This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
“Also, the new wife must be a virgin before the marriage and be completely monogamous after the marriage or she will be destroyed (D&C 132: 41 & 63). It is interesting that the only prerequisite that is mentioned for the man is that he must desire another wife…”
(CES Letter)
False
If a man intended to marry polygamously, his first wife had to give her full consent. There was no allowance in the church for anyone to be forced, coerced, or manipulated into anything. This was one important prerequisite that CES Letter ignores, along with several others. Personal agency is an important concept that protects members of the church. “And if her husband be with another woman, and he was under a vow, he hath broken his vow and hath committed adultery… if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified.”(D&C 132)
CES Letter clips out a lot of this verse to make it sound like the “desire to espouse another” was the only requirement. Not true.
Faithfulness To Marriage Required
D&C 132 required both men and women to be faithful to their marriages and avoid adultery. Men were not to be involved with other women unless his first wife consented to their marriage, and women were not to be involved with other men. No sexual relations outside of marriage: this has always been the rule. Polygamy is obsolete today, but the expectation to abstain from sexual intercourse prior to marriage is still very much alive.
CES Letter seems outraged about the expectation to be “completely monogamous after the marriage,” but I don’t see what is so bizarre or unusual about the expectation to abstain from sexual intercourse outside of marriage. I don’t see why this is something to complain about. The church has always expected this from men and women. I think any healthy society expects this. Widows were of course allowed to remarry (CES Letter complains about this as well). But during a marriage, they were expected to be faithful, and I don’t see why this is something to complain about.
Must Keep All Other Covenants
Men and women were to be faithful to all of their covenants in order to enter into marriage. This included baptism, priesthood, and temple covenants. This was a clear requirement. D&C 132 declared one must “abide in my covenant,” referring to all of the covenants required for salvation in the gospel. This is why eternal marriage was performed in the temple. These prerequisites for polygamous Mormon marriage were strictly enforced, as “the conditions of this law are these: All covenants.”
Sealing Keys Required
This is an obvious requirement for anyone who knows anything about the Mormon priesthood. Eternal sealings were an endowment, and you can’t give yourself an endowment. The basic concept of the priesthood is that blessings are bestowed by a priesthood holder to another person. It must be made by “the medium of mine anointed, whom I have appointed on the earth to hold this power.”
CES Letter shows ignorance by stating that a living prophet’s revelation is not needed:
“It does not say that the man must get a specific revelation from the living prophet, although we assume today that this is what was meant”
(CES Letter)
Yes! Yes, it clearly does: “All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity… and I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred, are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead.”(D&C 132)
D&C 132 makes clear that a living prophet controls the keys and the entire system of holy covenanting. The reason for this is to avoid exactly the kind of confusion that CES Letter and other Anti-Mormons are trying causing: “Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.”(D&C 132)
Non-Virgins Allowed
D&C 132 states if a man espouses a virgin and seeks a second, and the first consents, then it is not adultery. There was no commandment that only virgins were allowed, however. It never says only virgins may marry. Divorcees and widows were remarrying all the time despite not being virgins. Clearly, the issue here was to marry a woman who was not currently married or living an unchaste life.
CES Letter says verse 41 commands that “the new wife must be a virgin before the marriage,” but it says no such thing. Verse 41 never says this, and Mormons never practiced this. It makes no mention of virginity, only that the woman couldn’t currently have a husband. There was no ‘destroying’ going on, no preventing widows or divorcees from remarrying, and “desire” was certainly not the only prerequisite.
“Open marriage” and infidelity is celebrated in today’s culture, and pleasure is championed over family and raising children. The rules for polygamy in the 1800’s were intended to build families and promote fidelity and love. Today’s doctrine of eternal marriage likewise promotes dedication to family and passing on a heritage to future generations. The LDS church teaches men to love and respect women. This argument stokes competition between the sexes and portrays men as barbarians who take whatever they desire, and women as their helpless victims. The LDS church teaches everyone to exercise free agency and not coerce or be coerced into anything. It is a liberating gospel and empowering for all classes, races, and sexes of people, and we will not be swayed by the lies Anti-Mormons tell. Abuse and manipulation are not tolerated. We must not allow these slanderous lies to split men and women in the church. The principle of eternal marriage is a great blessing to each of us, and it strengthens family and society. We can avoid the pitfalls and perils that plague modern western society if we hold true to these covenants and standards.
Polygamy Banned Today
olygamy is banned in the Mormon church today, though chastity and eternal marriage are still an eternal principle. It is quite manipulative for CES Letter to use present-tense grammar when discussing this:
“The only form of polygamy permitted by D&C 132 is a union with a virgin.”
(CES Letter)
It was permitted. Not is permitted. Past tense! Additional D&C scripture superseded this polygamy policy, and now it is not permitted in any case, though the general doctrine of eternal sealing for the afterlife is very much alive. D&C 132 talked to men and women equally in regards to polygamy and eternal marriage. Other religious movements of the time introduced polyandry, where men and women were having with multiple people. D&C makes it clear women were to have only one husband at a time in this policy two-centuries ago.
