In his home on the Wasatch Front, Mormon Fundamentalist Benjamin Shaffer flipped through a booklet containing an 1886 prophetic revelation on polygamy.
It’s the basis for his religious belief in present-day plural marriage. But The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wouldn’t recognize the document’s existence for over a century, calling it in 1933 a “pretended revelation.” The church has referenced it in recent years, but not acknowledged its authenticity.
That is, until June 14, 2025. It quietly published the document in its historical digital library.
It includes a signed letter from church leader J. Reuben Clark that says the church came into possession of the original document in July 1933, one month after the official statement denouncing it.
When Mormon Fundamentalists heard about the publication, they were “over the moon.” Shaffer was surprised at first by his community’s reaction since fundamentalists have long circulated photos of the document and historians have acknowledged its existence.
The revelation was received by the third LDS Church president, John Taylor, while he was in hiding with a price on his head for practicing polygamy. In his booklet, Shaffer pointed to where the revelation says “the new and everlasting covenant” would never go away. To historians like Benjamin Park, in an 1866 historical context, that is a clear reference to plural marriage.
Many fundamentalists not only believe the revelation is legitimate, but also that Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith visited President John Taylor, said Shaffer. They also believe that at a gathering the next day, “Taylor put each person present under covenant to maintain the principle of plural marriage, come what may.”
Mormon Fundamentalists “had felt for a century that they were being told that they're crazy, that they're insane, that this doesn't even exist. That their entire worldview, that their own history, their own story, never happened,” Shaffer said.
“And they felt so gaslit, I think. And so to have that history even quietly acknowledged brings a certain kind of relief.”
In a statement to KUER, the LDS Church said:
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently cataloged, digitized, and made publicly available a private writing by President John Taylor on September 27, 1886 which has been termed a ‘revelation.’ In contrast with the 1890 Manifesto, which ended plural marriage, this private writing was never presented to the leadership or members of the church and thus has never qualified and been treated as authoritative. Its current release is part of the Church History Department’s efforts 'to more consistently release the historical records of past general authorities and officers.’”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ciara Hulet: Polygamy has been synonymous with the FLDS. How is your religion different?
Benjamin Shaffer: So the FLDS is actually only one part of the Mormon fundamentalist community. Well, they get a lot of press because they've had a lot of very unhealthy things happen in their community. The Fundamentalist Mormon community actually consists of about 100,000 people, and the FLDS is also not the largest.
Most Mormon Fundamentalists that you're going to meet, you're not going to know they’re Mormon Fundamentalist unless they said something. These are just your regular, normal Mormon families that live among you. There are more Mormon fundamentalists living in the Wasatch Front than anywhere else. And I'm sure that you probably know half a dozen or more of them without actually knowing what they believe, unless they chose to talk to you about that.
CH: Tell me a little bit about how you're treated in mainstream society.
BS: It can be rough. There is persecution, employment discrimination. Sometimes it's housing discrimination, too, especially for large families. But you know, I think that this has generally changed throughout America. Most people agree that consenting adults should have a choice in what they believe, how they practice, how they live — without persecution. And so things are actually really pretty good now compared to the way they used to be.
That history of persecution definitely leaves an indelible mark. And I think that speaks to the excitement in the fundamentalist community for the historical recognition by the church history library that this document does exist. It doesn't settle questions of faith, but it does put an end to a lie that has harmed a lot of people.
CH: Could this publication change people's perceptions of your community and religion?
BS: I suppose it could. I don't necessarily have high hopes that it will, but I hope that people will say, “OK, well maybe we will disagree on matters of faith, but let's at least be able to look at the same history as matters of fact.” And hopefully, it will change some people's point of view because then they can look at us as reasonable people who have a reasonable basis for our beliefs, and not as people who just made it all up or are just not right in the head. And we are hoping that in this new environment, we can come out of the shadows a little bit, be less marginalized, maybe participate more in society, and hopefully be welcomed in those spaces.
CH: What is the biggest misperception that people have of your community?
BS: I think the biggest misperception comes from the basic othering — that we're not part of your community or that we're somehow different. We're regular Mormons. We're just Mormons who want to keep all of the original covenants, and we don't look different. We don't dress different. We have the same kinds of love stories and marriage stories as anybody else, except that we've done it more than once.
I think that the biggest misconception is that we are strange and on the fringes of society. Most of us are your neighbors, and those who are on the fringes of society are there because they were forced there. They were pushed there by a century of organized persecution. That's not their fault either. I think that you only heal that gap in your community when you welcome them back in.
