“That These Things Might Come Forth”

This chapter traces the development of some of the fundamental theological turns that made Mormonism so unique among nineteenth-century Americans, including the doctrinal place of polygamy from the founding of the Church in 1830 through the Mormons' exodus to Utah in the late 1840s. The theological and political concepts that Joseph Smith outlined in the early years of the Church—including the plan of salvation, sealing and adoption, and eternal increase—intimately tied gender, plural marriage, and the family to the building of Zion and the advent of the kingdom of God in all its places. Since the public announcement of the Church's belief in and intent to openly practice plural marriage, Church leaders publicly endorsed the practice as a fundamental, even defining, aspect of Mormonism and integrated the practice into a broader vision of Mormon political philosophy.