Folks, I have been in a perpetual firefight with the ridiculous attitudes at DoC and the other anti's out there; in that they believe that Brigham was a piece of work, a racist, a murderer (of Joseph and Hyrum) and so much other tripe. Oh how some people can fling the baseless poo!! Likely, they are covering their own sins and chicanery.
Why do I care? Because I do not want to see more of my loved ones hurt by ridiculous tripe. Last night in a phone call, I finally got to defend the Church's position on the tripe my oldest daughter got into that led her off the Covenant path. After 10 years, my daughter was actually in a position to hear a defense from me. Wow. She had a ton of water under that bridge in the meantime. It has been painful to watch this whole time. But some people have to learn the hard way. In fact, most do including myself, at times. The key is to limit that kind of learning and maximize inspired learning (following the warnings and promptings of the Holy Spirit).
My wife almost did the faceplant when that BYU "professor" (more like slanderer) went off about Joseph's "philandering" and all the children "he fathered with other men's wives". Citing all "reputable" sources at the time in this professor's book, only to find out that ZERO of it was based on fact. All the children were from the men the women were married to for time, while Joseph was sealed to them for eternity. So far as we know, there were no side sexual liaisons. Unless Joseph had access to some really good prophilactics (that he did not have with Emma - who seemed to get pregnant just by Joseph looking at her), nothing went down as these useless accusers assert.
Here is the problem - or part of the problem. People are under the same spirit that the great deceiver was as he works in that role of "accuser" that was from the beginning. This is how he has been defined in scripture. In studying his understudies on this earth, I would definitely support that title for him and his embodied minions. While at the same time, I would probably never arrive at that conclusion for the Son of God. Simply not His style.
So here is the rub; people will simply use any excuse to walk away because of sin in their lives. Polygamy or blacks in the Priesthood are two really convenient hotpoints for those who want to leave - but who are not quite ready to throw the Book of Mormon under the bus (though their demon-incarnate masters) will eventually take them down that path with the final stop of that train being destination Throw the Savior Under the Bus; a heat-filled paradise with many other types with distorted visages.
So yeah, there is much hatred out there for the principle/doctrine of plural marriage. One of it's purposes is to divide the sheep from the goats, so to speak. Jesus himself said he came not to bring people together, but to divide houses against themselves. The doctrines He teaches simply are not easy and for the spiritually lazy to comprehend, nor live. I am always drawn to the testimonies in journals and temple histories of those who DID live the principles of the Gospel fully. And they developed faith and spiritual stamina by doing hard things. Many of those amazing people did live polygamy - and along with the toughness of that, received witnesses that we simply do not receive (in large part) these days.
This is one of my favorite story tapes that my wife and I came across probably two decades ago:
Enjoy!! And ponder on those who lived during and after the "murderous" Brigham and John Taylor did and see if their works do not speak volumes. See how you measure up against them. I know I do not hold a candle to them, which either makes me worse than a murderous posse or it exonerates them and furthermore condemns those who condemn them.
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