Wives of Joseph on display at the Mormon Manti Pageant!!

[_Boaz & Lidia]

Years ago on the RfM board, I proposed an idea to be played out during general conference.

To raise awareness of not just the number of wives that Smith had but the terribly young age that many of his wives were, I proposed that someone get 33 women and girls together, all representative of the age of each of Smith's wives at marriage and to dress the part in clothing from that era and wear signs which detailed their name age, and which number wife they were.

Take a look! Someone did this at the Manti pagent in central Utah.



Only difference with my idea is to have Emma arguing with Joseph about these extra women, and have Joe pushing her aside to grab the young girls and kiss them. Also missing from my idea would be the notorious angel with the flaming sword commanding Joe to bed the girls.

It is a great start!

I think they should do a "Polygamy Pageant".

[_Chap]

The first comment, from 'winter' is choice:

This isn’t an attempt to ‘provoke thought and start evangelistic conversation.’

This is crass caricature – disrespectful of other’s religion. Intended to shock.

Unworthy of anyone who would call themselves Christian.

Shameful.

Odd, isn't it? Smith said he was commanded by his deity (angel with flaming sword and so on) to marry those women. He married them, all thirty-three. Undisputed fact, as specified on the church's genealogical website. Never denied by any President or Apostle of the CoCJoLDS (Smith excepted, of course, but we have often been assured by LDS on this board that it was fine for him to do that for the protection of the church in difficult times).

Some neatly dressed women walk around, each with the names, ages and number in sequence of one of the wives on a neat label round their necks.

Where is the caricature and disrespect there? The only people I can imagine might be shocked would be LDS who were unaware of the facts of Smith's married life - and in that case they ought to be shocked at their own ignorance of the history of their religion.

[_truth dancer]

When I first read the title of this thread I thought, wow, the church is being honest about Joseph Smith...

Oops.

;-)

~dancer~

[_Dr. Shades]

Oh man, this is BRILLIANT!

Easily 1,000x more effective than just Bible bashing.

I'd love to hear the accounts of some of these women about the reactions of passers-by.

[_Inconceivable]

Just to keep things in perspective, I would suggest a midget to play the role of the angel with the flaming sword.

Better get a fire permit for the sword.


By the way, what is the %#@* significance of flame on a sword?

Doesn't the point hurt regardless?

[_Inconceivable]

I'd also suggest that the husbands that were legally married to some of these women be represented as well.

And Jos. Smith with the denial quotes hanging around his neck on a large placard.

..the affidavit from the Relief Society presidency denying the presence of the abomination as well.

[_KimberlyAnn]

Just to keep things in perspective, I would suggest a midget to play the role of the angel with the flaming sword.

Better get a fire permit for the sword.


By the way, what is the %#@* significance of flame on a sword?

Doesn't the point hurt regardless?

I believe Joseph Smith described the angel as sword-wielding to Zina Huntington Jacobs. There was no mention of it being aflame, in my recollection.

KA

[_Chap]

Just to keep things in perspective, I would suggest a midget to play the role of the angel with the flaming sword.

Better get a fire permit for the sword.


By the way, what is the %#@* significance of flame on a sword?

Doesn't the point hurt regardless?

I believe Joseph Smith described the angel as sword-wielding to Zina Huntington Jacobs. There was no mention of it being aflame, in my recollection.

KA

You seem to be right, so far as this source takes us:

http://journalofdiscourses.org/Vol_20/JD20-024.html

PLURAL MARRIAGE FOR THE RIGHTEOUS ONLY-

OBEDIENCE IMPERATIVE-BLESSINGS RESULTING



DISCOURSE BY ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH,

Delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City,

Sunday Morning, July 7, 1878.

(Reported by Geo. F. Gibbs.)

20:24

[EXTRACT]

When that principle was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, he very naturally shrank, in his feelings, from the responsibilities thereby imposed upon him; foreseeing, as he did in part, the apparently insurmountable difficulties in the way of establishing it, in the face of popular opinion, the traditions and customs of many generations, the frowns, ridicule, slander, opposition and persecution of the world. Yes, this man of God, who dared to meet the opposition of the whole world with bold and fearless front, who dared to dispute the religious authority and accumulated learning and wisdom of the age-who dared everything for the truth, and shrank not even from the sacrifice of his own life in testimony of his divine mission, shrank, in his feelings, from the weight of the responsibility of inaugurating and establishing this new innovation upon the established customs of the world. But he did not falter, although it was not until an angel of God, with a drawn sword, stood before him and commanded that he should enter into the practice of that principle, or he should be utterly destroyed, or rejected, that he moved forward to reveal and establish that doctrine.

'Drawn', not 'flaming'. No doubt the error was an inadvertent Aussieism on my part.

[_TrashcanMan79]

Copied and pasted from here

A grand and glorious principle had been revealed, and for years had slumbered in the breast of God's Prophet, awaiting the time when, with safety to himself and the Church, it might be confided to the sacred keeping of a chosen few. That time had now come. An angel with a flaming sword descended from the courts of glory and, confronting the Prophet, commanded him in the name of the Lord to establish the principle so long concealed from the knowledge of the Saints and of the world—that of plural marriage.(Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Kimball Family, 1888], 321.)

While it was a great trial for Mercy to enter into plural marriage, it was even a greater trial for Mary to consent to it. Truly, it was the most difficult thing both ever had to do. It was equally difficult for Hyrum. The principle of plural marriage was given as early as 1831. Joseph Smith had inquired of God to know and understand wherein He justified His prophets of old as touching upon the principle and doctrine of their having plural wives and concubines. The principle was then revealed by the Lord to Joseph. fn He was commanded to obey it. He did not immediately comply. Then, according to Apostle George A. Smith, an angel with a flaming sword appeared to the Prophet Joseph and warned him that unless he obeyed it, he would be destroyed. (Don Cecil Corbett, Mary Fielding Smith, Daughter of Britain: Portrait of Courage [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1966], 154.)

A grand and glorious principle had been revealed, and for years had slumbered in the breast of God's Prophet, awaiting the time when, with safety to himself and the Church, it might be confided to the sacred keeping of a chosen few. That time had now come. An angel with a flaming sword descended from the courts of glory and, confronting the Prophet, commanded him in the name of the Lord to establish the principle so long concealed from the knowledge of the Saints and of the world-that of plural marriage.(H. Dean Garrett, ed., Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint History: Illinois [Provo: Department of Church History and Doctrine, 1995], 135.)

[_KimberlyAnn]

'Drawn', not 'flaming'. No doubt the error was an inadvertent Aussieism on my part.

I'm quite fond of the occasional Aussieism, but I don't think you employed an Aussieism, inadvertent or no, in this instance.

Even Mormons and ex-Mormons refer to the sword as 'flaming'. I'm not sure why they do.

The sword may not have been aflame, but it's certain that Joseph was often in such a state.

KA

PS. Just saw T-Man's response. Now I know why the sword is referred to as flaming. So there are references to flaming swords, but not in the JoD. Thanks!