LDS.ORG Essay on Nauvoo Polygamy: What did Readers Expect? [LDS apologist on church admissions]

FairMormon.org blog ^ | Nov. 10, 2014 | Brian Hales

[Colofornian]

On October 22...LDS.ORG posted three essays dealing with the practice of plural marriage by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between the 1830s and 1904...

Several major controversies have been generated in conjunction with the introduction of plural marriage in Nauvoo in the early 1840s. All of these are briefly discussed in the introductory essay,

Polyandry (paragraphs 20–23, endnotes 29–30). The essay acknowledges that “Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married,” estimating the number of these sealings at 12–14 (endnote 29)...

Fanny Alger...

Sexuality...

Children with plural wives...

Number of plural wives...“Careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40.”

Emma Smith’s involvement (paragraphs 25–28). The essay explains that plural marriage was “an excruciating ordeal” for Emma...

Young wives (paragraph 19). Exposing itself to criticism, the essay euphemistically refers to Helen Mar Kimball’s sealing as occurring “several months before her 15th birthday” rather than at age 14...

In lauding the Church’s effort to explain this difficult topic, some may assume that in defending the essay we are in fact defending polygamy. We are not. On earth, polygamy expands a man’s sexual and emotional opportunities as a husband as it simultaneously fragments a woman’s sexual and emotional opportunities as a wife. The practice is difficult to defend as anything but unfair and at times emotionally cruel.

...Joseph Smith taught that couples who are sealed in eternal marriage..."shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths…and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be gods”(D&C 132:19–20)...

[Maudeen]

Can we have a Romney comment?

[Colofornian]

Can we have a Romney comment?

(Here, I'll be your google voice response):

"Romney acknowledges that voters may have a problem with his religion's history of polygamy. 'That's part of the history of the church's past that I understand is troubling to people,' he says. The practice, outlawed before 1900, is equally troubling to him. 'I have a great-great grandfather...he took additional wives as he was told to do. And I must admit, I can't image anything more awful than polygamy,' he tells Wallace."
Source: ROMNEY: I CAN'T IMAGINE ANYTHING MORE AWFUL THAN POLYGAMY'"

Oh, and btw, see post #2...that directly contradicts this quote above -- similar to what Mormons have claimed for generations -- and now admitted by the Lds Church in their polygamy essays to be an outright lie: That polygamy was "outlawed before 1900."

(It wasn't. Oh, sure, there was a clampdown. But at least 260 additional plural unions were done from the latter part of 1890 thru 1910.)

[Rad_J]

It is a fact that ALL Jewish and Christian churches were founded on polygamy. Many of God’s chosen prophets and Kings in the Bible were polygamists.

Abraham was a polygamist and God covenanted with him.

Abraham’s grandson Jacob (later called Israel) was a polygamist with 4 wives and had 12 sons who are the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Moses who wrote the first 5 books of the bible and gave us the Ten Commandments was a polygamist with 2 wives.

King David was a murderous polygamist with lots of wives and concubines. Jesus is called “The Son of David”

Wise King Solomon was the biggest horndog pervert of the Bible with something like 700 wives and concubines.

Condemning Mormon polygamy while ignoring Biblical polygamy is like the pot calling the kettle black or not noticing a beam in your own eye.

[Elsie]

...Joseph Smith taught that couples who are sealed in eternal marriage..."shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths…and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be gods”(D&C 132:19–20)...

The Bible teaches...

Matthew 22:30   Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God in heaven.

Mark 12:25
For when they shall rise again from the dead, they shall neither marry, nor be married, but are as the angels in heaven.

 

[Elsie]

Bah!

All you gots are FACTS; while we Mormons have FEELINGS!

--MormonDude(When would be a good time for a couple of our clean cut young folks to stop by your home and more fully explain the Restored Gospel® to you and your loving family?)

[Elsie]

Polygamy: How it all got Started

 

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Joe: Hey Emma!   Guess what!?

 

Emma: You KNOW I hate these guessing games! What is it, Dear?

 

Joe: I heard a voice, probably the Lord, tell me I must take other wives.

 

Emma: WHAT!?   You ding bat!  Don't you KNOW what our precious BOOK says?   After all; YOU are the one that translated it!

 

Joe: Books; schmooks.   All I know is I've been COMMANDED to take other wives and you are to OBEY ME!!!

 

 

Emma:      "Though shalt NOT commit ADULTERY!!!"

 

 

Joe: Silly Woman!  You KNOW better than to take things out of CONTEXT!!!

 

 

 

 

 

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...and the rest is HISTORY...

