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LDS rebut N.Y. Times Web article
The Deseret News ^ | 5.6.2008 | Aaron Falk

Posted on 05/06/2008 10:18:16 AM PDT by Utah Girl

The historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took issue Monday with a New York Times opinion piece comparing FLDS polygamists in Texas to 19th century Mormons.

In a statement released Monday, church historian Elder Marlin K. Jensen took exception to author Timothy Egan's portrayal in the Times.

"Mr. Egan's cavalier comparison of FLDS polygamy practices with those of 19th century Latter-day Saints is historically unsupported and simply wrong," wrote Elder Jensen, a member of the church's Quorums of Seventy. "By implication, he also unfairly impugns the integrity of all Latter-day Saint marriages and families, the very institutions they hold most dear."

In a piece posted on the Times Web site April 23, Egan called the polygamists in west Texas "1870s Stepford wives" and "men with their low monotones and pious, seeming disregard for the law on child sex." And Egan drew parallels between present-day FLDS members and 1800s Mormons.

In his response, Elder Jensen wrote, "The conditions surrounding the practice of polygamy in Texas today bear little resemblance to the plural marriage practiced by Mormons more than a century ago," he said. "As thoughtful historians know, a serious study of history does not impose contemporary understandings and sensibilities onto an interpretation of earlier time periods."

Elder Jensen also said Egan's tacit claim that 19th century Mormon women were subservient and backward was false. Women played an integral part in LDS culture, held jobs and were politically active, Elder Jensen said.

"For a long time ... the church was at odds with basic American ideals, and not just because old guys sanctioned marital sex with dozens of teenage girls," Egan wrote. "What you see in Texas — in small part — is a look back at some of the behavior of Mormonism's founding fathers."

"Smith was fortunate enough to find a religious cover for his desire," Egan continued. "His polygamy 'revelation' was put into The Doctrine and Covenants, one of three sacred texts of Mormonism."

In his response, Elder Jensen wrote that men and women often married at a younger age than might be considered acceptable today. A girl marrying at 15 was not uncommon and the common-law marriage age for women was 12, he said. Women were not forced into marriages and divorces were "readily granted," Elder Jensen wrote.

Attempts Monday night to contact Egan for comment were unsuccessful.

Online:

• Column by New York Times Op-Extra columnist Timothy Egan (April 23)
• Response by Elder Marlin K. Jensen, Church Historian, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (May 5)


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: christ; churchofjesus; ctr; flds; mormon; mormonbashing; oflatterdaysaints; polygamy
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To: colorcountry; Pan_Yans Wife; MHGinTN; Colofornian; Elsie; FastCoyote; Osage Orange; Greg F; ...

FIP Ping to #25


41 posted on 05/06/2008 1:00:11 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (FLDS.... making babies with children because their God wants earthly bodies for spirit babies.)
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To: Utah Girl; lady lawyer; Saundra Duffy
We believe in honesty, morality, and purity; but when they enact tyrannical laws, forbidding us the free exercise of our religion, we cannot submit. God is greater than the United States, and when the Government conflicts with heaven, we will be ranged under banner of heaven and against the Government...

Polygamy is a divine institution. It has been handed down direct from God. The United States cannot abolish it. No nation on earth can prevent it, nor all the nations of the earth combined,...

I defy the United States; I will obey God.

Source: John Taylor (on January 4, 1880), President, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Quoted in Under The Banner of Heaven John Krakauer, Doubleday (July 15, 2003)

FLDS maintan that they are following the religion that was handed down from Joseph Smith and reinforced through revelation as noted above. They also contend that the LDS has compromised itself in capitulating to the laws of the US government on the issue of polygamy. Therefore, the FLDS claim that they are the only true church. Why are they wrong?

And other than the practice of modern polygamy, what are the doctrinal differences between the LDS and the FLDS?

Don't these two organizations have significant commonalities, except for the modern practice of polygamy?

42 posted on 05/06/2008 1:00:22 PM PDT by pby
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To: Utah Girl

Why didn’t they just ask Elder Romney about this topic?

