This is a topic that has been on my mind for some time, but I’ve really struggled to find the right words. The purpose of this website is to build faith in Jesus Christ, but as soon as we start to talk about mortals – any mortals, no matter how ‘righteous’ they are or we think they should be, we are going to encounter problems. How can we then discuss anything potentially controversial without damaging the faith in Christ we wish to build?

It’s a well-worn phrase that history is written by the victors; but perhaps the reason it is used so much is because it’s true. It has become increasingly believed in recent years that reformers in ancient Israel about the time of 700-600 BCE (commonly referred to as the Deuteronomists), rewrote many portions of what we now call the Old Testament, removing elements that didn’t conform to their worldview. Renowned Methodist bible scholar Margaret Barker has written and spoken extensively about this, and more recently Latter-day Saint author Dave Butler has added his own research in his excellent book, In the Language of Adam. I find the arguments persuasive.

Whether or not this is true, what is certainly true according the the New Testament is that when Jesus Christ began His public ministry in about 30 CE, the leaders of the Jewish religion were utterly corrupt, and had been for probably centuries. What I find highly instructive is that despite the corruption, Christ still pointed His disciples to the temple. He still called it His Father’s house. He still acknowledged the authority of the Priests. In short, the Jewish wickedness – even apostasy – didn’t de facto remove the Priesthood authority God had given to the people.

This is an essential lesson for us to learn when we look at modern Church history, because regardless of our views or beliefs about what Joseph Smith, or Brigham Young, or John Taylor – or Russell M Nelson for that matter – have done or said, the Lord is perfectly capable of continuing the line of Priesthood authority in His restored Church. The ‘keys’, as we call them, are still here, because wickedness and apostasy don’t, in and of themselves, remove them.

When the angel Moroni appeared to the then 17 year old Joseph Smith, he told the young man that his name would be had for good and ill across the world. Well, that’s certainly been the case. But probably the most controversial President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been Brigham Young.

If you’ve spent any amount of time studying Church history or Brigham himself you probably have one of two opinions of him. The first could be that he was a prophet of God and, like Moses, courageously led the Lord’s people across the wilderness to their own ‘Promised Land’; that he was a ‘Lion of the Lord’, while also being humble, kind, generous and fiercely loyal to the prophet Joseph Smith. Alternatively, your opinion may well be that he was a racist, misogynist, manipulative sociopath and narcissist who routinely lied to obtain and maintain power, rewriting Church history for his personal benefit. Talk about someone who splits opinion …

The truth is that none of us were there. None of us knew him personally. Almost certainly none of us has had a personal revelation from God specifically about him and his character. The evidence (such as we have it) is mixed. So, whether we like it or not, we can’t be absolutely certain¹.

When on my mission many years ago in Chile, the question of polygamy was one we inevitably faced from time to time. I had a companion who explained to investigators that because of persecution there were fewer men in the Church at the time and polygamy was a way to take care of the widows. I was too naive and ignorant to know any better at the time so trusted that he knew what he was talking about. Note: he didn’t².

As a lifelong member of the Church now in my mid-50s, I’ve heard and read plenty about polygamy over the years. Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants has always left me somewhat uncomfortable and confused, and I’ve always put that down to the fact that polygamy isn’t something that’s required of us in this day, so it’s not something I needed to understand. It was therefore one of those things I parked as, ‘I don’t need to know this,’ and I never felt any desire to investigate further.

But this started to change in recent months. It was a few months ago that I noticed the subject of polygamy increasingly coming up, and more and more often being related to people leaving the Church. I prayed about it, and once again felt impressed to leave the subject alone – it wasn’t relevant to me.

But this continued, with online algorithms deciding to start recommending me videos about the subject. In the past, I’ve found that videos, articles or books dealing with controversial parts of Church history usually selectively quote things in order to pursue an agenda of disaffecting people from the Church, and to be honest I’m really not interested in that (I love truth, just not partial truths with hidden agendas), so I continued to ignore them.

