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gdm-digest          Sunday, October 18 1998          Volume 02 : Number 011




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Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 22:23:24 -0600
From: "Perry L. Porter" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ---> Mary Elizabeth Rollins

http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/merl.htm


What ever happened to the young 14 year old girl that saved 20 copies of
the book of commandments.  Read her amazing stories collected together on
one spot on the Web.

Mary Elizabeth Rollins (Lightner Smith Young), one of the wives featured
in Todd Compton's book, In Sacred Loneliness : The Plural Wives of Joseph
Smith, Signature books 1998.

This page includes her Autobiography, Life Story, Testimony at BYU in
1905, Dream of Mary Elizabeth, regarding Josephites, Godbeites and
Brighamites.


http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/merl.htm



Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

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Date: Sat, 08 Aug 1998 22:34:38 -0600
From: "Perry L. Porter" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ---> Unsolicited e-mail Evangelism

http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/bomreply.htm


Unsolicited e-mail Evangelism.

A set of questions showed up in my e-mail box.  So I gave a shot at
answering them.  Not a particularly serious attempt at answering, as I
provide no references, but I feel that the questions are not directed at
finding religious truth, but a back door method at promoting
fundamentalist type religion and simplistic thinking.


http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/bomreply.htm


Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

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Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 13:22:33 -0600
From: "Perry L. Porter" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ---> CES

Church Educational System The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Dear Student:

Aug. 3,1998

Congratulations on your important decision to take seminary this year. We
are thrilled and excited to know you will be with us. You are about to
embark on one of the greatest experiences of your life. There will never
be another year in Seminary like this one. You have followed the counsel
of the prophets of God. If you have not yet decided to take seminary
please consider the following:

[Commentary, While I enjoyed seminary, I can not imagine what they are
doing now that they were not doing 25 years ago, to make it an experience
equal to the HYPE included in this letter.]

President Benson said, "Regularly attend seminary and be a Seminary
graduate." Also President Boyd K. Packer stated, "... Patents, encourage,
even insist, that your students register for seminary... Students, once
you are enrolled-attend, and learn. Persuade your friends to do the game.
YOU WILL NEVER REGRET IT, THIS I PROMISE YOU!"

We know you understand how important your choice really is. As we welcome
you to Seminary, we would also like to tell you some things that will be
of help. First, our course of study this year is the Doctrine & Covenants/
Church History. President Ezra t. Benson said, "The D&C was the Instrument
God used to bring us to Christ's Kingdom. (The Church)." We ask that You
bring a Triple Combination, which has the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and
Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. It will also be necessary for you
to have a Bible. They should be the L.D.S. Edition and and (sic) 1985 or
newer. If you would like to purchase a new set you can get them at the
Church Distribution Center in Salt Lake. They can also be purchased
locally at places like Deseret Book, Timp. Bookstore and B.Y.U. Bookstore.

Please bring them to your first day of class. Come prepared for a
wonderful, growing experience.

There will be a Back to School night- Thursday, August 20th 1998, 6:30 to
8:00 PM at Canyon View Jr. High. We would invite you to bring your
parents. over to the seminary the same night to meet your teacher. We look
forward to seeing you there. Enjoy the rest of your summer, it will be
gone before you know it.

Sincerely, Canyon View Jr. Seminary Faculty 222-3176

NOTE: Please share this information with your parents. Thanks!

