Polygamy and me: Growing up Mormon

Vancouver Sun ^ | Dec. 16, 2011 | Maggie Rayner

[Colofornian]

From the article: My mother, a devout Mormon, accepted the principle as being ordained by God using Smith as his messenger, yet was relieved that she didn’t have to practise it herself. At least not here on Earth...The Church’s current position on polygamy, not widely known among younger Mormons, let alone non-members, is that God suspended the practice and temporarily disallowed plural marriage to spare the membership legal and political problems. The president in Salt Lake City, considered a living prophet by members today, could, at any time, give the word, and Latter-day Saint men would once more be called upon to marry multiple wives.

Yup. Lds "apostle" Bruce McConkie taught in the book Mormon Doctrine -- republished in the 1970s by the Lds church, that the Mormon god(s) would at the very least re-introduce polygamy when the Mormon jesus returned.

From the article: My parents believed the Mormon scriptures written by Joseph Smith, which promised that if they remained devout, dedicated their lives and money to the Church, after they died they would become a god and goddess together and rule over many worlds. My father, however, would be given additional eternal wives. My mother often quoted Smith on the afterlife, as if trying to prepare herself: “Seven women will cling to the coat tails of one man.”

In Mormonism, Mormon males serve as a "substitute" of sorts for Jesus Christ as "the Way" (John 14:6).

From the article: When I left home and had the freedom to question, and seek out history books not sanctioned by the Church, I read with astonishment, and a growing sadness for my mother’s and father’s gullibility, of the chronological events surrounding the introduction of plural marriage. Smith, while married to his first wife Emma, impregnated a 16-year-old serving girl he was having an affair with. He received a special “revelation” from God sanctioning polygamy, which gave him permission to secretly wed her as his second wife in 1833, an illegal act. When Emma protested, Joseph received another special revelation from God, advising Emma if she didn’t agree to the marriage, and give it her blessing, she would be damned for eternity. Smith shared these revelations with his trusted Church leaders who began the practice in secret, long before the principle of plural marriage was introduced to the general membership. Marrying multiple wives, and wife swapping, went on among the men in leadership positions. Smith took 33 wives in 10 years, 11 of them married to other men at the time. If any of the women were reluctant to accept his proposal, he used the threat of eternal damnation to gain their compliance.

The 11 women still married to their husbands that Smith took as "wives" is common knowledge. What's surprising is how that doesn't phase contemporary Mormons. Even on threads like these, Mormons don't content that reality. They accept it. (IOW, they "sanction" it).

[Colofornian]

From the article: Former members and I, no longer in the Mormon fold, speculated, “Do you think Joseph Smith and the second president of the Mormon Church, Brigham Young, who had 55 wives, were sex addicts?” Historically, men in positions of leadership, with power and influence, have felt a certain entitlement to, well, more. Many developed an insatiable hunger for power and sex that led to the corruption of their initial ideals. My mother wouldn’t have known what a sex addict was or how to recognize one.

So even this former Mormon recognized the signs of 19th century sex addiction as practiced by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and many other Mormon males. This was their "guarantee" of having sex every night. It ruled them inwardly.

[Colofornian]

From the article: My mother told me Joseph Smith introduced polygamy in the 1830s, soon after he founded the Mormon Church, because of the shortage of men and the abundance of women. “There were a lot of widows and older women immigrants, that worked as housekeepers and servants, joining the Church,” she said, “It was practical for the men to take more than one wife to ensure the older women were taken care of.”...Personally, I believed what my mother told me about polygamy was a crock. For one thing, in the 1800s there were more men than women available to participate in plural marriage. The women chosen as plural wives were young and desirable, not older women in need of care. The wives, and the child labour force they birthed, built and worked the homesteads and ranches that were the foundation for the wealthy corporate and political empire the Mormons would become.

A crock? Yes. This former Mormon women discovered the "crock" stories her Mom had been told (lied to), simply passed on by rote. This former Mormon took the initiative to study for herself -- and found it was all false.

According to the Changing World of Mormonism, pp. 224-225: [LDS} "Apostle” John A. Widtsoe, who was born during the polygamy years (early 1870s) stated:

’We do not understand why the Lord commanded the practice of plural marriage.’ (Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, p.393). One of the most popular explanations is that the church practiced polygamy because there was a surplus of women. The truth is, however, that there were less women than men. Apostle Widtsoe admitted that there was no surplus of women”: 'The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church.’.. The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utah, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United States, ... there was no surplus of women'” (Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, pp.390-92," as cited in Changing World, pp. 224-225).

[CARTOUCHE]

Must be awfully lonely on your island.

[hosepipe]

Theres some thing with Myth Romney.. he doesn’t question these things.

He tricks democrats into voting for him..
Mormon leadership has always been very “tricky”..
The whole religion is a “con”...

[annieokie]

""""So even this former Mormon recognized the signs of 19th century sex addiction as practiced by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and many other Mormon males. This was their "guarantee" of having sex every night. It ruled them inwardly.""""""