Eventually, however, a video popped up that made me stop and look. For some reason I couldn’t explain I felt this was one video I should watch so, with a prayer for truth in my heart, I started down the rabbit-hole.

The intention of this short article isn’t to describe my journey, what I learned, or the conclusions I’ve come to. At some point, I might be impressed to write such a piece, but at this point there are people far better qualified, and much more persuasive, on all sides of the argument.

To summarise, however, the key issues as they appear to me are that while the current official Church position on the practice of polygamy is that it was begun in secret by the prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, there is a growing body of evidence that the stories of Joseph practising polygamy were inventions of Brigham Young and those in Church leadership of his day, made in order to justify their own beliefs³.

To be perfectly honest, the Church doesn’t come out of this well whichever way you look at it. The organisation either lied about it during Joseph’s day, or it lied about it after Joseph’s death. Either way, the truth took a backseat – that’s not a great look for the Church that claims to be the ‘only true and living’ Church on the earth. Whatever really happened, there are uncomfortable truths here that I’m not sure we’ve really ever addressed as a Church.

I don’t actually believe that there is conclusive proof in the historical record for either version of events – at least not yet currently available. I’ve come to my own firm conclusion based on study and extensive prayer, but without doubt that conclusion has come to me through faith – not through any evidence a courtroom might consider valid.

As I said, I’ve been coming across a fair amount of online chatter that there has been a growing number of Latter-day Saints being challenged by this, as well as other details from Church history. What really brought it home to me, however, was when someone much closer to me expressed concern about things they were being told about polygamy.

It suddenly became clear to me why I had been impressed to starting studying this topic as I was able to have a really good discussion about the history, the original documents that are available for anyone to investigate for themselves, and the implications of it all. I was able to finish with my testimony that regardless of what really happened, Jesus Christ still lives – and it is in Him that we’re to have faith, not any organisation or mortal person – the Book of Mormon is true, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is still the Lord’s Church, regardless of how deeply flawed it might be, or what mistakes, errors or sins have been committed by past or present leaders. God has always had to deal with sinful mortals and while I’m sure He is often exasperated with us, His overwhelming and unending love for us will always prevail.

And that really is the point I want to make here. You see, maybe Brigham Young was a sociopath and narcissist who introduced all sorts of false teachings into the Church after Joseph died – or maybe he wasn’t. My salvation isn’t based, in any way, on Brigham Young. Some remarkable truths were restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, but my salvation doesn’t depend on him either. Even the current President of the Church, Russell M Nelson, who I sustain as a prophet, seer, and revelator, doesn’t impact my salvation.

No, what I really need to concern myself with is my relationship with my Father in Heaven and His son, Jesus Christ. How do I honour my covenants with them and how do I continue to seek them?

When I listen to President Nelson today, I hear him pointing me to Christ. I hear him encouraging me to repent and to seek the Holy Spirit more and more in my life. Those are true messages from a true messenger. But even if they weren’t, it doesn’t matter. In a coming day, Jesus Christ will return to the earth. He will then put everything right. In the meantime, this is still His Church. His authority for Priesthood ordinances is here. The Book of Mormon is still a truly magnificent testimony of Him and of how to come to Him.

© Copyright, Jeffrey Collyer 2025

P.S. For those who follow me and aren’t members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I apologise for the rather inward-looking post. I hope the next one will be more generally applicable.

1. You might say you’ve prayed about it and have received a spiritual witness one way or another, but it is almost certainly true that someone else has prayed about it and received a spiritual witness directly opposite. For the purposes of this article, I’m therefore maintaining the ‘we can’t know for sure’ position.
2. In any case, what an appalling way to deal with widows: ‘I’ll feed you but only if you share my bed’ – how horrific is that! Not remotely godly. A much better way is described in the Book of Mormon. ‘Now there was a great number of women, more than there was of men; therefore king Limhi commanded that every man should impart to the support of the widows and their children, that they might not perish with hunger; and this they did because of the greatness of their number that had been slain.’ (Mosiah 21:17)
3. This is a vast over-simplification of course.