ANOTHER SHOT AT BRIGHAM YOUNG

 I have a really nice fellow on FB who is a big believer in the Gifts of the Spirit.  He is really outspoken on things like the Gift of Tongues, etc and also on the Baptism of Fire.  Stuff that simply is not talked about today because the Saints (or Later Day Aints, as I call many So Mos - or Social Mormons), not to be confused with the:

• ProgMos = Progressive Mormons with pink hair and rainbow flags hanging off the front of their house who just want the Prophet to bend a little on the whole two guys/gals kneeling at an altar vibe.  They might be caught protesting at BYU a few days after signing their pledge to live the Honor Code or receiving their full professorship in the English or Women's Studies Depts.  Sheesh.
• ExMos = Ex Mormons (self explanatory; those who spend inordinate amounts of time on the disaffected ex-mo sites trashing on the lost who still cling to their purple koolaid decanters)
• Pharimons = Pharisee Mormons those who talk the talk but do not walk the walk of their declared religious values.  
• SoMos = Social Mormons who are simply there because everyone is doing it and why be left out of a party when it is free, short of paying into the Ward Budget?   And who can have a better time alcohol-free than a gymnasium full of Mormons???
• HoMos = Honey-do Mormons who just see an unlimited supply of men who can fix things in the hope that you will finally decide to visit on a Sunday and return to full activity.

Haha.  I love that list and would like to see it grow until we have all the "ites" nicely classified.  Please add in the comments.  We need to flesh this whole thing out.

Anyway, my FB friend brought up this and this was my reply to him:

This is a bunch of crap attempting to discredit Brigham Young and those who lived the higher laws. Likely from the charlatans at DoC. Let me ask you this, Larry. If these practices were wicked and so out of line. Why did one of the greatest advocates for women's rights, Eliza R. Snow, not stand up to it - and instead was married for time to Brigham Young as a former wife of Joseph Smith? Why did those who practiced it have an incredible increase in the gifts of the Spirit, as well as visits from the Three Nephites (including among my own ancestors)? Why after 1890-1910 did many of those manifestations begin to disappear until today there is a dearth of them? Why, when I read of the great men of faith in this dispensation (who have a fulness of Priesthood), are most, if not all of them were practicing plural marriage? I read the entire 500+ page biography of Edward J Wood who was the first Cardston Alberta Temple President for 35 years and had amazing gifts of prophecy and also healing who seemed to exhibit a fulness of his Priesthood. I could not resolve that with his apparent lack of plurality of wives. As time went on, sure enough, I found out (through Wikipedia, of all places) that he did marry his wife's widowed sister and would faithfully go to Conference every single one except two during a 100 year blizzard and once during the 1918 flu pandemic. He fathered and supported several children in that Levirite-style polygamous marriage that occurred after the Second Manifesto, possibly at the behest of later excommunicated Apostle John Taylor II, who was a huge advocate and would not heed the call to put the practice behind him.