So I have the devotional tomorrow in seminary. Anybody have any ideas for what I should say?

What would you like to say?

Or blood atonement. Some doctrine from JOD that you think would shock them :-)

My seminary teacher wanted me to teach a devotional on Brigham Young, I respectfully declined but he insisted. I ended up teaching about all of Brigham Young's wives.

I stated all of their names and whether or not he married them while he was alive or whether they were sealed to him after his death.

I then drew a stick figure on the whiteboard as a visual representation.

I think a Skit that the class can participate in, on the origions of the W of W is in order. The key is you have to play Emma(even if you are a boy).

Write a basic script, and have fun with wording that is not pertinate to the story. Assign different class members that are in the meeting with ole Joe different bad habits; a couple smoking, some can be drunk, others drinking coffee, but they all have to leave a mess as the meeting concludes. Now, you as Emma enters stage left and rants outloud how you are sick and tired of cleaning up all the time, etc....then spill a leftover coffee, and fcuking lose your mind! go off for a while, while Joe sits in the corner looking worried, then act like you just had a great idea and calm down suddenly, and in a sickly sweet voice say "Joseph, Sweety,..Isn't there something as profit of the church you could do about this?..."(wink twice, nod your head, and tap your nose) Joe says, "I will go pray to god for guidance" and he leaves room as you finish cleaning. He comes back and tells the class he has received revelation, blah blah blah, and he reads the w of w.
As a tbm youth I always had a problem with this story. It always seemed awful convenient, that God revealed that to him right after Emma asked him. It may put questions in someone elses mind.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2010 12:16PM by jon1.

After Joe gives his revelation have everyone pull out a can of coke, hold the can up then give a thumbs-up to the audience.

Owing to the weaknesses of human nature you often see a mother mourn upon the death of her child, the tears
of bitterness are found upon her cheeks, he pillow is wet with the dews of sorrow, anguish, and mourning for
her child, and she exclaims, "O that my infant were restored to me," and weeps day and night. To me such
conduct is unwise, for until that child returned to its Father, was it worthy of your fullest love? No, for it was
imperfect, but now it is secure in the bosom of the Father, to dwell there to all eternity; now it is in a condition
where it is worthy of your perfect love, and your anxiety and effort should be that you may enter at the same
gate to immortality.
JD 3:361, Brigham Young, June 15, 1856

What an uncaring sob.

I suppose it is easy to treat people like cattle or puppies when you have too many wives and too many children to have any real bond with them. Probably even moreso due to the fact that all these extra wives are really just a ticket to the CK where you get to be a god.

As Heber C. Kimball once said - I'd think no more of buying a cow than to take another wife.

Anyway, this quote why I took my moniker--because it (and the other three paragraphs) goes to show how worthless people are in the eyes of the LDS lord. And because it really makes my wife mad when I quote it...(hee,hee)

Now for my proposition; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is frequently happening that women say they are unhappy. Men will say, "My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife;" "No, not a happy day for a year," says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down and abused: that they are misused and have not the liberty they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because of the conduct of some men, together with their own folly.
I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, Now go your way, my women with the rest, go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. "What, first wife too?" Yes, I will liberate you all.

I know what my women will say; they will say, "You can have as many women as you please, Brigham." But I want to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners; I do not want. them to receive a part of the truth and spurn the rest out of doors.

I wish my women, and brother Kimball's and brother Grant's to leave, and every woman in this Territory, or else say in their hearts that they will embrace the Gospel - the whole of it. Tell the Gentiles that I will free every woman in this Territory at our next Conference. "What, the first wife too?" Yes, there shall not be one held in bondage, all shall be set free. And then let the father be the head of the family, the master of his own household; and let him treat them as an angel would treat them; and let the wives and the children say amen to what he says, and be subject to his dictates, instead of their dictating the man, instead of their trying to govern him.

No doubt some are thinking, "I wish brother Brigham would say what would become of the children." I will tell you what my feelings are; I will let my wives take the children, and I have property enough to support them, and can educate them, and then give them a good fortune, and I can take a fresh start.

I do not desire to keep a particle of my property, except enough to protect me from a state of nudity. And [p.56] I would say, wives you are welcome to the children, only do not teach them iniquity; for if you do, I will send an Elder, or come myself, to teach them the Gospel. You teach them life and salvation, or I will send Elders to instruct them.

Let every man thus treat his wives, keeping raiment enough to clothe his body; and say to your wives, "Take all that I have and be set at liberty; but if you stay with me you shall comply with the law of God, and that too without any murmuring and whining. You must fulfil the law of God in every respect, and round up your shoulders to walk up to the mark without any grunting."

Now recollect that two weeks from to morrow I am going to set you at liberty. But the first wife will say, "It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;" then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children. If my wife had borne me all the children that she ever would bare, the celestial law would teach me to take young women that would have children.

Do you understand this? I have told you many times that there are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty? - to prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can; hence if my women leave, I will go and search up others who will abide the celestial law, and let all I now have go where they please; though I will send the Gospel to them.

This is the reason why the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, that the noble spirits which are waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth. ...

