Based on what we know, a resounding yes to both.

Even today, the church still subordinates women as second class citizens. They are still treated as property first by their husbands, and second, by the church itself. It isn't only the FLDS that does this. So does the LDS, but without so much fanfare.

Yes, men are [s]exploited too. But not in the same vein.

Keep making those babies, support the church at all costs, and wait on eternity for your [ultimate] reward.

"IMO, JS was a sex addict who used his charm to get into the "panties" of young women behind his first wife Emma's back, because he created the religion as a cover to exploit women sexually.

The present Mormon religion retains its origin as a sex cult starting with JS's womanizing and followers/successors' practice of pre-manifesto polygamy.

My theory: this is due to the socio-cultural and -psychological pressure to marry at a young age to begin sexual relations "immediately" within the legally recognized (and 'morally sanctioned' in LDS cult leaders' attitude) boundaries of a traditional marriage before childbearing become part of their young married lives (either start bearing "now" or postpone until higher education and/or ascension of socioeconomic status is attained so they can afford bearing children without burden).

An example that clearly demonstrates the Mormon Church's pressure beseeching young married people to forthwith bear children regardless of their accomplishment in education and socioeconomic status can be found in a 1987 sermon "To the Mothers of Zion."

I know some young Mo people want to get married in the temple so they can start having sex without shame and guilt, like my younger sister who got married at 19 to a RM [returned missionary] man whom she met a couple quarters back.

Young men opt to serve on the mission with two primary goals in mind: honorable reputation as "servant for the Lord" and, depending on personality and attitude, exponentially improve the chance of dating and getting married to TBM [True Believing Mormon] women at the temple in the short time possible so they can get laid with the leaders' blessings to reap the benefits of a sociologically indispensable stature in prestige.

For the LDS Cult leaders, two things are prerequisite to complete mind control by obedience.

1) Control the single Mormon faithfuls by psychological pressure that marriage is preferable to solitary or single life, and;

2) Control the married Mormon faithfuls by the burden of "frequent" childbearing that keep them preoccupied for life until at least the middle age. Of course, top that with "culturally mandatory" tithes and unpaid volunteer services (bishopric, etc).

Is it any wonder why the normal society look down on fundamentalist LDS sects as perverted and immoral, because older men control girls and women by power and, most egregiously, medieval sexual improprieties to molest and impregnate the younger victims?

The whole travesty lies with JS who created the religion partially to exploit girls and women under the cover of divine guidance to fuel his desire for the pleasure of sexual indulgence with multiple flavors."


http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-thesis-mormon-church-originated-as.html

Bill Maher on the Mormon Church As Sex Cult:

https://youtu.be/KVGyLVPuM48

Joe Jr a sex addict? Oh say not so.

And the church itself as an extension of Joe.

A sex cult.

I'd never heard it called that before today. Amazing what kind of stuff you can find on the Internet lol.

:D

He was a predator.

Most definitely, no doubt about it.

He'd be where Jeffs is today, if he'd lived long enough to get a life sentence.

I'm not really sure he was a sex addict, because I suspect we all have a different definition of that term. I do believe, however, that he was a total scam artist, had certain proclivities, and found a way to get the three things he desired the most: money, power, and sex, by starting up his own religion. I think if JS were around today, even he would be shocked at the church he started, how different it is from his original intent. He'd probably be all about the FLDS, who seem to practice the gospel of Joseph Smith more like he intended than the mainstream, whitewashed church.

dogzilla Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm not really sure he was a sex addict, because I
> suspect we all have a different definition of that
> term.

Agreed. "Addict" gets thrown around too much, especially regarding sex and porn.
The rest of your post -- spot on.

Most men who become philanderers or adulterers, don't have a need to get it on with that many women, over the course of a short lifespan, as Joseph did.

He was lustful, and craved power, yes. And acted on his urges, including his sexual impulses. With many multiple partners - under threat of coercion.

I would say there was a certain addiction he had for sex; and used the church as his roadmap to fulfilling both his sexual drive and his drive for power and self-glorification. I'm not sure it was because his testosterone was any stronger than another man's.

It was his narcissism, and egomania that made him into a pedophile and a predator.

