Polygamy and The Latter Day Saints

Founder of the church of Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith practiced polygamy before he preached it. Smith’s biographer Fawn Brody wrote, Joseph Smith believed in the good life. “Man is that he might have joy,” had been one of his proclamations in the Book of Mormon. It isn’t known how many wives Joseph Smith had but it’s believed to have been at last fifty.

His revelation that there should be plural wives was found in the book of Sarah, Abraham’s first wife. Smith was already practicing polygamy and was tired of keeping it a secret from his legal wife Emma, when he wrote that God told him, “I command mine handmaiden Emma Smith to receive all those that have been commended to my servant Joseph” and cleave unto my servant Joseph and no one else, if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed.” Emma accepted Joseph’s revelation as the word of God.

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In the Mormon religion there are three realms of heaven. The highest and most sought after is the “celestial” it can be entered only by men who have at least three wives. In this realm, man becomes godlike and rules their own planet. The reason they have so many children is to populate their planet. The wives become “queens” and bear celestial children. The middle realm is the “terrestrial,” it’s for people who never knew the teaching of Joseph Smith but it’s still supposed to be pretty nice. The bottom realm is the “telestial” and is for people who refused to worship God. Hell is reserved for those who refuse to repent and continue to wallow in sin.

Joseph Smiths growing political power and the publics disgust with the church’s plural wives led to his assassination in 1844 in a Illinois jail and to the subsequent migration to Utah led by Brigham Young. The main church banned polygamy in 1890 and opened the way for Utah to become a state. This ban changed very little as the church continued to practice polygamy.

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When John Taylor was prophet of the church and was living in hiding to avoid prosecution for polygamy. Taylor said he had heard the voice of “the lord” and Joseph Smith, and they told him not to sign the legal forms banning polygamy. Taylor gave five leaders the right to perform polygamous marriages and made them swear that “no year passed by without children being born of plural marriages.”

In the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the people believe the church erred when they abandoned polygamy. The prophet who leads the church is believed to have royal blood and is a descendant through the father’s blood line. The prophet chooses his favorite son to precede him in his old age when he is unable to carry on. These families with royal blood are the elite and leaders of the church.

In November 7, 2007 the current prophet Warren Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life, after being convicted of being an accomplice to the rape of Elissa Wall. He is also facing additional charges of sexual conduct with a minor and incest in Arizona. He may still face charges in Texas in relation to his own marriages to girls of twelve and fourteen years of age.

http://socyberty.com/issues/child-prostitutes/

http://socyberty.com/issues/child-slaves/

http://socyberty.com/education/the-story-of-one-child-in-georgias-alternative-schools/