One of the more controversial aspects of the temple liturgy under Brigham Young was the practice of sealing people to their peers as children, particularly if those peers happened to be high-ranking church leaders. The practice was discontinued by the turn of the twentieth century and is rarely discussed by modern church members today, but is an integral component of nineteenth-century Mormonism. Jonathan Stapley, who has become known as one of the foremost experts on Latter-day Saint rituals and temple liturgy, was featured in a recent From the Desk post discussing this law of adoption.
A Limited Liturgy
Stapley clarified that this “Law of Adoption” was different from the sealings practiced in the temple today because it “referred to sealing relationships between adults, rather than the parent-child sealings common today.” He noted that it was very limited in practice because “No child-to-parent sealings were ever performed outside of temples,” and in Nauvoo, “very few child-to-parent sealings were performed at all.”
Still, the practice was important within Latter-day Saint cosmology of the time. “Early Latter-day Saints believed you should only be sealed to parents who had accepted the gospel in mortality,” Stapley observed. “For those without that option, the solution was to be sealed to other church members as adoptive parents.” Further, Latter-day Saints saw exaltation as a communal effort that “required being connected not only to one’s ancestors but also to each other.”
These types of adoptions were reserved for fully functioning temples. “There is absolutely no evidence to support” the idea that “adoptions were performed outside of temples between 1846 and 1877,” Stapley noted.
(Part of the confusion that Stapley is addressing in these comments may have emerged from a stopgap measure introduced during the westward trek where people covenanted with the individual to whom they would have been adopted to keep God’s commandments and sustain their leadership. I’ve mentioned this in discussing Zerah Pulsipher’s relationship with Wilford Woodruff, and Jennifer Mackley has discussed it in reference to the organization of the westward migration. These covenants were not viewed as priesthood sealings but as a way to mimic the type of relationships and obligations they had created with the “Law of Adoption” sealings.)
Who to Be Sealed To?
When people felt that they needed to be sealed to other church members, they often turned to high-ranking Church leaders: “Many people chose church leaders as adoptive parents because they seemed like the best bet.” While Brigham Young was one of the more popular candidates in Nauvoo, once proxy work came to the fore in Utah, Joseph Smith became much more common. “Joseph Smith—being martyred—was perhaps the safest bet of all. If you wanted to be sealed to someone who was surely part of the network of heaven, then a church leader seemed like a logical choice.”
Stapley also clarified the misconception that these practices were focused on men-to-men sealings. “Men and women together functioned as adoptive parents, and both men and women were adopted as children. Everyone needed to be sealed to parents. For example, 47% of the adoptions performed in the Nauvoo Temple were for women.”
Wilford Woodruff and the End of The Law of Adoption
While the practice of these types of adoption sealings occurred from the 1840s into the 1890s, Wilford Woodruff brought the practice to an end by discussing a revelation in a landmark address in 1894:
Soon after the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, Woodruff announced to the First Presidency and the Twelve that he had received a revelation ending adoption sealings.
He then presented the revelation publicly in General Conference, formally shifting temple work to sealing families along biological lines.
In the aftermath of this change, Church leadership “did allow cancellations upon request,” but more often than not, “they generally preferred to have people perform new sealings and let the earlier temple work stand.”
A major component of this change was the growing understanding that “proxy ordinances are carried out imperfectly, and that God, together with the agency of deceased individuals, will ultimately be the final arbiter.”
Conclusion
There’s a lot more in the interview with Jonathan Stapley about the Law of Adoption related to sealing ordinances, including discussion about polygamy and the nature of the sealing that may have been offered to Jane Manning James by Emma and Joseph Smith. I recommend reading the full interview at From the Desk.
While you’re there, check out our new J. Golden Kimball quotes page!
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