He would have interesting opinions I would think. Especially when one considers the fact that his father was born in a break-away ‘fundamentalist’ polygamist community in Mexico.


43 posted on 05/06/2008 1:00:23 PM PDT by BlueNgold (... Feed the tree!)
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To: ansel12; Utah Girl; Saundra Duffy; lady lawyer

Thank you for the back-up documentation, anse112.


44 posted on 05/06/2008 1:02:01 PM PDT by pby
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To: SENTINEL
The article on marriage, which was published in the early editions of the Doctrine and Covenants was frequently used by the early Mormon Church to counteract the report that polygamy was being practiced. On Sept. 1, 1842, this statement appeared in the Times and Seasons (vol. 3, p. 909): "Inasmuch as the public mind has been unjustly abused... we make an extract on the subject of marriage, showing the rule of the church on this important matter. The extract is from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and is the only rule allowed in the church. " '...Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy; we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife, and one woman, but one husband,... ' " In vol. 4, p. 143, of the Times and Seasons, we find the following: "We are charged with advocating a plurality of wives, and common property. Now this is as false as the many other ridiculous charges which are brought against us. No sect have [sic] a greater reverence for the laws of matrimony, or the rights of private property, and we do what others do not, practice what we preach." In the Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star, vol. 3, p. 74, the following denial appeared: "But, for the information of those who may be assailed by those foolish tales about two wives, we would say that no such principle ever existed among the Latter-Day Saints, and never will;... the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants; and also all our periodicals are very strict on that subject, indeed far more so than the bible."

Yes. Here is Vol. 5, p. 474, March 15, 1844, Times & Seasons by Hyrum Smith, Joseph's brother: "Whereas brother Richard Hewitt has called on me to-day, to know my views concerning some doctrines that are preached in your place, and states to me that some of your elders say, that a man having a certain priesthood, may have as many wives as he pleases, and that doctrine is taught here: I say unto you that thtat man teaches false doctrine, for therer is no such doctrine taught here; neither is there any such thing practised here. And any man that is found teaching privately or publicly any such odctrine, is culpable, and will stand a chance to be brought before the High Council, and lose his license and membership also: therefore he had better beware what he is about."

(Notice Hyrum Smith's cleverly worded out of "will stand a CHANCE to be brought before the High Council"...and for what purpose, I add? (To be congratulated perhaps by Joseph Smith of the 'High Council' for "having as many wives as he pleases"...perhaps if he became one of the dozen men who shared their wives with Jos. Smith?)

45 posted on 05/06/2008 1:02:13 PM PDT by Colofornian
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To: greyfoxx39; AppyPappy; P-Marlowe; Colofornian; Elsie; aMorePerfectUnion; Osage Orange; JRochelle; ..
From the article: "The historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took issue Monday with a New York Times opinion piece comparing FLDS polygamists in Texas to 19th century Mormons."

Well, that answers the questions of why all the mormon threads got pulled into the News forum.

46 posted on 05/06/2008 1:03:32 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (FLDS.... making babies with children because their God wants earthly bodies for spirit babies.)
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To: BlueNgold

Ouch...


47 posted on 05/06/2008 1:08:44 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (Haley Barbour 2012, Because he has experience in Disaster Recovery.)
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To: lady lawyer
Look at the posted historical statistics, Lady Lawyer...

Plural marriages, involving 14-17 year olds and married women, aren't even close to the societal "norm" (but neither was lying about it...or seer stone fraud, or banking fraud that leads to bankruptcy, or copying masonic rituals, or falsely translating plates and funeral papyri, or destroying printing presses, or adultery, and so forth).

48 posted on 05/06/2008 1:09:56 PM PDT by pby
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To: greyfoxx39

LOL. I wonder when FR will allow Muslim posts urging us all to join with Mohammed, and see the “truth”?


49 posted on 05/06/2008 1:13:46 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: pby

The problem with getting into any kind of discussion with you people is that you constantly shift ground. It is pointless, tedious, and frustrating to try to reason to a conclusion, because you constantly respond with non sequiturs. The issue was not plural marriage, but whether teenage girls commonly got married in the 19th century. They did. The mean age was much lower then than it is now, meaning that there were more teenagers getting married. If the mean age was 20, then there were just as many teenagers getting married as women over 20.

