{"id":42203,"date":"2021-11-05T06:39:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T11:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=42203"},"modified":"2021-11-04T07:42:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T12:42:32","slug":"42203","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/11\/42203\/","title":{"rendered":"Brittany Chapman Nash on Polygamy"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re coming up on one of the most dreaded lessons of the Sunday School cycle\u2014no, not reviewing the law of chastity with teenagers, the lesson that includes D&C 132 (the revelation on plural marriage).\u00a0 Polygamy is a topic in the Church that is uncomfortable, troubling and, at times, painful to discuss.\u00a0 Recently, however, the Church published a short book by Brittany Chapman Nash called Let\u2019s Talk About Polygamy<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>that I would recommend to read for anyone who wants to better understand our history with plural marriage (for a longer review of the book I put up a couple months ago, click here<\/a>).\u00a0 In addition, Brittany Chapman Nash sat down with Kurt Manwaring for an interview about the book.\u00a0 For those interested in the full interview, it is available here<\/a>.\u00a0 What follows here is a co-post to the interview at Manwaring\u2019s site\u2014a shorter post with excerpts and some commentary.<\/p>\n

At one point in the interview, Brittany Chapman Nash discussed her feelings as she researched polygamy.\u00a0 It was connected with her master\u2019s thesis research project, and she:<\/p>\n

was initially confused and disturbed as I began navigating this foreign view of Church history that did not fit the tidy paradigm I had curated from Sunday School and Institute classes.<\/p>\n

History was messy! It didn\u2019t make sense! I wasn\u2019t ready to accept that the Church was built by people, not two-dimensional superheroes\u2026.<\/p>\n

I think I experienced the whole \u201cfive stages of grief\u201d as I explored this topic. I am certain I would have remained in the \u201canger\u201d phase if I had not been pushed to dig more deeply into people\u2019s stories and women\u2019s relationships.<\/p>\n

For me, reading their experiences and testimonies led to my own reconciliation with polygamy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because of this, sharing the perspectives and experiences of those who practiced polygamy in the Church is something that was a focus of the short volume she wrote.\u00a0 She noted that it \u201cwas my desire to represent the reality that every participant had a different experience of the practice. It is easy to stereotype polygamy as good or bad, or assume that either everyone loved it or everyone hated it all of the time.\u00a0 The reality was different for every individual.\u201d\u00a0 It was experienced differently by everyone with a variety of reactions.<\/p>\n

Building on her experience, she encouraged people to talk more about polygamy as a way to learn from it.\u00a0 As stated in the interview:<\/p>\n

We shape our perception of polygamy by how we frame those who practiced it.<\/p>\n

There are many aspects of polygamy that are uncomfortable and concerning to us, particularly because of our own time and sensitivities. But, there is much of compassion, respect, forgiveness, and faith that we can learn from the human beings who willingly entered this challenging practice because they believed God commanded it.<\/p>\n

We can share the stories of polygamous Saints; their courage and faith to do difficult things and make sacrifices for the gospels\u2019 sake can strengthen our own resolve to be committed to gospel principles. They were consecrated covenant keepers and kingdom builders.<\/p>\n

We can be, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It can seem odd to embrace talking about polygamy because of that discomfort and pain associated with the topic, but it is something that\u00a0Brittany Chapman Nash has found to be helpful in coming to terms with our history.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot more of interest in the interview, including specific historical questions, so I recommend hopping on over to read it (link available\u00a0here<\/a>).\u00a0 She discusses aspects of Joseph Smith\u2019s plural marriages, the secrecy of the practice in Nauvoo, abuses of the practice in the Latter-day Saint Reformation, post-Manifesto polygamy, and the\u00a0plural marriage ceremony<\/a>.\u00a0 She also explained how polygamy is not essential for salvation, stating that \u201cThe sealing ordinance uniting husband and wife is essential for exaltation. Whether that sealing is monogamous or polygamous, the promised blessings are the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re coming up on one of the most dreaded lessons of the Sunday School cycle\u2014no, not reviewing the law of chastity with teenagers, the lesson that includes D&C 132 (the revelation on plural marriage).\u00a0 Polygamy is a topic in the Church that is uncomfortable, troubling and, at times, painful to discuss.\u00a0 Recently, however, the Church published a short book by Brittany Chapman Nash called Let\u2019s Talk About Polygamy\u00a0that I would recommend to read for anyone who wants to better understand our history with plural marriage (for a longer review of the book I put up a couple months ago, click here).\u00a0 In addition, Brittany Chapman Nash sat down with Kurt Manwaring for an interview about the book.\u00a0 For those interested in the full interview, it is available here.\u00a0 What follows here is a co-post to the interview at Manwaring\u2019s site\u2014a shorter post with excerpts and some commentary. At one point in the interview, Brittany Chapman Nash discussed her feelings as she researched polygamy.\u00a0 It was connected with her master\u2019s thesis research project, and she: was initially confused and disturbed as I began navigating this foreign view of Church history that did not fit the tidy paradigm I had curated from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2890],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-from-the-desk"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42205,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42203\/revisions\/42205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}