Tobin wrote:It was viewed as a way to guarantee salvation (rightly or wrongly) for themselves and their posterity. Also, be aware that MEN were also sealed to the prophets too.
I am betting that she is aware of sealing of men to men, but they were not seen in the same way. We see no evidence that married women Joseph Smith or BY married were only for the next life only, and only see evidence suggesting otherwise, which I am betting Liz also knows. One has to wonder why BY had no trouble having sex with his wives who were married to other men.
ldsfaqs wrote:Joseph was only sealed to "two" so-called "under-aged" (though not actually considered under-aged in that time) out of what, 30-50 alive or dead him/them.
Joseph wasn't much of a pervert.
ldsfaqs claims that girls as young as 14 were not considered under-aged for the time. While obviously in some instances and places this might have been true, was it actually true in Smith's time and place? Can ldsfaqs' claim be substantiated?
I think what he means is it was legal to marry a girl as young as 14. It wasn't the norm, and was generally looked as to young to be getting married. The real crimes were not just marrying 14 year old girls who should be busy doing other things, but marrying multiple women and claiming God forced him to. Doing it behind his first wife's back, and the abuse in getting many of the women to marry him, not to mention those who suffered for refusing to marry him.
If Mormon legal definition requires that the sole purpose of marriage is reproduction, then what was the prophet Joseph Smith up to with all those non-sexual marriages?
Tobin wrote:It was viewed as a way to guarantee salvation (rightly or wrongly) for themselves and their posterity. Also, be aware that MEN were also sealed to the prophets too.
So this was a misinterpretation of how the sealing ordinance was really supposed to work then?
I would buy that if it was consistent with all cases, but it wasn't. There were also women who were sealed to their husbands for eternity as well.
Why the double standard? Again, it seems to have more to do with power.
Tobin wrote:It was viewed as a way to guarantee salvation (rightly or wrongly) for themselves and their posterity. Also, be aware that MEN were also sealed to the prophets too.
So this was a misinterpretation of how the sealing ordinance was really supposed to work then?
I would buy that if it was consistent with all cases, but it wasn't. There were also women who were sealed to their husbands for eternity as well.
Why the double standard? Again, it seems to have more to do with power.
As far as I am aware in the early sealings, everyone was sealed to the prophets and to each other. This continued even when they came to Utah. And yes, I do view all of it as misinterpretation and mistakes. How polygamy itself was conducted was a mistake and a sin. This was corrected over time by the Lord (enforced at the point of a gun).
"You lack vision, but I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on all day, all night.... Tire salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful." -- Judge Doom
moksha wrote:If Mormon legal definition requires that the sole purpose of marriage is reproduction, then what was the prophet Joseph Smith up to with all those non-sexual marriages?
Exactly. He had sex with at least some of these women.
“People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.” --- G.K. Chesterton