The "Guarantee", as you called it, is right on. That is the only reason they started this practice. They recruited vulnerable young women, poor, without a family to care for them, widowed young, some prostitutes I'm sure, and most of all illiterate.

How anyone would allow anyone to use the brain that G_d gave them, over to such a cult religion. Not allowed to think for themselves.

I thank the Lord that I had the parents I had, dad always told us "G_D gave you a brain, use it.", meaning don't let anyone else do your thinking for you.

Today, there is no excuse for remaining in the Mormon cult, the FACTS are out there, the testimonies of Exmo's, the truths of all the criminal activity and murders done by the LDS. There is no excuse, to remain in it is a deliberate consensual defiance of the one true G_D, and HE will not be mocked, guaranteed.

LDS. come out, you have no freedom if you are not allowed to think and everything is a SECRET.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I don’t think he was a sex addict, but simply a normal horn dog like the rest of us men who conned his way into reviving an ancient practice that goes back thousands and thousands of years.

[Colofornian]

Why? Because I don’t have 27 or 56 spouses?

[SoConPubbie]

Must be awfully lonely on your island.

How can you see with your head stuck in the sand?

[newheart]

The one “Mormon” issue that the press will NOT make an issue out of (unless they are desperate) if Romney is nominated will be polygamy—largely because it appeals to their libertinistic tendencies. However, if he is nominated the American public will receive a non-stop education on the dark and “zany” sides of Mormonism.

[Reagan69]

Question: If Romney becomes president, will he fight for polygamy? Just look the other way when it brought up in a court (and it WILL come up)?

Hummmm. Sister wives, baby.

[Colofornian]

I don’t think he was a sex addict, but simply a normal horn dog like the rest of us men who conned his way...

Conned? Yes.

Do "normal horn dog...men" con 14 yo girls into having sex with them as they are already married?

Sorry. Yes, it happens. No, not very "normally."

Click on link below to hear a teen girl in a YouTube "representation" of Helen Mar Kimball, a 14 yo that Joseph Smith conned into having sex with him. Helen Mar's father was asked by Joseph Smith to give up his first wife to Smith. Heber C. Kimball, instead, traded his 14 yo daughter to Smith.

Joseph Smith's 14 year old bride Helen Mar Kimball 100

"Normal horn dog...men" don't promise a "celestial kingdom" to 14 yo girls and their family to get them to sleep with them. Sex addicts and pedophiles do.

[ngat]

“I don’t think he was a sex addict, but simply a normal horn dog like the rest of us men who conned his way into reviving an ancient practice that goes back thousands and thousands of years.”

Haw! That’s what I always thought. Thanks for lightening things up on a Saturday around the here!

[Segovia]

Theres some thing with Myth Romney.. he doesn’t question these things.

DAMN straight!!

[Colofornian]

Question: If Romney becomes president, will he fight for polygamy? Just look the other way when it brought up in a court (and it WILL come up)?

Just posted: Polygamy [Everything you might want to possibly know about historical Mormon polygamy]

If you go to this link -- and then click on the Web page upon which it's based -- you can scroll down to section: "Mitt Romney and Polygamy"...then go to articles linked even from there.

[Amberdawn]

We have a winner! What, after all, kept the “church” from simply tithing for the upkeep of these women or having them work at jobs to support themselves?

[teppe]

Christianity directly proceeds from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!

At least two of these (probably all) were polygamists!

Either polygamy is at times acceptable to our Christian God ... or our God is wrong, and you need to find a new religion.

You can either play stupid or deal with it!

[ClearBlueSky]

Am I the only one who sees a disturbing similarity between Mormons and Muslims re. the domination of women and polygamy being explained as ‘good’ for women?
Any religion that has harems at its core is too creepy and disturbing, IMO.

[Campion]

Either polygamy is at times acceptable to our Christian God

Reality check #1: Jews discarded polygamy a couple of millenia ago.

Reality check #2: What God allows, and what he ordains and approves of, are two different things. Notice that Abraham was forced to expel Hagar and Ishmael, and God doesn't even even recognize Ishmael as Abraham's son: "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love ..." Gn 22:2 That means that God didn't recognize Abraham and Hagar's relationship as a marriage, because God doesn't recognize Ishmael as Abraham's legitimate offspring.

Reality check #3: God created Adam and Eve, not Adam, Eve, Jessica, Bethany, and Allison.

Reality check #4: Polygamy was unknown among Jews, among Greeks, and among Romans in NT times, and has never been endorsed or permitted by the Christian church. It's not a matter of some mythical "apostasy"; it was never permitted in the first place. Even serial polygamy (a/k/a divorce and remarriage) was not permitted.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I didn’t know there was a 14 year old girl involved. That’s a separate issue for sure, but the promise of a “celestial kingdom” is all part of the con.

How many wives over 16 or 18, or whatever the acceptable age of consent was at that time, did Mr. Smith have? Were they all 14 when he bedded them?