Tag Archives: Polygamy

After 85 years of darkness, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel

Colton Winder
02, 2020
Family, Our story, Religion, Seeking Sister Wife
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In 1890, the president of the mainstream LDS Church issued a manifesto counseling the members of the Mormon church in Utah to stop participating in polygamous marriages. I had several ancestors living in the principle of plural marriage at this time, but one of their stories in particular has always stood out to me. My great-great-great grandfather had three wives and lived in a small community on the Arizona Strip, near the border with Utah, called Moccasin. When the manifesto of 1890 was released, he feared that he would be unable to continue living with his wives and perpetuating the practice of plural marriage within the United States, so

Memories of Faith, Sacrifice, and Heritage

Near the community we live in, at the gateway to Zion National Park (arguably one of the most beautiful places on earth), there’s a few scant remains of what was once a small Mormon farming community. Some foundations, a graveyard, and one remaining home are all that is left as evidence of its pioneer history. Before the arrival of the Mormon pioneers, this canyon along the East Fork of the Virgin River was home to natives of the Paiute Tribe. Before them, it was home to Ancestral Puebloans who made homes in the cliffs and farmed along the river bottom. Evidence of their time still remains as well. It’s

Life is too short to not be happy!

The Winder Family
04, 2019
Family, Our story, Religion, Seeking Sister Wife
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Watching the Tell All! That was intense! We all got together last night and watched the Seeking Sister Wife reunion episode (aka the Tell All) and we were not expecting that ending. We are saddened to hear about Vanessa leaving the Snowdens. We got to meet them in person after the tell all and thought they were a great family. We respect that Vanessa continued forward on her path and stayed true to herself and the journey she needed to follow. Life is too short to not be happy! The choice is yours! Many have thought that we only live this way because we feel we HAVE to. But

Sophie: “My reasoning to participate in Seeking Sisterwife”

The Winder Family
03, 2019
Most Popular Posts, Our story, Religion, Seeking Sister Wife
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“…A highly sacred, sensitive, and secretive topic” Plural marriage has always been a part of my life, as a highly sacred, sensitive, and secretive topic. As I grew older and had a larger span of social circles, I realized how controversial the topic was. I came to realize there was a stereotypical illusion of what Polygamy/Plural Marriage was…and it did NOT reflect what I knew it to be. “You’re not a polygamist!” “You’re not a polygamist!” Was a response I knew all too well, as acquaintances found out my family structure and my belief system. “My mother was a second wife,” I would respond. “But, you don’t dress like ‘them’.” Them,

The Broken Road (Part 2)

I’ll start this with a brief summary of part one and then pick up where I left off last week. To summarize: I was born and raised as faithfully as any youth is in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was exposed to very negative views of plural marriage as a child and discovered later that there was also a happy and blessed side to it. It wasn’t always just a trial and a hardship. I began to struggle with my testimony in relation to the LDS Church and the original teachings of the “New and Everlasting Covenant.” A few years after this, I began

The Broken Road (Part 1)

“A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that