Replies

What a crock. Mormons were monolithically Democrat until the 70s. The 1970s. Almost 100 years ofter the repudiation of plural marriage. Dude, I know you have a giant axe to grind against the Mormon church, but at least try, for crying out loud, to get stuff that can’t be trivially dismissed.

100 years ofter the repudiation of plural marriage

Let's start with your 100-year ago assumption:

Early 1960s: Author Carmon Hardy cites a poll taken of mainstream Mormons: 40% say they would engage in polygamy if told to by their "prophet."

Then, LDS apostle Bruce McConkie’s book, Mormon Doctrine (pp. 577-579 of 1966 edition, republished 1979 which was approved by the LDS First Presidency…unlike the initial late 1950s version which was not) says that polygamy will return to the Saints before Jesus returns.

"...the holy practice" [of plural marriage]
"will commence again after the Second Coming of the"
[Mormon] "Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium."
Source: Mormon Doctrine, Lds "apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Bookcraft, republished, 1979, p. 578 Now we're down to the last 30-50 years...

1998 LDS “Church Handbook of Instructions” for LDS: “A deceased woman may be sealed to ALL men to whom she was legally married during her life.” (“Sealed” in this case = sealed for all eternity to her multiple husbands, making her a polyandrous woman) [This sounds contemporary doesn’t it? If the LDS Church did not want this proxy sealing practice being done in its temples, it has total authoritative ‘say-so’—as it does in shutting the door on proxy baptisms in the cases of Jewish Holocaust victims]

Also current practice:: The LDS Church, as mentioned above, still allows a husband to be sealed in its temple to multiple wives (but only one "on this earth" wife at a time).

Hence, each time we see the bumper sticker, "Families are forever" -- that includes the Mormon belief that if you take wives in serial fashion -- you get them ALL as your eternal wives...provided you're a Mormon in good standing with a temple recommend, that is.

If the Mormon church was serious about "eradicating" future polygamy, it would ban the temple ritual for eternal sealings for a second wife. It doesn't. It views itself as the polygamous “feeder system” for eternal life family life.

Mormonism has simply temporarily "colonized" polygamy.

What a crock. Mormons were monolithically Democrat until the 70s. The 1970s

Monolithically Democrat until the 1970s?

They indeed were as a territory up until the 1890s. Then what happened?

Per the 1992 book, Church History: Selections from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. By Daniel H. Ludlow, which is, btw, published by Deseret Book Co. -- owned by the Mormon church, note these Mormon “prophet” machinations in the 1890s:
“To make sure of genuine diversity, the First Presidency asked Joseph F. Smith to join the Republican party, then the less popular of the two parties because of its leading part in the antipolygamy campaign.” P. 529 Bruce A. Van Orden, “Joseph F. Smith” entry

Ah, a mild request, you say?

Keep reading:

“It was time for Utah politics to mirror the federal, with the Democratic and Republican parties both being strong. This took place with impressive dispatch through determined efforts by John Henry Smith, an apostle, and others. At their urging, local LDS leaders—and in some cases entire congregations—were divided along national party lines.” (Edward Leo Lyman, p. 599)

”Urging”? Entire congregations being dictated to, “You become Republicans!” Urging? How about dictate? How about directed?

So much for the Mormon leaders tossing their supposed cherished doctrine of “free agency” under the bus! They tell their dupes they are “free,” all the while controlling even what political party to join!

No wonder 94% of Mormons voted for Romney in ’08 campaign in the states of Utah and Nevada!

1894: Utah reinforces move toward Republicanism:

State politics was reorganized after the 1890 Manifesto discontinuing polygamy was announced, and both the Republican and Democratic party emerged in the state. Many assumed that the traditional ties of many LDS Church leaders to the Democratic party philosophy would make Utah a strong Democratic state. In 1894, however, Republican Frank J. Cannon was elected Utah's delegate in Congress and the Republicans elected 60 members to the Constitutional Convention, a 13-vote majority over the Democratic. [Source for this & below quotes: Utah History Encyclopedia]

After Utah statehood, it swung back the Dems' way by 1896. But 'twas balanced again by 1900...and remained that way -- or with Republicans having more reps...until 1914 when Utah Democrats allied with the Progressive Party.

1920s:

Per the Utah History Encyclopedia: During the 1920s, Utah stayed pretty much in the Republican camp...

So much for your claims of monolithical Dems!

...at least try, for crying out loud, to get stuff that can’t be trivially dismissed.

Posts #8 and #9 have dismissed you as any serious candidate of discussing history with any degree of accuracy.

You have shot once and for all your credibility as a historian. (Time for you to move onto another subject...because your "History" trivial pursuit isn't your forte).

Dude, I know you have a giant axe to grind against the Mormon church, but at least try, for crying out loud, to get stuff that can’t be trivially dismissed.

I agree 100%!!!

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).

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).

Almost 100 years ofter the repudiation of plural marriage.

Sorry GOD; but we are going to toss you under the bus.

Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriage...

I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws..."

~ Wilford Woodruff, 4th LDS President