In part two of this important series with Rebecca Lucero Jones, we explore the question: What happens when a Mormon widow tries to be sealed to two men? In the LDS faith, a man can be sealed to a second wife if his first wife passes away. But, as we will learn from Rebecca’s story, Mormon widows do not receive the same treatment.
After the death of her first husband, Rebecca describes what it was like to find a second chance at love and marriage. She then shares her experience requesting a “second-sealing clearance” from LDS Church leaders (in order to be sealed to her living husband), and what their ultimate response to this request was.
We also discuss how current policies complicate questions of the afterlife for these families. These policies leave widows feeling uncertain about their place in eternity and, in turn, often undesired by Mormon men who hope to avoid this existential confusion.
3 Responses
Oh my God. I never realized how encased a woman can become in a culture, in this case Mormonism, where that is all you know!
I would know or should. I was raised Catholic. Went to Catholic grade and high school but stopped believing Jesus was Godwhen I was 21. So no more such beliefs for me and now I’m 77!
I really appreciated this episode. Rebecca’s story hit close to home to me. About 13 years ago my wife’s friend was applying for a sealing cancellation. Her first husband had died and they had a daughter together. She married a non-member and had a child with him. The father became interested in the church and planned to join the church. In the midst of the planning someone talked to him that since the mother was sealed to the deceased husband, the child would be sealed eternally to the first husband. This was the first time I or my wife had heard about this doctrine, and we couldn’t believe it. That shock didn’t deter the husband from joining the church, and the mother proceeded with the sealing cancellation. She told my wife about the details of the application. The only detail I remember is that it included an item asking the applicant to detail and ‘significant’ sins in her life, even those she had ‘properly’ repented of!
The wife was warned up front that the sealing cancellation could take some time, and it wasn’t guaranteed. As best as I can recall it happened within a year, and the couple was sealed in the temple. This was a proximate cause of my wife’s loss of testimony. She (and I) couldn’t believe not only the insane doctrine of a child being sealed together forever to a ‘custodian’ parent and not a biologically related on, but the faith in a leadership relying on bureaucracy and not revelation allowing a sealing cancellation. All this heartache could be instantly washed away by letting happen what Rebecca said: just allow living men and women get sealed equally.