Oh yeah? Yeah!
Well, one of my mentors once relayed to me that, FYI,
#1...the Saints "outlawed" polygamy in the BoM (Book of Jacob) + in the original D&C Sec. 51...
...not to mention the First Manifesto in 1890.
As I seem to recall how one of my mentors put it once in an e-mail to me, this was a bit like Lds leaders conveying to the grass roots folk: "keep what you’ve got but don’t add to your clutch"
Then #2 in the early 1900s, another Smith (I believe it was the grand nephew of the original Joseph) was head of the Lds church and because of all the continuous poly-goings on...like hundreds of additional polygamous unions after 1890, he issued yet a Second Manifesto
Let's see, how did one of my mentors frame that one? Oh, yes; 'twas like the Lds leaders conveying to the Lds grassroots folk: "OK you dimwits ... now we’re getting really serious so you better really stop"
Then #3 this pronouncement was "hierarchy-ally" re- communicated in the 1923 Pronouncement, which my thus-mentioned mentor conveyed was to the grassroots folks as if they were meaning: "you dumb clunks need to realize we were really, really serious this time ... so you are really, really going to have to stop sealing your booties in our temples"
Then #4 -- the enforcement of all previous -- manifesto I (1890), Manifesto II (1903), the pronoucement (1923) -- all "enforced" during the reformation of the 1930s...after all, who could afford more than one wife in the 1930s?
And #5, when the 1945 death of Lds "prophet" Heber Grant occurred...what was the message conveyed to the Lds grassroots from their leadership? Well, as one of my mentors thus framed it: "look you morons ... our last swinger president and prophet has croaked therefore the stuff has really, finally ceased at last!"
(Ya gotta know the "inside insight" of my mentor in figurin' the history behind that comment...that 'twas Grant who began "really" enforcing the polygamous "reformation" in the Lds church...yet the reason why my thus-mentioned "mentor" utilized the word "swinger" was 'cause Grant himself, prior to his reformation emphasis, had been a polygamist!)
Well, if all of the above wasn't enough for you history buffs, then came #6 the 1953 "get a clue" message from the Utah Attorney General’s decision -- after the raid on the twin polygamous communities @ the Utah-AZ border. And the message conveyed there not only to Mormon grassroots but to ALL of us by Utahns in power was: "you imbeciles need to recognize that there is no need to prosecute that stuff any more because it’s ceased to exist - and because it’s so common we couldn’t find a jury to convict and we couldn’t build enough prisons"
So, now to fast-forward all this to the latest mess involving the FLDS. Hmmm...how did one of my mentors frame the message we were ALL getting from Lds, Inc? Oh, yeah: "don’t you idiots realize those clowns are not really Mormons even though they are practicing our faith exactly as proclaimed by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and our sacred scriptures still say this is an everlasting covenant necessary to pass into everlasting glory."
Yeah, what a troubling Lds "scripture" that is -- D&C 132. Never rescinded by mainstream Mormons. Still elevated as a "revelation" of God to Joe Smith by contemporary mainstream Mormons. A "Mormon scripture" adhered to by the fLDS but denied by the D&C 132 heretics -- the Mainstream LDS -- yet they don't have the gall to take a pair of scissors & cut it out of their holy book.
So, since I can't frame it any better than how one of my mentors said it in an e-mail to me, allow me to end this post with this private e-mail quote:
"So if plural marriage doesn’t exist,
and never has,
and was only practiced by a select few,
and was only to necessary to provide for excess women in Utah,
and stopped over a hundred years ago,
hasn’t happened for over a hundred years,
and has been condemned by our prophets (even though it is still found in the quad*)
...then why don’t you quit 'persecuting' our righteous brothers and sisters and get a life and move on? So there!"
[Note: 'quad' for you non-Mormon laymen = the 4-pack of Lds "scriptures" of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Bible...well, and the Bible "insofar as correctly translated" which means if a Mormon disagrees with portions thereof, well that part wasn't "correctly translated."]
You folks all come back now, ya hear?
If you are reading this thread and are curious about polygamy and how it related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, do yourself a favor and understand that most of the posts on this board that could be related to the LDS church in any way are posted and commented on by anti-Mormon activists.
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PD says that like it is a BAD thing!
Several of us ‘antis’ were at one time faithful, believing members of the Mormon church. We KNOW what it teaches and we have been set free from its clutches.
The ironic thing is that almost all of what we ‘antis’ post are DIRECT QUOTES FROM MORMON SOURCES. Context is checked and quotes verified. Easy peasy to see Mormonism fall when you start to use your BRAIN rather than just your feelings.
To the Lurkers...pray for those trapped in Mormonism, no matter how bleak the fight seems, people are leaving Mormonism in DROVES and many are coming to the true light of Christ. Praise God for that!