Sigh. Take pretty much everything after the header "The Manifesto" in that essay, and understand that it was all refuted by D. Michael Quinn some time ago. Pretty much everything in the essay after that header is a lie.
And I guess we'll have to wait for the sequel to hear their explanations on that issue. Those interested can research the Smoot hearings...
At that below-the-radar lunch held during the Exmormon Conference--both "RFM Jesuses" appeared, but we only had nine witnesses and not the requisite eleven, had a couple of no-shows unfortunately, so it might not count--I complimented Will Bagley on a really astute insight he made about Wilford Woodruff and the 1890 Manifesto a few weeks ago on a local radio show.
Will noted that the fourth LDS President was absolutely convinced the Second Coming was imminent, and so he didn't think telling people to obey the law of the land was any big deal.
How imminent? Well, when I mentioned "years," he corrected me and said Woodruff thought it would be a matter of months.
Obviously Jesus got stuck in a celestial traffic jam somewhere, and Bagley added that after a few years the women were so opposed to the practice there was no way the church could endorse it any longer.
That squares with stories from my own family; the scuttle is the happiest day of my great-great grandmother's life was the day her husband's first wife died.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2014 04:08PM by SL Cabbie.
"Will noted that the fourth LDS President was absolutely convinced the Second Coming was imminent, and so he didn't think telling people to obey the law of the land was any big deal."
"How imminent? Well, when I mentioned 'years,' he corrected me and said Woodruff thought it would be a matter of months."
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I think Woodruff was taking D&C 130:15 literally, and he wasn't alone at the time in his belief. (That verse is the "85 years old" prophecy; they figured, I suppose, that Jesus could have pulled any old number out, but for some reason he picked 85, so it *had* to mean something...)
The Church article didn't explain the seemly false statment from the BOM as to the D&C commandment to practice polygamy: "the Lord gives no commandment save he prepares a way to accomplish it: 1 Ne. 3:7". How did the Lord prepare the way for the saints in the 1800s to practice polygamy? Seems he was again asleep at the wheel - for the multi millionth time we have records of!