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Polygamy

All the prejudiced sources that are fit to blog

April 26, 2008 by Mike Parker

This week New York Times blogger Timothy Egan made a sophomoric attempt to connect the modern FLDS church’s practice of polygamy to that of early Mormon leaders Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Excerpt:

[Mitt Romney’s] faith was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith Jr., an itinerant treasure-seeker from upstate New York who used a set of magic glasses to translate a lost scripture from God. His personality was infectious, the religion very approachable.

It would have been just another Christian faith had not Smith let his libido lead him into trouble. Before he died at the hands of a mob, he married at least 33 women and girls; the youngest was 14, and was told she had to become Smith’s bedmate or risk eternal damnation.

Smith was fortunate to find a religious cover for his desire. His polygamy “revelation” was put into The Doctrine and Covenants, one of three sacred texts of Mormonism. It’s still there – the word of God. And that’s why, to the people in the compound at Eldorado, [Texas,] the real heretics are in Salt Lake City.

As his biographer, Fawn Brodie, wrote, Joseph Smith “could not rest until he had redefined the nature of sin and erected a stupendous theological edifice to support his new theories on marriage.”

It is hard for me to imagine more factual errors and loaded language that could be squeezed into four short paragraphs.

[Read more…] about All the prejudiced sources that are fit to blog

Filed Under: LDS History, News stories, Polygamy

Plural marriage ponderings: An RLDS/CoC apologetic for Jacob 2:30

February 4, 2008 by Gregory Smith

Introduction

Since Mike Parker’s blog post on plural marriage has garnered more comments than all our other threads combined, my keen market research skills have told me that polygamy posts are traffic gold.

One of my research interests at FAIR is plural marriage, and I’ve been reading as much of the primary and secondary literature as I can get my hands on.

I thought our readers might be interested in a periodic look at a few of the things that I’ve found interesting, weird, or different from the common portrayals of plural marriage. In particular, primary sources that may have been misread or misrepresented, are also worth looking at. I hope that readers will spot things that I haven’t, or correct some of my own blind spots.

I’ll try to post at least once or twice a week, until people get bored, I run out of material, or FAIR tells me to stop so this doesn’t become the All Plural Marriage, All the Time blog.

[Read more…] about Plural marriage ponderings: An RLDS/CoC apologetic for Jacob 2:30

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Book of Mormon, Polygamy

Navigating the Straits of Polygamy

January 28, 2008 by Mike Parker

The Church has a problem.

We are caught between the Scylla of our long history of practicing — and strongly defending — plural marriage, and the Charybdis of having given up that practice and now having to disassociate ourselves from modern polygamous groups.

From the standpoint of defending the Church, how should we navigate that strait? [Read more…] about Navigating the Straits of Polygamy

Filed Under: Polygamy

And we multiplied exceedingly

January 21, 2008 by Keller

This Jarom 1:8 phrase is used throughout the Book of Mormon and appears to borrow its language from the Abrahamic covenant in Gen 17:2 and elsewhere. It appears to be an apt description of the early Utah Saints, who saw themselves as modern heirs of the covenant. Mormon women welcomed many more children into their homes than their national counterparts, a phenomenon I attribute largely to polygamy.

As a disclaimer, I realize that this blog entry is not in good taste, especially from a feminist perspective. Some of the quantitative analysis that follows will no doubt feed into Mormon stereotypes that we like to keep our women barefoot and pregnant.

[Read more…] about And we multiplied exceedingly

Filed Under: Polygamy

Lawrence O’Donnell’s Charges of Rape

January 13, 2008 by Keller


Graph by Gregory L. Smith. Used with permission.

[Read more…] about Lawrence O’Donnell’s Charges of Rape

Filed Under: Polygamy

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