CES Letter Logical Fallacies
| Falsehood | The entire premise of this argument is false. Desire for another wife was not a man’s only prerequisite. D&C 132 does not fail to declare a man must get specific revelation from a living prophet. It says this very clearly. |
| Argument From Ignorance | CES Letter cherry-picks 11 words from D&C 132 and completely disregards the rest of the chapter which contradicts what they claim it is saying. They ignore all scriptural and historical context to make it sound like women were oppressed and non-virgins were excluded. Women were not banned from marriage if they were non-virgins, and they could remarry if they were divorced or widowed. |
| Strawman Argument | CES Letter gives a false representation of what Mormons believed and what they currently believe, and Mormon orthopraxy. |
| Repetition | CES Letter repeats this argument on p. 69. |
| Ad Hominem | This entire argument is an attack on the characters of Joseph Smith and Mormons. |
Anti-Mormon Authoritarian Mindset
Anti-Mormons instigate class competition between the sexes by portraying some kind of unfair discrepancy or disadvantage that men had in this two-centuries old system. This argument serves to divide the Mormon community and fuel class hatred. It is interesting that CES Letter is incorrectly claiming that D&C 132 gave men so much power with no prophetic oversight. This is an interesting claim, because not only is this totally incorrect, it also gives us a look into CES Letter‘s ideology: strict control over the people and strict control over their personal relationships. This is the authoritarian mindset that Anti-Mormons have.
For all their talk of “equality” and “freedom to marry,” it is Anti-Mormons who banned 19th century Mormon polygamy, the freedom for Mormons to consensually marry whoever they wanted. It is these same Anti-Mormons with the same authoritarian mindset today who push the federal government to further intrude on the definition of marriage and further control personal relationships, under the guise of “equality.”
Why is CES Letter complaining that there are not enough prerequisites? Why is CES Letter complaining that there is not enough modern-day control by the church over marriage? Think about it. Anti-Mormons typically want a more vague scope of how marriage is defined, but it turns out what they really want if for prerequisites to be more constricted. The oversight of an authoritarian power to be more oppressive, to save all the helpless women from those horrible Mormon males. They actually want to tell you who you can or can’t love, just like they did with Mormons in the 19th century and using the same arguments as they did in the 19th century. And they want to do it in the interest of an “equal” Socialist society.
Anti-Mormon hypocrisy – CES Letter uses an emotional argument for polygamy, whereas they used intellectual arguments against the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. In each case, they set a rigid binary standard for right or wrong based on modern, popular sensibilities and apply that to Joseph Smith’s history, as if this is real history.
We saw their modus operandi at work as they stuck with modern Egyptologist’s translations of the facsimiles and acted like this contradicted Joseph Smith’s interpretations for the Book of Abraham. This is how CES Letter works. They give a few bits of incorrect leading evidence out of context; the reader connects to dots in their mind; and CES Letter pushes it to a sweeping generalization.
In this argument, CES Letter approaches marriage from our modern society’s definition, ignore all historical context, and perpetuate the big lies. Why do so many “pro-equality” activists, good progressives who say people should be free to marry whoever they love, condemn Mormons for their history with polygamy? The same Anti-Mormons who attack us for the old history of polygamy also endorse “progressive” ideas about marriage and love. Shouldn’t polygamy be on their list of marriages that deserve equality?
Well yes, it should, and this is why Anti-Mormons spin polygamy as something that coerces and manipulates women into subjugation. Lately, this narrative has become evens easier as there really are crazy cults that actually do victimize young girls and force people to marry, criminals like Warren Jeffs. Interestingly, we only seem to hear about splinter groups in Utah, however.
This is why this argument’s narrative about women being victimized is so important. Opponents in the media have trumpeted this narrative since the beginning. In the 1800’s, American newspapers were putting out story after story about how women in Utah were treated as “slaves.” It led to the federal government for the first time registering all marriages, controlling the definition of marriage, and jailing Mormons who did not fit that definition. Still today, Mormons are persecuted as some kind of oppressive patriarchy that victimized women. This narrative gives opponents justification for attacking Mormons while claiming to be “pro-equality.”
Attack On Marriage – The key component is the claim that men are victimizing women. This frame of ‘predator versus victim’ leads us to a Marxist ideology. Marxism is all about protecting victims from the predators. Marxists think the biggest miracle about mankind is that we evolved to the top of the food chain without ever becoming predators of other animals. Economically, Marxists protect working classes from a predator class. Marxism is all about protecting the vulnerable from those seeking unequal advantage–and all about keeping people weak in order to keep them reliant on a benevolent dictator for safety.
