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He took as many as 48 wives. Sources: [Official LDS website: FamilySearch.org] [A comprehensive PDF] [Wikipedia]Many were teenagers, as young as 13 years old. Many were already married to other men and continued in polyandry: having more than one husband.He married pairs of sisters, and even took a mother and her daughter for wives. The wives of the prophetsThe first seven Mormon prophets had at least 135 wives. Mormon prophet Number of wives Joseph Smith 48 Brigham Young 55 John Taylor 7 Wilford Woodruff 5 Lorenzo Snow 11 Joseph F. Smith 6 Heber J. Grant 3 Summary of Events...

Park Romney says some pretty wild things. Mormonism, he writes on the Web site parkromney.com, “is an insidious contemporary fraud.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “an American cult,” he professes. Mitt Romney, he claims, would be conflicted in office because “obedience to the leadership of the Mormon Church is part of the covenant of the temple ordinances to which Mitt Romney is absolutely a party.” Were you to come across a man articulating such views on a street corner, you probably would give him a wide berth and look over your shoulder to make sure he...

The video link at breitbart.tv is both instructional and revealing. It gives Romney's Mormon family history including the polygamy of his great-grandfather. Some may think that this is unfair journalism. Others would agree that when the GOP is vetting a candidate for President, the GOP should get this info out there before Obama's team uses it to destroy Romney if he is in the general election. What do you think? The Breitbart.tv link is below. http://www.breitbart.tv/msnbcs-odonnell-whiter-than-white-romney-tried-to-rewrite-ethnicity/

A Temple System Out of Control Or Unofficial Thumbs Up for Polygamy? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicates any church member who practices polygamy. The Church has publicly disowned Mormon fundamentalists, representing the sects of Mormonism which embrace early Mormon teachings that made polygamy a central part of the Mormon faith — the ongoing legacy of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. THIS SERIES• The Mormon Church & Polygamy: A Double Standard?• Mormon Fundamentalists from the Lists of the LDS Posthumously Baptized • Brother Ervil, Brother Ross, Brother Rulon… While the LDS Church says it does not...

I knew this would happen and in a way, it is a good thing because it will also bring focus to Barack Obama's eligibility. Reading the paperwork on this I found out some things I wasn't aware of pertaining to our citizenship statutes back in the 1940's such as the statute listed in this challenge, U.S. Nationality Act of 1940 Sect 201, 54 Stat. 1137 which provides provides the law by which a person born outside the U.S. is bound by in order to qualify legally as a U.S. citizen. For some that do not know, according to Mexican law...

FRESH on the heels of a bigamy case against him, Chief Mandla Mandela's woes are set to intensify. His first wife, Tando Nodayimane-Mandela, has instructed lawyers to file a contempt-of-court charge against him for proceeding with his latest wedding to Mbalenhle Makhathini over the festive season despite a court order barring him from doing so. Nodayimane-Mandela's lawyer, Wesley Hayes, will also be filing an application in the Mthatha High Court next Monday to have Mandla's two-week-old marriage to Makhathini, from KwaZulu-Natal, annulled. This comes after ANC Eastern Cape spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane this week announced that the party's provincial working committee...

"When the family organization was revealed from heaven—the patriarchal order of God, and Joseph began, on the right and the left, to add to his family, what a quaking there was in Israel. Says one brother to another, "Joseph says all covenants [previous marriages] are done away, and none are binding but the new covenants [marriage by priesthood sealing power]; now suppose Joseph should come and say he wanted your wife, what would you say to that?" "I would tell him to go to hell." This was the spirit of many in the early days of this Church. . ....

