Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto

 

by Brian C. Hales

 

Modern Polygamy: The Generations After the Manifesto provides a background for understanding the practice of polygamy by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as the discontinuation of that practice, which occurred in 1904.  This book charts new ground by tackling the previously unexamined period of plural marriages between 1904 and 1934.  Without authorization from the Church President after 1904, dissenters assumed authority from several sources.  But in the 1920s, a man named Lorin Woolley began to promote a new priesthood line of authority that he said could solemnize polygamous unions.  By 1934, most modern polygamists had united behind Woolley’s teachings and authority claims.  Modern Polygamy investigates those assertions and the Mormon fundamentalist organizations that have arisen from them.  The Allreds, the FLDS Church in Texas and on the Utah-Arizona border, the Kingstons, the LeBarons, the TLC Church in Manti, Utah, and other splinter groups are all scrutinized.  Regardless of one’s beliefs regarding Joseph Smith and plural marriage, this historical and doctrinal volume will provide interesting reading and enlightenment.

Brian C. Hales, co-author of the 1992 publication The Priesthood of Modern Polygamy, an LDS Perspective, works as an anesthesiologist at the Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, Utah.  An active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former full-time missionary, he is the webmaster of mormonfundamentalism.com, a website dedicated to provided viewers with a historical and doctrinal examination of Mormon fundamentalist topics including the practice of polygamy.  Brian has presented at the Mormon History Association meetings and at the Sunstone Symposium on polygamy-related topics.  His articles have also been published in Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought and the Journal of Mormon History.  In addition to his historical works, Brian has authored three books on doctrinal themes entitled The Veil (Cedar Fort, 2000), Trials (Cedar Fort, 2002), and Light (Cedar Fort, 2004)  He is the father of four children.

 

 

 

 

 

ISBN 1-58958-035-4