Shocked by Polygamy

[_Buffalo]

[

We discussed it in Gospel Doctrine. It has been discussed in Priesthood. I don't see how one could miss it.

JMS

You must belong to one of those exceptional wards apologists are always talking about, where all 33 wives of Joseph Smith are memorized by primary children.

So you're saying you discussed in GD & priesthood that Joseph Smith married 14 year olds and other men's wives?

[_Buffalo]

On my mission, we never talked about it to our investigators and I really don’t recall the topic being brought up in church either. That was in South America 30 years ago so things may have changed. I would be surprised to hear that anyone in the English speaking world would join the church and not know something about the church’s history with polygamy especially now with the internet and all.

It was the same in my mission in SA 10 years ago.

[_jskains]

[

We discussed it in Gospel Doctrine. It has been discussed in Priesthood. I don't see how one could miss it.

JMS

You must belong to one of those exceptional wards apologists are always talking about, where all 33 wives of Joseph Smith are memorized by primary children.

So you're saying you discussed in GD & priesthood that Joseph Smith married 14 year olds and other men's wives?

No, we don't promote your interpretation of the evidences.

JMS

[Guest]

According to the current FAIR target, John, that's one of the big shockers for a lot of people exiting the Church according to his poorly executed poll.

I would suggest that many of the X and most of the Y generations of even multi-generational Mormon families have no clue, unless they have been on the internet and read about it.

[_Drifting]

Mrs Drifitng has been a member of the Church for over four decades.
She has never been anything other than 100% active.
She fully completed Seminary.
She fully completed Institute.
She has attended adult Sunday School class for more than two decades, week in, week out.
She has served as Primary President, Relief Society President, Young Women's President, plus numerous Stake calling as and teaching roles.

The first she heard about Joseph's polygamy was a month ago whilst watching a programme about the FLDS, she heard it from me.
When the conversation developed and she saw the prevalence, the ages and the marital status of Joseph's wives she did the equivalent of putting fingers in ears whilst singing la la la to drown out the information that was making her head hurt.

Why, in all that time in the Church had it never been mentioned?
Not once...?

[_RockSlider]

Why, in all that time in the Church had it never been mentioned?
Not once...?

of course, critics know the answer to this is correlation. And defenders know that it's because of lazy members.

[_madeleine]

Being raised LDS, I was well aware of Mormon polygamy. That of Young, and in my own ancestry. My family didn't hide this from us, they were proud of it. We had a family reunion once for the descendants of one of those polygamous ancestors. I didn't learn of Smith's polygamy until much later in life, after the internet came into existence. I was only aware of Emma Smith until then.

As for what is taught in adult courses...I left Mormonism as soon as I could, and only attended a handful of gospel doctrine courses. A long time ago. I couldn't tell you what was taught, as I don't recall. My Mormon indoctrination memories are mainly from seminary, YW and SS. Seminary I would think is where Smith's polygamy should have been covered, in the church history portion, but it wasn't. It was all about the "great apostasy", "restoration" and the "persecution of the saints".

What I remember about lessons on D&C 132 was put in a context of Young and the Mormons in Utah. I had a vague idea that Smith died before polygamy could really be instituted as a practice. The threats against Emma in D&C 132 were presented as her opposing the revealed doctrine, not Smith's actual behavior. Back in the day, Emma was vilified pretty widely in the lessons I had as a non-supportive wife, at many points of "the restoration", who showed her true colors after Smith's death. (I read now that has been toned down.)

[_Buffalo]

So you're saying you discussed in GD & priesthood that Joseph Smith married 14 year olds and other men's wives?

No, we don't promote your interpretation of the evidences.

JMS

Those are the historical facts. Not subject to argument or interpretation.

I guess you've sort of answered your own question - you don't understand why others are shocked by the details about polygamy because you don't understand why they didn't take your approach: bury your head in the sand and pretend it isn't there.

[_SteelHead]

Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith manual. Not mentioned.
Teachings of the Prophet Brigham Young manual. One mention.
Our Heritage manual. Not mentioned.

This is going off of memory (the above manuals), but the majority of class manuals from the last 15 years go out of their way to "minimize" polygamy.

If you are a convert in the last 15 years, I would be surprised if you knew anything about the history and role of polygamy in the church.

[_Fence Sitter]

You have a hard time buying what?

I don't know about you but when I taught prospective members the discussions there was no mention of polygamy in the discussions. We were encouraged to baptize people as soon as possible. Reading and understanding D&C was not a prerequisite for membership.

I was also on a foreign mission and most people in South America had no idea who Brigham Young was. Maybe you could clarify your OP a bit more as to who are these members who have never heard about polygamy?

According to the current FAIR target, John, that's one of the big shockers for a lot of people exiting the Church according to his poorly executed poll.

JMS

There is a Chruch tradition going back to the 1830's & 40's of people leaving when they find out about the "dirty, nasty, filthy affair". Back then they shot the messenger also.