Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-02-08
PLURAL MARRIAGE AND THE
SOCIAL EVIL,

sOSIhL EVIL
A few days ago the Provo Enquirer
had the following paragraph:
ut is all very well TO present social
sins in striking colors, but what
remedy is offered? Utah had a solution,
which the people would not accept.
Now let some better plan be pro-
duced."
A correspondent of the News" COM
ments on the utterance Of the Enquirer
as follows:
"This is no doubt intended as an
effort to damn with faint praise the
efforts of Mrs. Isabel Wing Lake and
Doctor Carolyn Giesel. who have lately
addressed the people of Provo on
social purity. Now as to a remedy:
We have always supposed that the
remedy for social sins is to stop social
shining, Just as the remedy for intern
perance IL to stop drinking: and that Is
the plan produced by these ladies'.
But the criticism Is very unfair to the
Mormon Church because any one, I'M
acquainted with the doctrines of the
Church. reading 1t must take 1t for
granted that the Church accepts the
social evil as n necessary evil when
such n doctrine is entirely contrary to
the teachings OF the Church and to the
belief OF any consistent member there
Of"
The correspondent puts an extreme
construction on the quotation from
the Enquirer in holding that II neces-
sarily conveys the idea that the Nor
mon Church accepts the social evil
as n necessary evil" The language
might bear that Interpretation, per-
haps, but the News" scarcely thinks
such was the meaning really intended.
But the Enquirer does convey the i'm
preston that plural marriage, the
solution" referred to, was adopted by
the Mormons for the purpose of pre-
venting prostitution: that 1t was utah's
solution" for social sins"
In order to avoid making erroneous
impressions the reasons why the Nor
mons adopted plural marriage require
to be more broadly stated than the
Enquirer has here done. The first and
paramount reason which actuated
them, was the commandment of God,
communicated TO them by direct reve-
| lation. II was commandment which
they did not dare to disobey. Another
| motive which moved them was the be-
lief, growing out of comprehension of
the principle after Il had been expound-
ed to them. that many great blessings,
| to be enjoyed in this life, and especial
| ly In the life to come. would be be-
| slowed upon them in consequence of
their obedience to this law Of heaven.
| Plural marriage provides husbands
and homes for an increased number of
women, and thus reduces, In the pro-
number of the weaker sex who are left
without protection and support, and
who are, because of being thus left,
exposed to temptation and ruin. That
a state of society which gives to every
woman an opportunity to marry,
would strongly tend to curtall the So
cial evil, is beyond question; but the
wholesome effect, in this regard. flow
ing from plural marriage as practiced
by the Latter-day Saints, was one of
the results of the system. rather than
one of the causes that led to the adop-
tion of II.
In this sense. then, plural marriage
is solution" for social sins" but II
was not adopted by the Latter-day
Saints for the purpose, primarily, OF
excluding those sins from their midst.
Obedience to the first principles of their
religion, including faith in God and
repentance of sin, taught 20 them long
before the revelation on plural marriage
was given, presumably banlshed from
among them all sexual impurlty, as
well as lniquity of every kind. Instead
of plural marriage having been de,
signed as means Of qualification for
the unchaste. the most rigid chastity
was required OF all who essayed to
practice it; and any person known to
be sexually impure. was not permitted
to assume the plural marriage relation
No doubt the Enquirer would have
expressed views in harmony with the
foregoing had It entered upon the sub.
jcct more fully. The theme Is hero
treated partly because of the attention
the Enqurer's remarks have attracted
to it, and partly because many people
seem to have imblbed erroneous idea,
respecting II. OF course polygamy Il
now n dead issue. When the men ant
women among the Latter-day Saint,
who practiccd IL are all dead. too, tn,
whole world win appreciate. ms it re
fuses to do while they are living, thu
purity of their motives and the grand
eur OF their character
l. a NnMp~Tptrs s,prsYc ---e--