HILDALE, Washington County — As the year comes to an end and the followers of Warren Jeffs await the apocalypse he has predicted, they're living under a challenging edict: they're forbidden to have sex until Jeffs is sprung from a Texas prison. "He has predicted that the walls in the prison where he's at will fall and crumble," said Joni Holm, who has many relatives in the polygamous FLDS faith. According to Holm, Fundamentalist LDS Church members also face their faith's most severe punishment, excommunication, if they conceive a child. It's one of the strangest edicts in a season full...

n Utah, the issue of polygamy is a very sensitive topic. Should the topic of one man marrying more than one wife somehow come up in a conversation, watch the eyes roll and folks run away from the conversation. So, needless to say, this is not an issue generally dealt with over the picket fence. However, when a Mormon is willing to discuss the issue, it’s amazing how many folktales are used. For one, it is commonly asserted that polygamy was necessary back in the pioneer days of Brigham Young because there were not enough men for the women. (Note:...

HILDALE, Utah— A deadline set by Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs for his members to reaffirm their commitment to the faith is prompting some people to walk away from the polygamous church on the Utah-Arizona border. Other FLDS members are simply vanishing once they are re-committed to the faith, ex-members and observers told FOX 13. Jeffs, who is imprisoned in Texas for child sex assault related to underage marriages, has ordered his followers to be questioned by FLDS leaders. They've had to fill out questionnaires, confess their sins and be re-baptized into the faith, only after church elders deem...

As the year comes to an end and the followers of Warren Jeffs await the apocalypse he has predicted, they're living under a challenging edict: they're forbidden to have sex until Jeffs is sprung from a Texas prison. "He has predicted that the walls in the prison where he's at will fall and crumble," said Joni Holm, who has many relatives in the polygamous FLDS faith. According to Holm, Fundamentalist LDS Church members also face their faith's most severe punishment, excommunication, if they conceive a child. It's one of the strangest edicts in a season full of them. Jeffs has...

POLITICO's Ginger GIbson reports that Newt Gingrich is still facing questions about his marital past, even as his daughter has hit the campaign trail to dispel some of the questions surrounding their family: Gingrich has been hosting tele-town hall meetings to try to beat back the onslaught of attacks against his campaign. But that plan backfired Wednesday night when a person on the call took it as an opportunity to point out that Gingrich has been married three times. "I'm a Bible believing Christian, and Jesus very specifically states in the Bible that divorced people are really still married which...

<p>SALT LAKE CITY – Reality TV stars Kody Brown and his four wives say they just want one thing: to be left alone.</p> <p>As authorities investigate them for bigamy, the TLC "Sister Wives" family is asking a federal judge to overturn part of Utah's bigamy law because it bans them from living together and criminalizes sexual relationships between unmarried consenting adults.</p>

Nelson Mandela's grandson will tie the knot with a third wife in a traditional ceremony Saturday despite a court ban on the wedding, according to a report. All systems were go for chief Mandla Mandela's union with Swazi princess Mbali Makhathini at the Mvezo Royal Palace in rural Eastern Cape province, family spokesman Sidima Mnqanqeni told Sapa news agency. "We are confident that there will be no disturbance and the marriage is on," said Mnqanqeni. Mandla is a grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela and also a member of parliament. He heads the Mandela family clan. A South...

In the course of the appeals, her lawyer said the Caulfields no longer had a sexual relationship but could not divorce on religious grounds, as all three worship the Norse gods, including Odin and Thor. Odinists claim to follow the beliefs practised by Vikings in Britain and Scandinavia, and some Anglo-Saxons in Britain, before Christianity became the sole religion in the course of the Dark Ages. Followers worship Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology and worship in groups known as Hearths, performing ceremonies called Blothars in which their gods are honoured by drinking mead – an alcoholic drink made...

OTTAWA - Canada is hoping to crack down on polygamous relationships such as the one that's come to light during the sensational Shafia honour killing trial, according to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney who will unveil a revised guide for newcomers early next year that will addresses the issue specifically. In a year-end interview with Postmedia News, Kenney said while polygamy is a concern he raised early on in his mandate, it's one that's been difficult to tackle. ``We leave no stone unturned to try to prevent what you might call polygamous immigration marriages, but the problem is that if someone...

