SEALING MEN TO MEN: LAW OF ADOPTION Vol 1 Issue 9 Published 19 August 2004 Salt Lake Metro

LAW OF ADOPTION

 A disregarded practice of early Mormonism that went into the dustbin of history along with Blood Atonement, the United Order, Plural Marriage, Slavery, Racial Inferiority based on skin color, Adam being God the father, and ZCMI is the sealing of men to men in sacred temple rituals.

  

Brigham Young in a talk given February 16th 1868 proclaimed, “The ordinance of sealing must be performed here man to man, and woman to man, and children to parents, etc., until the chain of generation is made perfect in the sealing ordinances back to father Adam; ….until the earth is sanctified and prepared for the residence of God and angels" (JD 12:165).

  

The sealing of men to men was not an LDS connivance for Gay marriages in the 19th Century as some would like to believe however it was a means for men to increase their “kingdom” through adoption as being sealed to a woman would increase a man’s kingdom by sexual reproduction. The sealing of men to men was a non-sexual way for a Mormon male to multiply.

  

The practice of sealing men to men was instituted by Joseph Smith before the Mormons left Nauvoo to come to Utah. An article concerning the law of adoption appeared in the Mormon Church's publication The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star, June, 1843, Vol. 4, pages 17-19. LDS historian Gordon Irving, stated that while, "No consensus exists with regard to the date when the first adoptions were performed... It is certainly possible, perhaps probable, that Joseph Smith did initiate certain trusted leaders into the adoptionary order as early as 1842." (Brigham Young University Studies, Spring 1974, page 295)

  

Mormon historian Michael Quinn believes that Joseph Smith was not hostile to male to male intimacy as are the modern LDS General Authorities today. In an article published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought entitled, Male-Male Intimacy among Nineteenth-century Mormons: A Case Study, Quinn suggest that at the funeral address for Lorenzo D. Barns, the Mormon prophet hinted at a special relationship between “friends” in the eternities.  (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter 1995, page 110)

Antonio Feliz, one of the founders of the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ and author of “Out of he Bishop’s Closet,”  wrote a paper stating that Smith’s funereal address for Barnes as a coded endorsement for  homosexuality among the Saints.

Joseph Smith's History of the Church records the speech given on April 16, 1843, at the funeral of Lorenzo D. Barns.

  

"It has always been considered a great calamity not to obtain an honorable burial... If tomorrow I shall be called to lie in yonder tomb, in the morning of the resurrection let me strike hands with my father, and cry, 'My father,'... When we lie down we contemplate how we may rise in the morning; and it is pleasing for friends to lie down together, locked in the arms of love, to sleep and wake in each other's embrace.... when the voice calls for the dead to arise, suppose I am laid by the side of my father, what would be the first joy of my heart? To meet my father, my mother, my brother, my sister; and when they are by my side, I embrace them and they me...." (History of the Church, Vol. 5, page 361)

  

 Mormon apologist George L. Mitton horrified that Quinn interpreted this passage to have anything to do with homosexuality wrote a letter to the editor of Dialogue, claiming that “The 'arms of love' is a scriptural allusion -- the imagery of godly love as the Lord extends it at the resurrection and otherwise...."  (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter 1996, pages v-ix.).  Modern Mormon apologists always claim that an embarrassing anachronism  from Mormon history such as Blood Atonement as practice during the Mormon Reformation were only literary devises.  Not so. The early blood and guts Mormons were straight forward and said what they meant, leaving it to their namby-pamby descendants to white wash their words.

  

However the passage “friends to lie down together, locked in the arms of love, to sleep and wake in each other's embrace....”  is long stretch for an endorsement is a sexual orientation that is outside the norm but still it is often cited by optimistic Latter Day Homosexuals as proof of Smith’s intentions of sanctify a union for homosexuals if he would have lived longer.  There is no support for this conclusion except for the anachronistic Law of Adoption or the practice of sealing men to men.

  

There is no evidence that the sealing of men to men was a backdoor attempt to sanctify homosexuality but as a writer suggested, “the practice certainly could have opened a door for those predisposed to homosexual temptations.” The augment is that “men who were sealed to one another were likely to have closer contact with one another than those who did not enter into the practice,” and therefore more open to an intimate relationship much like  “some missionaries who were constantly in close contact with their companions (have) yielded to homosexual activities. 

What then was the purpose of sealing men to men? The noted Mormon historian Juanita Brooks wrote: "If the prophet Joseph were to become a God over a minor planet, he must not only have a large posterity but able assistants of practical skills. Brigham Young had been 'sealed' to Joseph under this law; now he in turn had some thirty-eight young men sealed to him." (John D. Lee:Zealot--Pioneer--Builder--Scapegoat, page 73)

  

Brigham Young's grandson, Kimball Young Ph.D., as chairman of the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University wrote of the male to male dynamics in Brigham Young's time: 

    "To understand the role and status and the accompanying self-images of men and women in polygamy, we must recall that Mormondom was a male-dominated society. The priesthood--which only men could hold--was in complete control and celestial marriage, either monogamous or polygamous, exemplified the higher status of men. Women were viewed as of lesser worth, to be saved through men holding the priesthood.”

