Polyandry

[MsQwerty]

After reading through the threads on polygamy, I noticed a few comments wondering about the practice of polyandry in the early church.

This article gives an explanation of how it all worked at the time: http://www.fairlds.org/pubs/polyandry.pdf

And this one focuses on the experiences of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young, who was married to Joseph Smith while married to her 'legal' husband Henry Jacobs. After Joseph was killed, she was then re-sealed to Joseph (with Brigham acting as proxy) and sealed next to Brigham Young as himself - while still married to Henry (all a bit convoluted). Brigham then sent Henry on a mission and Zina moved into Brigham's Winter Quarters.

Zina and Her Men

Todd Compton's "In Sacred Loneliness" also discusses Zina's marriages, noting that she felt it was a sacrifice greater than giving up her life when she finally relented and said yes to Joseph. He had proposed to her three times while she was courting her husband Henry, and after she was married she finally said yes to Joseph when he said that if she didn't marry him, an angel would slay him and the church would pretty much end. (p.80,81). When she married Brigham later on (while still married to Henry), she said she felt a "weakness of heart" over it (p.85,86). The practice in those days though, was that if a prophet or apostle died, his wives would be married to another apostle so their status and protection would remain the same in the church. Brigham had around seven of Joseph's wives sealed to him after the martyrdom, if I recall correctly.

Meanwhile, Henry said "I feel alone & no one to speak to call my own. I feel like a lamb without a mother.” (Compton, p.91). Henry continued to write many heartfelt and loving letters to Zina while he was away on his mission, but by then the official line was that they were separated and he never got to live with his wife again.

Henry's experience highlights the issue of why so many men in the church say they don't understand why women are so worried about polygamy, if it is a commandment from god. They, as men, don't have to contemplate, as Henry Jacobs did, the thought of their wife being taken care of and pleased by another man in a physical and emotional sense. Out of curiousity, how many men here would be ok with the idea of their wife being intimate with another man? If a man has little or no problem with the idea of having more than one wife if god commands it, then it should follow that he should be just as open to a command from god that his wife be joined to another man in every sense of the marital relationship.

On a purely cerebral level I couldn't care less about the practice of polyandry or polygamy (or any other form of marriage, quite honestly), but on a reality level, I am convinced the practice would bring much in the way of difficulty and heartache.

There are numerous instances of polyandry being practiced in the early church, but Zina and her first husband Henry have really had me thinking about the implications of plural marriage from a polyandrous perspective.

[Just_A_Guy]

I see your point. I'm not sure the analogy is perfect, though, since from your post it appears that Henry's relationship with Zina was effectually terminated.

Still food for thought, though. Thanks.

[deseretgov]

I wouldn't have a problem if God revealed it through His prophet and confirmed it to me through personal revelation.

[Moksha]

This type of polygamy involving marrying an already married woman was fraught with danger from the git-go. Some men were willing to fight the interloper, even if the interloper declared themself to be spiritually superior. Just ask Parley P. Pratt.

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[martinphotographicarts]

Have a question…I’m LDS and polyandrous, so does that me I am to be excommunicated?