I Don’t Have a Testimony of Polygamy
In recent years, I, like other Latter-Day Saints, have wrestled with the incongruities between the church’s official faith-promoting narrative of the restoration, handed down from generation to generation as taught in Primary and Sunday School, and the unsettling accounts of church history which are now coming to light through the internet, as well as in recent publications like The Joseph Smith Papers.
To be fair to myself and others like me, our discovery did not come as a result of a witch hunt or anything sinister, by a loss of faith, or a weakness of testimony. The unveiling has been the result of honest inquiry, and the subsequent discovery of historical accounts written by faithful members of the church, contemporary to the restoration’s formative years.
These writers were not anti-Mormon, but devoted followers like Heber C. Kimball, his wife Violate, and their daughter Helen Mar. Names such as Nancy Rigdon, the daughter of Sydney Rigdon, Orson and Sarah Pratt, Eliza R. Snow, and all three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdrey, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris. Early Apostles and church leaders like William Marks, William Smith, Newell K. Whitney, Amasa Lyman and many others including Emma Smith, the Prophet Joseph’s first wife.
Of the narratives in question, perhaps the doctrine and practice of polygamy is the most troublesome and most divisive. Volumes have been written on the subject, scholarly tomes both in defense of, and in opposition to…endless justifications and condemnations that often leave the reader more uncertain and confused. How can an honest seeker of truth come to terms with this and similar dilemmas and move on?
In a recent dinner-table discussion on polygamy, a sister-in-law commented, “I don’t have a testimony of polygamy, and don’t need one. My testimony is of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” This simple, common-sense declaration brought to memory an article I had read years before, written by church historian Davis Bitton, which was first presented at the FAIR conference in 2004, and later published by the Interpreter, an LDS journal of faith and scholarship.
In the article, he made a similar statement when questioned about how he can be both an objective church historian and a faithful Latter-Day Saint. He replied, “I do not have a testimony of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My testimony is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I uncouple the two – testimony and history.”
For me, the implication is clear: I don’t need to adjudicate any event in church history in order to follow Christ and His gospel. I don’t need to weigh in, or even hold an opinion. History is complex, and we may never know the complete truth of events long transpired. It is simply a wiser and more productive decision to focus on what we do know, and what can help us. Our belief in Christ does not require that we resolve any inaccuracy, discordance, or conundrum in church history.
Polygamy or any other historical enigma needs no longer be an elephant in the room. It is liberating and enabling to move forward without feeling bound to accept or defend events in church history. We don’t have to go through mental gymnastics to try and justify or rationalize one viewpoint or another. We don’t have to take sides. We can trust that God our Father, and His Son Jesus Christ will be fair, open, and honest in all their dealings with us. We know now, contrary to earlier misconceptions about racial or gender equality, that all are truly equal in the eyes of God. What may have troubled us in the past should be left there, where it belongs. Our future is elsewhere.
I don’t have a testimony of polygamy, and I don’t need one. My testimony is of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
TestifyofChrist
February-2023
