which is contrary to the teachings of early Church leaders. God’s marital law is regulated through “one” man who holds the priesthood keys of sealing authority first given to Joseph Smith in this dispensation. Without the authorization of that “one” man, marriages are “not valid” after death. The opinions and desires of other men and women are unimportant. Religious history shows that plural marriage is usually not permitted by God, as in the Book of Mormon. But at times it may be permitted, as in the Old Testament. The only record of polygamy being commanded occurred to the Latter-day Saints between 1852 and 1890.
3. Warren Jeffs is said to have over sixty wives. Most fundamentalists believe that the more wives and children a man accumulates on earth, the greater his salvation, which was not taught by Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. Throughout the past decades, many Mormon fundamentalists have been obsessed with acquiring as many wives and offspring as possible. However, President Wilford Woodruff taught in 1888 (when polygamy was commanded) that a man complied with God’s directive by marrying only a second wife. He explained: “I know of no requirement which makes it necessary for a man to have three living wives at a time.” Neither does he need four, five or sixty.
4. Under the direction of FLDS leaders, girls as young as fourteen have been married and begun bearing children. In contrast, early LDS authorities taught that men should wait until their younger wives matured (to about age eighteen) before initiating relations that could result in pregnancy. Brigham Young taught: “Take good women, but let the children grow, then they will be able to bear children after a few years without injury.” And he further clarified: “It is your privilege to take more wives, but set a good example to the people, and leave the children long enough with their parents to get their growth, strength and maturity.”
5. A common fundamentalist practice is to marry women as plural wives and then leave them to fend for themselves materially, or to go on state welfare. Early Church leaders would have abhorred such practices. Joseph Smith taught: “Women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance… All children have claim upon their parents for their maintenance until they are of age” (D&C 83:2, 4). The practice of polygamy does not nullify these directives. At no time have priesthood authorities encouraged men to marry wives they could not provide for.
6. FLDS believe that plural marriage must be continued or the authority to practice it will be lost. In fact, there is no ordinance of plural marriage and no special authority to seal plural marriages. There is, however, authority to seal a monogamist marriage, which can be repeated, if authorized by the Church President (the “one” man). Thereafter, the man is eternally married to an additional wife. The sealing authority has been utilized to perform sealing ordinances binding one man to more than one woman continuously in the LDS Church since 1841, but after 1904, the man’s other wife (or wives) had to be deceased. However, the ceremony itself does not reveal whether the groom’s other spouses are living or dead. History shows that no ordinances or authority have been discontinued or lost by the Church.
7. Warren Jeffs’ father, Rulon Jeffs, claimed sealing authority through a calling as a “High Priest Apostle” and as a member of a “Council of Seven Friends.” Neither the office nor the council had ever been heard of prior to 1932, and Warren was never ordained by his father. Whether imitating his father or through some other means, Warren Jeffs’ claims to be the “one” man holding the sealing keys today are seemingly indefensible. Currently few fundamentalists seem willing to defend these ideas, even though they represent the fountainhead from which their alleged priesthood authority sprang. In contrast, Church members embrace an orderly line of succession through the senior apostle who arises to that position through his ordination into the Council of the Twelve Apostles and has always served as President of the Church.
8. If the FLDS leaders have no genuine sealing authority from Joseph Smith, their marriages are unauthorized and Church leaders have consistently taught that freelance plural marriages have no eternal value. In 1847, Brigham Young was the “one” man holding the keys of sealing. That year W. W. Phelps married three plural wives without his permission. In response, President Young had Phelps excommunicated, telling him he had committed adultery every time he slept with those women.
9. The FLDS leaders use the United Effort Plan (UEP) to control the property and houses of their followers. The united order and law of consecration are designed to help the poor by deeding to them their own stewardships. The members are given ownership of the property and other resources and then expected to use their free agency to prosper or not. If the Church retained title and used its ownership to intimidate its followers, it would not be the law of consecration but a gross abuse of priesthood authority.
10. Through the “Law of Placing” FLDS leaders “place” single girls with older men, thus controlling the marriage arrangements of their followers. Early leaders like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young never controlled who married whom. Brigham Young’s taught 1853: “I am free, and so are you. My advice to the sisters is, ‘Never be sealed to any man unless you wish to be.’ I say to you High Priests and Elders, ‘Never from this time ask a woman to be sealed to you, unless she wants to be; but let the widows and children alone.’”
The FLDS and other Mormon fundamentalists draw their strength from sincerity, tradition and their own personal convictions. Most are earnest, leading peaceful lives. Yet it appears that an examination of their theology and history shows numerous distinctions from the fundamentals taught by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.
Layton physician Brian C. Hales has authored four books on Mormon polygamy including the recently released Setting the Record Straight: Mormon Fundamentalism (Millennial Press, June 2008). His writings have been published in Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought and the Journal of Mormon History and he has presented at meetings of the Mormon History Association, the John Whitmer Historical Association, and the Sunstone Symposium.
