In the book Let's Talk about Polygamy by Britney Nash, in chapter eight, pages 95-103 we read:
In the [LDS] revelation on plural marriage, one reason given for plurality was to “multiply and replenish the earth” (D&C 132:63). In the Bible, Abraham was promised to have progeny as limitless as the sands of the seashore (Gen. 22:17). Latter-day Saints saw themselves as members of the restored house of Israel, called to help fulfill this Abrahamic covenant and, in so doing, becoming recipients of the same blessings (D&C 132:29–33). The Saints were not simply to produce children, however. God intended that they “raise up seed unto me,” implying that, through plural marriage, a righteous man with multiple wives could father more children and thus raise a large and faithful posterity unto the Lord (Jacob 2:30; italics added).
Significantly, however, the Book of Mormon establishes monogamy as God’s preferred order of marriage except if the Lord commanded polygamy to be instituted (Jacob 2:24, 27, 30). These scriptures specify that monogamy is the rule, but polygamy could, for a time, be the exception. ...
... Early converts were excited by the Church’s assertion that the “dispensation of the fulness of times” had commenced and would bring a final “restitution of all things,” including a restoration of the laws, authority, ordinances, and blessings of previous dispensations (D&C 128:18; 132:40; Acts 3:21; Eph. 1:10).[1] Among those laws was plural marriage, practiced by the ancient patriarchs of the Old Testament, and many Saints accepted polygamy as being a component of the restoration ...
As a young woman in England, Sarah Barnes joined the Church in 1842, believing that she had embraced “the same Gospel that the ancients had.” After learning that the Latter-day Saints practiced polygamy, she wrote, “I could plainly see that if plural marriage was a principle of the Gospel then, it must of necessity be so now.”[2] Sarah’s conviction of the necessity of a restoration of all things, including the reintroduction of plural marriage, was reinforced by her study of the Bible and served as the foundation of her acceptance of polygamy, and she later became a plural wife. ...
Since the restored Church had direct roots in the Old Testament and Latter-day Saints viewed themselves as modern Israel (God’s people), they anticipated trials individually and collectively. Because Joseph Smith’s revelation on plural marriage mentioned Abraham and the sacrifice of his son Isaac, many nineteenth-century Saints saw polygamy as an “Abrahamic test” intended to purify the Saints ...
... More broadly, the Saints believed that because they were God’s people, He required their trial and purification as a group. ...
... Polygamy created a sense of cohesion among the Latter-day Saints. God’s people were always chastened in some way, the Saints believed, and polygamy was a shared trial that set them apart from other religious groups, reinforcing the idea that, through hardship, God was molding His chosen people. The practice also established an insular, protective sense of community. As the Saints gathered in the Mountain West, the sense of being a people set apart deepened. Church members not only created extensive family networks through plural marriage but also banded together to defend their religious beliefs from an outside world that persecuted, rejected, and mocked them. ...
I believe that the best explanation for this purification process was the "expiation" of the sectarian Creeds, and their anti-body ideologies, from the psyche of early LDS members. For those Creeds were declared an abomination in Smith's First Vision. When Nash says, "Polygamy created a sense of cohesion among the Latter-day Saints," this supports what I argue in my posts here and my documents here, where I argue that polygamy acted as a kind of funnel for producing a close knit quasi-ethnic tribe in the 1800s. Nash's book continues:
Victorian Sexuality and Polygamy
People in the nineteenth century were simultaneously horrified and fascinated by the sexual possibilities of polygamy. During the Victorian era, there was a dramatic rise in prostitution, and it was considered one of the great social problems of the day. Those not of the Latter-day Saint faith considered polygamous marriages illegitimate and scorned plural wives as being adulterers, prostitutes, and concubines. Latter-day Saints perceived a great hypocrisy between accusations that they were sexually immoral while the sexual indiscretions of Victorian men, such as employing prostitutes, were at that time figuratively swept under the rug. Apostle Orson Pratt suggested that plural marriage was an antidote to fornication and adultery. In the August 1853 issue of The Seer, he took the stance of a social reformer, arguing that polygamy could eradicate prostitution because men would not be tempted to have extramarital relations and women would each have the opportunity to marry able providers (124–25). Elder Pratt’s reasoning was not grounded in scripture or doctrine, but it became a popular defense of polygamy used by Latter-day Saints to publicly justify the practice.
... For a woman who desired to marry, plural marriage expanded her opportunities to find a husband. ...
This affirmation of biological desire by Pratt and others shows the pro-body nature of Mormonism. The book continues on, and we read in the Conclusion, pages 143-144:
“Plural marriage, as it was practiced, served its purpose.” —Elder Quentin L. Cook, 2020
... The Gospel Topics Essays published on the official Church website suggest that the lasting effects of plural marriage were “the birth of large numbers of children within faithful Latter-day Saint homes,” the availability of marriage to “virtually all who desired it,” equalized wealth per capita, “ethnic intermarriages,” and aid in uniting “a diverse immigrant population.”[1] Polygamy provided a sense of group solidarity as Latter-day Saints saw themselves as separate from other religious sects, a “peculiar people” (1 Pet. 2:9). Indeed, in its purpose to “raise up seed unto [the Lord],” polygamy was remarkably effective (Jacob 2:30). Research suggests that 20 percent of living Church members descend from those who practiced polygamy.[2]
When plural marriage was discontinued, polygamists, too, reflected on its purpose and many believed it had been fulfilled. Said one plural wife, “Polygamy has served its day. We helped to populate Utah and to make it possible for every woman to become a mother. . . . We have served our purpose and polygamy has gone.”[3] ... Apostle Quentin L. Cook, reflecting on nineteenth-century polygamy, shared that “plural marriage, as it was practiced, served its purpose. We should honor those Saints, but that purpose has been accomplished.” ...
This is exactly what I had argued in my blog post here. So reading this book after I had written that post made me realize that the book substantiates my theory.
