Polygamy was practiced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, Heavenly Mother, also known as Mother in Heaven, is the mother of human spirits and the wife of God the Father. Collectively Heavenly Mother and Father are called Heavenly Parents. Those who accept the Mother in Heaven doctrine trace its origins to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The doctrine became more widely known after Smith's death in 1844.
The status of women in Mormonism has been a source of public debate since before the death of Joseph Smith in 1844. Various denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement have taken different paths on the subject of women and their role in the church and in society. Views range from the full equal status and ordination of women to the priesthood, as practiced by the Community of Christ, to a patriarchal system practiced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to the ultra-patriarchal plural marriage system practiced by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and other Mormon fundamentalist groups.
Polygamy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or plural marriage, is generally believed to have originated with the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. According to several of his associates, Smith taught that polygamy was a divine commandment and practiced it personally, by some accounts marrying more than 30 women, some of whom had existing marriages to other men. Evidence for Smith's polygamy is provided by the church's "sealing" records, affidavits, letters, journals, and diaries. However, until his death, Smith and the leading church quorums denied that he preached or practiced polygamy. Smith's son Joseph Smith III, his widow Emma Smith, and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints challenged the evidence and taught that Joseph Smith had opposed polygamy. They instead claimed that Brigham Young, the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, introduced plural marriage after Smith's death. In 1852, leaders of the Utah-based LDS Church publicly announced the doctrine of polygamy.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian specializing in early America and the history of women, and a professor at Harvard University. Her approach to history has been described as a tribute to "the silent work of ordinary people". Ulrich has also been a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. Her most famous book, A Midwife’s Tale, was later the basis for a PBS documentary film.
Valeen Tippetts Avery was an American biographer and historian of Western American and Latter Day Saint history. With biographer Linda King Newell, she co-authored Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, a biography of the wife of the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith.
Susa Gates was an American writer, periodical editor, president of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and women's rights advocate. She was a daughter of LDS Church president Brigham Young. Throughout her life, Gates wrote many short stories, novels, poems, and other literary works. According to R. Paul Cracroft's thesis, Gates wrote more than other Mormon writers. Gates was also actively involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where, among other things, she wrote the lesson manuals, was a member of the Relief Society general board, lead genealogical efforts, and served as a missionary.
Possibly as early as the 1830s, followers of the Latter Day Saint movement, were practicing the doctrine of polygamy or "plural marriage". After the death of church founder Joseph Smith, the doctrine was officially announced in Utah Territory in 1852 by Mormon leader Brigham Young. The practice was attributed posthumously to Smith and it began among Mormons at large, principally in Utah where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had relocated after the Illinois Mormon War.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, privately taught and practiced polygamy. After Smith's death in 1844, the church he established splintered into several competing groups. Disagreement over Smith's doctrine of "plural marriage" has been among the primary reasons for multiple church schisms.
Paul Y. Hoskisson is an American professor of Ancient scripture and former associate dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University (BYU). In 2008, he was appointed director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Research.
Carol Cornwall Madsen is an emeritus professor of history at Brigham Young University (BYU) where she was a research historian with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History. She also served as associate director of BYU's Women's Research Institute. She has written 50 scholarly articles and several books.
Richard Ian Kimball is a professor of history at Brigham Young University (BYU). He is a leading expert on the history of sports, especially as it relates to the Latter-day Saints. His book Sports in Zion: Mormon Recreation 1890-1940 was published by the University of Illinois Press and has been reviewed by such widely recognized journals as the Western Political Quarterly and the American Historical Review. Essentially the same book has also been marketed by Deseret Book under the title To Make True Latter-day Saints: Mormon Recreation in the Progressive Era.
The Religious Studies Center (RSC) at Brigham Young University (BYU) sponsors and publishes scholarship on the culture, history, scripture, and doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Janet Benson Bennion is Professor of Anthropology at Lyndon State College, Vermont, United States. She specializes in gender dynamics in Mormon fundamentalist communities which practice polygamy. Bennion is one of the world's leading ethnographers of North American plural marriage. She has raised the question of decriminalization of plural marriage in a variety of radio and television forums and several international scholar venues at Brandeis University and the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
The John Whitmer Historical Association (JWHA) is an independent, nonprofit organization promoting study, research, and publishing about the history and culture of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is especially focused on the Community of Christ, other midwestern Restoration traditions, and early Mormonism. The Community of Christ's approach to its own history was influenced, in part, by historical problems raised and explored through JWHA publications and conferences, and those of its sister organization, the Mormon History Association. JWHA membership numbers around 400 and is open to all, fostering cooperation with LDS and non-Mormon scholars.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Heavenly Parents is the term used in Mormonism to refer collectively to the divine partnership of God the Father and the Heavenly Mother who are believed to be parents of human spirits. The concept traces its origins to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
