Shulem wrote:honorentheos wrote:As for boris, yeah the claim "Joseph Smith screws 14 year old girls" is on the tenuous side of the debate over Smith's polygamy. And it's tense choice is bad as well. But the fact that Smith sought out Helen Mar Kimball (as well as her mother though he backed off on that one) as a target for a polygamous mate is shocking enough without demanding it include sexual intercourse. And really, the most supportable and shocking statement would not need more than to state that Smith practiced polygamy behind Emma's back.
What's the point in marrying if you don't plan to join physically? Marriage is the union of two people and that includes a physical union. Even the Bible makes that clear. They shall be ONE flesh. So, Joseph would have been one flesh with the 14 year old girl and fulfill the biblical mandate to go into unto her. That's what marriage is all about -- the joining of the mind and flesh -- becoming one.
Sex is a part of marriage.
Suppose your intent was not only to shock the average LDS brother or sister driving by the wall, but to put a bug in their brain that sends them to the interwebs. And, when they do so, the intent is to ensure that, no matter the search terms they use, the result will be they are confronted with information that the Church hadn't provided AND undermines the image of Joseph Smith that they have developed.
"Joseph Smith screws 14 year old girls" has many draw backs if your intent is as proposed. First, the language used looks like the kind of "F-U" graffiti people ignore all the time. "Joseph Smith screws 14 year old girls," "Your mother is a whore," "Jessie has herpes," "Trump sucks dick," "Mormons are sheep being buggered for their money,"...it creates a filter many potential "customers" aren't going to pass through simply by it's construction.
Of those who it makes think, "Why would some juvenile delinquent paint that on the HOA's wall? Maybe Joseph DID screw 14 year old girls...I should Google that.", what are the likely results of that which most Mormons would be willing to actually read? The Google search by itself would turn up results for screwing 14 year old girls...and that SHOULD cause most people to reconsider if some dumb kid's graffiti message is worth pursuing any further. But supposing the search results are limited to LDS-only sources, they'll get all the FAIR wiki hits, the LDS.org paper on polygamy perhaps, any number of apologetic hits on the claim that Smith was a pedophile and the reality is that is speculation. He may or may not have had physical relations with Kimball. I'm not willing to say he did based on the lack of evidence. I don't need to. The evidence from the Temple Lot Case includes testimony from Emily Partridge includes her specifically saying she had slept with Smith prior to their being sealed and roomed with him on the night of their sealing, both occurring in March 1843. She specifically testifies that Emma did not know of this, and that the later sealing that occurred with Emma's blessing was a sham to fool Emma.
So, again, I think if someone were inclined to graffiti up a wall with the intent of both shocking AND causing a bit of cog-dis, a tag that played off of Smith fooling around behind Emma's back would probably be more successful. No matter where they end up, the evidence for this isn't denied by FAIR or in the Church essay. Instead, they try to excuse it. For someone with the "Praise to the Man" view of Smith, this would still come as a shock. And it's rock solid fact.
