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I've heard the phrase "I really struggle with polygamy" repeatedly over the months here on this message board. And I've heard that exact phrase, or a near-variation of it, on other boards too over the years.

This is inexplicable to me. I mean, what could possibly be simpler? What's there to "struggle with?" Do the same people who "struggle with" Joseph Smith's polygamy also "struggle with" the polygamy of David Koresh or Warren Jeffs? I think not.

I mean, even going on what we know about it--which is far more than the mopologists will admit we know, of course--isn't the case pretty much cut-&-dry? Joseph wanted to sleep with more women, just like all alpha males do in his position. Once more, what's there to "struggle with?" Isn't the explanation I just gave for polygamy two sentences ago infinitely easier to comprehend than the myriad convoluted explanations that the mopologists give us?

SO, TO EVERYONE HERE WHO "STRUGGLES WITH POLYGAMY," I ask you the following questions:

1. Why do you "struggle with polygamy?" Isn't it an extremely simple proposition (no pun intended)?
2. Do you "struggle with" the polygamy of David Koresh and Warren Jeffs to the same extent? If not, why the disparity?

Thanks in advance.

This same phrase, or variations of it, is uttered by Mormons in private converations too. The reason why they struggle with it is because they have to make it fit. They absolutely have to. Imagine if you had to justify polygamy. It would be a struggle.

I just think there are varying levels of cog dis, and this particular subject area is more difficult to reconcile than other, more benign problems with the church and its history. Marrying multiple woman, especially young ones and married ones, is a glaring no-no that's not easily explained away.

I think it's like this (as many other contradictions in Mormonism):

Polygamy is wrong. It makes no sense to anybody with a brain. God wouldn't have commanded it -- especially the way Joseph did it (teenagers, other men's wives, etc).

BUT, they are convinced they have received a "spiritual witness" that "Joseph was a prophet...he restored the one true gospel...the church is true." So that "feeling" trumps all logic, and when logic raises its ugly little head, the best they can do is say "I struggle with that," which really means "I can't imagine it's from God, but I'm not going to challenge my certain testimony..."

Polygamy is near the bottom of the things that really bother me about the Mormon church.

It's just an easy target for Mormon critics, in my opinion.

I think the struggle is realizing that polygamy may not have been of God and the fellow we thought was really getting all his direction from God introduced a really bad thing.

For me I always figured polygamy was really commanded by God so it was A OK back then. But as AI dug deeper one day I found that at least based on what I could gather from the history I read, this did not really seem all the Godly, at least as far as I understood what godly meant. Then I concluded that it was most likely not from God. A lot of things started to unravel after that.

So do I struggle with it? Not really anymore. Unless something else comes to me I pretty much have concluded that this was not a good thing.

GoodK wrote:Polygamy is near the bottom of the things that really bother me about the Mormon church.

It's just an easy target for Mormon critics, in my opinion.

You badly understate the moral abhorration that is polygamy as practiced by Joseph Smith and his followers.

What baffles me is why women so steadfastly worship a God who apparently thinks so very little of them.

The notion that women are chattel and worth less than men is repugnant in every sense of the word. Yet these are fundamental values underlying polygamy.

Why does God so despise 1/2 of the human race?

Jason Bourne wrote:I think the struggle is realizing that polygamy may not have been of God and the fellow we thought was really getting all his direction from God introduced a really bad thing.

This seems to be right on. The struggle they are perhaps facing is trying to rationalize or make sense of these two thoughts.

Why rationalize anything? Any mopologist will tell you that prophets aren't infallible.

Why not just assume the obvious--that the whole polygamy thing was nothing more than an example of Joseph Smith's fallibility?

guy sajer wrote:

GoodK wrote:Polygamy is near the bottom of the things that really bother me about the Mormon church.

It's just an easy target for Mormon critics, in my opinion.

You badly understate the moral abhorration that is polygamy as practiced by Joseph Smith and his followers.

What baffles me is why women so steadfastly worship a God who apparently thinks so very little of them.

The notion that women are chattel and worth less than men is repugnant in every sense of the word. Yet these are fundamental values underlying polygamy.

Why does God so despise 1/2 of the human race?

'



Jehovah's wintesses continue to plod through the rigors of door knocing evne the the 144,000 have already been chosen. The truth of the matter is that God doen't think very highly of most of the men in church either, maybe only a few hundred. It seems as though the desire to gain power and make use of other people for our own self interest is just a fundamental part of each persons DNA makeup. That's why we don't get along very often. Now they color these conflicts with terms like "personality conflicts," but really all that is, is a powerstruggle between two people to see who will to do the most work and who will get the most benefits.