Rejecting Polygamy

[Guest]

Rejecting Polygamy

The LDS Church has a split personality when it comes to the topic of polygamy. On the one hand, the Church avoids spending time on it. Why would it want to continue to be stuck with this albatross around its neck? I get it! Go to the Lion House and more often than not the guides will mislead you about the marital relationships of Brigham Young. In your regular LDS Church meetings, little time is spent on the history and doctrine of polygamy.

And yet, the LDS Church remains a polygamous organization, in that it does not repudiate the past practice of it, and it furthermore allows men to be sealed to more than one wife, although not more than one living wife. There are plenty of LDS men who look forward to being with more than one wife in the eternities. Apologists spend an inordinate amount of time defending the practice. Polygamy is still very much a part of the LDS experience, even if many LDS people are not consciously aware to the extent to which that is true.

I utterly reject polygamy. It is nothing that I want any part of in the present or the future. Its role in my ancestors' past is something I have no control over. I would not want my own nuclear or present extended family involved in it in any way. The more I learn about Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy, the more I am sickened by it. Polygamy was a terrible mistake, and it is entirely inconsistent with my values. It is certainly an interesting topic of scholarly inquiry, but it is not something that I would want to justify to myself or others, let alone practice or promote.

Hearing how Joseph Smith dangled eternal blessings and eternal life and salvation before women, sometimes very young ones, in order to induce them to enter into stressful, deceitful, often lonely connections with him is just heart wrenching. It does nothing to enhance my regard for the man who engaged in these relationships. I can't see how the society that made a regular, relatively widespread practice out of this was healthy or sustainable.

Away with polygamy.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

What about polyamory?

- Doc

[_Shulem]

The more I learn about Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy, the more I am sickened by it. Polygamy was a terrible mistake, and it is entirely inconsistent with my values.

And this number really takes the cake!

[_Shulem]

The youngest was Helen Mar Kimball, daughter of Joseph’s close friends Heber C. and Vilate Murray Kimball, who was sealed to Joseph several months before her 15th birthday.

Does that mean she was only 14?

Marriage at such an age, inappropriate by today’s standards, was legal in that era, and some women married in their mid-teens.

Oh, so it was legal in that era and therefore, appropriate? In that case, let all the men of Kirtland and Nauvoo take 14 year old girls to wife. If it's good enough for Joseph than it's good enough for the rest of his priesthood crew. Brethren of Kirtland, pick yourself a 14 year old girl and be like Joseph -- because it's legal and appropriate.

Let all the 14 years old girls be rounded up and given to the Twelve.

Amen

[_Shulem]

Helen Mar Kimball spoke of her sealing to Joseph as being “for eternity alone,” suggesting that the relationship did not involve sexual relations.

No sexual relations? What kind of sealing or marriage is that?

Oh, I get it, what today's Mormon church is really trying to say is that Joseph was going to let another man boink her in this life and then he would take over and boink her in the resurrection forever.

And in the end Joseph get's all the kids because he is sealed to her. Never mind the other man!

[_Shulem]

Marriage at such an age, inappropriate by today’s standards, was legal in that era, and some women married in their mid-teens.

Something doesn't sound quite *right*. I think the Church is mistaken about "some women" in Joseph's under aged girl harem.

Let me do the math:

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Early teens = 13, 14
Mid teens = 15, 16, 17
Late teens = 18, 19

So, Pedophile Joseph actually married a YOUNG-TEEN, NOT a mid-teen!

It's child molestation with parental consent. damned Sick Mormons!



PS. No wonder they shot Joseph dead at Carthage. He deserved exactly what he got! A child molester! And those who defend him are no better then him -- child molesting accessories! Horrible parents. Horrible people.

[_moksha]

What about polyamory?

- Doc

What happens between you and your toaster stays between you and your toaster.

[_Dr Exiled]

How a church that practiced polygamy or polyandry could remain God's one and only is still a mystery to me. (I don't think it ever was the one true church, but if it were at one time, it ceased when Joseph Smith let his libido get the best of him). I remember the first time I came across the subject. I believe I was 7 or 8 and heard some adults discussing the practice in the foyer right before sacrament meeting. After church I confronted my mom and she quickly grabbed me to discuss it in a large closet area near my brother's room. I guess she didn't want to alert my siblings to the practice. I think she may have wanted to turn off the light too when we discussed it.

She hated it saying she wouldn't share my dad with anyone, but then softened her stance when my eyes got big and a smile came over my face. My mother was the follow the prophet type and I was really surprised at her defiance on this one. I guess certain issues will affect people in different ways. It's a horrible practice no matter how it is explained or viewed.

I second Kishkumen's motion. Away with Polygamy!

[_Shulem]

Four women for one man provides multiple ways to score.



Brian Hales

[_Stem]

Rejecting Polygamy

The LDS Church has a split personality when it comes to the topic of polygamy. On the one hand, the Church avoids spending time on it. Why would it want to continue to be stuck with this albatross around its neck? I get it! Go to the Lion House and more often than not the guides will mislead you about the marital relationships of Brigham Young. In your regular LDS Church meetings, little time is spent on the history and doctrine of polygamy.

And yet, the LDS Church remains a polygamous organization, in that it does not repudiate the past practice of it, and it furthermore allows men to be sealed to more than one wife, although not more than one living wife. There are plenty of LDS men who look forward to being with more than one wife in the eternities. Apologists spend an inordinate amount of time defending the practice. Polygamy is still very much a part of the LDS experience, even if many LDS people are not consciously aware to the extent to which that is true.

I utterly reject polygamy. It is nothing that I want any part of in the present or the future. Its role in my ancestors' past is something I have no control over. I would not want my own nuclear or present extended family involved in it in any way. The more I learn about Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy, the more I am sickened by it. Polygamy was a terrible mistake, and it is entirely inconsistent with my values. It is certainly an interesting topic of scholarly inquiry, but it is not something that I would want to justify to myself or others, let alone practice or promote.

Hearing how Joseph Smith dangled eternal blessings and eternal life and salvation before women, sometimes very young ones, in order to induce them to enter into stressful, deceitful, often lonely connections with him is just heart wrenching. It does nothing to enhance my reputation of the man who engaged in these relationships. I can't see how the society that made a regular, relatively widespread practice out of this was healthy or sustainable.

Away with polygamy.

Yep. WIth ya on this.