  

Historian Hubert Howe Bancroft wrote of the Law of Adoption:

    "The father may be either younger or older than the son, but in any case assumes the character of guardian, with full control of the labor and estate of the adopted son. Many young men give themselves over to the leaders as 'eternal sons,' in the hope of sharing the honor of their adopted parents." (History of Utah, page 361)

  

Interestingly, adopted sons in the sealing ceremony of men to men were sometimes older than the men who adopted them. Gordon Irving revealed a case in which two men “could not agree on a sealing ceremony because they both wanted to be the father: " Albert K. Thurber’s autobiography mentioned that in 1850 Mormon Patriarch Benjamin F. Johnson approached him and 'in a round about way proposed for me to be adopted to him.' Thurber put him off by telling him, 'I thought it would be as well for him to be adopted by me.' " (Brigham Young University Studies, Spring 1974, page 304) The word “proposed” as used by Thurber conjures up many scenarios.

On April 6, 1862, President Brigham Young claimed that the practice of sealing men to men was "a great and glorious doctrine."

  

"By this power men will be sealed to men back to Adam, completing and making perfect the chain of the Priesthood from this day to the winding up scene. I have known men that I positively think would fellowship the Devil, if he would agree to be sealed to them. 'Oh, be sealed to me, brother; I care not what you do. You may lie and steal, or anything else, I can put up with all your meanness, if you will only be sealed to me.' Now this is not so much weakness as it is selfishness. It is a great and glorious doctrine, but the reason I have not preached it in the midst of this people, is, I could not do it without turning so many of them to the Devil. Some would go to hell for the sake of getting the Devil sealed to them." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 9, page 269)

  

The sealing of men to men actually was a more sacred principle than Celestial marriage according to Brigham Young. In a discourse Young gave on September 4, 1873, he said , "we can seal women to men but not men to men, without a Temple." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 16, page 186)

A sermon by Brigham Young, reported by John Read, in a letter to one of his wives, revealed that Young referred to some future time 'when men would be sealed to men in the priesthood in a more solemn ordinance than that by which women were sealed to men, and in a room over that in which women were sealed to man in the temple of the Lord.'  

  

Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of the LDS church, wrote in his journal that he "officiated in Adopting 96 Men to Men." (Wilford Woodruffs' Journal, edited by Scott G.Kenney, 1985, Vol. 9, page 408)   

  

Kimball Young PhD.stated that the sealing of men to men was evidence “of deep, psychological Brüderschaft (brotherhood)” and of “obviously latent homosexual features”.  He compares “ the Mormon system, with all its ecclesiastical trappings and military controls,” like similar organizations which had “strong homosexual components.”  He maintained, “This is true of armies; it is true of priestly orders in all religions; and certainly in many aspects of the occupational guides of the Middle Ages." (K. Young, Isn't One Wife Enough? The Story of Mormon Polygamy, 1954, pages 278-280)

  

Brigham Young as we all know had many wives. No one knows for sure the exact count but twenty-seven seems to be the official number. However he did not respect or enjoy their company and society. "There are probably but few men in the world who care about the private society of women less than I do." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 5, page 99)  He had numerous offspring but had little interaction with their growth or development seeing them more an extension of his property.

He had no great fondness for men either, using them or abusing them always for the building up of the Kingdom of God of which he was the chief benefactor. He had 38 men sealed to him including John D. Lee who was acting in behalf of Young as an adopted son at Mountain Meadows.

  

In fact the only person with whom Young seemed to have developed a deep emotional attachment was the Prophet Joseph Smith. Brigham Young recorded several visions or dreams he had of the slain Smith wherein Young would throw his arms around his mentor, embrace him and cover him in kisses and tears. Young’s last words on his deathbed were neither for his wives nor children but for his beloved Joseph his adopted father from whom he maintained he received the “keys” to become a lord and king on earth as well as in heaven.

  

Today the LDS Church has “modified” passages in the Journal of Discourses eliminating most references to the seal of men to men.  One such passage has been changed to read:     "The ordinance of sealing must be performed here [son] to [father], and woman to man . . . instead of “man to man”.      

Modern homophobics  in high authority did not want Brigham Young's comments concerning men being sealed to men to be even a mild endorsement of same sex unions. Another example of the “same type of cover-up” is found in the passage where Brigham Young stated:  "Then man will be sealed to man until the chain is made perfect . . . (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 15, page 139). It now reads "Then [children] will be sealed to [parents] until the chain is made perfect .

Present-day Mormon temples are used exclusively for individual sacred ceremonies and genealogies where one must prove legal documentation of familial relationship before a “sealing” is preformed. Present-day Mormon temples are matrimonial factories churning out thousands of heterosexual weddings daily in which they seal women to men for time and all eternity. Interesting men are never sealed to women. Their children are also sealed to them for eternity. The ceremony known as "the law of adoption, "  whenein  a man could have any number of men adopted to him as sons for eternity  has been completely abandoned.