Quote:
Originally Posted by pelagius
Maybe one just needs to construct a favorable denominator? The 15-30% is the percentage of church members living in plural households. If you do something like married polygamous mormon men divided by adult mormon men, the fraction will be smaller I think.
|
Isn't this supported by the way he phrased his comments?
Quote:
|
... no more than perhaps 3 or 4 per cent of the membership ... ever entered into that principle. All the rest of the members of the church abstained from that principle ...
|
This would seem to suggest we're talking about polygamous men (and perhaps women), but not households. If I were I child of a polygamous family, I don't think it could be said that by definition I had "entered into that principle" nor could I be old enough to be fairly said that I had "abstained."
Also, of those 3-4% or 15-30%, how many had more than 2 wives?
That said, I agree that downplaying its influence is not really fair. Polygamy had a profound effect on the lives of the members, and on the future of the church.