Question regarding wives of JS

[Solon]

Originally Posted by Adam

. The "New and Everlasting Covenant" is PLURAL marriage. Today we pretend that the Manifesto is a revelation (it isn't--it doesn't claim to be--just read the damned thing out loud and listen to yourself and it is totally clear) which revoked DC 132. DC 132 wasn't revoked until JFS decided to end the practice in 1905 and kicked Taylor Jr. and Cowley out of the Quorum of the 12. But no revelation on point is recorded from that time and no revelation on point is claimed today.

The only honest position, IMHO, is to say that the Manifesto was smokescreen for the Feds and put the practice underground, the Church actually administratively suspended the approved practice of plural marriage in 1905, and the doctrine, as taught in DC 132, is still the doctrine of the Church which could be administratively reinstated as the practice of the Church at any time by any President of the Church.

Quinn has written / spoken a lot about post-Manifesto polygamy.

Here's a good link with a useful timeline.
http://www.ldshistory.net/pc/postman.htm

[hyrum]

Originally Posted by Adam

I would agree that JS didn't implement the true principle perfectly because of weaknesses which included lust. But that isn't to say he invented the doctrine out of thin air because of his lust--which I don't believe. This is what I intended by belief 1.

Lust is understating the issue, I believe. Taken in context with the desire to be Mayor, Military General, Chief Justice, President of the US, as well as Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, this area sexual conquest is only part of the larger narcissistic tendency. People who abuse women in that way are rarely acting just on sexual desire. My opinion as a non-believer.

[Ace Tomato Co.]

Look, I don't know everything about plural marriage, but I do know that if your wife asks about it, you should say that it was abominable and that if the church ever started it up again, you'd have to just say no because your wife is your soul-mate.

In all fairness, they should have included this advice in the manifesto. Would've saved us all a few nights on the couch!

[SeattleUte]

I haven't read this thread in detail. But in my opinion, among Christianity's contributions is abolishing polygamy. Augustine confronted many of the same rationaliziations raised by the mullahs for polygamy, and he adroitly debunked them. He had to deal with this because the backward, ignorant barbarian tribes, e.g., the Franks, the Goths, the Suebe, the Saxons, etc. anamolously became the overlords of Europe, the land of our forebears, for a relatively short time. But it wasn't long before the folks wiith the education and the brains took control of Europe, gradually, from the ground up, and polygamy went by the boards. This occurred because of the Greek and Roman influence. The fact remains that polygamy has obtained traction only in the most primitive of cultures--tribal communities. Polygamy has never been a factor in highly developed civiizations. It has been condemned. Once Mormonism decided it wanted a place at the table of Western civilizaion, the "revelation" came and polygamy was conveniently history. True story. Polygamy is an institution of the ignorant, and the barbarous. It just is. Institute a modicum of civilization, and it goes away. It just does.