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Mormons Ponder ‘Big Love’ in the Hereafter

2d marriages may cause trouble in paradise

By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 28, 2007 2:55 PM CDT

(Newser) – "'Til death us do part” sounds like enough of a commitment, but a loophole has Mormon women wondering if they’ll spend eternity with their husbands … and their second wives. Mormon marriage “seals” a couple, binding them and their children together forever in heaven, but widowed men can remarry, creating more than one seal.

Unlike men, women must be unsealed before they can be sealed again, and that's firing debate on websites such as feministmormonhousewives.org, Newsweek reports. The church banned polygamy more than 100 years ago, and it says of the apparent contradiction, "The Lord has not given answers to all the details of life after death."

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Gordon B. Hinckley, the 97-year-old president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, waves from the back seat as he is driven past the Mormon Temple during the Days of '47 parade, Tuesday,... (Associated Press)

Polygamy remains a controversial topic regarding the Mormon Church, which distances itself despite its enduring presence in interpretations from popular culture. (Shutterstock.com)

While the church denies publicly that it endorses polygamy, approval of polygamy in the afterlife is a more ambiguous subject. (Shutterstock.com)

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A fictional Polygamist expands on his religious beliefs in "Big Love". (KolobDemon (YouTube))

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Mormons Ponder ‘Big Love’ in the Hereafter