If a Mormon tells you the LDS church does not practice polygamy, ask what their scriptures teach and prophets have taught about polygamy. Also ask them what LDS prophets teach about the existence of polygamy in the celestial kingdom.

What most LDS have been taught in church and believe as truthPolygamy was illegalPolygamy contradicts 12th Article of FaithWere there more women than men?LDS scriptures condemn polygamyPolygamy was started by Joseph Smith not Brigham YoungJoseph married other men's wives while they were still married to their husbandsDid Joseph have sex with his wives?Joseph married girls as young as 14 years oldJoseph lied about practicing polygamyThe Church condemned polygamy when Joseph practiced itThe Church continued to practice polygamy after 1890The Reed Smoot HearingsQuotes from the prophetsIs polygamy a doctrine of the LDS Church?How many people in the Church practiced polygamy?Will...

When my family lived in Richmond, a group of Mormon fundamentalists from Bountiful, near Creston, visited our mainstream Mormon congregation extolling the practice of polygamy, also called the principle or plural marriage. They were looking for wives to add to their collections. They targeted families who had young girls. My oldest sister at 16, with blond hair, blue eyes and a blossoming body, was a magnet for the young men and 19-year-old missionaries of the Church. One Sunday after Sunday school, I watched an older man from Bountiful rush over in the parking lot to open our station wagon door...

AROUND 1,000 men and their illegal multiple wives are thought to be claiming welfare benefits. The polygamous families could be costing the taxpayer millions of pounds a year by pocketing everything from dole cash to housing costs. But the Government has said it will not stop the controversial payments until 2013, when it will officially no longer accept group marriages for welfare handouts. Advertisement >> Polygamy is not recognised in Britain but was allowed within the benefits system under the former Labour administration. Tory MP Philip Hollobone blasted: “I can’t see why we have to wait until 2013 to stop...

The Pharisees come in for a lot of criticism in the New Testament and, picking up on this, Christians down the generations have come to use the name as a byword for someone who is overzealous and legalistic. This is a correct application and you can see why. “When he [John the Baptist] saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptising, he said to them; 'You brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.'” (Mt.3:7-8) Pronouncing seven woes on Pharisees and experts in the law Jesus...

In September, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Gordon B. Hinckley appeared on Larry King Live for a rare television interview. During the friendly exchange of questions and answers, Hinckley was predictably asked about polygamy. Contemporary Utah polygamy has recently been thrust into the international consciousness after a bruised and bloodied 15-year-old girl called police from a gas station in Cache County last May. She claimed she had been beaten by her father, John Daniel Kingston, for running away from a marriage as 15th wife to her 32-year-old uncle, David Kingston. The Mormon leader responded to King by...

SALT LAKE CITY — A new crackdown on followers of Warren Jeffs by his own lieutenants, and a ban on such everyday items as children's toys, have triggered turmoil in the FLDS community.Former members of the group say a large-scale purge is underway in the twin towns of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah. Many followers of the imprisoned polygamist leader are being forced out and many others are said to be leaving voluntarily because they're disturbed by what's going on."A lot of people are scared; a lot of people are just getting tired," said Isaac Wyler, a former member...

If the Republican presidential contenders wish to remain truthful to their rhetoric of decentralization of power in Washington, they should take a break from wooing social conservatives and stand for states' rights in regard to gay marriage. Because many likely Iowa caucus-goers describe themselves as very conservative on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, many candidates feel they need to reach out to the far-right if they plan to get the presidential nod. However, a staunch, conservative position on social issues will likely hurt them in the long run, because it undermines their more-appealing small-government policies.... The three...

Last night, Presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson announced during an on-line Town Hall Thursday night that he supports civil marriage for gay Americans. Having long supported civil unions for gay couples, Johnson's decision to endorse gay marriage is based on "a great deal of deliberation, discussion with the gay community, and a conclusion that government has no business choosing who should be allowed the benefits of marriage and who should not." Announcing his support for gay marriage, Johnson said, "As a believer in individual freedom and keeping government out of personal lives, I simply cannot find...

