NOM

I believe Heber J Grant was a plyg, he lived until 1945.

I thought there was an apostle who lived into the 50s who was also polygamist.

Does anyone know if the church was trying to cover up the fact that HJG was a polygamist during his presidency? I mean on a national level, obviously it would have been well known in Utah.

Thought I had read that Heber J. Grant had to give up his polygamous wives as a part of living a monogamous life that the church required.

Apparently he had children that he turned away from and no longer supported and when he passed away, he left them nothing of his considerable holdings.

Apparently it caused some pretty hard feelings in the children he abandoned.

ETA: This may not be entirely accurate. I need to do more research to find the article that indicated the above.

Heber Jeddy Grant[3][4] (November 22, 1856 – May 14, 1945) was an American religious leader who served as the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Grant worked as a bookkeeper and a cashier, then was called to be an LDS apostle on October 16, 1882, at age 25. After the death of Joseph F. Smith in late 1918, Grant served as LDS church president until his death.

The first president born after the exodus to Utah, Grant was also the last LDS Church president to have practiced plural marriage. He had three wives, though by the time he became church president in 1918 only his second wife, Augusta Winters, was still living.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heber_J._Grant

I would concur that Heber J Grant was the last prophet to actually practice polygamy by having three living wives.

But let's not forget that the current president of the corporation is a "spiritual" polygamist and is sealed to two women. As was Howard W. Hunter. So there's been a couple since Grant. I don't see much of a distinction between living and spiritual polygamy, but that's debatable I'm sure for some.

Mormorrisey wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 6:01 am I would concur that Heber J Grant was the last prophet to actually practice polygamy by having three living wives.

But let's not forget that the current president of the corporation is a "spiritual" polygamist and is sealed to two women. As was Howard W. Hunter. So there's been a couple since Grant. I don't see much of a distinction between living and spiritual polygamy, but that's debatable I'm sure for some.

As you noted, Nelson is absolutely a spiritual polygamist as is Oaks. From the point of view of the rest of the world, these are simply widowers who married another woman after their first spouse passed away. There is nothing wrong from that point of view.

But there are at least two crucial differences. First, Kristin Oaks and Wendy Nelson are on their first marriages. They were never married before and were not sealed to anyone else. There is nothing dishonorable about this situation, but it entirely allowed their apostolic husbands to doctrinally have two wives in the post mortal world.

The second difference is that if this distinction would not be allowed for the women presidencies of the Relief Society, Young Women, or Primary. It's a particularly thorny problem for LDS widows. If Relief Society General President Jean B. Bingham lost her husband, Bruce Bingham, she will never be allowed to be sealed to some never married man. She might marry some guy in a civil ceremony, but the full blessings of the temple would be out of reach for that civilly married second husband.

The institutional LDS church fully claims that they no longer practice plural marriage while still requiring that their members keep all of the legalistic distinctions from the 19th century.

Corsair wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 9:14 am

Mormorrisey wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 6:01 am I would concur that Heber J Grant was the last prophet to actually practice polygamy by having three living wives.

But let's not forget that the current president of the corporation is a "spiritual" polygamist and is sealed to two women. As was Howard W. Hunter. So there's been a couple since Grant. I don't see much of a distinction between living and spiritual polygamy, but that's debatable I'm sure for some.

As you noted, Nelson is absolutely a spiritual polygamist as is Oaks.

There is nothing dishonorable about this situation, but it entirely allowed their apostolic husbands to doctrinally have two wives in the post mortal world.

And they're proud of it!

Heber J! He must have been fun prophet! Having sex with three women at the same time! Dirty, dirty, dirty! What a swinger! He probably would have been fun guy! Been the Libertine for modern time!

John G. wrote: ↑Sat Jul 14, 2018 3:55 pm Heber J! He must have been fun prophet! Having sex with three women at the same time! Dirty, dirty, dirty! What a swinger! He probably would have been fun guy! Been the Libertine for modern time!

Grant was cracking down on that kind of arrangement during this tenure. He excommunicated apostle Richard Lyman who had been carrying on an adulterous affair for twenty years while serving as an apostle. The sticky point is that Elder Lyman considered his affair with Anna Hegsted to actually be defined as a plural marriage.