Rollo Tomasi wrote:...my thoughts about the new LDS essay addressing Joseph Smith's polygamy and polyandry in Kirtland and Nauvoo.
Hi Rollo, I've been reading your essay. On page five you quote D&C 132:8.
Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.
You then attach an interpretive meaning to the scripture by seeing/observing a conflict between the practice of polygamy (messy at times) and God's house being a house of order...not confusion.
I'm not sure that I'm seeing a conflict here. Overall, God's works do have an "order" to them. But it is rather obvious that God creates order out of chaos. The "order" isn't necessarily self existent without influence/direction from God and/or superior authority and the resultant response/choice/agency of man. The order is achieved through a process of trial and error. Repeated attempts to create order out of a chaotic and yet modifiable set of circumstances...including the very REAL inclusion and/or factor of fallible beings.
In my mind your interpretive stance is
possibly an example of a flawed supposition and/or assumption. That order is a static
IS. Rather than a result of a
malleable MAY BECOME set of circumstances.
Thoughts?
Regards,
MG