Remember the Lectures on Faith sections in the Mormon scripture, “Doctrine and Covenants?” No? But they were there for 86 years? I’m reading an 1918 “Doctrine and Covenants” and sure enough, there’s Lectures on Faith.” What about “Section 101″ in early D&C editions, the “Article on Marriage” that says men and women should only have one spouse? No, haven’t heard of that one either? It was eventually deleted by church leaders and replaced by Section 132, which details celestial marriage and having multiple wives. Decanonization of scripture is not talked about much in the LDS church, and it’s certainly far...

"The Mormon Defense League" is out. "MormonVoices" is in. That change became official Monday, when the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research announced a name change for its website aimed at defending the teachings and practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FAIR is a non-profit organization that, according to a press release, is operated by "self-motivated Mormons who seek to improve the public understanding about the church" through conferences, workshops and scholarly articles posted on the organization's websites. While it is dedicated to "providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, beliefs and practices" of the...

Similarities between Joseph Smith and Muhammad: The followers of Muhammad and Joseph Smith both killed innocent "infidel" on the same date of 9/11. On September 11, 1857, Mormon militia massacred about 140 men, women and children under the authority of Brigham Young. However 17 very young children were spared and adopted into Mormon families. They were in fact sold to the highest Mormon family bidder and resold and traded many times afterwords. This event is called "The Mountain Meadows" massacre. Mormon leaders engaged in a deliberate rewriting of history to deny they were behind the murders. On September 11, 2001...

Karachi Woman Murders, Seeks to Cook Husband Pakistani police say a woman tried to cook her husband after murdering him for planning to take a second wife. By Gavriel Queenann Pakistani police on Thursday arrested a woman they say killed her husband and was attempting to cook his body parts, after he planned to take a second wife without her permission. According to family law in Islamic Pakistan, a man must get permission from his first wife before his second marriage, but the law is rarely observed. Police arrested Zainab Bibi, 32, and her nephew Zaheer, 22, in the Shah...

“I believe the government should legalize polygamy because it is lawful in Islam. It would enable all the wives to have the same legal status." -- Muslima in an Islamic polygamous marriage …nearly 70 percent said they believe that the U.S. should legalize polygamy…42 percent of those surveyed said they were either in, or knew others in polygamous marriages within the local Muslim community. Thirty nine percent said they would engage in a polygamous marriage if it were legal in the United States. Islamic supremacism on the march in America. Just as the Muslim Brotherhood groups in the US, like...

SALT LAKE CITY - Imprisoned polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs has released a series of so-called revelations in which he says a succession of natural disasters will strike the U.S. The 55-year-old Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison this year for sexually assaulting two girls whom he took as wives when they were 12 and 14 years old. He released his apocalyptic predictions to the Utah attorney general's office on Monday. Jeffs' apparent prophecies included tsunamis on the East Coast and in Seattle and earthquakes and volcanoes in Utah and Arizona. He also says that Idaho "shall be as...

ROBERT LEE, Texas – A "sealing" ceremony performed by a polygamist ex-bishop between his leader, Warren Jeffs, and an underage girl differs from a marriage ceremony as defined by Texas law, the former bishop's attorney told a Texas jury on Tuesday. Fredrick Merril Jessop, 75, is charged with a felony count of performing an illegal 2006 wedding ceremony between Jeffs and an underage girl. The ceremony occurred at the Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado, owned by the Jeffs-led Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The FLDS holds polygamy as a fundamental belief and its men take...

(CNN) -- It's not often that the issue of polygamy makes it to the top of the political agenda. But in the past week it's become a litmus test for the course of the Arab spring, and part of the debate about the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Declaring that Libya was liberated, interim Prime Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said last Sunday that laws restricting polygamy would be nullified. Islamic Shariah law would be the basic source of legislation, he said, and new banks would comply with Islam's prohibition of interest and speculation. A few days later, Rachid Ghannouchi -- leader...

