Mitt romney how many marriages

Hardy added: "Now, very gradually, as you moved farther away from it, it became less a part of it. But during the time of Miles Park Romney, it was an essential principle of the Romney family life. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in But Mitt Romney's stature as a leading contender has renewed questions about his faith and its doctrines.

Self-proclaimed "Mormon fundamentalist" Warren Jeffs, formerly on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, is facing multiple felony charges for sex crimes related to underage marriages among members of his breakaway church's 10, members in Utah and Arizona, who openly practice polygamy. Romney has joked about polygamy, saying in various settings that to him, "marriage is between a man and a woman An introductory film played at his fund-raisers and campaign appearances features his wife, Ann, talking about their year marriage.

Romney himself notes they started as high school sweethearts. This month, Ann Romney tried a different tack, taking a lighthearted jab at her husband's main Republican competitors, Sen.

John McCain, R-Ariz. The biggest difference between her husband and the other candidates, Ann Romney said, is that "he's had only one wife. He believed it had roots in the Old Testament and was necessary to reach the highest salvation in heaven. Smith is believed to have had 33 wives.

Brigham Young expanded the practice after the church's migration from the Midwest to Utah, which began in He is said to have had 55 wives. Historical texts show Young also asked Orson Pratt to publicly proclaim the church's belief in polygamy in In , Congress also passed the Edmunds Act, an anti-polygamy law.

That was followed in by the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which disincorporated the church and threatened to seize its nonreligious real estate as part of the crackdown on polygamy. In , church President Wilford Woodruff issued "The Manifesto," in which he declared the church no longer taught or permitted plural marriages. Nonetheless, the law of polygamy — Smith's revelation that God authorized polygamy — remains in Article of the church's Doctrine and Covenants. In addition, Mormon widowers who remarry today believe they will live in eternity with their multiple wives.

Church genealogical records, among the most detailed and complete of any religion, show that two of Mitt Romney's great-great-grandfathers, Miles Romney and Parley P. Pratt, had 12 wives each. Compton, the polygamy scholar, disputes that. He believes Miles Romney only had one wife because the records do not show the dates for his other 11 marriages or any offspring from them. Miles Romney and his one clearly documented wife, Elizabeth Gaskell, had 10 children.

Miles Park Romney had five wives. With his first wife, Hannah Hood Hill, he had 11 children. One way to embrace this philosophy, according to Romney, is to marry young:. This is a promise: "Launch out into the deep, and your nets will be filled.

Well, getting married is one way to launch into the deep. I'm so glad I found Ann when I was still so young. Combining your life with another person, particularly someone—men and women as different as we are, this combination is tremendously challenging and enormously rewarding. Some people could get married but choose to take more time, they say, for themselves. Others plan to wait until they're well into their 30s or 40s before they think about getting married.

They're going to miss so much of living, I'm afraid. From the beginning of recorded time the prophet Adam recorded this life secret: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. Times Events. Times Store. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options. Reporting from Lancaster, N.