On facebook recently, a few disaffected Latter-day Saints have argued that the Church tried to cover up the fact that Brigham Young was a polygamist in Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, the manual used in Priesthood and Relief Society lessons for 1998-1999.
A good discussion, as well as response to the charge of there being a “cover up” can be found in this article by Mike Parker:
As Mike notes:
The next manual in the instructional series–Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith–includes this clarifying statement in the “Historical Summary” of President Smith’s life:
This book is not a history, but rather a compilation of gospel principles as taught by President Joseph F. Smith. However, in order to put the teachings in a historical framework, the following list is provided to summarize some of the milestones in his life that have most immediate relationship to his teachings. This summary omits some important events in his personal life, including his marriages (plural marriage was being practiced in the Church at that time) and the births and deaths of his children, to whom he was devoted.10
This explanation, which is almost certainly directed at detractors of the Brigham Young manual, clarifies that the purpose of the series is not biographical or historical, but didactical. Other Church publications that are historical discuss the subject of plural marriage and its practice among the Latter-day Saints in the nineteenth century.11
The Brigham Young manual and the manuals that followed it include selected teachings on selected subjects that have application to subjects of concern to today’s Latter-day Saints. They do not teach history, but how to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite the complaints of its detractors, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not engaged in a cover up, nor is it attempting to hide an “embarrassing past.”
Notes for the Above:
10 Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2000), viii. A similar statement appears in the coursebook for 2004, entitled Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant:
“This book is not a history, but rather a compilation of gospel principles as taught by President Heber J. Grant. The following chronology provides a brief historical framework for these teachings. It omits significant events in secular history, such as wars and worldwide economic crises. It also omits many important events in President Grant’s personal life, such as his marriages and the births and deaths of his children.” [Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2002), viii.]
11 See, for example: The Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual (Religion 324-325), 1981, pp. 327, 333-34, 361-363; and Church History In the Fulness of Times (Religion 341-343), 1989, pp. 256, 424-425, 440-441. Scripturally, Doctrine & Covenants Section 132 and Official Declaration 1 remain as canonized statements regarding plural marriage
As an aside, for a good discussion of Brigham's wives, see Craig L. Foster, "The Wives of the Prophets: The Plural Wives of Brigham Young to Heber J. Grant" in The Persistence of Polygamy: From Joseph Smith's Martyrdom to the First Manifesto, 1844-1890 (Independence, Miss.: John Whitmer Books, 2013), 113-45, as well as the other essays on Brigham Young's polygamy contained in this volume.