I’m done with you.


50 posted on 05/06/2008 1:14:29 PM PDT by lady lawyer
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To: lady lawyer
I’m done with you.

You never even started.

And...look at the documentation provided, which not only gives the mean age but the average age (23-24).

The statistics bust the LDS propgated myth that girls regularly got married at an early age in the 19th century. IT WAS NOT THE NORM. IN FACT, IT WAS OUTSIDE OF THE NORM!

And why did your alleged prophet lie about his polygamous marriages to teenage girls and to married women?

The cited truth offends, doesn't it?

51 posted on 05/06/2008 1:20:36 PM PDT by pby
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To: colorcountry

I wonder if the mormons thought that there was a “guarantee” there would be no opposition to their proselytizing when moved to the news forum?


52 posted on 05/06/2008 1:20:42 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (FLDS.... making babies with children because their God wants earthly bodies for spirit babies.)
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To: lady lawyer; colorcountry; Pan_Yans Wife; MHGinTN; Colofornian; Elsie; FastCoyote; Osage Orange; ...
The problem with getting into any kind of discussion with "you people".....

BACK OF THE BUS, INMANS....STEP SMARTLY TO THE BACK OF THE BUS!

53 posted on 05/06/2008 1:24:20 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (FLDS.... making babies with children because their God wants earthly bodies for spirit babies.)
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To: pby
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
54 posted on 05/06/2008 1:30:25 PM PDT by ansel12 (Texas, having to clean up Utah's Latter Day Taints. this cult stuff sucks.)
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To: ansel12
Oh now, there you go with those darn facts again...

It really screws things up ya know...

You need to take a divine time out and chew a little cactus...

55 posted on 05/06/2008 1:34:18 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (Haley Barbour 2012, Because he has experience in Disaster Recovery.)
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To: AppyPappy

I’ve actually been to several different denominations services. Midnight mass, Baptist Sunday school, etc. I’ve visited with friends.


56 posted on 05/06/2008 1:38:20 PM PDT by Utah Girl
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To: lady lawyer
The mean age was much lower then than it is now, meaning that there were more teenagers getting married. If the mean age was 20, then there were just as many teenagers getting married as women over 20.

What was the percentage of teenage girls who were getting married to men who were 20 years their senior who were already married to 5 or 6 other women?

57 posted on 05/06/2008 1:40:50 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: lady lawyer

***The mean age was much lower then than it is now, meaning that there were more teenagers getting married. If the mean age was 20, then there were just as many teenagers getting married as women over 20.***

Did you even BOTHER to read the stats posted? In 1850, the mean age for women was 24, 4 years older than in 1950. This means that the age was HIGHER then, NOT lower.

That, in and of itself, pretty much sends Mormon claims that people got married YONGER then down the abyss of self-delusion. You actually need to be intellectually honest and admit that ANY claim that the mean age was lower then is nothing but garbage yanked out of that same Mormon hat that Joseph Smith got the BOM.

In short, you couldn’t be MORE wrong if you tried. Hey, it sucks, but don’t continue to hold onto the delusion.


58 posted on 05/06/2008 1:41:26 PM PDT by Lord_Calvinus
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To: lady lawyer

***“Mean” age just means that there were an equal number women younger than 20 and older than 20 being married. It doesn’t mean it’s the “norm.”***

BTW, you couldn’t be MORE wrong here, either. The Mean is the average. What you are meaning to use is the MEDIAN, or middle.

P.S. I notice that some of the studies show the AVERAGE age for women varying from 22-24 in the stats shown on THIS thread. That still doesn’t demonstrate a younger marrying age. It simply shows variation in source citation.


59 posted on 05/06/2008 1:47:56 PM PDT by Lord_Calvinus
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To: ansel12; lady lawyer
Thanks, again, anse112.

Lady Lawyer, please see more of these "pesky" historical facts (post# 54) that bust the LDS propagated myth that 19th century women regularly married much earlier than today.

60 posted on 05/06/2008 1:48:32 PM PDT by pby
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