Let’s start off by clarifying that Warren Jeffs is not a Mormon nor does he represent the Mormon faith. He calls himself a Fundamentalist Mormon but that is very far from the truth. They started a new church, used the Mormon name (LDS) and added Fundamentalist to their name to break the copyright and create further confusion.
Nevertheless, it is so different form the real Mormon Church it should be called a different name. Mind you FLDS is a good name for them if the F stands for something other than Fundamentalist.
Thomas S. Monson is a Mormon and he does represent that faith. Before him it was Gordon B. Hinkley. You might have seen him on Larry King. Larry King married a Mormon although he did not convert himself.
Not long ago there was a polygamous compound in Texas raided. Jeffs' compound in Bountiful Utah, the one in Idaho as well as the polygamist compound in Creston, B.C. are all connected.
The abominable thing about the practice is the way they do it. Arranged marriages, forced marriages and marriages of very young girls to very old men is wrong. Very wrong. The three American groups love Canada because in Canada the age of consent is or was 14. That way an old man could marry a 14 year old girl, have sex with her and the law could do nothing to stop it. I think the intent of the law was age of consent between two 14 year olds not a 14 year old girl and a 44 year old man. Nevertheless, I think it’s finally been bumped back up to 16 in Canada.
There are a lot of other things wrong with these four compounds that make them very extreme and different from Mormons. Mitt Romney is a Mormon although he is not the leader of the church just a member of the church. I was less than thrilled when he mocked Hillary Clinton’s desire for affordable health care. Ezra Taft Benson was another Mormon who was a leader of the church and involved in American politics. He wrote a very interesting book called "An Enemy Hath Done this" which I will site later.
Mormon polygamy I’m hesitant to touch with a ten foot pole. Yes at one time the Mormon Church practiced and taught polygamy. Claiming it as part of their religious beliefs they went to jail and appealed the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost.
The Supreme Court first ruled that the State could in fact create a law that prohibits polygamy if it chose to do so but they could not confiscate all that church’s property and belongings as a consequence for breaking that law. However it appears that in the end the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Edmunds-Tucker Act was constitutional, and that the federal government could repeal the LDS church charter and dissolve the church. http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_poly.htm Since Mormons believe in honoring and sustaining the law, they caved in and stopped the practice. Some, refusing to respect the leaders of the church broke away and kept on practicing it in a very unsanctioned manner. The book of Mormon speaks out clearly against the unauthorized practice of polygamy calling it an abomination.
Personally, I’d go to jail for someone’s right to be Catholic or their right to be Muslim, Jewish or their right to be Atheist. However, I wouldn't go to jail for someone’s right to practice polygamy. That is not something I want to go down in history as fighting for. Polygamy is always problematic. It’s not always abusive but it is always problematic.
Biblically, Jacob was tricked into polygamy. He made a deal with Rachel’s father to work for him seven years for the right to marry his daughter. When the seven years was up, Rachel’s father said he could marry Rachel but he couldn’t let his younger daughter get married before his older daughter gets married. He said if he married Rachel’s older sister Leah and worked for him another seven years, he could then marry the woman he originally wanted to marry. Strange and problematic, that is the historical origin of the 12 tribes of Israel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather was a polygamist. Abraham married Sarah but Sarah couldn’t have children so Sarah suggested Abraham marry her handmaiden so they could have a child. Then after it was done, human nature took over and Sarah became jealous.
David and Solomon both were polygamists yet both got completely carried away and had many concubines that were not authorized. The movie the King and I is another example of polygamy. I’m told some Muslims practice polygamy.
Anyways just because it was done in the past doesn’t make it right. I could go on for days about my concerns about the problematic nature of polygamy and strange diversions of the practice. Suffice it to say that I have a problem with it and Mormons do not practice it today.
Gordon B. Hinkley was not a polygamist. Before he died and shortly after his wife passed away I remember hearing him talk about his wife. He said he married the woman of his dreams and now that she has passed on she has once again become the woman of his dreams. How can you get mad at a guy like that? I have a great deal of respect for Gordon B. Hinkley.
Nevertheless, the doctrine still exists and many believe the day will come when polygamy will be reintroduced. Isaiah talks about the day when seven women will cleave unto one man. The way I see it is a man has an affair on his wife and then brings that affair home to live in the same house. That is the only way I can see it.
I find it hard to believe that many who did practice polygamy in the early days of the church said they did not want to originally and would have rather died than live that law. I find that hard to believe when I see how eagerly they embraced the practice. Hyrum certainly wasn’t candid with his feelings about the practice. It was like a kid in a candy store. I have a hard time with terms like "I preached to her the doctrine of polygamy and she embraced it." This is why many good people turn away and many wackos are drawn like a magnet secretly hoping to one day live the polygamy dream so to speak. For me that is not a dream, it's a nightmare.
