CAROLINA - With all this Propostion 8 talk going around I have to ask a question that has always bothered me!! If marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and is so sacred then why was polygamy permitted?

JOEL - Because it was also ordained of God. This is what Doctrine and Covenants Section 132 is all about.

CAROLINA - We often use the phrase when referring to homosexuals ‘God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.’ Well couldn’t we just as easily make the argument against polygamy by saying ‘God did not create Adam and Eve, Stacy, Susan etc.

JOEL - God did create adam and eve and steve and stacy and susan. What He did not create is the command for Adam and Steve to get married; He only commanded Adam and Eve to get married:

"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Gen 2: 23-24)

It only says "man" and "wife" in that verse; not man and husband. According to the Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith:

"Adam and Eve were married by the Lord while they were yet immortal beings in the Garden of Eden and before death entered the world." (Doc. of Salvation 1)

There are no scriptures anywhere that condone same gender marriage, neither are there any latter-day prophets who support it. God did at times commanded Adam to marry Eve, Stacy, and Susan as in the case of Old Testament prophets like David and Solomon and others who took many wives:

Abraham - Gen. 25:1-6,
Jacob - Gen. 29 and 30
David - 2 Samuel 12:7-9, 2 Samuel 5:13; 1 Sam.18:27, 2 Sam. 3:2-3, 1 Samuel 25:43, 1 Chronicles 3:1-9
Solomon - 1 Kings 11:3, D&C 132:38-39
Gideon - Judges 8:30
Jehoiada the priest - 2 Chronicles 24:2-3
Moses - Ex. 2:16-21 and Num. 12:1

or as in the case when he commanded Joseph Smith to restore this doctrine in the latter-days (D&C 132)

CAROLINA - I understand that Joseph Smith only had one wife but was sealed to others but did not have children with them. However, that was not the case with Brigham Young. He had several wives and several children with his wives. How is that respecting the sanctity between a man and woman? Please give me your thoughts I’ve always been confused by this.

JOEL - As I said before the situations with both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were ordained of God, so their practicing the principle was respecting the sanctity of marriage between husband and wife in the eyes of God, although perhaps not in the eyes of the world. Since God has never condoned same gender marriage, we must conclude that such a practice is not respecting the sanctity of marriage.