juliann

I think the most responsible answer to JS’s instigation of plural marriage is nobody knows. Getting it from the Bible is hardly an explanation. What saved the church from going under like almost all New Religions was Danish/English immigration. What in the world would polygamy have done. It was likely the reason JS was killed. That’s just goofy. We seem to be replicating a coming of age when it comes to polygamy just as we have with the priesthood ban. Members are now openly assigning it to racism rather than God. Polygamy has also been damaging to the church. There is nothing good about it and the rationales for it are ridiculous and frivolous.

As far as I am award, these recollections were not "early." They were later. No one but JS was a participant or witness of this claim. You are trying to turn hearsay into first person testimony. The likely reason it isn't "emphasized" by modern scholarship is because it didn't come from JS himself and there are no contemporaneous accounts. This might be true...but it also might fall into the seagulls and crickets category of history.

Reel doesn't have the expertise to destroy anything. If he did, the church would be dead by now. That aside, the value of Stone is in her punching a few holes in the standard scholarly narrative. She pays attention to some things that they don't and it needs to be addressed. I've only looked into her stuff once and immediately saw this in at least one instance (which I no longer recall.) I'm unconcerned with how right or wrong she is, however, I will never dismiss the women's statements from JS's wives. But I'm also skeptical of the polygamy advocacy of the more vocal researchers that have shaped the narrative. I will never be able to take them seriously until they stop denying polyandry....just as she denies polygyny. They are no different in that sense.

Who has defined it since it was put into play here?

It didn't vanish for the past ten years when conservatives were targeted. Isn't it time for all of it to just stop instead of digging in with the democracy is over everytime the person you don't like is elected? Seriously, this is soooooooo tiresome. I've watched people fall apart after elections for most of my life and yet we are still here.

Oh for heaven's sakes. I looked that one up. He said it as an aside while on another topic and must have never brought it up again or it would be another bumper sticker. Yeah, it's over the top but at no point did he say he should be assasinated. I am just learning about Kirk, it seems it is mostly evangelical based stuff. There are things to debate with him, but it would sure help if people could at least be honest about him instead of making him an offender for a word. Didn't we get enough of that on the message boards? I can't believe the stuff I am reading about what he said and then when I chase it down it wasn't what he said at all.