Are Mainstream Mormons polygamists?
- Thread starter Marlin
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It's no mystery, they don't. The ones that do are considered fundamentalists, and outsiders from the main church.
No, they are not.
Yes indeed, and usually very quickly. The Church hasn't practiced polygamy since 1890, yet we still get scandalized every time a polygamist sect gets public attention. The Church doesn't recognize the Fundamentalist LDS sect in Texas in the news as part of itself, but rather regards them as apostates. FLDS and LDS are definitely NOT the same religion.
I really don't have enough information to give an opinion about this but from what I've seen and heard I'd think they are practicing their religions way of interpreting the Bible which is that polygamy is OK. :shrug:
Actually, the Church's doctrine is that polygamy is not OK unless it is specifically sanctioned and commanded by God. Right now it is definitely on the "not OK" guage, and the abuses that the FLDS are (apparently) guilty of (underage marriage, incest, child abuse, brainwashing, etc.) are definitely "not OK" as well (understatement of the year).
No they don't practice polagamy. They probably would if they could, but strong religions can easily flow with the times, just like all other sects of Christianity do. Weak religions don't last long because of their lack of plasticity.
That's where the process of personal revelation begins. Follow this link to learn more about LDS beliefs being validated directly by God himself to our hearts and minds.
To actually make this thread educational, let's give out valuable info:
Historically and theologically speaking fundamentalist Mormons are correct, since Joseph Smith never denounced the practice of plural marriages. It was a political decission, part of the winning of statehood for Utah at the end of the 19th century. Even decades after the church officially ended the practice, even the highest leaders of the LDS were still practicing it.
See Reed Smoot case if you are really interested in the topic.
Otherwise the Mormon god is the most flexible one. He keep changing the location of Zion and other basic tenets (priesthood 1976, polygamy) according to the current political power and situation. I like that...
End of history lesson...
Historically and theologically speaking fundamentalist Mormons are correct, since Joseph Smith never denounced the practice of plural marriages. It was a political decission, part of the winning of statehood for Utah at the end of the 19th century. Even decades after the church officially ended the practice, even the highest leaders of the LDS were still practicing it.
See Reed Smoot case if you are really interested in the topic.
Otherwise the Mormon god is the most flexible one. He keep changing the location of Zion and other basic tenets (priesthood 1976, polygamy) according to the current political power and situation. I like that...
End of history lesson...
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Nope. As I wrote above, LDS doctrine says that polygamy is "not OK" unless specifically sanctioned by the Lord. Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, in which this doctrine is specifically found:
Jacob 2:27-28
27 Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none; 28 For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.
And then a few verses later, the Book of Mormon qualifies this doctrine, effectively saying that if the Lord wants to use polygamy to "raise up seed" unto Him, He will command it. Otherwise, it is forbidden as an abomination. If you want to say Joseph Smith never denounced plural marriage, you have to ignore these verses in the Book of Mormon:
Jacob 2:30
For if I will, saith the Lord of hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.
Specifically, the President of the Church received a revelation telling him that if polygamy was not stopped, the Church's assets would be seized by the federal government. And the saints (members of the Church) are commanded to obey the law of the land, so polygamy was officially stopped.
See the following link for an explanation of this point:
Polygamy After the Manifesto
Otherwise the Mormon god is the most flexible one. He keep changing the location of Zion and other basic tenets (priesthood 1976, polygamy) according to the current political power and situation. I like that...
End of history lesson...
The doctrine of polygamy has not changed; it is expected to be reinstituted after the Second Coming of Christ. The practice is what was stopped. As for the priesthood ban, it was always expected that blacks would one day hold the priesthood, and that day came. We're not sure why they were denied it in the first place, and there are several good theories about that, but that is beyond the scope of this thread.
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Here is Article of Faith 11, from the Pearl of Great Price, an LDS book of scripture:
11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
Thus, the Church may excommunicate polygamists, but not have authority to take further action. If Joe Polygamist wants to have three wives, that's his business, but if he wants to be LDS, he has to keep LDS standards and rules.
To be LDS, it is requred that we sustain the President of the Church as prophet, seer, and revelator. The Prophets have instructed us not to practice polygamy. Joe P. may believe and do as he pleases; it's a free country. He just can't be LDS *and* a polygamist.
Quite honestly, I don't care what the book says, I care what they did and practiced. By the way it was practiced semi-legally back then too. Smith and the leaders revealed the practice only to the worthy...
I already refered to this by the "flexible god". The Mormon god tends to follow US politics very closely...
And if you study the Reed Smoot case, you will learn that even the highest leaders of the church more than a decade later were still practicing it. Welcome to Mormon history!
There were congressional hearnings so the testimonies are all in the books and records...
I don't expect you to be very good at research, so there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot_Hearings
I personally read 100s of pages of the hearings, quite educational....You can find it in any university lawlibrary, it is about 900+ pages...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot_Hearings
I personally read 100s of pages of the hearings, quite educational....You can find it in any university lawlibrary, it is about 900+ pages...
Oh my! How many hours of "research" did it take you to find a Wikipedia article? I bow to your superior skills...
But the Reed Smoot case is irrelevant to this thread, which is merely a poll to find out what people think of Mormons today, in this day and age. If you want to go cry about Reed Smoot, take it to another thread, Rambo.
Oh my! How many hours of "research" did it take you to find a Wikipedia article? I bow to your superior skills...
Did you miss my "I personally read 100s of pages of it" part? I bow to your reading comprehension...
Look you are obviously a Mormon and as such, you obviously don't know how to research or make a logical argument. End of story.
You say this knowing exactly shit about it. Typical. The case proved that Mormon (LDS that is) leaders simply lied about ending the practice of poligamy and it was just a show for getting statehood for Utah...Which brings us to the theological part of the question, that sctrictly speaking even by LDS doctrine and historical practice polygamy was perfectly OK....
People generally know shit about it, just like about everything else. But hey, you already learnt tons of things...
I am sorry you ran into a history expert.
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