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It should be pointed out that polygamists are generally excomunicated from the "official" Mormon church. Anyone who claims to be both a Mormon and a Polygamist is actually considered a fundimentalist Mormon.
When Joseph Smith started the Mormon Church he was monogamous, but he could not keep his hands off the 14 year old hired help. He evidently decided to justify his predilection by making polygamy a basic tenet of the religion that he was still creating. His reservations about how the rest of the Mormon community would react prevented him from making his views public in his lifetime, but his successors pushed it through. A significant proportion of Mormons were appalled. The US government forced them to officially backtrack on this issue finally in the 1920's, I think.
The problem with Mormon polygamy, at least as I see it, is that the male church power structure has an undue amount of influence over Mormon females, to the point which marraiges are arranged between 60 year old men and 15 year old girls. Female fundamentalist Mormons are told that they have to marry "Uncle Brigham" or they will be excomunicated and banished from the community.
John Krakauer (Into Thin Air, Into the Wild) wrote a interesting book on this topic, Under the Banner of Heaven, if you want to learn more. I have always been curious about Mormonism, and after reading some of what Mormons wanted me to read I had begun to believe they were fairly normal. But this book shoule be required reading for anyone considering joining them.
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