D&C 132 is quite a little gem.

What's weird is that I swear I don't remember knowing about all its juicy little contents until after I was on my way out of the church.

It's a very faith disrupting scripture. It's God telling Joseph Smith & Emma that he is to practice polygamy. It damns them to hell if they don't practice it. It mentions getting TEN virgins (not poor widows).

Does the church conveniently skip over the parts about polygamy in their manuals? Its at the end of the D&C so maybe most people never end up getting to it.

Do you guys remember reading this scripture as a TBM? What did you think about it?

No, we didn't read it in sunday school that's for sure. The adults may have, but I attended up to age 19 or 20 and I didn't know about it until I read it on my own as a non-attending jack mo.

...to establish celestial marriage, then brush the rest under the carpet. If they don't teach it, it doesn't exist -- because most Mormoms aren't curious.

Mormons are told read the book of mormon over and over and over.
in 57 years I don't recall ever being told to read the D&C.

Most mormons are doing pretty good if they read the BoM and their lesson manual. They are told the BoM has the answers to all of life's problems. The TBM's I know usually only read the D&C if they need a reference for a talk, or lesson. The lessons about the D&C are pretty glossy and uncontroversial. They are selectively spoon fed what the beliefs are through the correlated manuals. They are too busy to really study much of anything. They wouldn't know where to look to find the things that are talked about on this site every day. They don't want to know too much anyway. The more you know, the more you are held accountable for. This results in building a very thin shell around themselves that they call a testimony. The leaders are constantly telling them to be very careful about what they read and who they talk to, it could cause them to lose their testimony.

Since a testimony is built of smoke and mirrors glued together with good feelings, it's a very fragile way to live your life. Some boast that nothing could ever destroy their testimony. The leadership knows different. They use words to make the membership fearful of the outside world. Their goal is to keep the members in the fragile bubble they have built. It's getting to be almost impossible to keep this going. The internet is producing a climate that is not conducive to the climate they need. I personally think the leaders are in the panic mode.

They have a leader with one foot on the banana peel, and the other foot is somewhere in the 1950's. He's all but useless. The men surrounding him aren't much different than him. It's looking more and more like a PR firm is running the show. The historical and doctrinal cats are out of the bag. They may try, but they can't put them back in. I find this to be a fascinating dilemma for a group of leaders who are used to being able to control and manipulate thousands of people. Their dirty laundry is being aired. Money is leaving that is never coming back. They are going to need a real miracle to get control of the situation. Personally I am entertained by the show. They are getting the rewards they have earned. It's like watching the playground bully getting spanked. Entertaining as hell. I can't help but feel a little vindicated.

curriculum. At one time we studied: The Bible, the BOM, the D&C and the Pearl of Great Price, but only very superficially as there wasn't time to really study it. The lessons just picked out some topic and stuck to that, as I recall. I think the curriculum was repeated several times.

I noticed a big difference between teachers - where we were studying these books: BYU campus students, for instance, were a much different group than older regular ward members.

I do know that it was not part of how I understood Celestial Marriage when I converted and went to the temple to be married.

I'm convinced that most LDS don't have a clue that they have married in the temple in the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage which is Plurality of Wives. Nobody ever mentions it, yet, it's clearly spelled out in their scriptures.

They may have a belief that the plurality of wives is a celestial law, but they don't make the association that they all ready committed to it when they were married in the temple.

I've asked LDS members about this. Some will actually argue -- claiming that I am incorrect, but change their tune when they read the information in D&C 132.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2012 03:00PM by SusieQ#1.

I have never read the D&C all the way through. Before I started reading this site, I couldn't have even told you what D&C 132 was about!

Same here. I have learned more about mormonism on rfm than I did in all my years as a member.

The good thing about that is you can't unlearn what you now know. For the first time in my life I have a strong testimony. I know that the church isn't true. Furthermore I know they have lied and deceived millions for their own financial gain. I can honestly say that I am so convinced of these truths that I will never return. Anyone can have a strong testimony of the lies and deception of the mormon church that is unshakeable. All they have to do is log on.

Amen

Ditto, my testimony has never been stronger.

Isn't it funny. As a mormon, I read the Book of Mormon because I had to. Was not inspired or even particularly interested. I never read the D&C. I tried, but just couldn't get through it. And it is a fascinating realization what Mia said in her excellent thread above, that they don't push you to read it, they just push the BoM. And the Pearl of Great Price? Forget about it!

But now, as an exmo, I find it all fascinating--specifically because they condemn themselves. They are taking themselves down with their own written word,

I just read a bit of the D&C 132 and I'm going back to read it all.

Who woulda thought??

it wasn't that big of a deal.

Time moves on, worldview expands, and now I see how inappropriate and messed up it is.

So, growing up, it was the mormon reality. Now... it's an albatross... and today's mormons can't seem to distance themselves far enough away from it.

I still get family newsletters that talk nostalgically about the good old days, yet I'll read words from contemporary mormons who pretend polygamy was never significant. I currently have male relatives who are sealed to more than one wife. The church has an identity crisis.

FWIW.... I've been accused by my kids of being old. :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2012 05:05PM by jpt.

I use D&C 132 as a powerful tool as to explain why JS was not what he claimed to TBMs who ask:

God would *destroy* Emma if she did not allow JS to marry anyone for any reason. So much for God allowing free agency. *DESTROY* Emma... that's what God said.

That schizophrenic God can kiss my fat a$$ so can his servant Joseph.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2012 06:07PM by Yaqoob.

Funny thing is, Joseph is the one that was destroyed.
Seems like nobody saw the irony in that when it happened.
I would think Emma would have felt validated when it was him who was destroyed and not her.