The issues of marriage and The Mormon Church have a long historically ironic and troubled past. The marriage doctrines of the church have collided with the government, constitutional and legislative law on 3 distinct occasions in it's 178 year old history. Central to the doctrines of Mormonism and salvation are the ordinance of celestial marriage and family. The Mormons are mostly reknowned the world over for their past doctrines of polygamous marriage. Less known are the doctrines of access to the priesthood and celestial marriage for people of African descent and the recent Church opposition to civil marriage for gay people.
The historical path of polygamy cessation required a revelation from God in 1890, as did the ordination of Black men into the Mormon priesthood in 1978.
The electoral victory of Prop. 8 in California is a moral victory for the Republican base in the " Mormon corridor" in the former Mormon territorial empire of the states of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada and California
This newly defined belt is now a sizeably reliable electoral voting block for the Republican Party in the Western U.S.
1. Polgamy
In the 19th century the term celestial marriage often referred specifically to the practice of plural marriage, a practice which the LDS Church essentially abandoned in 1890.
As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled in what became the Utah Territory it eventually was subjected to the power and opinion of the United States. Friction first began to show in the James Buchanan administration and federal troops arrived (see Utah War). The general opinion of the rest of the United States was that the practice of plural marriage was offensive. On July 8, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act into law, which forbade the practice in US territories. President Lincoln told the church that he had no intentions of enforcing it if they would not interfere with him, and so the matter was laid to rest for a time. Nevertheless, the rhetoric continued, and polygamy became an impediment to Utah being admitted to the United States. This was not a concern to Brigham Young, however, who preached in 1866 that if Utah will not be admitted to the Union until it abandons polygamy, "we shall never be admitted."[66]
In September 1871, President Brigham Young was indicted for adultery due to his plural marriages. On January 6, 1879, the Supreme Court upheld the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in Reynolds v. United States. The decision was not well-received by the members and leadership of the church.
In 1887, the Edmunds-Tucker Act allowed seizure of control of the church and further extended the punishments of the Edmunds Act of 1882. In July of the same year, the U.S. Attorney General filed suit to seize the church and all of its assets. The Church found it difficult to operate as a viable institution. Among other things, this legislation disincorporated the Church, confiscated its properties, and even threatened seizure of its temples.
On Septemeber 23, 1890, then president and prophet, Wilford Woodruff, received a revelation from God sometimes simply called,"The Manifesto". It officially banned the practice of plural marriage and was formally accepted by the church membership.
2. Marriage, membership and Mormonism for African descent peoples
Thirty years ago on September 30, 1978, the Mormon Prophet Spencer Kimball lifted the ban on black ordination to the priesthood of the Church. Under the racial restrictions that lasted from the presidency of Brigham Young until 1978, persons with any black African ancestry could not hold the priesthood in the LDS Church and could not participate in some temple ordinances, such as the Endowment and celestial marriage crucial to eternal salvation.
Most missions throughout the world discouraged their legions of young missionaries from contacting and converting potential members or recruits of African descent. It was a real conundrum for The Mormons in Brazil where most of the population had intermarried racially and most Brazilians had African slave ancestry.
I remember the reaction of the general membership of the church when the ban was lifted in 1978 through a "revelation from God" not unlike the now infamous "manifesto" on polygamy. There was a lot of celebration among the Mormon people. Deep down inside many of my Mormon friends, colleagues and family; they knew that the racial restrictions of the church were wrong and bigoted. Many had hoped for the day that the Church would rescind the ban on people of African descent and the bad publicity and embarrassing questions it generated for them and their church. That day had arrived and the Mormons busied themselves immediately at prosyletizing the newly opened African continent and rationalizing away their bigoted past.
At the core of this prohibition were the issues of celestial marriage and access for Black people to achieve celestial marriage and salvation. The overt racism of the church leaders and it's members for 150 years was inexcusable for insiders like me who left the Church during this period of time. It was just another botched attempt by very misguided leadership as to who qualified for marriage and who did not, based on 18th century notions of racial equality and religious elitism.
3. Gay marriage 2008
Ironically, in a twist of marital fate and mounting criticism, The Mormon Church finds itself center stage in the central role of defining marriage in the 21st century in America again. One would think the Mormons hierarchy a wee bit apprehensive to wade into this arena given it's dismal track record.
Many critics claim that the LDS's policy on temple admission is unreasonable, noting that even relatives and the non-mormon relatives and friends of converts cannot attend a Mormon temple marriage unless they are members of the church in good standing...paying tithing and obstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine and conforming to sexual purity. Oftentimes, I have heard the bitter and angry protestations of non-Mormon families who were denied access to the weddings of their children and friends who converted to the Mormon Church. The exclusion is an over-riding theme of Mormon critics of marriage mores redefined.
The church takes a repressive stance towards sexuality and that this may be psychologically unhealthy for it's 12 million members. Affirmation.org has particularly criticized sexual repression of gays, both inside and outside of the church. Under no condition is homosexual sex ever acceptable according to Mormon doctrine. A letter dated June 20, 2008, sent to Mormon bishops and signed by church president Thomas S. Monson and his two top counselors, calls on Mormons to donate "means and time" to California ballot measure 8 designed to defeat the state's May ruling allowing gay marriage. The LDS church actively campaigns against same-sex marriage statutes, including donating $500,000 in 1998 towards a campaign to defeat such a referendum in Alaska. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is asking California members to join the effort to amend that state's constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. The church views this as "tough love", and believe that "failing to teach and to warn and to discipline is to destroy."
The LDS church is homophobic."Straight members have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up gay in this church. It is a life of constant torment, self-hatred and internalized homophobia." The practice of shunning, disfellowship and excommunication are regularly employed against gay members, but most notably on the young GLBTQ teens and young adults in the church. Their collective voices of disenfranchisement from family and communities is an all too tragic phenomenon of Mormon and Evangelical Christian churches across America. It is NOT borne of any Christian tenet or practice, let alone any humanist compassion for one's blood family members. The abandonment and renunciation of one's gay child is as serious a social issue, as any other, in secular familial law.
Proposition 8 has hurt so many people. People in hospices, People in America's gay ghettos, people driven to alcoholism and drug addiction, young people, old people, business people, rich and poor gay people. It has literally and psychologically affected millions of gay people.
It affects Mormon people, many of whom have gay brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces,uncles,parents and children. I am not sure most of the Mormon people are on board with disenfranchizing millions of gay people in their families and across America. It seems this one too, is on crash course like all the other doctrines of marriage definition that have plagued the Mormon psyche for decades.
The sheer hypocrisy of of the establishment religious institutions of Jesus' time compelled him to proclaim 2000 years ago, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness"
The Elders, Prophets and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ should pay attention to the words of their Master. The failed interpretations and practices of Polygamy, African exclusion, and gay disenfranchisement uniquely disqualify The Mormon Church from an enlightened and progressive definition or spiritual authority of marriage equality in 2008 America. I would conclude that they have auspiciously disqualified themselves as the moral compass of marriage for the Latter-day Church of Jesus Christ. It might help them to avoid the many mistakes to redefine marriage equality that the Saints have wrestled with in their troubled past.