He just let himself go, in the worst possible way. Like a heroin addict, without regard for the consequences, ultimately, of his actions.

Even and odd-numbered days in both Leap and non-Leap years...

You're learning, Amyjo; sorry about the left-handed compliment, but I posted this information here well over a dozen years ago and I discussed the dynamics. Others such as Steve Benson and Deconstructor have noted it as well.

Okay, a few pointers about addictions: Don't expect an addict to acknowledge their addiction. That's the function denial serves (and it's epidemic in the LDS culture today). It also operates in spades among codependents (enablers); I think Joseph Smith's mother fit that description, as did Emma...

Second, not all of Smith's family was in part of Operation Horndog. Checking my Wiki, I see it was Samuel Smith who died shortly after Joseph and Hyrum were murdered. As I recall, he was considered a possible JS successor, and he was opposed to polygamy.

I know there were several "historical" splits over the issue, but alas, I need to work one more day (despite my own addiction to RFM :-).

The secrecy around the practice followed the Saints to Utah, and it was only "revealed" when a non-Mormon, John Williams Gunnison, published a modest bestseller in the eastern press detailing the year he spend in Great Salt Lake City. The disclosure by Heber C. Kimball at the Fall General Conference in 1852 followed on the heels of the publication of Gunnison's work. Gunnison was later killed after returning to Utah; the investigation laid the blame on Indians, but there were many who believed otherwise.

Addictions generally involve "ritual and routine," and as Deconstructor noted, the Temple rites in Nauvoo evolved to accomodate this practice.

Okay, now to be fair, for the last few months I've been "applying the same lens" to Hugh Hefner, and the parallels are astonishing. The Playboy folks aren't going to like what I'm planning to say on that subject if I live long enough.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2015 05:10PM by SL Cabbie.

Well, I certainly hope you live long enough.

Thanks for the feedback. I tried researching this topic on RfM, and I found a couple of threads on sex addiction and Smith.

One was from 2012, and another Bill Maher youtube video that's since been disabled.

What you say makes sense about the role that ritual plays with addictions and OCD.

Look forward to what more you have to say on the subject. :)

Apparently Hef and Bill Cosby have the same proclivities with 'ludes.

It must have started out as an addiction to porn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2015 01:04AM by hangar18.

I don't think he was a 'sex addict' because that term has no meaning:

http://thehumanist.com/magazine/july-august-2012/features/youre-addicted-to-what

However he was a man who wanted sex with many women and was very successful in obtaining it. In evolutionary terms he would be a great man, except that he seemed to have very few descendants from his seed spreading endeavors.

Actually there is a meaning associated with a sex addict. For females, it is nymphomaniac.

And for males, the term is known as satyriasis.

“[satiriyasis] Pathological exaggerated sexual drive or excitement in a male. Some individuals have an associated psychiatric disorder. Treatment has included behavioural approaches, psychoanalytic therapies, and the use of female hormones in extreme cases. The corresponding drive in females is known as nymphomania.”

Male form of Nymphomania Well the male form to Nymphomania is satyriasis so I would believe it to be a satyriasic or something similar to that? It makes sense to be like that.
Definition of a MALE NYMPHOMANIAC N O R M A L

I think the last answer is the best and the one we’d all decided anyway. Has anyone else found any other answers?"

https://writersintheruff.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/whats-the-male-equivalent-of-a-nymphomaniac/

Neither have any credibility in the addictions treatment field, and both are, in my and my expert's opinion, dangerous $#!% talkers who've found a niche telling people--and their codependent signifcant others--that their condition is only a matter of willpower.

Or some such hornswaggle. I've debunked Klein here so many times (and one of his "discpiples," a former poster here who has a Master's from YBU) I've lost count.

So, too, have the following:

Dr. Drew Pinsky
Dr. Patrick Carnes (who wrote most of the seminal books on sexual addiction)
Dr. Phil McGrath
John Bradshaw

Per Carnes: Addiction is a pathological relationship with a mind changing/mood altering experience.

According to the DSM-V, which is the diagnostic tool recommended by the American Psychiatry Association, "sexual addiction" really isn't a thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_addiction

Hypersexuality, and a number of compulsive sexual behaviors that some of us might call "sexual addiction" are generally co-morbidities, which are like parts of more overarching pathologies.

JS may have had some form of Borderline Personality Disorder, or Narcissistic Personality Disorder, both of which can present with hypersexuality or other aggressive sexual behaviors.

Nymphomania is not a medical term and there is no disorder called that. You will never be diagnosed as a nymphomaniac by a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist*. That is a term that is rooted in the antiquated sexist days of early medicine. It's right up there with "hysteria" as a diagnosis.

ETA: * That was maybe too strong a statement. Another diagnostic tool uses the exact terms Amyjo did, so this citation backs up her statement. "The World Health Organization produces the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is not limited to mental disorders. The most recent version of that document, ICD-10, includes "Excessive sexual drive" as a diagnosis (code F52.7), subdividing it into satyriasis (for males) and nymphomania (for females).[24]"



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2015 10:16AM by dogzilla.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-lies-trauma/201212/sex-addiction-beyond-the-dsm-v

The author, a clinician who treats these disorders, notes:

1) Without formal diagnostic criteria to determine the presence of problematic sexual behaviors, therapists might conduct therapy in a way that exacerbates the problematic effects of compulsive sexual behaviors

2) Treatment for sexually compulsive behaviors will not be reimbursed by insurance companies, making proper treatment inaccessible to many individuals

>As a therapist who repeatedly sees the devastating results of out-of-control sexual behaviors, I am disappointed with the APA’s verdict that Hypersexual Disorder is not an official psychiatric disorder. The effects of this are both an issue of public health and personal wellbeing, because unmitigated sexual behaviors that have gone out of control cause significant psychological, social, relational and financial distress for individuals and their families. And in their worst scenarios, can lead to sexually transmitted infections, the breaking up of families and a string of legal problems. And while I believe that the problem is one of sexual addiction, the diagnosis of Hypersexual Behavior Disorder could have been a step in the right direction of legitimizing this problem.

>The argument that sex addiction is an agenda put forth by “sex-negative” clinicians, completely disregards the pain, confusion, trauma, fear and hopelessness experienced by sex addicts and their families.

'Nuff said...

/insert yet another Big Cabbie Speech on black-and-white thinking, and yes, Mormons--and ex-Mormons--are utterly terrified of their own sexuality and don't have a clue what constitutes reasonable and relatively healthy sexual behavior and where addiction emerges. One statement I love from another expert, Melodie Beatty: "Addictions are things we have to lie about."

Well no one can tell me there isn't such a thing as sex addicts.

I've known some. I've also known of Internet dating and sexual addicts.

One of my late uncles was a sex addict. He was monogamous, but sexually addicted. He couldn't get enough. He wore my aunt out, literally. She died way before he did, after 60 years of marriage. She went at 78, and her geezer dog of a husband lasted to 93. My dad used to tell us he wouldn't leave his poor wife alone, every night of the week, 2-3 times a night.

And that's just one example of a sex addict.

Joseph Smith was addicted to not only sex but voyeurism too.

If not an addict, a dick.

If Joseph Smith just wanted to seal other families to himself, then he would have set the ordinances up that way. He would have sealed himself to all his priesthood buddies. But that is not what he did. He married little girls and the wives of his priesthood buddies. So when apologists try to tell me that Joseph Smith never even had sex with his plural wives, I laugh at them. Joseph really liked to have sex with as many women as he could. I see no other convincing explanation.

""IMO, JS was a sex addict who used his charm to get into the "panties" of young women behind his first wife Emma's back, because he created the religion as a cover to exploit women sexually." - YEAH! the only difference between JS and Warren Jeffs is 150 years.

Yes! That's right. And he deserves to be remembered thusly.

Let the Mormon church put him on a pedestal. Isn't it nice to brand him for what he was? A womanizer, adulterer, liar, thief, and a home wrecker (throw in pedophile for the children he molested.)

His actions and his life choices were reprehensible and he broke more laws than he kept. Joseph Smith was morally bankrupt.

He no more deserves the title of a prophet than Rasputin did.

JS was a playa. He wanted to seduce and conquer women, ladies, girls.. Regardless of their status

A total doucebag, imo