Eternal Marriage rooted in the polygamist past of Joseph Smith?

[_collegeterrace]

It has been interesting to watch the recent discussions on this board about LDS Inc attempting to hide or obfuscate the horrid facts of the rampant polygamous activities among the founding leaders of the Mormon church.

Is it safe to assume modern LDS theology would not have their exclusive claim to the principle of eternal marriage had it not been for practice of polygamy?

Furthermore, is it safe to assume the majority of the modern temple ceremony is rooted in the practice of polygamy and attempts to keep it secret?

If the above is true, why not use the principle of eternal marriage, which most members hold in high regard, as a billy club to force members to accept the early practice of polygamy?

[_The Nehor]

It has been interesting to watch the recent discussions on this board about LDS Inc attempting to hide or obfuscate the horrid facts of the rampant polygamous activities among the founding leaders of the Mormon church.

Is it safe to assume modern LDS theology would not have their exclusive claim to the principle of eternal marriage had it not been for practice of polygamy?

Furthermore, is it safe to assume the majority of the modern temple ceremony is rooted in the practice of polygamy and attempts to keep it secret?

If the above is true, why not use the principle of eternal marriage, which most members hold in high regard, as a billy club to force members to accept the early practice of polygamy?

Why? Most members of the Church do accept the early practice of polygamy.

[_collegeterrace]

It has been interesting to watch the recent discussions on this board about LDS Inc attempting to hide or obfuscate the horrid facts of the rampant polygamous activities among the founding leaders of the Mormon church.

Is it safe to assume modern LDS theology would not have their exclusive claim to the principle of eternal marriage had it not been for practice of polygamy?

Furthermore, is it safe to assume the majority of the modern temple ceremony is rooted in the practice of polygamy and attempts to keep it secret?

If the above is true, why not use the principle of eternal marriage, which most members hold in high regard, as a billy club to force members to accept the early practice of polygamy?

Why? Most members of the Church do accept the early practice of polygamy.

Really? Then why the obfuscation by LDS Inc of many portions of the history of said early practice?

As to your claim, many members do not know about the full history of LDS polygamy.

Both my wife and I never knew that Smith was a polygamist. Or better said, we did not realize Smith was a polygamist.

Ya ya ya ya, I know all of you proud DCP suckups DID KNOW at a very young age, that Smith was humping teens. Ya I know that, and it makes you pound your chest. But the reality is since Smiths teen humping is obfuscated in the approved lesson manuals, many members do not know about it and believe the wives tales and assumptions that it started with Brigham Young.

[_The Nehor]

Really? Then why the obfuscation by LDS Inc of many portions of the history of said early practice?

As to your claim, many members do not know about the full history of LDS polygamy.

Both my wife and I never knew that Smith was a polygamist. Or better said, we did not realize Smith was a polygamist.

Ya ya ya ya, I know all of you proud DCP suckups DID KNOW at a very young age, that Smith was humping teens. Ya I know that, and it makes you pound your chest. But the reality is since Smiths teen humping is obfuscated in the approved lesson manuals, many members do not know about it and believe the wives tales and assumptions that it started with Brigham Young.

Most members who are serious about their religion do extracurricular reading. They that don't, don't. The teaching is that no one is saved in ignorance. The responsibility to remove ignorance is on the member. It's not as if polygamy is hard to find. IT'S IN THE STANDARD WORKS for crying out loud. You know, those scriptures we're told to read daily.

I'm tired of the, "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! They didn't tell me that!!! It's only in a book I carried with me to Church every Sunday, professed to believe, but never seriously read."

[_collegeterrace]

Really? Then why the obfuscation by LDS Inc of many portions of the history of said early practice?

As to your claim, many members do not know about the full history of LDS polygamy.

Both my wife and I never knew that Smith was a polygamist. Or better said, we did not realize Smith was a polygamist.

Ya ya ya ya, I know all of you proud DCP suckups DID KNOW at a very young age, that Smith was humping teens. Ya I know that, and it makes you pound your chest. But the reality is since Smiths teen humping is obfuscated in the approved lesson manuals, many members do not know about it and believe the wives tales and assumptions that it started with Brigham Young.

Most members who are serious about their religion do extracurricular reading. They that don't, don't. The teaching is that no one is saved in ignorance. The responsibility to remove ignorance is on the member. It's not as if polygamy is hard to find. IT'S IN THE STANDARD WORKS for crying out loud. You know, those scriptures we're told to read daily.

I'm tired of the, "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! They didn't tell me that!!! It's only in a book I carried with me to Church every Sunday, professed to believe, but never seriously read."