 

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THE BOOK OF JACOB
THE BROTHER OF NEPHI

CHAPTER 2

 

  24 Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.
  25 Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph.
  26 Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.
  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.
  29 Wherefore, this people shall keep my commandments, saith the Lord of Hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes.
  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.
  31 For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem, yea, and in all the lands of my people, because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands.
  32 And I will not suffer, saith the Lord of Hosts, that the cries of the fair daughters of this people, which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem, shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of Hosts.

 

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Or even HERE:

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 1 Timothy 3:2-3
 2.  Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
 3.  not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

 

 

1 Timothy 3:12
   A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well.

 

 

 Titus 1:6
   An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.

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Emma: That's IT!   I'm LEAVING your sorry *!!! 

  

            Can't you EVER get straight what GOD tells you???

 

          Doctrines and Covenants 49:16 Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one ^awife, and they twain shall be ^bone flesh, and all this that the ^cearth might answer the end of its creation;

 

 

 

 

Joe:  DARN you Emma; you were TOLD to accept this!!   Wait!!!   I hear a voice again!!!

 

 

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THE
DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

SECTION 132

 

  51–57, Emma Smith is counseled (commanded) to be faithful and true; 58–66, Laws governing the plurality of wives are set forth.

 

 

  51 Verily, I say unto you: A commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to ^aprove you all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice.

  52 And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, ^areceive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God.

  53 For I am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things; for he hath been ^afaithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will strengthen him.

  54 And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and ^acleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be ^bdestroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law.

  55 But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph do all things for her, even as he hath said; and I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him an ^ahundredfold in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of ^beternal lives in the eternal worlds.

  56 And again, verily I say, let mine handmaid ^aforgive my servant Joseph his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses, wherein she has trespassed against me; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her, and multiply her, and make her heart to ^brejoice.

[Elsie]

Let's see...

There are about 105 males born for every 100 females...

I doubt the ratio was any different in upstate New York, Illinois, Missouri or Utah back in the 1830-1890 period...

If every Mormon man tried to have 3 wives, then about 70 out of a hundred would be left with What?

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What is your church doing to help the male to stay true?

 

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"Prophets anciently and today condemn masturbation. It induces feelings of guilt and shame. It is detrimental to spirituality. It indicates slavery to the flesh, not that mastery of it and the growth toward godhood which is the object of our mortal life. Our modern prophet has indicated that no young man should be called on a mission who is not free from this practice. What is more, it too often leads to grievous sin, even to that sin against nature, homosexuality. For, done in private, it evolves often into mutual masturbation-practiced with another person of the same sex and thence into total homosexuality...."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Pages 77-79, 81-82

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"All of this should be conveyed without having priesthood leaders focus upon intimate matters which are a part of husband and wife relationships. Skillful interviewing and counseling can occur without discussion of clinical details by placing firm responsibility on individual members of the Church to put their lives in order before exercising the privilege of entering a house of the Lord. The First Presidency has interpreted oral sex as constituting an unnatural, impure, or unholy practice. If a person is engaged in a practice which troubles him enough to ask about it, he should discontinue it."
- Official Declaration of the First Presidency of the Church, January 5th, 1982

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"Among the most common sexual sins our young people commit are necking and petting. Not only do these improper relations often lead to fornication, [unwed] pregnancy, and abortions - all ugly sins - but in and of themselves they are pernicious evils, and it is often difficult for youth to distinguish where one ends and another begins. They awaken lust and stir evil thoughts and sex desires. They are but parts of the whole family of related sins and indiscretions. Almost like twins, 'petting' and fornication are alike."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, page 65

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"Also far-reaching is the effect of the loss of chastity. Once given or taken or stolen it can never be regained. Even in a forced contact such as rape or incest, the injured one is greatly outraged. If she has not cooperated and contributed to the foul deed, she is of course in a more favorable position. There is no condemnation where there is no voluntary participation. It is better to die in defending one's virtue than to live having lost it without a struggle."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, page 196

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"And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth." (Genesis 4:9-14.) That was true of murder. It is also true of illicit sex, which, of course, includes all petting, fornication, adultery, homosexual acts, and all other perversions. The Lord may say to offenders, as He did to Cain, "What hast thou done?" The children thus conceived make damning charges against you; the companions who have been frustrated and violated condemn you; the body that has been defiled cries out against you; the spirit which has been dwarfed convicts you. You will have difficulty throughout the ages in totally forgiving yourself."
-Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, "Love Versus Lust", BYU Speech January 5, 1965. Often-used quote still used today in LDS seminary classes.

