Nice camouflage, Resty. Let's do a Mormon "Scripture" ad history review on the number of gods, shall we, to see if it's a "distortion" as you claim?
Number of gods in the Book of Mormon: 1 (Alma 11:26-29 is as plain as day).
Number of primary gods in Joseph Smith's latter years: 3 ("three Gods...low and behold! We have three Gods anyhow"--Joseph Smith, History of the Church).
Number of additional gods in early Mormonism? Smith refers to a "council of gods" (exact number unknown, but from the brother of Mitt Romney's ancestor, LDS apostle Orson Pratt, we know it's a lot: "there are more gods than there are particles of matter" -- Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p. 345).
Question: Is this just a matter of 19th century conjecture, or have the general authorities of more recent times spoken more authoritatively on this?
Answer: We just have to go to a few choice quotes from a Mr. Spencer W. Kimball, who was the LDS "prophet" a few "prophets" ago: "Brethren, 225,000 of you are here tonight. I suppose that 225,000 of you may become gods" (Ensign Magazine, official publication of the LDS church, from a speech November 1975--and 1980 republished). "In each of us is the potentiality to become a God" (Tribune, Oct. 7, 1974). "Man can transform himself, but he has in him the seeds of Godhood that can grow. He can lift himself by his very bootstraps" (Tribune, Sept. 18, 1974).
So Kimball confirms Apostle Pratt's particles opinion, basically saying "in each of us is the potentiality to become a God"--which is a lot of gods.
Yet you have the audacity to think we're all so simple-minded that we can't count. You have the audacity to claim "we are not poly [theistic] at all." (if the 3 personages you concede are different "gods," then how is that not poly?
Now re: the number of gods worshipped by Mormons:
Number of gods LDS general authorities concede they worship: 2 (McConkie, MD, p. 848).
And why does McConkie have to conclude this? Well not only do multiple Bible passages show that Jesus is worshipped--like Hebrews 1:6--but the Book of Mormon confesses this as well in 3 Nephi, which happens to be, BTW, the name 3 Nephi in which Jesus is prayed to DIRECTLY even tho LDS leaders now backtrack on that {what an amazing maze).
It's time to 'fess up to polytheism (Poly wants a cracker)
You’ve been warned before:
Quit using published LDS texts to show how complex our thinking is required to be!
—MormonDude(Confused by LDS history)