Mormon’s Marriage
I’ve come to encounter the challenge of studying in depth one of the most intriguing and quite disciplinary societies of the world. After consecutive days of research, I allowed myself to focus on their marital costumes and how such practices can affect their manners and personalities as a whole. With habits such as polygamy and celestial marriages, the Mormon community has established such a distinctive way of living that has allowed them to emerge from other religions. Their seclusion from other cultures as well as their extreme devotion to their faith has made Mormonism come out as a job full of requirements rather than just simple spiritual theology. In the following composition, I aim to inform everything about their nuptial believes, ceremonies, and demands. With that said, I will back up my claim of why I believe the Mormon society is exceedingly strict due to their pious way of living, their expectation to raise conservative individuals, and their closure to other communities.
Mormon´s earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations is an essential part of the society. Take polygamy as an example. When the doctrine was first explained back in the 1840´s by Joseph Smith, majority of the members felt repulsed by the proposal. People where then motivated by verses from the bible stated for them to follow their patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which were told to have more than one wife. As time went by and a better explanation was given, Latter -day Saints manage to understand it as God´s will. Even though they didn’t quite understand why, they were willing to convict plural marriage because God told them to. Polygamy immediately evolved into an extremely important facet of Mormonism in the 19th century. Despite the fact American citizens and government felt angered for such practice, the Later- day Saints didn’t give up their routine until the threatening of the survival of the church. These days, any sort of multiple marriages in the culture could mean excommunication from the society however they still claim that polygamy is still considered to be a divine principle however no longer practiced in earth.
The desire of the community to cultivate a conservative and orthodox generation seems to be one of their most important pillars. You are able to witness such claim by the way marriages after their banishment of polygamy took place. In their attempt of regaining their status as “peculiar people”, the Mormon community established new doctrines that required abstinence outside of a marriage as companion with honesty, integrity and fidelity within a bigamy marriage. Ceremonies show aspiration for respect as the bride has to show the least amount of skin as possible. There is also a prohibition of commitment if the couple is not healed of all their sins. An extreme side of orthodoxy they opt to perform is revealed by an anonymous former Mormon as she stated that no flowers, no music, no bridesmaids, or any sort of wedding decoration were found in her multiple couple ceremony performed in her community.
Members of Later-day saints are stereotyped by their exclusion to outside societies other than their own. I was able to witness the allegation by the way contemporary marriage takes place. There are two types of ceremonies carried by Mormon members, a time and eternity marriage, and a time only marriage. A time an eternity marriage consists on a union that goes beyond the grave and into eternity. This custom is held in a sacred temple were only Mormons can attend and is highly imposed by the priests in the church. If you were to marry a non-Mormon, than you have no other choice than to perform a time marriage. This type of espousal consists of matrimonial vows ending in death and is not considered as righteous as those marriages performed in the temple. You would not have benefits such as having your couple and your children sealed (bound throughout God´s kingdom). By having such limitations, it kind of leaves Mormons with no other choice than to seek someone from their society making them seem as if they couldn’t marry anyone else. Another example would be that most of the Mormon branch manages to evolve their daily life around their religion rather than the other way around. They are a much closed society compared to others and advocate doing almost everything together. They rely on each other in order to carry a good life.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints disposes their followers to carry an obstinate way of life. As stated above, the way their marriage ideals have been imposed through the course of the years have lead most of them to opt for a rigid and devoted path in order to achieve their only purpose in life, God´s will. Likewise, they prefer to do so with someone who has the same ideals in life, a fellow Mormon, provoking the desire to rise up a mighty generation that will put in practice Latter-day Saints´ doctrines. Whether it is one way or the other, I’ve come to the conclusion that the practice of Mormonism can built up a disciplinary society thanks to their spiritual devotions, their traditional ways of being, and their seclusion from other cultures. How about you, how far would you go for your religion?