Mormon Church Changes Children Polygamy Lesson After Online Criticisms | Ep. 1995

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has altered a children’s curriculum lesson on plural marriage after sustained online criticism exposed how the material framed polygamy as a test of obedience for young readers. The changes to the Doctrine and Covenants Stories chapter, which targets children as young as four, represent a rare public retreat on contested historical material. According to the Mormon Stories Podcast, which first highlighted the problematic framing in December, the revision signals that digital accountability can still force institutional corrections, even on topics as volatile as Joseph Smith’s polygamy.

Background: The Curriculum and the Controversy

The controversy centers on a lesson originally titled “Faith to Obey a Law from the Lord Even When It’s Hard.” The chapter presented polygamy as a divine commandment that required unquestioning compliance, using language that critics argued groomed children for spiritual coercion. The Church released the updated version in February 2025, softening the subheading to “A Commandment for a Time” and altering key passages that depicted Joseph Smith’s involvement.

Online critics, including commentators from the Mormon Stories Podcast and YouTube channels like Life After and Mormonism Live, noted that the original text emphasized collective obedience. It stated that “the Lord commanded his people to be in marriages of one man and more than one woman.” The revised edition narrows this scope significantly, stating that “usually a man should have only one wife” but that “sometimes the Lord commanded a man to be married to more than one wife.”

Key Claims: Textual Changes and Historical Accuracy

The textual edits reveal strategic messaging shifts that downplay both the scale and the compulsory nature of nineteenth-century polygamy. The original lesson positioned plural marriage as a churchwide mandate for “his people,” while the new version isolates the practice to individual men. This change, while technically closer to the language of Doctrine and Covenants 132, effectively minimizes the historical reality that thousands of Latter-day Saint families practiced plural marriage under official sanction.