OK…I’ve lined up my next interview–Anne B. Wilde, spokeswoman for Principle Voices. I met her at the Sunstone symposium last August–and she is an amazingly delightful woman.
I hope to do the interview mid-next week. Please post any questions or comments you’d like me to present to Ms. Wilde in advance.
About Ms. Wilde: Anne was born and raised in the LDS Church, coming from generations of prominent pioneer ancestors. She graduated with honors from BYU in Business Education, and was married in the Los Angeles Temple a year later. After extensive study and research, she determined that the original LDS teachings of the 1800’s were correct and considered herself to be an Independent Fundamentalist Mormon. During the 33-year marriage to her second husband, Ogden Kraut (deceased in 2002), Anne helped write and publish 65 books on fundamental LDS Gospel principles. In December 2000, she co-authored Voices in Harmony: Contemporary Women Celebrate Plural Marriage. She was the managing editor of the Fundamentalist Mormon magazine, Mormon Focus, and has authored several articles and book reviews. Anne has presented several papers at Mormon History Association and Sunstone Symposia. She has been serving on a child advocacy polygamy steering committee for over five years, is a co-founder of Principle Voices (organized Oct 2003), and is a member of the Utah Attorney General’s Safety Net Committee.
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Wow, there are many questions I’d like to ask her. Here are a few:
What, if any, personal repercussions did she experience when she went toward the polygamy? How did family & friends react, etc?
What did she like about Mormon Focus (the magazine)? What did they plan for future issues? What were the most important factors in its publication ceasing?
What has she liked about being involved in the AG’s safety net committee? What would change, if anything, to improve it?
She might not want to discuss specific individuals or groups, but I’d love to hear her views about the various polygamist groups. Even if she declined to discuss individuals such as Jeffs, Allred, or even non-LDS polygamists, how would she characterize communication among the major groups? Which ones seem to get along with each other better than others? This is interesting to me because I’ve read many accounts of people (women, mainly) being raised in one group and marrying into another, but distinct differences seem to remain in how some polygamist groups interpret the details of doctrines.
Looking forward to your interview!
Let me clarify one item, so as not to sidetrack any discussion. I asked about “LDS” polygamists. I recognize that the LDS church publicly disavows polygamy despite the fact that it maintains polygyny through allowing a man to be sealed to more than one woman if all of his previous wives are deceased. I mean “LDS” polygamists in the sense that there are some people who practice polygyny or polygamy who have no historical connection to the religion founded by Joseph Smith.
That brings up another question. How does she view the larger LDS church? And how does she view people such as those who maintain
https://www.pro-polygamy.com/
or
https://polygamynow.blogspot.com/
In other words, how important to her is the historically LDS spin on polygamy? How supportive of polygamy is she when it does not have any connection to Joseph Smith, or even to religion?
How did she deal with sexual jealousy in the relationship with her husband?
John,
Here’s a few:
I’m assuming she had children – what would she say to a child of hers who rejected the polygamous lifestyle?
In her view, what is the fate (in the after life) of those who do not follow “the principle” of plural marriage?
What is the fundamentalist interpretation of Joseph Smith marrying other men’s wives?
In her view, does the LDS church have any kind of claim to authority since Wilford Woodruff’s second manifesto?
Much has been made of the marriages of young girls to much older men. In her view, what are the acceptable age parameters in polygamous marriages?
Looking forward to a great show!
How does she feel about the fact that the LDS Church allows women to be sealed to more than one man (though, like the men sealed to more than one woman, currently only one of those may be living)?
What does she feel is the proper way to dispose of the excess men in polygamous societies?
I’m curious how she explains/justifies some of the typical controversies of Joseph Smith’s polygamy, i.e. polyandry, Fannie Alger, lying, teenage brides, deceiving Emma, threats of destruction, etc.
Here are a few:
How can polygyny (plural marriage) be justified when it inherently takes a father away from the children. In other words, the more children a man has, the less time and money he can spend on them. How can such a system be justified?
In polygyny, when a woman dies, the man inherits all of her holdings. When a man dies, the woman gets only a share of his holdings depending upon the number of wives. How can a marital system be justified when woman are ALWAYS at the disadvantage? Monogamy appears to protect women and polygyny appears to put women at risk.
Many fundamentalist polygamists are on government welfare. Why should taxpayers have to fund polygamy?
The nature of polygamy appears to emphasize the reproductive value of women. Does a polygamous woman have the freedom to space out births by natural or artificial birth control? If not, does such a policy devalue women by turning them into birthing machines?
“Prophets” of polygamous orders have a reputation for being dictatorial, especially over marriage. For example, Warren Jeffs dictates who will marry whom and when. Why should women be attracted to a system that demands their submissiveness and loss of agency?
Polygamous orders typically reject society at large by being isolated from it. Why would God command there to be polygamy when it appears to do the world at large no particular good?
Polygamy appears to have two main flaws: 1) the demand for women tends to lower the age of wives at the time of marriage; and 2) the roughly equal sex ratio means that for every extra wife one man gets, another man will not get a wife at all. How can society justify a marital system that does not seem to be sustainable?
Sorry if my questions appear to be hostile. I just finished teaching a college course on Mormon polygamy, and I am afraid I may have lost some of my objectivity as a result of that experience.
I have more questions, if interested.
If I’m not too late–
How did she meet Ogden Kraut? Where did they live, and how much did the surrounding community know about them– ie was it an open secret? And, how has fundamentalist polygamy changed over the years since she’s been associated with it– ie, are there more groups now? amount of people living in polygamous relationships, any idea if it’s up or down in Utah?