A major part of Marxism is the deconstruction of masculinity. They seek to pick positive masculine traits that propagate the ideology, such as the gusto to fight for the cause, and eliminate “toxic masculine” traits such as the desire to marry and have children in a traditional family. They think traditional families are evil because men contribute labor to the economy while women are “subjugated” as mothers and do not perform labor. The ideal for Marxists is a state where men and women are completely equal working bees and children are grown and raised by the benevolent dictator state. Nobody is preying on anybody.
The narrative that women are coerced into marriage because of Christianity comes straight from Karl Marx, and it is nothing but an attack on the traditional family. This appeal to emotion is not only about attacking the church. It is about replacing the testimony of a gospel. Marxists believe females are oppressed by men in a giant class struggle that hinders their economic output. Polygamy in the Mormon church was problem for Marxists because the higher law of eternal marriage is the perfect example of “inequality” that Marxists hate.
Big Lie – CES Letter uses the same big lie tactic that they used against the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. They start of with the big lie that marriage for time and for eternity were the same. This compounds and leads to other lies to attack Joseph Smith’s character. One lie leads to another. Each time, they hammer home the big lie: that Joseph Smith violated people’s right to consent.
This lie is easier for the reader to accept after all those earlier arguments that attached the same kind of narrative about the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. If Joseph Smith made up all these books of scripture haphazardly, isn’t it reasonable that he made up revelations about marriage?
CES Letter can get away with this Big Lie because it is the consensus among so many fake scholars that Joseph Smith had carnal relations, and because it takes so long to actually investigate the evidence. People are too lazy to actually look through all the historical documents. Even mainstream church apologists are beaten down by all of the accusations and have give way to the big lie. They are too tired defending against it. They let CESLetter get away with the lie, and ven if you don’t believe the allegations, just this association frames Joseph Smith in a terrible light.
For the Book of Abraham, the big lie was that the book was “translated” from a recovered fragment of papyrus that we now know is the Book of Breathing. They repeat it over and over. With polygamy, the big lie likewise will be used by CES Letter to make all sorts of implications to attack Joseph Smith’s character.
| See also: | CES Letter Contradiction Strategy |
Contradiction Strategy – We could see the intellectual tricks and sophistry CES Letter used to portray Joseph Smith as a fraud in their arguments about the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. Well, even if that were all true and he were a fraud, so what? Aren’t Mormons still nice people who make the world a better place? The powerful thing with these polygamy arguments is that CES Letter tells you why Mormonism is still evil: it victimizes women. This is easy rhetoric for them to push, as the internet is filled with all kinds of false rumors about Mormon polygamy and because the fake news media labels modern-day polygamist cultists as “Mormon”. It is easy to just repeat claims over and over, not give any evidence, and make the issue personal through manipulative repetition.
Total Hypocrisy From Anti-Mormons – This argument appeals to a woman’s desire to be “free.” It appeals to a man’s desire to protect women from harm, a very strong instinct in men. Men are highly protective of women and easily shamed for letting women down. Men with weak testimonies tend to be insecure sexually and eager to be empowering. The truth is eternal marriage is the most empowering thing there is for men and women. The arguments are contradictory–CES Letter incorrectly complained that Joseph Smith was marrying other men’s wives, but now suggests that only men and not women were allowed to by polygamous. But the narrative doesn’t need to make sense, because it is a purely emotional appeal.
Meanwhile, the “marriage equality” crowd pushes children to make ‘choices’ about their gender and applauds drag parties for 10 year old boys. Their argument completely flies out the window when it comes to influences pushed onto children in the name of Socialist “equality.”
CES Letter says he was led to believe something different about Joseph Smith. “This is not the Joseph Smith I grew up learning about in the Church and having a testimony of.” This shows how dependent and weak CES Letter was, demanding the church to hand them all the answers instead of researching things for themselves. It also suggests that the definition of “testimony” was shallow to begin with. If a testimony is indeed crushed by new information, it wasn’t much of a testimony to begin with, because truth doesn’t change. Truth changes for Marxists and worldly Socialists, and they believe whatever narrative they need to in the moment for their ideology of universal salvation and dictatorial control, but real truth is never altered by “new” information, only solidified.
Family is most important, and it is under heavy assault from progressive secularists. With Mormons, this assault began long ago, when consensual, adult relationships were banned by the government and new laws were passed to regulate all personal relationships in the country. It continues today, as mainstream media propagate salacious tales of polygamy that happened two centuries ago, and Anti-Mormons tell lies to tear down Mormon men and shame Mormon women. As marriages and birth rates in America fall, it seems like all of this is designed to prevent men and women in the church from joining in healthy romantic relationships. Women are shamed if they choose to stay home and spend time to raise their children, and men are shamed if they “desire” romance with a woman. But it is possible to be part of a healthy traditional family. I promise, it is possible this day and age to love a partner and have joy in your posterity as a mother or father. The doctrine of eternal marriage seals us together and brings joy in our lives and peace to our society, so that we can enjoy eternal life with those we love.Complete answers to CES Letter questions about Mormons: