I just looked at the essay about polygamy more closely. One thing that jumped out at me was the fact that, especially early in the process, the members who were approached with it seemed badly disturbed by what "Brother Joseph" was suggesting. Of course this included his wife Emma most of the time as well.

One woman that was described had a several day prayathon just to try to get her head around the idea of being a sister wife. It took her days to make some sort of peace with it!

This seems a little counterintuitive for a group of people who, by virtue of the holy spirit, should have a spiritual witness available to confirm their prophet's words.

The essay begs the question of why "the comforter" wasn't doing more comforting. These early members were largely revolted by what was suggested (even though I'm just referring to those in the essay specifically) with little description of worry about how outsiders would perceive it or why that would matter. It was something that many of them simply didn't subscribe to on a visceral level, but concern about their families may have seemed paramount. It just felt wrong.

Of course if they pushed and prodded themselves enough with a few days of repetitive prayer maybe they could make the answer what they needed it to be: an obedient one. I have to say that Mormons worked harder for their witnesses back then overall. These days they seem to pull up the holy spirit as fast as they pull up their e-mail (those car keys can be hard to find at times).

Many of them had every reason to authentically dislike it. Joseph Smith did not. The whole angel with a sword thing makes a rather convenient cover for this. It's like he's saying "see, I don't like this either! I can tell you a very vivid story that'll make that clear/ distract you from what I'm really saying."

I guess that angel's efforts counted for little. After all, there's no record or indication that this angel got a chance to maintain what he had won after the disasterous consequences of polygamy for the church had continued more than half a century. God outwardly changed his mind, and just in the nick of time, too.

The church may have produced some children (I hate the term "seed") from this process but I doubt it made up for the large number of incredulous potential converts they likely lost, people who wouldn't even let them in the door from what they'd learned of them. The base of the church was moved many hundreds of miles away and another secret/sacred temple was lost. It's hard to argue that after instituting this attempt at a "secret" practice things didn't just get worse for the membership of the church. I'm struggling to determine how they were blessed at that time or for some time after speaking generally.

masonfree Wrote:
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> I'm struggling to
> determine how they were blessed at that time or
> for some time after speaking generally.

I think they didn't like it but realized through calling it a "blessing" that their entire existence was caught up in this quandry Smith had placed them in with no exits.

"“We are told that the Prophet Joseph requested the Quorum to marry and take care of his widows,” Zina’s granddaughter would write, “and in some cases Joseph Smith’s plural wives were given their choice of the Twelve as their husbands for time, to give them the full honor and protection of marriage with an apostle.”26"
http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2006-fair-conference/2006-zina-and-her-men-an-examination-of-the-changing-marital-state-of-zina-diantha-huntington-jacobs-smith-young

Refusal was met with extreme treatment. Emma I believe knew that she couldn't go West even if she wanted to...

Ah yes...The blessing of not being threatened for refusing an order. What a family church this has been! It may have been similar in some ways to a crime family, but then the choices of those who might do otherwise could easily be limited on the western frontier.

As a BIC I think it's worth remembering as I say this that I grew up on a Joseph Smith of the type pictured on the lds.org homepage. There's enough sanitizer in that picture to stop an outbreak (I'm gonna call him GA Joe because he looks a little plastic to me). It probably shows that I still have that feeling a person gets after having been deceived for a long time, even if it was unwittingly. It's a feeling I've had a few years now and I tend to return here when it comes up again (thanks family reunions too often for this!).

masonfree Wrote:
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> As a BIC I think it's worth remembering as I say
> this that I grew up on a Joseph Smith of the type
> pictured on the lds.org homepage. There's enough
> sanitizer in that picture to stop an outbreak (I'm
> gonna call him GA Joe because he looks a little
> plastic to me). It probably shows that I still
> have that feeling a person gets after having been
> deceived for a long time, even if it was
> unwittingly.

Ah, yes the sanitized and saintinized Smith. I like "GA Joe." It is so catchy. Nice one. We all played with our GA Joe dolls in our heads growing up. You should take GA Joe as a handle for this forum. It is really good.

GA Joe is so family friendly and member friendly he probably rivals Jesus in Mormon minds.

And about feeling deceived. I doubt a day will go by when I don't. All of my formative years, my indentity as a human being, all of my family and friends from my youth, my gensis as a living being was defined by an organization with impossible puritanical standards and tyranical ways.

I don't think I will ever fully recover from Mormonism. I can just try and reduce the effects of it daily.

Mormons worship perfection and I am just as bad as them in being stupid if I think I can achieve recovery FROM Mormonism. What I'm shooting for is recovery TO Exmormonism. And I think I'm doing fairly well. Making fun of the absolutist absurdity that is Mormonism helps me.