Polygamy challenged in Canada

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1151644

Much has been said about the recent arrest of a leader of the polygamy compound in B.C. and we await the trial and the court’s ruling. Some editorials caution the reason the police haven’t made arrests in these compounds before is because many were worried they would lose the court case and give the sect a legal president to continue and expand. Now, push has come to shove and the law is being tested in Canada.

Some say that the Crown should have laid charges of sexual exploitation not of polygamy as those would have been easier to prove and easier to enforce. The matter was taken to the US Supreme Court long ago when the original Mormon Church tested the law. The US Supreme Court concluded that a state could make a law banning polygamy. To my understanding it also left the door open for a State to allow polygamy as well. Nevertheless, the state said no polygamy and the Supreme Court upheld that law. As a result the original Mormon Church eventually stopped the practice.

Break aways exist in any religion. To claim that Warren Jeffs or Winston Blackmore are Mormons is like claiming Anglicans or Presbyterians are Catholics. Just because they broke away from the church does not mean they are still affiliated with it.

Nevertheless there are without question doctrinal similarities over polygamy. Mormons do believe in polygamy. That was clearly a biblical practice. Mormons defied the law to challenge it in court but lost. Since they believe in honoring and sustaining the law they stopped the practice but that doesn’t mean they stopped believing in the practice. Bruce R. McConkie states in Mormon Doctrine that when the Savior comes again there is no doubt that holy practice will be restored.

Now there are discrepancies on the definition of that holy practice. What Abraham and Jacob did was very different than the typical over 40 year old man marrying multiple child brides of 14 years of age. Why is it so many of these guys are obese? Jeff Warrens was an exception. He was scrawny but clearly had that deranged look about him which was evident in his dishonesty: http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/bustupinbountiful/

Even Winston Blackmore, despite his used car salesman eloquence, when you look at his face he has that deranged twist look. Not as bad as Warren Jeffs but it is certainly there. Even the Mormons teach "We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Hence many are called but few are chosen."

When I look at Warren Jeffs or Winston Blackmore I don’t see the image of Christ in their countenance. It’s more obvious with Warren Jeffs but there is still something not quite right about Winston Blackmore. Gordon B. Hinkley, Thomas S. Monson, Ezra Taft Benson, I can see the image of Christ in their countenance. Those are good men. Not perfect but noble and good.

Mind you they aren’t polygamists either although they do believe in the doctrine. With all this talk of the Da Vinci code and the speculation that Christ was married, they didn’t even speculate on what if Christ was a polygamist. If he was, I’d have to say it would have been more like Abraham and Jacob not like Jeffs or Blackmore. Nevertheless, I still see it as very problematic and there does appear to be similarities between Winston Blackmore and Brigham Young.

Polygamists claim that polygamy is their religious right to which I reply no it is not. If I create a religion that believes in smoking crack, I cannot smoke crack as my religious right. I contend that Mormonism isn’t polygamy. I contend that Mormonism is Christianity, which is as Paul describes, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry clothing the naked. Polygamy may well be a doctrine of Mormonism but it does not define Mormonism. Mormonism is so much more than that. The book of Mormon clearly denounces the unauthorized practice of polygamy. Yet that in itself opens Pandora’s box.

Polygamy wasn’t practiced because there was a shortage of men. Not when you look at the census statistics. Polygamy wasn’t practiced just to raise more children. If there are the same number of men and woman, five men marrying five women can have just as many children as one man marrying five woman. Polygamy was practiced because it was a commandment of God, which creates two more dilemmas.

One is distinguishing between a false prophet and a true prophet. The other is what kind of God would command a man to marry some else’s wife? The same one that would command human sacrifice? That leads us to the ultimate dilemma, which we’ll deal with next.

Nevertheless, there are without question many men in the Mormon church who are secretly cheering on Blackmore. If he wins then that could very well hasten the millennial day for all Mormon men who are coveting the time when they too will be able to live the polygamy dream. Not.

Polygamy Strikes Again

They’ve done a follow up on their polygamy article: http://healthandfitness.sympatico.msn.ca/BodyMind/ContentPosting_BL?newsitemid=545651&feedname=RODALE-BESTLIFE&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=False&pagenumber=3&paginationenabled=false

You will note that the guy arguing in favor of polygamy is a sexual deviant. It kind of proves my point that no matter how holy of a calling you perceive polygamy to be, it attracts freaks and extremists like a magnet. I rest my case: http://finiansworld.blogspot.com/2008/10/polygamy.html

Polygamy

Well polygamy makes the news again and this time I’m going to comment. http://lifestyle.sympatico.msn.ca/Home/ContentPosting_HM?newsitemid=260428&feedname=TRANS-HOMEMAKERS&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=False

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.

I’m going to address Jeffs' polygamy and LDS polygamy in two separate categories because they are very different. Warren Jeffs is a wacko: http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/bustupinbountiful/

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.