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It is obvious that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's candidacy for the Presidency of the United States has once again made the issue of polygamy front page news. Does it matter? Should it matter? In a nation that goes out of its way to separate church and state, wouldn't it be logical to assume that the American public would separate a candidate's religious beliefs from his or her political qualifications?

At this writing, Mr. Romney, an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the LDS Church or the "Mormons") is in the top tier of the Republican candidates running in the 2008 presidential race. In interviews, he is frequently asked about his religion and about polygamy. These are hot-button issues, and have been ever since the early Mormon practice of polygamy was initiated by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the early 1830s.

In the 1856 presidential race, the initiative to eradicate the "twin relics of barbarism: polygamy and slavery," was couched in the Republican Party platform. Between the years of 1852 and 1890, the topic of polygamy was overshadowed by opposition to slavery and the resulting Civil War. After the Civil War, Congress spent the next twenty-five years working intently to destroy both polygamy and the Mormon Church.

After issuing the Manifesto in 1890 and what has been termed the "second" Manifesto in 1904, the LDS Church officially stopped the practice of polygamy. However, it continued to be a political issue. In 1896, the United States Government required Utah to permanently ban polygamy in its Constitution before it would grant the territory statehood and in 1899, when Mormon Church leader Brigham H. Roberts was elected to Congress as the Representative from the State of Utah, the House of Representatives refused to seat him because he still practiced and believed in polygamy.

When Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot won the Utah Senatorial race in 1903, the Committee on Privileges and Elections initiated a trial to prohibit his seating --- even though he was not a polygamist. Although he was temporarily seated while his trial proceeded, it took the power of the President and other powerful political figures to overcome a four-year debate and the 3,482 vitriolic petitions the committee received denouncing Mr. Smoot, polygamy, and the Mormon Church. (The committee voted 7 to 5 to prohibit seating, but when the Senate voted, it reversed the committee's decision and voted 42 to 28 in favor of officially seating Mr. Smoot as a United States Senator.)

Two world wars and the great depression delayed any further anti-polygamy activity until the 1940s and 1950s when government officials from Utah and Arizona initiated raids on Short Creek, Arizona (now Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah). They arrested and tried polygamist husbands under the anti-bigamy and illegal cohabitation acts of those states. (Although these groups claimed The Book of Mormon and the teachings of Joseph Smith as the foundation of their religious beliefs, none of them were associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

Intermittent anti-polygamy activity took place during the next fifty years until on August 30, 2006, Warren Jeffs, a non-Mormon polygamist leader who had been on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, was arrested in Nevada. He was convicted of being an accomplice to rape and as of November 2007, his case is still on appeal.

As of 2007, many state constitutions specifically prohibit polygamy. However, law enforcement agencies in two of these states --- Utah and Arizona --- have decided to primarily focus on crimes within polygamous communities that involve child abuse, domestic violence, welfare fraud, and "child polygamy," rather than polygamy itself. The Attorneys General in Utah and Arizona have worked together to produce a manual entitled, The Primer: Helping Victims of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse in Polygamous Communities. This manual provides basic information about various polygamous communities that can assist human services professionals, law enforcement officers, and others in helping victims from these societies.

On May 13, 2007, Mitt Romney (who has polygamist ancestors) appeared on CBS' 60 Minutes and described the Mormon doctrine of polygamy as "awful." This oxymoron raises the question, how much do people really know about the practice of polygamy in the Mormon Church? Should it be considered a political issue, or merely an historical religious practice?

The American people will always decide for themselves what is and what is not important during a presidential race; this is something candidates can influence but cannot control. It is obvious at this point, however, that during the upcoming election, Mormon polygamy will remain the controversial enigma it has been for more than 170 years.

Introduction

Early members of the LDS faith chose to embrace the practice of polygamy for spiritual reasons, but the perception of polygamy to outsiders and antagonists of the church was quite different. Anti-Mormons considered polygamy to be immoral, lustful, and womanizing, and decried it as "spiritual wifery." Others envisioned licentious situations such as harems where the "lord and master" floated from flower to flower sating his sexual appetite with a plethora of beautiful wives. In modern times, many think of polygamy in terms of men secretly having families in different cities and attempting to be a husband and/or father to each family without the others finding out about it. Many television shows have effectively used this provocative storyline in their programming. The most recent use of polygamy in mainstream entertainment is in HBO's drama/comedy, "Big Love," which (unlike previous entries in the media) uses polygamy as its primary storyline.