1078 North 600 East * Orem, Utah 84097-3355 * 1-801-222-3176


[Commentary, though seminary may have positive effects on some children,
there are others with which it apparently had no lasting effect, for
example Gary Arthur Bishop is from my home town Delta Utah, (more
precisely Art lived in a near by farm town of Hinkley Utah).  He was 4
years older than me in high school and was in the class with my sister
whom was Home Coming Queen, that her senior year.  I don't remember if Art
was a 4 years graduate of seminary, but probably as most all students then
at Delta High were except for a very few "hoods" that smoked and drank.
Art was on the Student Council as Business Manager, which would indicate
to the non-resident that he was a popular student.  Art was not, he was a
social outcast.  A tradition that went on even my senior year, was to vote
a nerd to student council, as a joke to humble the social elite during the
coming year.  Arthur was smart, he was one of 5 scholars of the class of
1970, but he was a geek, rarely if ever finding someone that would accept
the rare offer of a date.  Gary Arthur Bishop in Utah sexually tortured
and murdered five boys, ages 5-14. Gary was also an Eagle Scout.  I taught
at a reform school for boys for 7 years and on numerous occasions hear the
very well meaning seminary teacher proclaim to the predominantly LDS
students there that "there are no Eagle scouts at the Point of the
Mountain", (the location of the state prison for Utah.)

Between October 16, 1979, and July 14, 1983, Alonzo Daniels (aged 14),
Claude (Kim) Peterson (aged 11), Danny Davis (aged 4), Troy Ward (aged 6),
and Graeme Cunningham (aged 13) disappeared and were never seen alive
again.

I have 3 books on the Mark Hoffman fiasco, but I have not yet read them to
know if he was a 4 years seminary graduate or an Eagle scout.  I hope as
my 2 boys take seminary this year that their teacher might reflect from
time to time that they may have a Mark Hoffman or a Gary Arthur Bishop in
their classes, or a Gary Gilmore or Ted Bundy in their parking lot.  And
that it might temper their pragmatic pontifications, so that they might
dwell more on integrity and less on conformity!]


- ---------------------


Church Educational

System The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints

Dear Parent,

Aug. 3, 1998

This year in seminary we are studying the Doctrine & Covenants and Church
History. We thought it would be neat if we had one story relating to
church history from each of our students that could be shared in class at
an appropriate time. We are asking each student to bring one story about
one page in length written out or typed.

As a faculty we believe this will help them feel more a part of the church
history experience.  Each teacher will tie their stories into the events
and activities as they talk about them.

So, to help us do this would you take a few minutes to relate a story to
your son/daughter about one of your ancestors who was involved in a church
history event. Use one that builds faith and commitment if possible.
Examples might be, meeting of or hearing; Joseph Smith speak, living in
Kirkland, Nauvoo, or Missouri, traveling from Europe, traveling across the
plains to Salt Lake, a conversion story, trials they experienced, or
successes settling in Utah, etc.... If you don't have early ancestors who
were in church history, please write about the first ancestors exposed to
the gospel and how they were converted.

We appreciate your time & effort and hope this year will be a wonderful
experience in Church History for your son/daughter. We are excited to be
with them this year.

Sincerely,

Canyon View Jr. Seminary Faculty

1078 North 600 East o Orem, Utah 84097-3355 9 1-801-222-3176

- --------------

[I'll have to dig up the documentation about my GGGrandfather being a
Danite, that might make for an interesting discussion. <g> ]

Out GGGrandfather, Jame Henry Rollins
http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/jhr.htm


Our GGGrandaunt, Mary Elizabeth Rollins.
http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/merl.htm


Our GGGrandfather Sanford Porter.
http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/sanfordp.htm

Our GGGrandfater Anson Call
http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/ansoncall.htm

and his son Anson Bowen Call.
http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/ansonbc.htm




Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 19:17:48 -0600
From: "Perry L. Porter" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ---> Trust fund set up for cancer-stricken community leader

Trust fund set up for cancer-stricken community leader

Dave Mann

Ken Circeo Journal Contributor

July 4th was always a day of celebration for Dave and Nancy Mann. Each
year they would look forward to taking their children to the Provo parade
and then to a family picnic in the afternoon. But what they learned this
year will forever change the meaning of that day for them.

For a few weeks, Dave hadn't felt quite right and he noticed the color was
gone from his complexion. His doctor suspected hepatitis, but the tests
returned negative. Gallstone tests met with the same results. Then Dave
underwent an ultrasound, and his doctor discovered the source of his
problem. Shadows in his stomach cancer.

