wow. I didn't think about the backlash that would have on the missionaries. The good thing though, is that it might make missionaries ponder the earlier days of the church. Or they probably just say that they are a different church entirely. What is her answer?
The first seven presidents of the LDS church practiced polygamy. The first who didn't was george Albert Smith, who practiced polygamy but not as a cohabitter - he was raised in a polygamous family by polygamous mothers and a polyg dad. Same with Joseph Fielding Smith who was church president when I was in high school.
ANyone who thinks mainstream mormons didnt practice polygamy in the 20th century doesn't know much about mainstream LDS polygamy.
Just because they outlawed the practice in 1890 just means that no one officially was entering into any new marriages. All those old ones continued into at least 1940 or 1950 or so.
that your niece and others like her don't have any information that would help them understand that Joseph Smith and Warren Jeffs were more alike than different.
I was a missionary and life long member and never knew about Smith having teenage wives and marrying other men's wives.
I suspect if more young people knew about this not only would they understand why people confuse Jeffs as the Mormon prophet, but they would probably not go on missions.
from those creepy "fundamentalist polygamous sects" by citing the big important things that Monson's Mainstream Mormons do, such as operating the great Brigham Young University....
Excuse me? I'm not sure I caught that. Which university? Brigham Young? Who was that? How many wives did he have? You don't say.... So many that they're not quite sure, but well into 50+ wives. Uhmm, why did you name your big university after a leader of a fundamentalist polygamous sect? Am I missing something?