Big Love in the Afterlife

This interesting Newsweek article examines the implications of polygamy in the Mormon afterlife. Though the Latter-Day Saints church has publicly rebuked the doctrine of polygamy in regards to our terrestrial existence, their stance on plural marriages in Heaven is a little less clear. When a couple is married in the Mormon temple, they are "sealed" to one another for all eternity in the eyes of the church. If a Mormon man becomes a widower or gets a divorce, he may remarry in the temple and be "sealed" to another woman. But if a Mormon woman loses her husband, she must have their seal canceled by the church before she may remarry. In other words, you may die only to find yourself stuck with your husband's second spouse as your "sister" wife. Aside from all the usual sci-fi shenanigans involved with afterlife mumbo jumbo, this issue raises some pressing questions about the equality of men and women even in the modern, gentler Mormon religion. If only those golden tablets had been just a little more clear on the important issues. Though I suppose it can get pretty murky when you have to read them from inside a hat.