DiscussMormonism.com

My girlfriend and I have recently rented our town home to some very nice, and ironically, newly converted Mormons.

They are very friendly folks, and we've enjoyed some time socializing with them and getting to know them.

I have tried to avoid any Mormon related discussion - I just don't want to be that person.

I had NMKMH out, as I am trying to read it cover to cover for the first time.

A few days ago they were over, and the husband saw the cover of Brodie's book on my coffee table and said, "Oooh, you are reading about Joseph Smith."

Yes, ooooh is right. I responded, "Yes, I am. This is a wonderful biography about Joseph Smith. In fact, I have tons of good LDS literature up there," as I pointed to my bookshelf. My bookshelf has become a lovely cornucopia of FARMS and Mopologetic books, Bibles and Book of Mormons, almost everything from Harris, Hitchens, and Dawkins, everything ever printed by and about Orwell, and some excellent fiction selections.

I felt a little guilty - I'm not sure why - for not letting him know that NMKMH will likely destroy his faith from the get-go.

Yesterday he handed me a book I've certainly seen before, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith.

My face filled with my big smile, and my heart with glee. What fun I could have with this book!

I have been battling with an editor, and the weather is beckoning me to find the beach, but I briefly thumbed through the index looking for what was to be said on polygamy - or as the church likes to call it, plural marriage. I found one interesting quote in the preface that made me wonder:

This book deals with teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith that have application to our day. For example, this book does not discuss such topics as the Prophet's teachings regarding the law of consecration as applied to stewardship of property. The Lord withdrew this law from the Church because the Saints were not prepared to live it (see D&C 119, section heading). This book also does not discuss plural marriage. The doctrines and principles related to plural marriage were revealed to Joseph Smith as early as 1831. The Prophet taught the doctrine of plural marriage, and a number of such marriages were performed during his lifetime. Over the next several decades, under the direction of Church Presidents who succeeded Joseph Smith, a significant number of Church members entered into plural marriages. In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto, which discontinued plural marriage in the Church.

I got a kick out of that explanation for no explanation.



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Yeah, don't be "that person". It will be good for them to have your book collection as a resource, but if you take an active role in helping them move along the milk-meat continuum, you may do more harm than good.

Yet more evidence that plural marriage is a doctrine of the Church.