Is polygamy the next eternal doctrine that will be thrown under the bus; it was just some misguided, unperfect prophets talking as men?

The polygamy issue is the first issue I had with the church when I was about seventeen. I felt marriage was about love for one individual not a group thing. I thought it was terribly unfair to the women.

There are reports that a number of the most obvious facts that undermine the cult's claims are up for review. Polygamy, particularly Joseph Smith's conduct, is rumored to be on the list.

I don't see how they can throw polygamy under the bus, because it would absolutely annihilate Joseph Smith's credibility. If god never told him to bang young girls, then he was just doing so because "screw emma, I'ma bang me some hotties." And it becomes obvious that his "revelations" on the matter were all made up to keep him from trouble.

I agree. I have TBM family that concede that Joe might have fallen, but they maintain that "the basics" are still true...priesthood, ordinances, temples, etc... Even IF he was simply a fallen prophet, there's no way that the temple ordiances came from God. Joe was in full blown polygamy mode when the endowment was "restored".

Pretty much everything about mormon marriage practices is straight from polygamy. I think you could even make a case that the secrecy around it originated because of the secrecy around polygamy. All of the revelations regarding marriage are specifically talking about plural marriage. If polygamy is bullshit, then everything, *everything* crumbles.

But of course I could never convince my parents or wife about that...

They can try to attack the historical sources that paint an unflattering picture of the conduct such as the journals of the women, etc.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2013 04:41PM by Tom Padley.

They have diaries of people who witnessed it, reviled it, or participated in it, in their possession. They don't let too many people they haven't handpicked themselves see all that on a regular basis. But, given what became public at the time and after already, they will not be able to say it wasn't there. Well, they might try that, actually considering all the other stupid moves they've made lately, but I think they are slyer than that.

They will just matter-of-factly say: those people got it wrong, and they will discredit them. They have done that in the past and they will do it again. They will make it all look like something it was not, and was known then and known now not to be.

See what they did with the Blacks and Priesthood ban/ERA movement and excommunications/historians purge/Joseph Smith arrest records info/Kirtland bank scandal info/ JSs
"persecution and martyrdom" at Nauvoo?

It's all there, it's known---and they spinned it. Just like they did their billion-dollar City Creek Mall, or Florida ranches, expenditures. Or JSs multiple arrests. Or the different First Vision accounts. Or the BoA. Or...

They'll just end up saying everyone OTHER then Joseph who lived the "principle" of plural marriage, was wrong in doing so--as the revelation came to Joseph and should have only been engaged in by him.

Think about it: BYU still bears Brigham Young's name. And think of what we know about him now and what they are likely to spill-spit-leak in dribs and drabs to the press in future. He'll be their scapegoat; he'll be called the prophet-acting-as-a-man who perverted Joseph's church. Not the guy who lived Joseph's church to the letter, every day of his life.

They still have not let go of JSs "martyrdom". Of trying to paint him as a hero for riding back to town, AFTER he first ran away and left his people in dire straits--even though it wasn't the first time he'd done that when his loyal followers were in trouble, just the most momentous occasion this time.

Think of how they've painted Emma, or of the "witnesses" to the plates who never actually saw or touched them.

They'll just spin, spin, spin. FAIR will obfuscate and divert and muddy the waters some more. They'll leak a little "mik" here, holding back the "meat" as before. And anyone who calls them on it is a liar, a conflict maker, an apostate, unworthy.

But they cannot get rid so easily of the offshoots they spawned in various other deserts and wildernesses, who when the church betrayed them for following its teachings, left the church and continued polygamy as revealed to them by JS, some of them doing so even until today.

Watching a Barlow or a LeBaron or Allred or a Jeffs, or simply looking at a Colorado City (aka Short Creek), is an open window into early Mormonism. And unless they wipe them off the face of the Earth and destroy all their records, images and the knowledge that their lives brings to others who see or know it, they cannot truly get rid of it from themselves.

The mainstream LDS church said first it never existed then that they banned it; they continued practicing it. They lied and said they were not practicing it when they were. They covered it and its excesses up even when they admitted later to others that they did practice it. They lied about the reasons, claiming all young girls married that young and all geographically isolated groups such as theirs needed to do it to stay viable. Then they vilified those who followed their commandments from the prophets; they condemned those who practiced what they had preached. And they're still doing it today.

So, what else is new?

What will kill the church in many ways, but will not be its death knell, will be the inevitable aging of its population of boomers; the fewer children even devout followers have taken to producing lately compared to days of yore; the increased education its women and their children increasingly get outside the church's universities; the lack of full tithes from questioning or doubtful members; the internet reaching more and more people every day, with info that is both true AND useful about the church. That is all happening right now. And the church is still here.

The day they change the name of BYU to Provo University, and people in the future from that day forward deny the place was ever called BYU, is the real day the fat lady sang.

I think the reason it won't disappear is because to many TBMs Eternal Marriage and Eternal Families is a beautiful doctrine to them. The thought that they will be with loved ones in the afterlife is very seductive. Most of them don't even think of what the underlying doctrine means. If you asked the women if they would want to share their husbands, they say no. But the doctrine says yes. Scary, thought-- another way they compartmentalize and put on the shelf so they can keep their fantasies going.

I asked once what my mother would do when she met the second wife in the CK. She said there would be no second wife. ;-)

Well- I'm keeping the scriptures and manuals I have now so that I can PROVE their lies.