Mormons & Polygamy

[drstevej]

True.

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

But in the beginning God created 1 man and 1 women. Most Christians agree that this is the model.

Well, there also weren't any grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbours, etc.
Deriving your conception of "family" from this particular point strikes me as a rather questionable approach.

 

[DavidFMayerPhD]

Don't you know the terrible penalty for polygamy?

Having more than one wife!

 

[smaneck]

Don't you know the terrible penalty for polygamy?

Having more than one wife!

LOL. When Baha'u'llah wrote the Kitab-i Iqan He insisted that monogamy alone would be conducive to tranquility. Since He had three wives before He wrote this I think it was the voice of experience, as well as revelation.

 

[mahesh]

Well even abraham had many wives so what? The thing is mormonism dont practice polygamy it has been abandoned long ago. I dont understand why you brought it up.

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

LOL. When Baha'u'llah wrote the Kitab-i Iqan He insisted that monogamy alone would be conducive to tranquility. Since He had three wives before He wrote this I think it was the voice of experience, as well as revelation.

Given his stance on gender relations in general, I suspect he truly meant this as an egalitarian move towards female emancipation, as polygamy almost invariably meant "one husband, many wives in a sexually exclusive relationship". The distribution of power in such a relationship is pretty clear.

 

[Jutta2]

Joseph Smith was already 1831 a polygamous relationship. With Fanny Alger, his maid. His wife Emma knew nothing about it. Oliver Cowdery, one of the "witnesses" of the Book of Mormon, accused his cousin Joseph Smith, to be received with Fanny Alger a "dirty affair. Cowdery was excommunicated. Officially, the teaching of polygamy in 1843, was introduced. Since Smith had more than 30 wives. including minors, and women who were already married to other men. As Zina Huntington Jacobs, who later married Brigham Young.
By the way, according to Mormon idea, even God and Jesus were polygamists:

Jedediah M. Grant, second counselor to Brigham Young, made these comments:

Celsus was a heathen philosopher; and what does he say upon the subject of Christ and his Apostles.... He says, "The grand reason why the Gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ, was, because he had so many wives; there were Elizabeth, and Mary, and a host of others that followed him." ...
The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based on polygamy.... A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus, and his followers. We might almost think they were "Mormons" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, pp.345-46). Source: The Changing World of Mormonism, p. 249, written by Jerald & Sandra Tanner

At the same page, you can found this statement:

Apostle Orson Hyde asserted:
It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; ... no less a person than Jesus Christ was married on that occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with Mary and Martha, and the other Mary also whom Jesus loved, must have been highly unbecoming and improper to say the least of it.
I will venture to say that if Jesus Christ were now to pass through the most pious countries in Christendom with a train of women, such as used to follow him, ... he would be mobbed, tarred, and feathered, and rode not on an ass, but on a rail....
At this doctrine the long-faced hypocrite and the sanctimonious bigot will probably cry, blasphemy! ... Object not, therefore, too strongly against the marriage of Christ ... (Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, pp.259-60).

Interesting, isn't it?

 

[Ironhold]

Well even abraham had many wives so what? The thing is mormonism dont practice polygamy it has been abandoned long ago. I dont understand why you brought it up.

Shock tactics.

 

[Jutta2]

Well even abraham had many wives so what? The thing is mormonism dont practice polygamy it has been abandoned long ago. I dont understand why you brought it up.

Here two things are linked together, which include not connect. Polygamy in Abraham's time had a different reason than the polygamy at the time of Joseph Smith.
The time of Abraham, the nation of Israel was a small, surrounded by pagan peoples territory. To be strong, they had to grow. And how does that better than with the conception and the birth of children?
Joseph Smith was just a power-and sex-obsessed man. Here's a little quote from one of his wives who proves that:


“[Joseph] sent word to me by my brother, saying, ‘Tell Zina, I put it off and put it off till an angel with a drawn sword stood by me and told me if I did not establish that principle upon the earth I would lose my position and my life’”. (Source: In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, p. 80-81)

Zina Huntington Jacobs was at that time married to Henry Jacobs. Henry believed, that “whatever the Prophet did was right, without making the wisdom of God’s authorities bend to the reasoning of any man.”
And John D. Lee, his missionary companion, wrote about him: “Jacobs was bragging about his wife and two children,
what a true, virtuous, lovely woman she was. He almost worshiped her...”.
Shortly after the death of Joseph Smith, was henry send on a Mission, and Zina married Brigham Young, and live openly in Utah with him together. Henry struggled with it. He wrote to Zina: “...the same affection is there...But I feel alone...I do not Blame Eny person...may the Lord our Father bless Brother Brigham...all is right according to the Law of the Celestial Kingdom of our God Joseph.”

Joseph Smith and Brigham Young stole his wive, and he thought, that this is okay? Brainwashed?

 

[GracetotheHumble]

The thing is mormonism dont practice polygamy it has been abandoned long ago. I dont understand why you brought it up.

It's a part of your history, you can't just sweep it under the rug.

 

[awitch]

It's a part of your history, you can't just sweep it under the rug.

Apparently the Mormon Manifesto to abandon polygamy was issued in 1890, over 100 years ago. What exactly is it that you want from the Mormons here who weren't even alive at the time?

 

[Ironhold]

Apparently the Mormon Manifesto to abandon polygamy was issued in 1890, over 100 years ago. What exactly is it that you want from the Mormons here who weren't even alive at the time?

It's one of many "bloody shirts" that critics of the church like to bring up.

 

[Ran77]

Who would want more than one wife?! I love mine to pieces but one is enough for me.

You have that right. Can you imagine all of the drama that would result from multiple wives?


:o

 

[Ran77]

It's a part of your history, you can't just sweep it under the rug.

First of all, since the person you responded to isn't Mormon it isn't part of his history. When I read careless statements like this it makes me doubt the accuracy of whatever else is offered by that person.

Second, I'm not aware that the Mormons have made any attempt to sweep the polygamy thing under the rug. In fact, they have just recently added the information on the official LDS website; which would be the opposite of sweeping it under the rug. Another careless statement. I consider that strike two.

 

[mahesh]

It's a part of your history, you can't just sweep it under the rug.

Its not part of mormon history, even the romans practiced polygamy behind peoples back and proclaim they were monogamous. When you have those concubines at there doorsteps throughout history, i can't help but think how people associate polygamy with a religion, when it exist throughout history regardless of religion.

 

[mahesh]

They didnt practice polygamy cause they were mormons, because in those days just about everyone had multiple wives. Now a days they are called mistresses, secret lovers, side chicks whatever. I dont see what the big deal is.

 

[awitch]

Apparently the Mormon Manifesto to abandon polygamy was issued in 1890, over 100 years ago. What exactly is it that you want from the Mormons here who weren't even alive at the time?

Just bumping this question for GracetotheHumble because I'm sincerely curious

 

[GracetotheHumble]

Just bumping this question for GracetotheHumble because I'm sincerely curious

It's a part of the churches history and was practiced by their original prophets, it's still an issue whether or not they were alive at the time.

 

[awitch]

It's a part of the churches history and was practiced by their original prophets, it's still an issue whether or not they were alive at the time.

You misunderstand the question. They officially put an end to polygamy 125 years ago. No member of this forum was alive then, so what is it you want from the Mormons here at this time?

 

[gord44]

It's a part of the churches history and was practiced by their original prophets, it's still an issue whether or not they were alive at the time.