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"I do not find in the Bible the modern terms "petting" nor "homosexuality," yet I found numerous scriptures which forbade such acts under by whatever names they might be called. I could not find the term "homosexuality," but I did find numerous places where the Lord condemned such a practice with such vigor that even the death penalty was assessed."
- Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, "Love Versus Lust", BYU Speech January 5, 1965

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"If adultery or fornication justified the death penalty in the old days, and still in Christ's day, is the sin any less today because the laws of the land do not assess the death penalty for it? Is the act less grievous? There must be a washing, a purging, a changing of attitudes, a correcting of appraisals, a strengthening toward self-mastery. There must be many prayers, and volumes of tears. There must be an inner conviction giving to the sin its full diabolical weight. There must be increased devotion and much thought and study. And this takes energy and time and often is accompanied with sore embarrassment, heavy deprivations and deep trials, even if indeed one is not excommunicated from the Church, losing all spiritual blessings."
-Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Page 155

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"How like the mistletoe is immorality. The killer plant starts with a sticky sweet berry. Little indiscretions are the berries -- indiscretions like sex thoughts sex discussions, passionate kissing, pornography. The leaves and little twigs are masturbation and necking and such, growing with every exercise. The full-grown plant is petting and sex looseness. It confounds, frustrates, and destroys like the parasite if it is not cut out and destroyed, for, in time it robs the tree, bleeds its life, and leaves it barren and dry; and, strangely enough, the parasite dies with its host."
- Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference Address, April 1, 1967.

[Elsie]

Wonder what a COJCOLDS pinup calendar would look like.

The Mormon Muffin one?

Or the Stud Muffin one?

[Elsie]

It is a fact lie that ALL Jewish and Christian churches were founded on polygamy.

God only took ONE rib from Adam.

[Elsie]

King David was a murderous polygamist with lots of wives and concubines. Jesus is called “The Son of David”

Wise King Solomon was the biggest horndog pervert of the Bible with something like 700 wives and concubines.

Thou shalt read thine own Scripture...

THE BOOK OF JACOB
THE BROTHER OF NEPHI

CHAPTER 2

 

  24 Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.
  25 Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph.
  26 Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.

[Elsie]

Condemning Mormon polygamy while ignoring Biblical polygamy is like the pot calling the kettle black or not noticing a beam in your own eye.

HMMMmmm...

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Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

 

 

 

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses

, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

 

 

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

 

 

 

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

 

 

 

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

 

 

 

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

 

 

 

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

 

 

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).

[Elsie]

We shalt now read MormonISM's own Scripture...

THE BOOK OF JACOB
THE BROTHER OF NEPHI

CHAPTER 2:27

 

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;

[Loyalist]

Why are the powers that be in the LDS suddenly so willing to discuss, without reservation, the whole sordid history of Joseph Smith’s polygamy?

Could it be in preparation for another conveniently timed revelation that the practice is to be restored, as soon as some court somewhere gives the go-ahead?

[Elsie]

And HERE we have the FairMormon spin applied:

http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/publications/contradiction_between_jacob_and_dc_132

[Elsie]

Could it be in preparation for another conveniently timed revelation that the practice is to be restored, as soon as some court somewhere gives the go-ahead?

I NEVER run into a Mormon who was NOT waiting for MORE from the Lord!

(Sounds like things are NOT as 'restored' or as 'full' as has been claimed by the offspring of Joseph.)

[Elsie]

Sounds like things are NOT as 'restored' or as 'full' as has been claimed by the offspring of Joseph.)

Speaking of FULLNESS...

Can any of you MORMONs in this thread show us just WHERE this 'fullness' is found in the BoM??

[elcid1970]

“Wonder what a COJCOLDS pinup calendar would look like.”

Kinda like the “Amish Girls” pinup in Weird Al’s vid, where she lifts her skirts high enough to bare a single knee.

;^)

[Elsie]

 

[Colofornian]

Why are the powers that be in the LDS suddenly so willing to discuss, without reservation, the whole sordid history of Joseph Smith’s polygamy? Could it be in preparation for another conveniently timed revelation that the practice is to be restored, as soon as some court somewhere gives the go-ahead?

At least 4 reasons...but first allow me to address when the Mormon Church is supposed to restore polygamy.

In the midsixties, Lds "apostle" Bruce McConkie released his book "Mormon Doctrine." The Lds Church eventually secured the rights to the book, and republished it in the 1980s under its Deseret Bookstore ownership.

