I hope there is some serious debate and discussion on this topic. Rather than these busy bodied housewives checking their watches.
I know that the Admin Mods are housewives*, but are there others? :)
*It was all revealed on 3/8/2010.
Why?
So you can learn more about MORMONism?
I can supply that need!
Orson Pratt was married to ten women. At age 57 Pratt married a sixteen year old girl, his tenth wife Margaret Graham, younger than his daughter Celestia, causing his first wife Sarah, an outspoken critic of polygamy, to lash out in an 1877 interview,
| “ | Here was my husband, gray headed, taking to his bed young girls in mockery of marriage. Of course there could be no joy for him in such an intercourse except for the indulgence of his fanaticism and of something else, perhaps, which I hesitate to mention.[6] | ” |
Pratt and all of his wives and children struggled with poverty.[7]
In 1886, Orson's wife Sarah Pratt claimed in an interview that, while in Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph Smith, Jr. was attracted to her and intended to make her "one of his spiritual wives" while Orson was in England on missionary service.[8] To Smith's proposal Sarah replied, "Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant … to my lawful husband! I never will. I care not for the blessings of Jacob, and I believe in NO SUCH revelations, neither will I consent under any circumstances. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me."[9] Pratt issued an ultimatum to Smith: "Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will tell Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it," [10] a warning that elicited the threat from Smith, "Sister Pratt, I hope you will not expose me; if I am to suffer, all suffer; so do not expose me. … If you should tell, I will ruin your reputation, remember that." After her husband Orson returned from England, Pratt later claimed an incident between Pratt and Smith at her home occurred, and "Sarah ordered the Prophet out of the house, and the Prophet used obscene language to her [declaring that he had found Bennett in bed with her]," according to Sarah Pratt's neighbor, Mary Ettie V. Smith.[10] Sarah told her husband about the incident; Orson took Sarah's side and confronted Smith, who denied Sarah's allegation and responded that she was Bennett's lover.[7] The resulting estrangement between Smith and Orson Pratt, who stood by Sarah in preference to the denials of Joseph, who warned his disciple that "if [Orson] did believe his wife and follow her suggestions he would go to hell,[11].
However, in the local and Mormon press, Sarah Pratt was accused of having had an adulterous relationship, not with Smith, but with Bennett, and numerous affidavits were printed in local and pro-Mormon Nauvoo publications,[12][13] including the leading councils of the church and from members such as Jacob B. Backenstos, a relative of the sheriff of Hancock County. Van Wagoner has dismissed the adultery charges against Sarah Pratt as "highly improbable" and that J. B. Backenstos's affidavit stating that Bennett continued the adulterous relationship with Sarah Pratt after Orson returned from England could "be dismissed as slander."[7]
Orson Pratt became estranged from the church and Smith. Wilford Woodruff stated that "Dr. John Cook Bennett was the ruin of Orson Pratt".[14] Van Wagoner and Walker note that, on August 20, 1842, "after four days of fruitless efforts at reconciliation, the Twelve excommunicated Pratt for 'insubordination' and Sarah for 'adultery'".[15]
Orson soon returned to the church and denounced Bennett. Van Wagoner cites a letter written by Orson's brother Parley P. Pratt,
| “ | Bro. Orson Pratt is in the church and always has been & has the confidence of Joseph Smith and all good men who know him....As to Bennett or his book [The History of the Saints, 1842] I consider it a little stooping to mention it. It is beneath contempt & would disgrace the society of hell and the Devil....His object was vengeance on those who exposed his iniquity.[7] | ” |
Orson wrote a postscript to his brother's letter: "J.C. Bennett has published lies concerning myself & family & the people with which I am connected".[7]