July has always been one of my favorite months. It’s the month that I was born in and the month Sadie was born in. It’s the month that we start getting monsoon rains in Southern Utah. It’s also the month that we celebrate two of my favorite holidays, Independence Day and Pioneer Day.
On Independence Day, we celebrate the moment in which the leaders of our nation chose to sever their connection to an oppressive regime and to establish a land of freedom. That ideal wasn’t reached right away and in truth has still not been entirely reached. We’ve improved in the security of our God-given liberties by leaps and bounds since then. We still have work to do.
Pioneer Day is the day that we celebrate the arrival of Mormon settlers in the Salt Lake Valley of what is today the state of Utah. These pioneers were a peculiar people. They had been persecuted and driven from place to place, clear across the nation, until they finally arrived in the mountains of the West and began establishing a home for themselves here. Their persecution, however, was far from over.
One of the peculiarities of these early Mormons was a fierce belief in plural marriage. It was a belief that shocked the sensibilities of Victorian society at the time. It was one of the principal doctrines, among others, from which the persecution of these pioneers would derive. Laws were passed by the federal government to strip Mormon men in plural marriages of their rights to hold public office and to vote. They faced serving time in prison and hardship and privation in avoiding the corrupt officers of the law that were sent out to hunt them down. Through all of this hardship, for 40 years, they remained defiant and loyal to their religion.
In January of 1880, John Taylor, the prophet of the LDS church stated:
“We believe in honesty, morality and purity, in freedom and loyalty to our country; but when they enact TYRANNICAL LAWS, forbidding us the free exercise of our religion, we cannot submit. God is greater than the United States. And when the Government conflicts with Heaven, we will be ranged under the banner of HEAVEN and AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT. The United States says we cannot marry more than one wife. GOD SAYS DIFFERENT. We had no hand in the business; Joseph Smith had no hand in it. Brigham Young had no hand in it. I had no hand in it. It was all the work of God, and HIS LAWS MUST BE OBEYED. If the United States says different the Saints cannot obey it. We do not want to rebel against the United States. Rebellion is not on the program but we will worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. We want to be friendly with the United States, if the Government will let us; BUT NOT ONE JOT NOR TITTLE of our rights will we give up to purchase it. I would like the good God of heaven to prevent them from making laws that we CANNOT KEEP; but when adulterers and libertines pass a law forbidding polygamy the Saints CANNOT OBEY IT. Polygamy is a divine institution. It has been handed down direct from God. The United States CANNOT ABOLISH IT. No nation on earth can prevent it, NOR ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH COMBINED. I DEFY THE UNITED STATES. I will obey God.”
By the late 1880s, it had reached a critical point. A law had been passed which disincorporated the LDS church and dissolved it as an entity. The leaders of the church were in hiding. John Taylor passed away while in hiding. His successor made the difficult decision to acquiesce to the demands of the federal government and to encourage these stalwart pioneers to at least outwardly accept the law of the land.
This is where the belief of most modern believers in plural marriage tracing their religion to Joseph Smith’s restoration begin to vary from the mainstream LDS church. The LDS church as an entity has taught that this “First Manifesto” was the beginning of the end of plural marriage. This is the manifesto that was later included as an official declaration in the Doctrine and Covenants. The historical record shows that plural marriages continued with the sanction of the leadership of the LDS church for at least another decade following this manifesto. In 1904, a second manifesto was issued by the leadership of the church under the presidency of Joseph F. Smith (himself a practicing polygamist). This manifesto marked the beginning of excommunications of Mormons who continued to believe in and enter into plural marriages. This was the beginning of the Mormon Fundamentalist movement.
Today, plural marriage is against the law in the state of Utah. Federal law (as well as the law in all 50 states) criminalizes possession of multiple marriage licenses. Utah law takes it a step farther. In Utah, a man can be convicted of bigamy if he “cohabitates” with and purports to be married to more than one woman. In a fairly recent court case, a federal judge ruled that Utah’s bigamy statute was unconstitutional. The State of Utah appealed the decision and the higher court at the time refused to hear the case because the family that brought the case against the state was no longer under investigation.
After this case was thrown out, a state representative in Utah proposed a revision to the bigamy statute that changed the wording for “cohabitates with OR purports to marry another woman” to “cohabitates with AND purports to marry another woman.” This revision passed and was signed by the governor into law. Utah blatantly made the law more specific to people living in plural marriages. A legally married man in Utah can cheat on his wife, father children with other women, even have intimate relationships every night with different women if he wants to, and there is no criminal penalty involved. At least there is no penalty involved until he dares to claim another one of those women as his wife. I hope the absurdity of this law isn’t lost in my explanation of it.
This brings me to our discussion about Pioneer Day. We celebrate a day in Utah in memory and celebration of our polygamous predecessors while simultaneously outlawing, vilifying, and condemning the religious belief that they were willing to risk imprisonment and death for. The moral conundrum in this is apparent to me and I hope it is to you as well. On this day, members of the LDS church and residents of Utah dress as pioneers and participate in parades to honor our heritage. They have rodeos, concerts and performances of dramas based on the stories of these pioneers. Their memories, thoughts, and hearts for the day are turned towards their fathers, but the image of their ancestors many Utahns hold in their hearts and venerate is a version they have whitewashed and forced into a mold that fits their own fictional perception. There is almost no acknowledgment in any of these events of the way these pioneer families in many instances looked, or of the belief that created these families and in many instances laid the groundwork for them to be born into the families they are. Mormon pioneers without polygamy may be a beautiful memory for many in our state, but it isn’t an honest memory.
The past few years, I’ve started to refer to Pioneer Day instead as “Mormon Criminal Day.” It’s still one of my favorite holidays, but it’s my way of bringing attention to the fact that if our pioneer ancestors, the fathers and mothers of the settlements in our state, were here today, they would be criminals and outcasts according to the statutes of our state and in the hearts of many of their own descendants and beneficiaries. I believe that if we were being historically and intellectually honest, we either wouldn’t celebrate Pioneer Day or we would change the law and decriminalize the lifestyle and belief that our predecessors sacrificed so much for. To do otherwise is to make a mockery of their sacrifices and of our heritage. On this day, many Utahns draw near to their forefathers with their lips, but their hearts are far from them. We’re hopeful that someday in the not too distant future, our neighbors in this beautiful state will realize how much harm this legislation has done and will seek, along with us, to put an end to it, to encourage believers in plural marriage to associate with their communities at large, and to put an end to abuse. This is our sincere prayer and desire.
With love and sincerity,
Colton