When it republished it, it left this statement (& basically just about everything else in the book) untouched:

"Obviously the holy practice (of polygamy) will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium." (LDS "apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1966 edition, see pp. 577-579 for context)

Now as to why the Mormon Church is opening up. Here, I'll give it an acronym for easier remembrance: T.O.D.D.:

T T for Tolerance: The Mormon Church recognizes that our culture continues to accept samesex "marriage" ... and thereby are more "tolerant" of alternative bedroom arrangements...like polygamy. So it's a "good time" culturally-speaking to (finally) begin to come clean to the public-at-large

O O for "Openness" In Russian, glasnost = "openness"...and the Russians entered into a glasnost governmental policy in the 1980s. Just as Russia was deemed "the iron curtain" in the 19sixties & seventies, Utah has been labeled "the spiritual iron curtain." So if God can move Russia to have a "glasnost" period, well, He can do that with the powers that be in Salt Lake City.

Besides, the previous SLC emphasis -- more of an "anti-glasnost" -- just wasn't working.

Four years ago late October was when the period of anti-glasnost returned... Oct 24 to be exact... the Lds faithful had gathered for one of their two key 'y'all" come meetings in Salt Lake City that year, which are fed via satellite around the world to Mormons who can't make the trek to SLC. You would have thought that if an earth-shaking announcement needed to be made, it would have been made there. It wasn't. Perhaps too much media glare was on the conference. Therefore, more quietly, Lds leadership sent a world-wide circular letter to all church members. Here's two sources for that:

Source 1: Quit pestering us, church leaders tell membership in letter
Source 2: Kirby: Wrestling with doctrine no match for me (Kirby as a Mormon columnist in Utah is oft' hilarious in his treatment of Mormon stuff; and he was good here, too)

From the first source:
On October 24th, the LDS First Presidency (led by Prophet Thomas S. Monson) wrote several letters that were to be read in Mormon Sunday services around the world. According to examiner.com, the first letter was “likely spurred by Boyd K. Packer’s most recent General Conference talk entitled ‘Cleansing the Inner Vessel.’ Church Headquarters has been receiving an increased amount of correspondence from its members about doctrinal issues. Because of this influx of correspondence, the First Presidency reminded and encouraged LDS church members to utilize their local church authorities – bishops, branch presidents, stake presidents, etc — before resorting to contacting Church Headquarters.” In other words, the Mormon laity was told to quit bothering their church leadership on issues related to doctrine. We can only wonder why the church is apparently receiving so many inquiries.

From the second source (Kirby): With only partial tongue in cheek, Kirby said: "According to the First Presidency’s letter, members with real doctrinal concerns were to seek the counsel of our local leaders — stake president, bishop, Scoutmaster, building custodian, etc."

Why? Well, per Kirby: "The letter...told/counseled rank-and-file Mormons to stop pestering church headquarters for clarification of church doctrine. Apparently some members get so stressed about the finer points of doctrine that they’ll fire off a letter asking for the final word. Church HQ can’t handle the demand...

There ya go. Note the Wall Street Journal writer said: "placing sharp limits on doctrinal questioning" [Many an Lds historian has commented on this as well...do your own Google search with the words "faith promoting" in quotations...add the words "historian" and "Lds" to the search for better specific results]

D D for Disaffected Mormons It's a traumatic experience for many Mormons to finally be exposed to its detailed history - and not just the "faith building" stuff the Mormon Church curricula office dishes out year in, year out. Mormons just don't cover this stuff in either Sunday School classes or home priesthood or relief society curricula, or even their indepth courses for their institutes & seminary classes geared for students. This is an attempt to both ease members into the trauma ... by degree...as well as stave off the onslaught of queries it receives on subjects like these.

Ya gotta know it's easier to have an FAQ on hand than to try to handle individual queries numbering 5 to 6 digits (see "O" commentary above to realize how inundated the Lds general authorities were getting in our internet era)

D D for Defecting Mormons Well, for many Disaffected Mormons, it then leads to Defecting Mormons. And that's not good for the Lds overall budget. If they can pretend to be giving an answer, perhaps the Mormon Church can hold on to some of these Disaffected Mormons...or at least stall their exit so they can still rake in 10% of their income until the inevitable happens.

[Rad_J]

Father Abraham
Had seven sons, and four wives
Had seven sons, and four wives
Had father Abraham...

Numbers 12:1 kjv
(Written by Moses himself)
“And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.”

This isn’t His wife Zipporah the Midianite. Why were Miriam and Aaron upset? We’re they racist because Moses married a black woman? We’re they upset because he was now a polygamist like Abraham and Jacob?
Moses doesnt say that Zipporah died or that he divorced her.
God rebuked Aaron and Mariam but God did not rebuke Moses.

The first 5 books of the Bible were written by a prophet of God who was a polygamist.