son of Ishmael wrote:Or maybe he thought that by marrying some older sisters would give what he was doing a sense of legitimacy for when the whole thing came to light. Just like people are using them for now.
I agree. I think it is quite possible that he used these women as misdirection.
liz3564 wrote: I believe that there was, at least one woman, who was older, like in her 50's, who Joseph married, and did not have sex with.
I'm sure Joseph was like any other guy. I'm guessing women in their 50s back in those days weren't the hottest tickets in town. Joseph probably didn't have sex with the older ones, and I don't think he nailed the youngest ones either. He would save them for later, if he had lived that long.
While Joseph may have sex with the older ones, they are also very useful for getting other women involved in polygamy.
Analytics wrote:100 years earlier, Ben Franklin was talking to a buddy about the advantages of getting married and settling down, and the friend said he didn't want to--he liked sleeping around. Franklin told him that if he wanted to sleep around, he should do it with older women because they make better lovers. The friend asked for Franklin's reasons, which Franklin then penned in a letter. Paraphrasing:
1- Older women make better conversationalists
2- Older women make up for their looks by being useful
3- You don't have to worry about unwanted pregnancy
4- They are more descrete
5- From the waste-down, older women are just as attractive as younger
6- Because it's less sinful to roll around with an older woman
7- Screwing younger women makes her feel bad and can make you feel guilty, while screwing older women makes everybody feel good
"In defense of older women, They don't tell, they don't swell and they're grateful as hell."
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2 different threads same day 2 hours apart Yohoo Bat 12/1/2015
Perhaps Mr. Jskains or Mr. Tobin can explain to us what good reason Mr. Joseph would have to marry so many women? Like... What's the point?
- VRDRC
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:Perhaps Mr. Jskains or Mr. Tobin can explain to us what good reason Mr. Joseph would have to marry so many women? Like... What's the point?
No idea. I never understood the dynastic marriage (spiritual wives) concept, but I don't believe polygamy is a good concept in general either. The fact it is taught against in the earlier Church as well as the Book of Mormon speaks volumes. The only exception would be as a direct commandment from the Lord. So, it was between Joseph Smith, these women, and the Lord. Personally, I would advocate no one live such a principle unless God appears and commands you to and God appears and commands the other person to. The fact it wasn't lived this way when the Church came to Utah, polygamy went wild and the Church was as a result almost destroyed demonstrates to me that is accurate. After all, if this were a true principle in general, no force on Earth could have compelled them to stop - not even the US army.
"You lack vision, but I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on all day, all night.... Tire salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful." -- Judge Doom
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:Perhaps Mr. Jskains or Mr. Tobin can explain to us what good reason Mr. Joseph would have to marry so many women? Like... What's the point?
- VRDRC
That is not the question. Rather, why he married so many during a two year period. This is a bigger question. He became a man in a hurry and I don't think that he got a case of horny toad. Something else was going on.
I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world. Joseph Smith We are “to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all…” Joseph Smith
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:Perhaps Mr. Jskains or Mr. Tobin can explain to us what good reason Mr. Joseph would have to marry so many women? Like... What's the point?
- VRDRC
That is not the question. Rather, why he married so many during a two year period. This is a bigger question. He became a man in a hurry and I don't think that he got a case of horny toad. Something else was going on.
I think that's rather easily explained. Once it became clear that people, including his wife, were going to tolerate it, he gained in confidence.
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
This is all just my own speculation, but I think that Joseph was honestly very confused about the sealing concept. I think that for some reason, he honestly thought that if he was sealed to someone, he could "take them with him" into exaltation. That is why there were so many weird sealings listed, as far as men being sealed to men, etc.
However, I think that Joseph's reinstituting polygamy was done to literally CYA. He wanted to have an affair with Fanny Alger and this was a way to justify it from a religious perspective. He may even have believed it himself. I think that based on the number of women he did marry after establishing the concept, this was probably the case.
However, based on how strongly it is spoken against in the Book of Mormon (yes, BC, I know all about the supposed "get of jail free" scripture in Jacob), and the heartache that polygamy produced in the Old Testament, I do not personally believe that polygamy was supposed to be reinstated in the modern Church.
why me wrote: That is not the question. Rather, why he married so many during a two year period. This is a bigger question. He became a man in a hurry and I don't think that he got a case of horny toad. Something else was going on.
I think that's rather easily explained. Once it became clear that people, including his wife, were going to tolerate it, he gained in confidence.
whyme wants to suggest that Joseph knew his time was coming to an end soon, and this is why he was marrying so many so fast. The problem here is that whyme doesn't actually say anything here. He doesn't answer the question of why so many. Even if Joseph knew his time was soon at an end, he already had several wives, so why does he need to marry so many others? Did God give him a number?
by the way Just so whyme doesn't jump to his usual incorrect ideas, I am not suggesting Joseph was marrying so many at this time due to being horny. Sex certainly played a role, but I think at this time others reasons were at the forefront(not any idea that he was about to die).