The news came as a shock to this father of eight whose active lifestyle
kept him in excellent physical condition. A member of the Utah High School
Athletic Association, Dave has spent hundreds of hours over the past 20
years volunteering his time as a coach and official in virtually every
major sport including baseball, softball, football, basketball and
wrestling.

see Mann pg. 12 Mann continued from pg. 1

"Dave has wrapped his life up in his family," said Nancy, his wife of 21
years. "Whenever the kids needed someone to coach them, Dave was always
there.  In fact, just recently, when our 16-year-old, Chris, needed a
goalie for his roller hockey team, Dave bought a pair of skates and took
up the sport."

But all that has changed now.

Upon first learning of his condition, Dave and Nancy were not without
hope. After all, they knew there were many different kinds of cancer, most
of them treatable.  It would just be a matter of choosing the proper
therapy and maybe undergoing an operation or two. Then they heard the
worst of it. At 44 years old, Dave had been diagnosed with adenocracinoma,
a type of stomach cancer that was blocking normal bodily flow through his
stomach. It was untreatable.

"You probably have less than a year left," Dave's doctor told him. "Go
home and spend the time with your family."

Dave and Nancy looked at their eight children, ranging in age from 5 to
20, including two sets of twins and wondered how to tell them. Dave's only
real desire was to do as he had been doing for most of his adult life:
stay around and raise his children.

A salesman by trade, Dave was hired by Orem-based Allied Resource
Corporation last September as director of sales.

"Dave's been terrific to work with and has done a great job for our
company," said ARC president Kurt Gilbert. "It's a tragedy that he should
contract this illness, especially at such a young age."

As they began working out the details of how Dave's cancer would affect
ARC, Kurt learned that Dave's situation is further complicated by his
having no health insurance and very little life insurance.  Kurt and his
business partner, Rod Riddell, decided that ARC would establish a trust
fund to help pay medical bills, which already total more than $15,000 and
to otherwise assist Dave's family.

"This trust fund is a way for others to get involved in helping Dave's and
his family," said Kurt.

The David R. Mann Donative Account is maintained by First Security Bank
(34202141).

Through it all, Dave has exhibited a surprisingly good attitude. His
doctors have assured him he could have taken no further measures to avoid
contracting the disease.

"That's the mystery of cancer," explained Dave. "There's no history of it
in my family. My doctor said it's probably been in my body for three or
four years, but they have no idea what caused it."

Dave's strong faith helps him believe that there is a higher purpose for
his cancer than simply the obvious effects.

"God must have something pretty important for me if He wants me to stop
raising my children at this time in my life," he said.

Many people dream of living an abundant life. Of spending time with their
family. Of maintaining a healthy lifestyle physically, mentally, and
spiritually. Dave Mann was living that life:, honoring his God, his
country and his fellow men . Providing for his family and playing by the
rules.

And then the rules changed.





Family Mann: The Mann family: (L-R, back row) Jennifer, Mind, Chris;
(second row) Anthony, Dave, Nancy, Brandon (front row) Skyler, Kayla,
Corey.



A personal note, I first met Dave playing Church Basketball about 15 years
ago.  Dave played hard and strove to succeed, from tip to final horn.  He
is in my brother Gil's ward, and our Stake before it was split.  I also
knew Dave as a fellow Basketball referee.  He was good, fair and
uncompromising.  This did not always propelled him up the refereeing
ranks, as being well liked by the coaches and other politics often count
more than consistency and judgment.

Dave and I are both guards and in the heat of battle we have been nose to
nose excitedly debating a disputed call.  The second the game is over,
regardless of the outcome, I would never have any bad feelings for Dave or
visa versa. Hang in there Dave, cause, when it comes to playing by the
rules, "U da Man".

I wish the best for Dave in his remaining days with his family.  I hope by
reproducing this news article on the web that it may generate need funds
for his wife and family.

Dave will be a competitor to the end.

Unfortunately the final buzzer will sound way too soon.

