DiscussMormonism.com

On CNN.com's home page they're currently featuring this article.

It's an interview with a woman who, twenty years ago as a 14-year old girl who fled the FLDS, left her family of 19 mothers, 74 siblings, and a father who couldn't remember her name though he molested her repeatedly.

Interesting stuff. I'm sure the siege mentality of the TBMs on the MAD board will blame the hostile, anti-Mormon media for unfairly connecting this with the LDS church, even though the article specifically says that the FLDS broke off from the church decades ago and the that LDS church denounces them. They can't help but feel under attack by these things, because this is so clearly the legacy of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, that it will inevitably draw unwanted attention to the polygamous adventures of these two men and their followers and successors.

I think this is a perfectly valid topic for the national media to be discussing. The FLDS are doing things which are certainly wrong, and oppressive, and which are perfectly legitimate topics for people in the country to be looking into and discussing. If this makes some LDS uncomfortable, then maybe it's that they're really uncomfortable with what Joseph Smith and Brigham Young did and perpetuated. This is their legacy, no doubt about it.

Sethbag,

I'm pretty sure you can see the writing on the wall as well. Polygamy is the gift that keeps on giving!

The Mormon church isn't going to recede because of the Book of Mormon being a faulty cornerstone, it will recede because of the unshakable legacy of plural marriage. If I could point to one source, I would say that the cancer eroding the church is polygamy. - IMHO :)

Maxrep wrote:If I could point to one source, I would say that the cancer eroding the church is polygamy. - IMHO :)

The cancer isn't polygamy but the FLDS. Since they broke off from the true church it seems little wonder to me that they would be plagued with all sorts of problems and abuses. Still, I do feel sorry for the children raised in that since it isn't their fault and they suffer horribly. However, I don't think it's the church's fault any more than a cancer patient is responsible for a malignant tumor even though that tumor may share his DNA and indeed have had a common source with that patient.

asbestosman wrote:Since they broke off from the true church it seems little wonder to me that they would be plagued with all sorts of problems and abuses

What infuriates me is that members of that "true church", who are in government positions, and could actually do something about the situation, have turned a blind eye to FLDS communities for years.

asbestosman wrote:The cancer isn't polygamy but the FLDS. Since they broke off from the true church it seems little wonder to me that they would be plagued with all sorts of problems and abuses. Still, I do feel sorry for the children raised in that since it isn't their fault and they suffer horribly. However, I don't think it's the church's fault any more than a cancer patient is responsible for a malignant tumor even though that tumor may share his DNA and indeed have had a common source with that patient.

They're pretty much practicing polygamy the same way it was done by the LDS in the past. To suggest that problems and abuses began after they broke off from the true church is to be ignorant of Mormon polygamy's sad history.

liz3564 wrote:What infuriates me is that members of that "true church", who are in government positions, and could actually do something about the situation, have turned a blind eye to FLDS communities for years.

What could they do and why doesn't someone else do something if LDS governmental officials won't? It seems to me that many of us voters would also like something to be done in cases of widespread child abuse.

Runtu wrote:

asbestosman wrote:The cancer isn't polygamy but the FLDS. Since they broke off from the true church it seems little wonder to me that they would be plagued with all sorts of problems and abuses. Still, I do feel sorry for the children raised in that since it isn't their fault and they suffer horribly. However, I don't think it's the church's fault any more than a cancer patient is responsible for a malignant tumor even though that tumor may share his DNA and indeed have had a common source with that patient.

They're pretty much practicing polygamy the same way it was done by the LDS in the past. To suggest that problems and abuses began after they broke off from the true church is to be ignorant of Mormon polygamy's sad history.

You beat me to it. Those were pretty much my sentiments.

Runtu wrote:They're pretty much practicing polygamy the same way it was done by the LDS in the past. To suggest that problems and abuses began after they broke off from the true church is to be ignorant of Mormon polygamy's sad history.

Widespread child abuse? I have a hard time imagining that the church ever encouraged that. I even have a hard time imagining that it would have been condoned. I can think of plenty of scriptures that speak against it.

asbestosman wrote:Widespread child abuse? I have a hard time imagining that the church ever encouraged that. I even have a hard time imagining that it would have been condoned. I can think of plenty of scriptures that speak against it.

I don't think the FLDS condone incest, either, do they? I never suggested that the LDS church condoned or encouraged child abuse, and frankly, I find it offensive that you imply that I did. But the practice was fraught with widespread abuse, which is what you would expect when women are treated as possessions instead of people. Like it or not, that is how women were treated in 19th-century Mormonism: as chattel and property, not as human beings.

asbestosman wrote:

Maxrep wrote:If I could point to one source, I would say that the cancer eroding the church is polygamy. - IMHO :)

The cancer isn't polygamy but the FLDS. Since they broke off from the true church it seems little wonder to me that they would be plagued with all sorts of problems and abuses. Still, I do feel sorry for the children raised in that since it isn't their fault and they suffer horribly. However, I don't think it's the church's fault any more than a cancer patient is responsible for a malignant tumor even though that tumor may share his DNA and indeed have had a common source with that patient.

If you re-read my post, you'll see that that the cancer I refer to is the "unshakable legacy" of polygamy. The FLDS just remind folk that the LDS were big practitioners.