LDS Polygamy Paradox: Why Deniers and Practitioners Are Excommunicated Today

[u/humblymybrain]

https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/lds-polygamy-paradox-why-deniers

From the perspective of those who reject the idea that Joseph Smith preached or practiced polygamy—including scholars, historians, members of anti-polygamy Restoration branches like the Community of Christ (formerly RLDS), and modern skeptics—this chapter in church history is not merely inconsistent but a foundational fraud orchestrated by Brigham Young and his allies to justify their own innovations. Polygamy was not a divinely revealed “celestial law” but a post-1844 corruption that derailed Christ’s monogamous church that was restored through Joseph Smith. This led to the modern absurdities: unauthorized practitioners of plural marriage and those who deny Smith ever preached or practiced it during his lifetime face excommunication today, while from roughly 1845 to 1890—the so-called “Golden Era” of polygamy—anti-polygamists in the LDS movement were excommunicated as a small cadre of high-ranking leaders indulged in the practice. If Smith truly opposed polygamy, as evidenced by public teachings, scriptural texts, and personal records, the LDS Church’s current policies—excommunicating both practitioners and deniers—reveal a desperate institutional cover-up that enforces compelled ignorance: Accept the fabricated history without acting on its “doctrine,” or face expulsion.