Salon.com "But I'm a good Mormon wife"

[_mms]

You might relate.

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/01/but_im_ ... singleton/

[_zeezrom]

Yeah.

Wow.

Thank you for sharing that, mms.

[_beefcalf]

Yeah.

Wow.

Thank you for sharing that, mms.

Yeah, thanks...

It gives me some hope...

[_DrW]

Well written article. Thanks for posting. As I learned decades ago and as I am sure many more learn every day, the most important 9 words a Mormon spouse can hear are:

"You are more important to me than the Church."

If the LDS Church had an ounce of integrity, they would preach what they claim to believe about marriage and tell their members that a good marriage is far more important than good attendance at Church, or even membership in the Church.

The fact that they do not make this clear to members is an indication of how much they really believe their own doctrine. It shows that their business is more important to them than their religion.

[_Stormy Waters]

This article hits too close to home for me. I can only hope my wife and family can also rise above what the church has told them to think about apostates and start to investiagate for themselves.

[_RayAgostini]

You might relate.

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/01/but_im_ ... singleton/

It's a very moving account, that I acknowledge, and I hope things work out for them.

But:

“Did you know that Joseph Smith married a 14-year-old girl against her will?

The full account of this can be found in Compton's book, but to summarise:

“The prophet’s marriage to her seems to have been largely dynastic—a union arranged by Joseph and Heber to seal the Kimball family to a seer, church president, and presiding patriarchal figure of the dispensation of the fullness of times" (Compton 1997, p. 486).

Helen describes her reaction to this proposition,

“My father was the first to introduce it to me, which had a similar effect to a sudden shock of a small earthquake. When he found (after the first outburst of displeasure for supposed injury) that I received it meekly, he took the first opportunity to introduce Sarah Ann [Whitney] to me as Joseph's wife" (Whitney 1880-1883).[2]

The marriage was kept secret, and Kimball continued to live with her parents (Anderson & Faulring 1998).

.

Helen Mar's writings, an important source of LDS history, were published by BYU's Religious Studies Center in 1997 in a book entitled A Woman's View: Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History. The book also includes her 1881 autobiography to her children wherein, concerning her marriage to the Prophet Joseph Smith, she wrote:

I have long since learned to leave all with [God], who knoweth better than ourselves what will make us happy. I am thankful that He has brought me through the furnace of affliction & that He has condesended to show me that the promises made to me the morning that I was sealed to the Prophet of God will not fail & I would not have the chain broken for I have had a view of the principle of eternal salvation & the perfect union which this sealing power will bring to the human family & with the help of our Heavenly Father I am determined to so live that I can claim those promises. (Holzapfel, 487)

However, historian Todd Compton does not hold this view; he criticized the anti-Mormons Jerald and Sandra Tanner for using his book to argue for sexual relations, and wrote:

The Tanners made great mileage out of Joseph Smith's marriage to his youngest wife, Helen Mar Kimball. However, they failed to mention that I wrote that there is absolutely no evidence that there was any sexuality in the marriage, and I suggest that, following later practice in Utah, there may have been no sexuality. (p. 638) All the evidence points to this marriage as a primarily dynastic marriage.

But let the MDB myths continue unabated.

[_Stormy Waters]

But let the MDB myths continue unabated.

What myth? The article never asserts that he had sex with her. Let's not derail the thread with this debate. If you want to fight it out start a new thread about it and I'll be more than willing to fight you on this. but the main point of this article is important and I want this attempted derail to die here.

[_RayAgostini]

What myth? The article never asserts that he had sex with her. Let's not derail the thread with this debate. If you want to fight it out start a new thread about it and I'll be more than willing to fight you on this. but the main point on this article is important and I want this attempted derail to die here.

Helen Mar married Joseph Smith "against her will"?

“Did you know that Joseph Smith married a 14-year-old girl against her will?"

Really? See my quotes above.

It has long been asserted, as a doctrinal part of the MDB crowd, that Helen Mar had "sexual relations" with Joseph Smith. That is not what Compton found.

Maybe the nice lady who did the blog post (and I really liked it), should at least be told the truth?

No?

[_RayAgostini]

but the main point of this article is important and I want this attempted derail to die here.

Of course, because it sings your praises and gives you justification to hold another prejudice against Joseph Smith, who "forced" Helen Mar to marry him.

Don't let me further interrupt your kumbaya thread.

My apologies.

[_Stormy Waters]

Here is where I deal with your attempted derail Ray.

http://mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24186