And again my question to you Ne'whore, What is the reason you have not followed the counsel and doctrines of LDS Inc and married a woman?

Are you GAY?

[_The Nehor]

Are you GAY?

I'm not interested okay. Next time you ask I'm forwarding the pics you keep sending to your wife.

[_Ray A]

Polygamy is something that has always bugged me. Why, I know not. Maybe it just didn't seem "right" for a Christian religion. I was brought up in Catholicism, but by no means was I fanatical. Mormonism was in a sense an extension of my Catholicism, so the idea of polygamy was totally foreign to me. That was an aberration from Old Testament times, a "primative" early form of Judaism which was refined by Jesus, who in my opinion taught monogamy. If I was ever going to go the whole way, I thought, it would be by following the gospels, not Moses or Abraham. The first impression I got of Mormon polygamy was a couple of months after I was baptised. A missionary mentioned after a stake conference that Joseph Smith once "tested" Heber C. Kimball by asking him for his wife. I was nearly floored. "Yes", he said, "but it was only a test". That brought some relief, but it still seemed awkward. Completely oblivious to the whole story, what the missionary told me still stuck in my mind, but I "shelved" it.

When my wife and I went to the New Zealand temple in 1978 to be "sealed", I realised by that time that there was a connection between D&C 132 and "eternal marriage"/polygamy, so I asked the temple president if polygamy was "necessary" in the long term. No, he said, we could chose whether or not we wanted more wives, or could remain with just one. I thought I'd opt for just one, if I was going to stay with the Church. As my knowledge of 19th century polygamy grew over the years, it disturbed me more and more. It just didn't seem "Christian", and it ruffled my belief to some extent, and was one of the main points that initially made me unsteady in the Church, very early on. I told this to an older sister, and very good friend of mine, and she was almost flippant. She thought polygamy was a okay. That didn't help, and I felt kind of "out of it". The Book of Mormon didn't seem to support it either, but there was that conflict with D&C 132.

Mormon Enigma and Van Wagoner's Mormon Polygamy: A History, certainly set me straight. And then Quinn's Dialogue article on LDS plural marriages post-Manifesto. Problems with Book of Mormon anachronisms had not even entered my mind in those years, and I still believed the Book of Mormon to be historical. Then I became aware of the Witnesses dissenting because of polygamy, especially Whitmer's An Address To All Believers in Christ. Joseph, wrote Whitmer, had "fallen" like King David. He succumbed to temptation, and took many wives. I was relieved to know that Whitmer felt this way, but he was an "apostate". He rejected the D&C in toto, which in my opinion was a vital part of Mormonism, or if you were going to remain a Mormon.

Fast foward to 1990. An elderly missionary couple is trying to reactivate me, so I asked them if they were aware of Joseph's polygamy, and that he sometimes took other men's wives as his own. The Elder slammed his hand on the dining room table, "don't be ridiculous, if he did that he could not be a prophet". We nevertheless remained good friends, and later he send me copy of Richard Poll's Reflections of a Mormon Historian, a sort of way to deal with "cog.diss".

I don't believe the answer is to "force" people to accept polygamy. My answer may be even more radical: Dump D&C 132 from the LDS canon, and admit it was a mistake. Joseph had indeed gone astray, as Whitmer suggested. Regardless of what apologists say, the Book of Mormon and D&C 132 are in direct and unavoidable conflict, but the Book of Mormon is the "Keystone" of Mormonism, not the D&C.

[_collegeterrace]

Are you GAY?

I'm not interested okay. Next time you ask I'm forwarding the pics you keep sending to your wife.

I did not ask if you were interested in me.

Why do you keep dodging the question about your sexual orientation?

Perhaps because you are afraid to admit that you are a homosexual LDS male?

[_The Nehor]

I did not ask if you were interested in me.

Why do you keep dodging the question about your sexual orientation?

Perhaps because you are afraid to admit that you are a homosexual LDS male?

Okay, I'm a heterosexual male. Are you happy now? Does this mean you'll stop sending me pics of you in a leather jockstrap? Please.....

[_collegeterrace]

I did not ask if you were interested in me.

Why do you keep dodging the question about your sexual orientation?

Perhaps because you are afraid to admit that you are a homosexual LDS male?

Okay, I'm a heterosexual male. Are you happy now? Does this mean you'll stop sending me pics of you in a leather jockstrap? Please.....

ok so next question is why you are not married yet.

Why do you not follow the counsel of the leaders that you defend?