Perry


- ---------

A family photo can be found at the bottom of this web page:

http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/6396/davemann.htm

Family Mann: The Mann family: (L-R, back row) Jennifer, Mind, Chris;
(second row) Anthony, Dave, Nancy, Brandon (front row) Skyler, Kayla,
Corey.



[e-mail]




Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

- -

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 21:16:14 -0600
From: "Perry L. Porter" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ---> New Year and New Testament approaching.

Anyone that has some links like the below (for the New Testament), please
sent them to me and I will collect them and pass them out in Dec 1998.


Here are some internet resources for Gospel Doctrine Manual that relate to
the Old Testament.


    http://www.srv.net/~sro/Notepad/Notepad.html

    http://www.deseretbook.com/scriptures/

    http://www.uvol.com/www1st/perfect/gospeldoctrine/

    http://home.utah-inter.net/sbf/sb03000.htm

    http://www.zarahemla.com/ss.html

    http://www.ldschurch.net/ldss/

    http://www.wnetc.com/scripture-l/

    http://www.grfn.org/~smcgee/zion.html

    http://www.ldsworld.com/links/

    http://www.cs.utah.edu/~ruefenac/lds/




LDS Reference & Research Material. LDSworld Excellent LDS Resource Web
Site maintained by Infobases. 13 Articles of Faith The basic beliefs of
the Church...:    http://elders.web-home.net/reference.html


One particular area of study for me has been the manifesto so in fact to
disseminate correct information about the manifesto, in fact it was the
inspiration for having this list in the first place.

A few web pages can be followed from:

http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds.htm



When at BYU a great Teacher Eugene Campbell, used to tell us about how he
taught the truth of church history to his small High Priests class in
Edgmont.

It is 20 years later, an the church has not kept up, I hope to fulfill a
small goal of giving back to him what he gave to me, knowledge, truth,
and compassion.  I hope to pass that also on to a larger class than the 8
or so of us graduate students, or the 15 or so of his High Priest's Group.


Now that the D&C year is over I have NO interest in doing the work it
takes to prepare a weekly post for this list for at least 3 more years.

For me, the other scriptures in contrast to the D&C are ancient history,
hardly relevant and mostly boring.

If someone else wants to do the work of preparing the lessons, I will keep
the list active, but I plan on doing very little work for it.  (note it is
9 months later and no one volunteered.)


Sorry I will NOT be doing the work for this list with the Old Testament.

I will be forwarding information that from time to time that contradicts
the miss-information of "correlated" Sunday School and Priesthood and
Relief Society lessons, (see below for examples).

Or this web page:

http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/youngman.htm


I have not interest is making up dirt on the Church or passing on lame
anti-Mormon tripe, but I also can no longer stomach passing on blatantly
whitewashed information, that is crafted to only be faith promoting,
without regard to integrity to our actually past history.

The real truth will ultimately be known, so we might as well start dealing
with it now.

There are plenty of sources for whitewashed as well as false anti-mormon
tripe, I will not be a part of disseminating either.

If the actual quotes of Brigham Young are damaging to your fragile
testimony, please don't complain to me, just Unsubscribe.


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Send a message to:

    [e-mail]

in the text of your message simply enter:

    unsubscribe gdm
end


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Following are some reasons that I pass along accurate information along
with correlated information:


I was so disappointed in the ensign article Jan 1998, page 34, that
supports a "worldwide or global flood ... cover earth's highest
mountains".  The fact that there is no geological evidence is not a
problem according to the article.  The author sites fundamental Geological
thesis published in 1795 and 1830, that state that our current geological
record had been very consistent.  Though the rate of geologic record can
not be "proved" to be consistent over Millions of years, the author quotes
not modern geologists that is inaccurate for the last 8 thousand years.
No geologic evidence of a universal flood for 8000 years is a hole
different issue of whether the rate of geological change has been
consistent for millions of years, is simply a Red Herring by Donald W.
Parry.

Since this is one of a set of articles that introduce us to this years
topic, and that editorial board wishes to present this as what Mormons
currently belive, I for one do not wish to promote such fundamentalist
Christian nonsense, and will NOT help perpetuate such backwards thinking.


