Mormons should be more worried about going to Hell than Atheists

[IHAQ]

…for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... 2?lang=eng
God makes it clear that the reason for plural marriage was to produce children. If Joseph wasn’t having sex with his wives he was breaking his covenant with God.

[dastardly stem]

Three months after he fetched his wife and brought her to Nauvoo Willard Richards married sixteen-year-old Sarah Longstroth and fourteen-year-old Nanny Longstroth.



Willard and Jennetta Richards, his first wife, the one he brought to Nauvoo, were sealed a few months later. He also married the twenty-six-year-old wife of apostle Orson Hyde … while he was away on his mission.

He ended up marrying, according to Wiki, 14 women.

-_-

Both Sarah and Nanny started bearing children, ostensibly when they hit puberty. Willard was a devoted and close confidant of Joseph Smith, and ended up as 2nd counselor to BY. Where did he get the idea he should have sex with his teen brides?

- Doc

John C. Bennett. That had nothing to do with Joseph Smith. Joseph would only marry teenagers if they promised they'd never seduce him and he'd save them for after they died and were in the glorious kingdom of our father. Then, surely, age wouldn't matter at all. Glory be to Joseph, or praise him.

[Lem]

That stat just cracks me up. Joseph's percentage OF MULTIPLE WIVES, taken illegally and behind his wife's back, was statistically within the average age. As though that's the issue with a man engaging in bigamy, adultery, and harassing underage girls.

Agree. I keep looking at it wondering what FAIR thought they were arguing for. And I really doubt it's true anyway. I just have to quote it again:

oseph's percentage of wives in their teen years was less than the series percentage of teen wives in Kirtland, Nauvoo, or the 1850 U.S. census, even among men his own age.

So I just found this:

http://www.mormonism101.com/2014/12/clo ... ensus.html

Teenage marriage was not common in this 1850 census sample. Only 9.6% of the teenage girls were married (186 out of 1,928), mostly the 17- and 19-year-olds (157 of 186; Joseph Smith married no polygamous wives of 15 or 18 years old, so these ages are not included in the sample):



Of the six women aged 14 years, five married within their own age group. The older women married men who were mostly five to ten years older. Marriage to still older men was very rare (five out of 165 husbands):

So it's not true. At FAIR they didn't offer any sources for their claims. They just kinda stated them. And then MG quoted them, as if that meant anything. Defending polygamy gets pretty ridiculous.

Agreed. More than half Smith's wives were 26 or under. That statement about "older women" and "motives other than sexual attraction" is nonsense.

Yes. And with that, any pretense to argue something about Joseph didn't sleep with them all is about as empty a defense as one can get. No one knows. And, my god, the last three years of his life he married a woman a month, basically. He basically had a chance to sample each of them and not much more.

Thanks for posting that, Dstem. So not only did fair throw in the insult about older women (over 26, good grief), but based it on ... nothing. Not facts, not even an accurate count of their own data. Once again, confirming you have to always look at the FAIRmormon footnotes--- or in this case, the lack thereof, right?

[Lem]

Three months after he fetched his wife and brought her to Nauvoo Willard Richards married sixteen-year-old Sarah Longstroth and fourteen-year-old Nanny Longstroth.



Willard and Jennetta Richards, his first wife, the one he brought to Nauvoo, were sealed a few months later. He also married the twenty-six-year-old wife of apostle Orson Hyde … while he was away on his mission.

He ended up marrying, according to Wiki, 14 women.

-_-

Both Sarah and Nanny started bearing children, ostensibly when they hit puberty. Willard was a devoted and close confidant of Joseph Smith, and ended up as 2nd counselor to BY. Where did he get the idea he should have sex with his teen brides?

- Doc

John C. Bennett. That had nothing to do with Joseph Smith. Joseph would only marry teenagers if they promised they'd never seduce him and he'd save them for after they died and were in the glorious kingdom of our father. Then, surely, age wouldn't matter at all. Glory be to Joseph, or praise him.

Glory be. (reminds me of an x-files episode, didn't a religious person in jail hypnotize people with that phrase so he could commit crimes right under their noses and they wouldn't notice? Hmm... where did those writers get their ideas? Did Orson Scott Card consult?)

[Morley]

Joseph would only marry teenagers if they promised they'd never seduce him and he'd save them for after they died and were in the glorious kingdom of our father. Then, surely, age wouldn't matter at all. Glory be to Joseph, or praise him.

Because there's nothing wrong with the ethical concept (or for that matter, the basic math) of each man of having a heavenly harem.
.

[dastardly stem]

Because there's nothing wrong with the ethical concept (or for that matter, the basic math) of each man of having a heavenly harem.
.

I do believe that'd be MG's point when he wants to go with Brian Hales argument about having dynastic marriages.

Well he didn't hump 'em in his carnal state so we can't really say he was motivated by his sexual desires. And if he did hump a couple of those teenagers or those married to other men, it'd be no big deal because God, you know, said he could. At least that's what he told everyone. But, let's not get distracted, we can safely conclude, once he dies his sexual desires are just, you know, harmless sexual desires rather than carnal ones. And those future heavenly sexual desires wouldn't motivate him because, well, they're harmless and not carnal. It's not like he was a libidinous conman. He was a prophet, for crying out loud. Prophets try and do good things. They try to do good things. And he said Christian-like stuff. So I surmise, it was all ok anyway.