On Thu, 4 Apr 2024 11:33:39 -0500, Charles McKnight - chuckmcknight at
pheonic.com (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote to Freelance
Traveller:

>One might also look at the relatively short duration of polygamy in the
>Mormon Church. While there are splinter sects that still practice polygamy,
>the Mormon Church officially suspended the practice in 1890 and banned it
>in 1904, giving it relatively short lifespan of about 52 years (the
>practice was revealed in 1852). From what I’ve been told,I the Mormon
>Church apparently has the policy to excommunicate anyone practicing
>polygamy, although again, there are splinter sects that don’t adhere to the
>main body of the church but they wouldn’t be considered to be members of
>the Church.

For what it's worth, the ban on polygamy may have been purely political;
over four decades starting in 1850, the US refused repeated applications by
the Utah territory for statehood. It was only considered after the
territory banned polygamy in 1890, and finally led to the admission of Utah
in 1896. See
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mormons-utah/

(My position on this is that LDS polygamy could have been a 'problem' for
the US only insofar as the 'full faith and credit' clause of IV USConst 1
would have been implicated - outside any bigotry by non-Mormons. However,
this theoretically could have been negated by legally differentiating the
second and subsequent marriages from the first (though that wouldn't have
helped with the bigotry issue). I'll be happy to discuss why, but
off-list.)

Continued polygamy "under the table" in the mainstream LDS church isn't
unknown (though never officially acknowledged); sometimes it's implemented
via 'serial polygamy' (i.e., a succession of marriages and divorces, but
the divorced wives continue living in the husband's household) or effective
concubinage arrangements (the second and subsequent wives aren't actually
married, but the arrangement is "understood").

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