24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing and Unique, September 24, 2002
This review is from: More Than One: Plural Marriage, A Sacred Heritage - A Promise For Tomorrow (Paperback)
I am surprised at the preachiness of some of the rather negative reviews, which seem to be more interested in arguing about whether or not polygamy is right or wrong, rather than actually reviewing this book. The author certainly takes a position in the book, and presents it well. Whether or not you or I disagree with his position doesn't matter.
It is an interesting book, and is well researched. I've read several books on this subject, and there were journal entries included in this book that I hadn't seen before. Always a pleasant discovery.
The book offers an opportunity to examine the belief system of people who chose to live this lifestyle. The first portion of the book allows these people to speak for themselves, and it is evident that these were truly sincere and committed individuals, notwithstanding the many struggles to which they were subjected.
Whether or not a person accepts the premise that polygamy is a legitimate religious doctrine, it cannot be disputed that there are people all over the world who still espouse it as part of their own personal belief system, and even practice it.
The book succeeds in linking past to present and encourages the reader to take a fresh look at those who embrace polygamy in modern times.
There are many cultures who practice traditions that may not be embraced or immediately understood by outsiders. As an educated society, part of our responsibility is to refrain from judgments based on ignorance and stereotypes. If we are open-minded, we are less likely to oppress other cultures simply because we discover them to be diverse from our own.
Shane Whelan's book opens the door for further study into this fascinating aspect of former and present Americana.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I fought the law and the law won..., September 23, 2002
This review is from: More Than One: Plural Marriage, A Sacred Heritage - A Promise For Tomorrow (Paperback)
Polygamy has split Mormons into many groups, but there is one clear winner in the numbers game - the church with temples everywhere, and armies of clean-cut young men who come knocking at your door bearing a badge that marks them, curiously, as an "Elder". This is the church that taught polygamy was the ideal form of marriage, before running into so much oppression from the US Government that a series of revelations were needed in order to turn it into an organisation that practices monogamy and tries to be classed with the Christian mainstream.
As with most religions, many Mormons may know little about their forefathers, and the detailed teachings of their church, and may be content to bask in such ignorance. But for a few, like Whelan, ignorance is not bliss, and this leads to the discovery of reams of testimony in favour of polygamy from members of a church that places great emphasis on personal testimony as evidence of truth.
This digging uncovers a sense of a number of important points:-
1. First wives who considered polygamy was a great hardship they were enduring for their faith, yet ended up seeing good results.
2. The wider Mormon community who doubted polygamy and who were surprised to see it turning out OK.
3. How polygamy was especially common for leading men within the church and how it continued after the Manifesto that was supposed to stop it.
4. How early Mormons lived through times of deprivation and high mortality rates for children and adults.
5. How the entire Mormon experience is so America-centric, and truly deserves the name of "the American religion".
In the process, Whelan provides a useful antidote to much slanted bad publicity against modern polygamists. Some people liked it - many women enjoyed it and found it better than anything else that was on offer - trying to paint it as all bad just because it doesn't fit with feminist ideology ignores the experience of the majority interest group that voluntarily signed up to plural marriage - the women.
But this digging leads to a rather difficult discovery for modern Mormons. Summing up on Mormon Church teaching, we learn that the words of past Mormon President Joseph F Smith, make it "clear that participation in plural marriage will be a requirement for those seeking exaltation in the celestial kingdom. This may require a change in thinking for millions of members of the LDS church who feel that living a righteous life in monogamy is sufficient." Set against this is the requirement for a modern Mormon president to declare polygamy to be OK again, after a change in the law, a change in social responsibility, and a change in religious principles to make such a prophecy acceptable.
Whelan views the practice of polygamy as essentially required by Mormon doctrine, and involving the rights of single or divorced Mormon women, and of pre-mortal spirits who are waiting to be born into good Mormon homes. When all this is set against the background of a church that is not moving towards polygamy, the only way of breaking the tension is to say that that the current Mormon church must "one day" change its position back to one in favour of the practice of polygamy.
But this review is written from an evangelical Protestant view of the Mormon faith, that opposes Mormon theology while remaining tolerant of their one-time practice of polygamy. That means I don't have to go with the idea that everyone will wake up one day and think that polygamy is OK. One thing I noticed was the way the history didn't include black Mormons, because the church denied black men the priesthood until the 1970's. The church doctrine changed to suit what was politically acceptable in the 1970's, as it had in the 1890's. Why would it suddenly go against the flow to return to a principle it safely buried a hundred years ago? Whelan tries to find supportive quotes from current Mormon President Gordon Hinckley, but these merely add up to saying nice things about the pioneers and family values, and Hinckley's backing for polygamy is only noticeable by its absence. This is reflected when Hinckley appears on TV downplaying the central role of polygamy in Mormon history and doctrine.
Another mainstream Mormon, Elizabeth Harmer-Dionne, has studied the impact of the law on Mormon belief, and found that it promoted cognitive dissonance - that the law changed the practice, and believing one thing while doing another was so stressful that something had to give. This effectively means that the law won, and changed the Mormons' belief. But if you really believe in a religion, you can't have ultimate truth dictated to you by a bunch of non-believers, even if it is the US Supreme Court, and you end up in Whelan's position, waiting for times to change back. I don't want to stop Whelan from marrying another wife if that's what he and his family think their faith requires, but I can't help but think he's waiting for the train that never comes.
"More than One" presents an interesting challenge to modern-day Mormons about the future of their faith. It does it in a way that will be meaningful to Mormons, emphasising the teaching of their church and the experiences of their ancestors, but it is in the end a book by, for and about Mormons. Other readers may find it interesting to peek into this world, and to consult the resources Whelan has gathered together, but may notice that it doesn't cover the more "difficult" pieces of history when Mormons were telling the authorities or each other one thing, whilst doing another. It covers enough to show that this tension still exists in the Mormon church, and to put modern Mormons in the difficult position of seeing whether they can find a way to reconcile their past with their present, without deferring the conflict to the future.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very inspirational and faith-building, February 2, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: More Than One: Plural Marriage, A Sacred Heritage - A Promise For Tomorrow (Paperback)
This book presents original, unedited, journal entries from many of the righteous, God-fearing, dedicated Saints of old, bearing their personal testimonies about plural marriage. It is heartening to read the stories, and you can sometimes even visualize yourself being drawn back in time as if you were speaking with these saints in person, that is how rich and moving some of the stories are. And all are first person accounts. Very faith-promoting.
Whatever your feelings are on polygamy, this is a good read. It is not in the least bit "controversial". Even so, and even though the BYU student bookstore sells this book, this book got the author ex-communicated, with church leaders saying that his compilation of journal entries from Mormon pioneers was "an embarrassment to the Church."
I guess the present-day leadership is more interested in fluff and "looking good" than in really looking back at what our pioneer forefathers did and believed. And it leads me to ask, if one can get excommunicated simply for reprinting, with minimal commentary, journal entries (many from former chuch leaders!), why do they tell us today to keep journals? Why do they encourage our young men and young women to keep journals if, say 50 years from now, all that is written in them will be "embarrassing" to future church doctrine? Makes one think.
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