My Mormon Bishop Dad was Excommunicated for Polygamy - Laurel Hell | Ep. 2038

When Bishop Dad Came Home with a Second Wife: Polygamy, Manipulation, and the Mormon Past That Won't Stay Past

A sitting LDS bishop secretly practicing polygamy with a woman living under his roof is not ancient history. It happened in a California ward, in a family with pioneer ancestry and a father who served faithfully in his congregation while simultaneously running what his own daughter now calls a spiritually manipulated household. Laurel Hell told that story on the Mormon Stories Podcast (Episode 2038), and it deserves a serious examination, because her account sits at the intersection of documented LDS historical patterns and a very modern failure of institutional accountability.

The short answer to what happened: a bishop convinced two women that God had revealed polygamy should return to his family, practiced it secretly for years, and was eventually excommunicated when someone found out. His daughter lived with it the whole time.

The Historical Roots of the Problem

Polygamy was not a fringe practice in early Mormonism. Joseph Smith taught it, Brigham Young institutionalized it, and the church actively denied it to the outside world for decades. When Laurel describes her Danish pioneer ancestors being brought to Utah without full knowledge of what awaited them, she is describing something documented in emigration records, journals, and even the church's own historical admissions.

The pattern she identifies is worth naming clearly: Church leaders publicly denied polygamy while privately practicing it Young women and converts were recruited into plural marriage without full disclosure Coercion was dressed in the language of revelation and spiritual duty The institutional church eventually abandoned the practice under federal pressure, not doctrinal revision