Miss Molly? Don't mormons have more than one wife? What number wife are you?
I can only speak for the mainstream LDS church. But like catholicism, there are "protestant"-esque off shoots of the mormon church and if or how they practice polygamy I can't say. The Big Love folks would not be considered mainstream LDS.
Today in mainstream mormons, polygamy is not in practice, though it was at the inception of the church. and while not in practice is still considered a righteous and good practice and something that will exist in the eternities.
One thing you should know about the LDS church is there is a disparity between what is said and how things actually are. Within the church is a common understanding that there will be plural marriage in the afterlife, but most mormons are deeply uncomfortable with the thought of actually practicing it. It's one thing to know it will happen in the very distant eternity, and another entirely to think of sharing your husband in a very real and physical sense. Men and women alike, most don't like the idea and often say things like 'well, I wouldn't be righteous enough to have more than one wife any way', or 'Oh I'm glad I don't live in that time.'
Within the church it is claimed that the reason for polygamy is that there are more righteous women than men, and since marriage is required to reach the highest levels in heaven, men have to take more than one wife to let all those good women in! (Don't ask me for sense, I can only offer what is taught. I'm merely a humble ex-mormon, not a miracle worker.) It is also claimed that the reason for the practice in the first place was all the widows and orphans left behind when the early mormon pioneers migrated across the US to Utah. Someone had to take care of all them women!
Myself, I was just one of one.
Interestingly though--men can have more than one temple marriage if the first wife has died. He can marry again in the temple, and the first wife would also still be sealed to him and tada! Polygamy!
Have a question for me? Email me at askanexmormon@gmail.com
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