On September 24, 1890, under pressure from the United States Government, Wilford Woodruff published his famous Manifesto which repealed the commandment for polygamy.
“We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice…Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hearby declare my intention to submit to those laws, to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.
There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy…And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.” [1]
He denied any accusation that polygamy was still being performed, or that it would ever be performed again.
“Press dispatches…allege that plural marriages have been contracted in Utah since last June or during the past year, also that in public discourses the leaders of the Church have taught, encouraged and urged the continuance of the practice of polygamy—I, therefore, as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false.” [2]
The Prophet’s words were unmistakable: Polygamy was no longer being practiced or taught, and any accusation that it was, was a lie.
In the 1990s, LDS Historian D. Michael Quinn discovered hundreds of evidences that Woodruff’s declaration was a lie, and that Church leaders approved of, and engaged in plural marriages after the 1890 Manifesto. He was later excommunicated for these discoveries.
The Church, exposed for its dishonesty, was forced to publish a statement regarding post-Manifesto polygamy:
“A small number of plural marriages continued to be performed in Mexico and Canada under the sanction of some Church leaders…On an exceptional basis, a smaller number of plural marriages were performed within the United States between the years 1890 and 1904.” [3]
The Manifesto did not end polygamy. Woodruff lied. The Manifesto had been issued as a mere legal formality, allowing Utah to be accepted into the United States. D. Michael Quinn, excommunicated for speaking the truth, was never given membership status back. The Church never apologized. He shined a light, and the Church snuffed him out.
There is no agency without honesty. Members today do not have the honest ability to discern the truthfulness of their religion because so much has been hidden.
If the Church is led by God himself with Jesus Christ at the head, then why is there so much dishonesty? Why the lies? Why the coverups? Why hide so much information from the members?
This is not the doing of Jesus Christ. This is the doing of a dishonest Church run by dishonest men. Men who do not trust the membership to make their own choices. Men who would rather present a golden apple to the members, than the true apple that it is. A poisoned apple, full of corruption and full of deceit. The Church today is not true. It is not true, not because of its past, but because of its present. It is not true because it is not honest. And what can be true if it is not honest?
[1] Wilford Woodruff, “Official Declaration 1,” Sept. 24, 1890
[2] Wilford Woodruff, “Official Declaration 1,” Sept. 24, 1890
[3] “Plural Marriage After the Manifesto,” Church History Topics