First Lady Michelle Obama told two audiences at Democratic fundraising events on Tuesday that the justices her husband appointed to the Supreme Court will protect the right to “love whomever we choose.” She also said these justices would protect “privacy”—presumably a reference to the “right to privacy” the court invoked in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. “Let’s not forget what it meant when my husband appointed those two brilliant Supreme Court justices,

Sharia: Obama-encouraged Libyan transitional council approves polygamy,... Daily Caller - Neil Munro ... Abdul-Jalil's announced support for Islamic law could have meant anything between a symbolic nod to fundamentalist rebel groups and a promise for Saudi-style theocracy — complete with apartheid-style treatment of Muslim women and Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims. His announcement ending the Gadhafi-era ban on polygamy suggests that he and his allies intend to implement much of Sharia.

Libya’s transitional government, established as a result of President Obama’s intervention, announced its first rulings Sunday following the death of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi. They include reestablishing polygamy for men and banning Western-style interest on bank loans. Both provisions are features of Sharia, or Islamic law; Mohammed, Islam’s founder, introduced both some 1,400 years ago. On Sunday, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil abruptly announced that Islamic law, or Sharia, would provide the “basic source” of Libyan law. “This revolution was looked after by Allah to achieve victory,” Abdul-Jalil, the leader of the Transitional National Council, said to a celebratory crowd in Benghazi. Libyans...

In his statement marking the death of Muhammar Gaddafi last week, President Obama inserted a mystifying passage: “[T]he Libyan people now have a great responsibility — to build an inclusive and tolerant and democratic Libya that stands as the ultimate rebuke to Qaddafi’s dictatorship….” “An inclusive and tolerant and democratic Libya.” Can we mull that over with a glass of wine at the faculty club? Obama added this — it would be wrong to call it a demand, more of a request or an imprecation, yoking heterogeneous ideas by violence together, like metaphysical poetry: “And we call on our Libyan...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The family from cable television's polygamous "Sister Wives" reality show has told a federal judge in Utah how much they've been hurt by the threat of prosecution under the state's bigamy law. Kody Brown and his wives wrote in new court papers that they've lost jobs, were forced to move to Nevada and suffered harm to their reputations after police launched an investigation last year after the fall 2010 launch of their TLC show. In July, Brown and wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robin, filed a lawsuit challenging Utah's bigamy law in Salt Lake City's...

MBABANE – Swazis have traded traditional polygamy practices for ‘modified polygamy’ where sexual relations are not exclusive to marriage. Futhi Dennis-Langa, from the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), shared this information at a two-day Panos-hosted HIV/AIDS prevention workshop held at the Orion Hotel in Piggs Peak on October 15, 2011. "What we find is that people have moved away from the structure of practicing polygamy in a marriage structure. Today the principle and practices are the same without the commitment of marriage. "The increasing trend of transactional relationships in Swaziland is a major contributor to the...

They include earlier calling on women to be "whores in bed" to prevent their men from straying and pursuing divorce. In a 115-page book titled "Islamic Sex, Fighting Jews to Return Islamic Sex to the World," the group calls on Muslim husbands to have sex with all their wives simultaneously, The Star daily reported. One chapter, "How Sex Becomes Worship," contains unusually explicit sexual descriptions for a Malaysian publication, such as a tutorial on breast-fondling. AFP was unable to immediately obtain a copy of the reported book, published by Global Ikhwan, the Malaysian Islamic group that formed the wives' club....

Warren Jeffs' Wife Escapes Polygamist Community By JOHN QUINONES and KEVIN DOLAK | Good Morning America One of the wives of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence for child sexual assault, has escaped the confines of the isolated Arizona community where his 85 other wives live. Arizona authorities have said that the 25-year-old woman who fled the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which was led by Jeffs, is now undergoing counseling and psychiatric care at a women's shelter. She was reportedly barefoot when she was found. The secluded community of the church...