Sisters, I am not joking, I do not throw out my proposition to banter your feelings, to see whether you will leave your husbands, all or any of you. But I do know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whining of many of the women in this Territory; I am satisfied that this is the case. And if the women will turn from the commandments of God and continue to despise the order of heaven, I will pray that the curse of the Almighty may be close to their heels, and that it may be following them all the day long. And those that enter into it and are faithful, I will promise them [p.57] that they shall be queens in heaven, and rulers to all eternity.

"But," says one, "I want to have my paradise now." And says another, "I did think I should be in paradise if I was sealed to brother Brigham, and I thought I should be happy when I became his wife, or brother Heber's. I loved you so much, that I thought I was going to have a heaven right off, right here on the spot.

What a curious doctrine it is, that we are preparing to enjoy! The only heaven for you is that which you make yourselves. My heaven is here - [laying his hand upon his heart]. I carry it with me. When do I expect it in its perfection? When I come up in the resurrection; then I shall have it, and not till then. But now we have got to fight the good fight of faith, sword in hand, as much so as men have when they go to battle; and it is one continual warfare from morning to evening, with sword in hand. This is my duty, and this is my life.

But the women come and say, "Really brother John, and brother William, I thought you were going to make a heaven for me," and they get into trouble because a heaven is not made for them by the men, even though agency is upon women as well as upon men. True there is a curse upon the woman that is not upon the man, namely, that "her whole affections shall be towards her husband," and what is the next? "He shall rule over you."

But how is it now? Your desire is to your husband, but you strive to rule over him, whereas the man should rule over you. Some may ask whether that is the case with me; go to my house and live, and then you will learn that I am very kind, but know how to rule.

If I had only wise men to talk to, there would be no necessity for my saying what I am going to say. Many and many an Elder knows no better than to go home and abuse as good a woman as dwells upon this earth, because of what I have said this afternoon. Are you, who act in that way, fit to have a family? No, you are not, and never will be, until you get good common sense. Then you can go to work and magnify your callings; and you can do the best you know how; and on that ground I will promise you salvation, but upon no other principle.

If I were talking to a people that understood themselves and the doctrine of the holy Gospel, there would be no necessity for saying this, because you would understand. But many have been (what shall I say? pardon me, brethren,) hen pecked so much, that they do not know the place of either man or woman; they abuse and rule a good woman with an iron hand. With them it is as Solomen said "Bray a feel in a mortar among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." You may talk to them about their duties, about what is required of them, and still they are fools, and will continue to be.

Prepare yourselves for two weeks from to morrow; and I will tell you now, that if you will tarry with your husbands, after I have set you free, you must bow down to it, and submit yourselves to the celestial law. You may go where you please, after two weeks from to-morrow; but, remember, that I will not hear any more of this whining. - JoD 4:55-57 (September 21, 1856)

II Kings 18:27

Go into detail about JS wives.

Or talk about the BoA issues.

I know bare you testimony about magic underwear, kolob, many wives in heaven, a global flood, no death before the fall, and JS translating the BOM from a hat.

QUIZ:

1. How many women did Joseph Smith marry while he was alive besides Emma? A: thirty-two.

2. How many of these women were older than him? A: five

3. How many of these women were in his peer group of 30-40 years of age? A: eight

4. How many of these women were 21-29 years of age when he married them? A: nine

5. How many were less than 20 years of age when he married them? A: eleven

6. How many were already married to other men when he married them? A: seven

7. How many of these women filed affidavits stating their marriage to Joseph Smith included sexual intercourse? A: thirteen

8. How old was the youngest girl that he married? A: fourteen

9. What was her name? A: Helen Mar Kimball

10. Her birthday? A: August 28th, 1828

11. The date of her marriage to him? A: May 1843

12. His age on that date? A: thirty-eight

13. Would you let your fourteen year old daughter marry a thirty-eight year old man?

14. What kind of thirty-eight year old man would want to marry a 14 year old girl?

15. Number of references to his wives other than Emma on the JosephSmith.net website sponsored by the LDS Church? A: zero

16. Why zero?


Sources:
FamilySearch.org
Kirtland Temple legal proceedings w/ Mo sources

Give one on Philemon in the New Testament. (It comes after Titus) it is a book with 24 verses and is easy to cover. By the way. Joseph smith only had one wife.

Uh not sure where you've been, but Joseph had more than one wife.

The Jupiter Talisman... After reading Steve Benson's post on the subject, I've been doing some research. Fascinating...

I'd vote for a devotional about the Kinderhook Plates - that oughta go over well!

There's a site that shows all of the occult artifacts that the smith family had. I discussion on those items and what they are might be interesting.

Lucy Mac smith talking about her son joseph's story telling abilities. Especially the American Indians.

How about having the most buff guy in the room try to pick up 200lbs. of weights (in a box) and run through the woods with them under his arm. Joseph claimed to have done this with the plates.

How about Reading up on astrology Book of Abraham style. Then tell about the funeral scrolls that are in existence that JS claimed were the writings of Abraham. MormonThink has great info on this topic.

Are you in Utah?

If so, discuss the main difference between the polygamists of Southern Utah and the modern LDS church is that the LDS church believes that Wilford Woodruff was told to stop polygamy and that those that believed that polygamy was an eternal principle as revealed by the prophets Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor and that the over meant of the United States had no authority to overturn the doctrine of polygamy. It is still being practiced without consequence in Utah.

If not in Utah, you can discuss D&C 132, the eternal principle of polygamy.

Say "GOODBYE, I won't be back."