Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Mormonism and post humorus marriage

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believe that, with the appropriate authority, marriages can be performed for “time and all eternity,” rather than just “until death do us part.” They believe that Jesus gave this authority to the Apostle Peter, for instance in Mathew 16:19 it says—“And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Consequently, this practice is referred to as a sealing or an eternal marriage. Sealings can be performed posthumously, as well as for the living. Posthumous sealings can be performed for a living person and a deceased spouse (with a live church member standing as a proxy for the deceased) or, more commonly, between two deceased persons (with a living man and woman standing in as proxies). In either case, the couple must have been married while alive. Thus this practice is perhaps better described as a posthumous remarriage than a posthumous marriage. In current practice, men who are dead may be sealed by proxy to all of the women to whom they were legally married while alive. Recent changes in church policy also allow women to be sealed to multiple men, but only after both she and her husband(s) are dead. Sealings are also performed posthumously for deceased couples, even couples that divorced in life. This ordinance is similar to the church’s practice of baptism for the dead, although it is not nearly as controversial. The church’s doctrine is not entirely specific concerning who should be sealed to whom when there are multiple spouses. One possibility is that regardless of how many times a man or woman is sealed (eternally married) only one marriage will remain in the afterlife. Another possibility is that multiple sealings will be valid in the next life. The church does not have any teachings clarifying whether or not polygamous marriages can exist in the afterlife. It is believed that the proxy sealings, like the church’s proxy baptisms, are only offered to the deceased souls, and that deceased persons must accept the ordinance for it to take effect. A man can be sealed to more than one women while he is alive; a woman can only be sealed to multiple men after she and her husbands have died. The policy allowing women to be sealed to multiple men is relatively new and has not been explained by the church. A living man or a woman can also be sealed to a deceased spouse that they were legally married with using a proxy of the same sex as the deceased spouse. The LDS Church opposes same-sex marriages and does not perform them for either living or deceased couples.

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