Does Mitt Romney, an elder and former missionary of the Mormon Church, believe he will one day be a god ... equal to Jesus ... ruling his own planet? Does he agree with Mormon teaching that Jesus and Satan are brothers? That America is the Promised Land where Jesus will return one day to rule from the Garden of Eden, which Mormons believe to be Jackson County, Missouri? And do American voters have the right to know this? When Barack Obama was running for president, he assured us he was a Christian. Pastor Rick Warren brought Candidate Obama to his...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was pressed on abortion and homosexual “marriage” at a town-hall style meeting Monday. At the campaign event in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, Romney reaffirmed that he is “firmly pro-life” and that he views marriage as a “relationship between one man and one woman,” but said that he is in favor of same-sex “partnership agreements” that would afford certain rights. When a young woman told Romney that she was raised by her mother and grandmother, Romney said that while some people are raised by one parent, through divorce, through death, or through a parent out of wedlock,...

Fundamentalist Mormon Joe Darger, along with two of his three wives, recently appeared on O’Reilly to discuss their new book, “Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage.” O’Reilly began the segment by pointing out that opponents of same-sex marriage have always argued that if marriage was redefined to include same-sex unions, other groups would want the same treatment. This is the classic “slippery slope” argument, and despite arguments to the contrary by leading gay thinkers (such as philosophy professor John Corvino), the slide down this slope appears inevitable.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1207121301001/polygamists-want-equal-marriage-rights/?playlist_id=86923

The American Family Association continues to allow the daffy conspiracist Bryan Fischer a forum to spout religious bigotry. One of Fischer’s prime targets is the Mormon faith. During a recent talk show episode Fischer managed a “twofer” of bigotry and conspiracy. First he opined that the First Amendment does not apply to non-Christians (of which he includes Mormons). In Fischer’s world, the deists who crafted the Constitution were concerned only with Christianity, and no other religions. (view) Later in that same video, Fischer makes the prediction that if a judge declares polygamy a legal right, members of the mainstream Mormon...

Research also shows that homosexuals are less likely to enter into long-term partnerships, less likely to be sexually faithful to a partner, and less likely to see their relationships last a lifetime. Incorporating this behavior into society’s concept of "marriage" would lead to a decline in commitment, fidelity, and permanence for marriages across the board. It is no more "discrimination" to bar marriage to a person of the same sex than it is to bar marriage to a person who is already married, a close blood relative, or a child. If same-sex "marriage" is legalized, we can be certain that...

Proponents of same-sex marriage are quick to claim that all they want is “marriage equality.” Nothing more. They’ll be content if they can just have “equality.” But we all know that reality doesn’t end there. In recent weeks, same-sex advocates have finally begun to admit it themselves. Published just days ago in a The New York Times piece, Stanford law professor Ralph Banks, asks, “What now of the two remaining criminal prohibitions of intimate relationships: incest and polygamy? Even as same sex … relationships are accepted, Americans are now imprisoned for incest and polygamy … Over time, our moral assessments...

Hi, I'm Jeff I am thrilled and honored to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am a devout Christian. About Me I am a husband and father. I was raised in a family of 14 children (9 boys and 5 girls, all from the same parents). I'm the 9th child. I love people. I love to serve and give. I stay active physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially. I am an attorney. I also have an MBA and am a certified management accountant. Why I am a Mormon The fundamental reason for which I am...

Just over a week after ending its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, the Pentagon has released new guidelines permitting military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages in states where gay marriage is legal. “A military chaplain may participate in or officiate any private ceremony, whether on or off a military installation, provided that the ceremony is not prohibited by applicable state and local law,” a memo released Friday from Under Secretary of Defense Clifford Stanley read. “Further a chaplain is not required to participate in or officiate a private ceremony if doing so would be in variance with the tenets of...