The LDS' position on polygamy is interesting. If the LDS hadn't given up polygamy, they would just be another fringe religion scraping out a living of lizards and rattlesnakes in the desert. The LDS didn't want to give up polygamy, (it took two manifestos(1) to get the majority of mainstream mormons to abandon the practice and, even then, it is problematic whether some actually did give it up).
Bringham Young dug his heels in and insisted, vehemently, that polygamy was a right guaranteed by the first amendment of the constitution. They fought it all the way, then caved when it was expedient. What most mormons seem to fail to realize is, making a big fight over polygamy, and then giving up polygamy, is the only way they ever could have become the church they are today.
If they hadn't caved on the issue of polygamy, we wouldn't be talking about whether Mitt Romney was fit to be president. Mitt Romney couldn't be elected to any public office if he were a multi-generational polygamist or the LDS still practiced 'physical' polygamy. It just wouldn't happen. (Romney's family are multi-generational polygamists. Romney is only separated by two generations from polygamy.)
What most people don't realize is that the mainstream LDS have not given up on polygamy. Rather, they have just limited their belief in polygamy to 'spiritual polygamy.'
When couple gets married in the temple. They are sealed together for "all eternity." If they subsequently obtain a civil divorce (LDS will swear up and down that they have a lower divorce rate among their members than society at large. In truth, it is about equal with society at large.), what happens to the sealing?(2)
I grew up in a largely mormon community. I saw tens of people who got married in the temple get civilly divorced. I always wondered, and used to kid my mormon friends about, whether there was a 'temple divorce' to go with the 'temple marriage.' There is. The woman has to petition the First Presidency to be 'un-sealed' to her ex-husband. I wonder how many women go to the trouble of appealing to Salt Lake City for an 'un-sealing'? Likely, not many.
After the divorce, the women remains 'sealed' to her ex-husband. If the world were to end or she were to die, she would end up with the guy she just dumped for eternity on his own planet, where he rules as a 'god'. This sucks for the woman. A woman can get un-sealed if she gets married again and her first husband agrees to 'un-seal' her. Then she can be sealed to the second husband forever. Otherwise, she can't go with the new guy to his planet when they die. If the women never re-marries, she CAN'T get unsealed from her ex unless the first presidency agrees. What happens to women who never marry is questionable. Not having a husband, one must assume they are relegated to lower levels of heaven in mormon cosmology.
Marriage is everything for a mormon. EVERYTHING. If you are not married, you don't get to participate fully in the church.
The LDS is completely patriarchal in nature. The men call the shots on everything. Women mean nothing. A man can force a woman to spend eternity with him, even if she thinks he is a total jerk, abusive, etc.
Viola! Spiritual polygamy.
So, has the LDS really given up polygamy? I doubt it…
(1) The first manifesto was issued in 1890 and, essentially, ignored by the church leadership. Plural marriages continued to be performed and the official church policy was that you didn't have kick any of your wives out after the manifesto.
The second manifesto was issued in 1904, because the 1890 manifesto didn't have the desired effect.
(2) http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_divo.htm "Once sealed to a wife, a man remains sealed to her for all eternity. If he divorces his first wife and marries a second, he is not allowed to cancel the sealing to his first wife. The church regards that to cancel the sealing would be unfair: it would remove blessings from his first wife. He has the option of remaining sealed to his first wife, while being married to his second wife only until death ocurrs. At that time, he would remiain married to his first wife but not his second. Alternately, he could also get sealed to his new wife and remain married to both in the afterlife."
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