But for Mormons, all of these scenarios depict something that is far from the truth. To faithful members, polygamy is part of a commandment from God that is encapsulated within Section 132 of The Doctrine and Covenants, one of the standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was not widely practiced at first, but since records are sketchy from that period, it is impossible to determine an accurate count of those who were actually called to live the law.

B.H. Roberts in his Comprehensive History of the Church states that only 2 percent of LDS men in the early church were polygamists. Joseph Fielding Smith agreed with that figure in his Essentials in Church History. Most researchers consider that figure too low, however. Today, a figure of between 10 and 20 percent is usually considered accurate. This means, of course, that at least 80 percent of the early Mormons were monogamous.

Even the church's founding prophet, Joseph Smith, was reluctant to take additional wives. On several occasions he told people that an angel (with sword in hand) had appeared to him multiple times and told him that if he did not obey the principle, he would be slain. Overall, it is estimated that as few as twenty-nine men were called to enter into polygamous marriages during the Joseph Smith period. Those who attempted to practice polygamy on their own or to use it for lustful purposes were either rebuked or excommunicated.

So what was it like in those days to live in a polygamous relationship? As with any monogamous relationship, it differed from family to family. Some families succeeded and some failed. Some were happy, some were not. They were influenced by the same issues that affect us today: finances, health, age, living conditions, education, intellect, and religious commitment. "After all, the plural family was really but an appendage to the basic patriarchal monogamous family. In matters such as the location of the families --- whether under the same roof all together or in separate households in the same community or in different localities --- there were no definite rules."

Divorce was possible in polygamous relationships. One study reported that Brigham Young granted 1,645 divorces during his tenure as Prophet and leader of the church, including some of his own. Although many of those divorces were handled through the courts, some were obtained in a more casual manner. Mary Woodward, who had been married to Brigham less than a year, asked to be "released" or divorced from him by letter. Brigham merely wrote back stating, "you may [consider] yourself discharged from me and my counsel," and she was free of the relationship. Another of Brigham's wives, Mary Ann Clark Powers, asked to be released from "all engagements with [Brigham] for time and eternity." Brigham merely agreed.

The most famous of Brigham's divorces was from Ann Eliza Webb Young, his twenty-seventh wife. She pursued divorce through the courts, even though the marriage had not been recorded civilly. The court ordered Brigham to pay her $500 a month for an allowance and $3,000 in court costs. Brigham refused, and was fined $25.00 and one day in jail --- which he served. Ann Eliza was later excommunicated and from 1875 on, spent much of her life speaking and writing about polygamy.

Many theories have been postulated concerning why the early members of the LDS Church wanted to enter into polygamous relationships. However, it is quite evident that Joseph (and those who followed him) considered it a sacred duty. They felt compelled to comply with the requirements of the Lord's revelation (not to mention the fact that they were threatened with spiritual damnation if they did not). Furthermore, although divorces were occasionally granted, most women remained in their polygamous relationships because they had received a spiritual confirmation that the principle was true.

You can go to your local bookstore or online and find dozens of stories about Mormon men and women who practiced polygamy between the early 1830s and 1904. Some accounts present the lifestyle in a positive light, others are negative. Some are factual; some are not. It is often difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff in these narratives due to the authors' perspectives. On the one hand we have authors who fervently believe the Lord commanded early church members to live in polygamy and that they were being righteous to do so. On the other hand, there are those who just as fervently believe that any polygamous relationship is wrong, even evil. This book will answer many questions about polygamy, but perhaps one of the most crucial questions is why? Why is there such a strong dichotomy of opinion on the subject of polygamy?

Excerpted from Polygamy © Copyright 2012 by E. Keith Howick. Reprinted with permission by WindRiver Publishing. All rights reserved.