Cheryl L. Bruno

“Another kind of celestial marriage seems to have been practiced in the early days of plural marriage. It has not been practiced since Nauvoo days, for it is under Church prohibition. Zealous women, married or unmarried, loving the cause of the restored gospel, considered their condition in the hereafter. Some of them asked that they might be sealed to the Prophet for eternity. They were not to be his wives on earth, in mortality, but only after death in the eternities. Such marriages led to misunderstandings by those not of the Church, and unfamiliar with its doctrines. To them marriage meant only association on earth.”
― Cheryl L. Bruno, Secret Covenants: New Insights on Early Mormon Polygamy

“By my listing, eleven of Joseph Smith’s thirty-three plural marriages were polyandrous—if they were all for eternity only, one would expect that term to be used at some point. But that kind of language is not found. For those seeking to prove that all of Joseph Smith’s polyandrous marriages were for eternity only, this is a gaping lacuna.”
― Cheryl L. Bruno, Secret Covenants: New Insights on Early Mormon Polygamy