Now that I'm coming out of my daze (see my previous post), I have something to say, and it relates to more than just polygamy. In our society, we define “freedom” as the ability to do whatever we wish in our quest for happiness, and bold innovation is exalted; but does this lead to true freedom? There is a God-given human desire to seek freedom and fulfillment; but there's a terrible price to pay when we don't seek these things from God in the way He created us to receive them. Having not seen and believed that God's way is the way of joy, we rebel and grab at pleasures we think will make us happy and then suddenly find ourselves trapped in an empty world where nothing seems to make us happy and from which none of our efforts can quite free us. Though this tendency of the human heart extends beyond the subject matter of Big Love, a true story of polygamy illustrates the point well.
There's a book called Wife No. 19, written in 1875 by Ann-Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife. She left Young, fled
The Bible illustrates the heartache of polygamy, warns of its dangers, and asserts the superiority of monogamy, and yet the Mormon Church (for a time) embraced polygamy. They entered into their lifestyle of preference against God's stated wisdom and desire for them in favor of a new “revelation” they hoped would bring fulfillment; the result was misery for the women and children. Tragically, most of them did not try to change their situation because, since they were so immersed and isolated in their culture, they had no idea of the beauty of what they were missing. Ann-Eliza speaks of the power of seeing relationships as God meant them to be lived:
I had felt [polygamy's] misery; I had known the abject wretchedness of the condition to which it reduced women, but I did not fully realize the extent of its depravity, the depths of the woes in which it plunged women, until I saw the contrasted lives of monogamic wives…I now saw other women, holding the same relation, cared for tenderly, cherished, protected, loved, and honored….The contrast was so very great that, unless it was seen, it could not be realized, even ever so faintly.
The people had been taught to hate and fear Christians and Christianity though they had witnessed little of either; and so they clung to their ways–longing for a way out, but fleeing from the only real source of escape: the true God Himself–His wisdom, forgiveness, and freedom.
This is no different from what I see happening today–especially in
In her Dedication, Ann-Eliza pleads with the Mormon wives–desiring only to bring them into joy–in a passage that echoes Jesus' tears in Luke 19:41-42 and my prayer for everyone who is hurting in
I dedicate this book to you, as I consecrate my life to your cause. As long as God gives me life I shall pray and plead for your deliverance from the worse than Egyptian bondage in which you are held….You shrink from those whom God will soon lead to your deliverance, from those to whom I daily present your claims to a hearing and liberation, and who listen with responsive and sympathetic hearts.
Hope and pray! Come out of the house of bondage! Kind hearts beat for you! Open hands will welcome you! Do not fear that while God lives you shall suffer uncared for in the wilderness! This Christian realm is not “
Courage! The night of oppression is nearly ended, and the sun of liberty is rising in the heavens for you.
For all of you who have not yet seen and believed the true and glorious freedom of a life lived with God, I cry out with Ann-Eliza for your liberty.
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