Mormon Polygamy on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) officially renounces polygamy on this day in 1890. The 1890 Manifesto (also known as the Woodruff Manifesto or the Anti-polygamy Manifesto) is a statement which officially advised against any future plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Issued by church president Wilford Woodruff in September 1890, the Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the United States Congress, which by 1890 had disincorporated the church, escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons. Upon its issuance, the LDS Church in conference accepted Woodruff's Manifesto as "authoritative and binding."

The Manifesto was a dramatic turning point in the history of the LDS Church. It advised church members against entering into any marriage prohibited by the law of the land, and made it possible for Utah to become a U.S. state. Nevertheless, even after the Manifesto, the church quietly continued to perform a small number of plural marriages in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, thus necessitating a Second Manifesto during U.S. congressional hearings in 1904. Though neither Manifesto dissolved existing plural marriages, plural marriage in the LDS Church gradually died by attrition during the early-to-mid 20th century. The Manifesto was canonized in the LDS Church standard works as Official Declaration 1 and is considered by mainstream Mormons to have been prompted by divine revelation (although not a revelation itself), in which Woodruff was shown that the church would be thrown into turmoil if they did not comply with it. Some Mormon fundamentalists rejected the manifesto.

Today, Utah has some of the strictest anti-bigamy laws in the country. The husband can get 20 years in prison, and each wife can get 5 years. One day after the show "Sister Wives" aired, Utah state authorities announced they were investigating the family.

See also: The Sex-Determinant in Mormon Theology

This Kindle book, The Dark History of Christmas, is now available on Amazon by clicking here...and it is only $1.99 and The Strange History of Easter and the Christian Cross is on Amazon for only $1.99 

Sherlock Holmes and the Mormons on This Day in History

Today in History: Arthur Conan Doyle first Sherlock Holmes's story "A Study in Scarlet" was accepted by a publisher (Ward and Lock) on this day in 1886. The name comes from Holmes' words: "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."

The story did come under attack because of its portrayal or Mormons (Latter Day Saints). According to a Salt Lake City newspaper article, when Conan Doyle was asked about his depiction of the Latter-day Saints' organization as being steeped in kidnapping, murder and enslavement, he said: 'all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that, though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history. It's best to let the matter rest'. Conan Doyle's daughter has stated: 'You know, father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons.' Historians speculate that Conan Doyle, a voracious reader, would have access to books by Fannie Stenhouse, William A. Hickman, William Jarman, John Hyde and Ann Eliza Young, among others,' in explaining the author's early perspective on Mormonism.

Years after Conan Doyle's death, Levi Edgar Young, a descendant of Brigham Young and a Mormon general authority, claimed that Conan Doyle had privately apologized, saying that 'He [Conan Doyle] said he had been misled by writings of the time about the Church' and had 'written a scurrilous book about the Mormons.'

In August 2011, the Albemarle County, Virginia, School Board removed A Study in Scarlet from the district's sixth-grade required reading list following complaints from students and parents that the book was derogatory toward Mormons. It was moved to the reading lists for the tenth-graders, and remains in use in the school media centres for all grades. Wikipedia

Later in his career, Conan Doyle apologized to the Mormons for his depiction of their religion. During a 1923 tour of the United States, Doyle was invited to speak at the LDS Church's Salt Lake Tabernacle; while some individual Mormons remained deeply upset over the negative depiction, in general the Mormons present received him warmly.

Another Victorian novel that included the Latter Day Saints was Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) by Jules Verne. That book references a "Mormon Elder" who launches into a diatribe about his religion in a rail car where passenger Passepartout becomes a captive audience. Verne follows the 19th-century propensity to view polygamy as central to Mormonism, going so far as to call it, "the sole basis of the religion." 

See also:Over 300 Books on Mormons (Latter Day Saints) on DVDrom - For a list of all of my disks and digital books click here

See also True Crime + Mystery Fiction - 500 Books on 2 DVDroms