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Then there is the following misrepresentations in the new Relief Society
and Priesthood Manual about, Brigham Young.



"... especially to those who are presiding officers, Set that example
before your [wife] and your children,..."
Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Brigham Young, Page 165
The cite is : Discourses of Brigham Young, page 198, Edited by John A.
Wodstoe.


"... especially to those who are presiding officers, Set that example
before your _wives_ and your children,..."
Discourses of Brigham Young, p.198, Edited by John A. Wodstoe.

"...especially to those who are presiding officers, Set that example
before your _wives_ and your children..."
Journal of Discourses, Vol.15, p.230, Brigham Young, October 9, 1872


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"Let the husband and father learn to bend his will to the will of his God,
and then instruct his _wives_ and children in this lesson of
self-government by his example as well as by precept, ..."
Young, Brigham. Discourses of Brigham Young, Edited by John A. Wodstoe.
1941, p.198

"Let the husband and father learn to bend his will to the will of his God,
and then instruct his _wives_ and children..."
Journal of Discourses, Vol.9, p.256 - p.257, Brigham Young, March 16, 1862

"Let the husband and father learn to bend his will to the will of his God,
and then instruct his [wife] and children..."
Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Brigham Young, Page 165
The cite is : Discourses of Brigham Young, page 198, Edited by John A.
Wodstoe.


[Note that the original had a recreance to Celestial or Plural Marriage,
as it was practiced at the time.  Note that even in 1941 it was still ok
to admit that our ancestors lived polygamy, but in 1998, apparently we are
to ashamed of the marriage system of our ancestors and the original and
edited test is sanitized for the delicate testimonies of the weak
members.]



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Additionally, on page 163, the first paragraph of the lesson, begins with
the word "It", with the words [eternal marriage] in brackets supplied to
define what the pronoun is referring to. Trouble is, "eternal marriage" is
not used as the reference for the pronoun in the original, but refers to
the nature of eternity.  Brigham Young was not talking about how much he
or others knew about it, but how little any man knows about it, especially
how it relates to the Marriage Relation.  Then Brigham Young goes on about
how we could not get to know every one whom ever lived, even if we spent
only 5 minutes with them.  Which has nothing to do with [eternal
marriage].
Discourses of Brigham Young, page 195.

Brigham Young's Address delivered at the General Conference, in the
Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1852 is entitled, "Marriage
Relations of Bishops and Deacons."

Brigham Young Corrects Paul's First epistle to Timothy, third Chapters "A
Bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, Vigilant, sober ..."

To this Brigham responds, "... I believe directly the reverse; but his
advice to Timothy amounts simply to this - It would not be wise for you to
ordain a man to the office of a Bishop unless he has a wife ; you must not
ordain a single or unmarried man to that calling."
(JD v2. p.88)

Brigham Young's talk is about Plural Marriage, not [eternal marriage] as
the manual would have you belive.  The paragraph leading up to the quote
states:

"I have no reasonable grounds upon which to say it was not the custom in
ancient times for a man to have more than one wife, but every reason to
believe that it was the custom among the Jews, from the days of Abraham to
the days of the Apostles, for they were lineal descendants of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom taught and practised the doctrine of
plurality of wives, and were revered by the whole Jewish nation, and it is
but natural that they should have respected and followed their teachings
and example.

So much I wished to say to my brethren and sisters.  We have had a
splendid address from brother Hyde, or which I am grateful. ..."
Journal of Discourses, Vol.2, p.89 - p.90, Brigham Young, October 6, 1854

Here is the quote in full context.

"I say to the congregation, treasure up in your hearts what you have heard
to-night, and at other times.  You will hear more with regard to the
doctrine, that is, our "Marriage Relations."  Elder Hyde says he has only
just dipped into it, but, if it will not be displeasing to him, I will say
he has not dipped into it yet; he has only run round the edge of the
field.  He has done so beautifully, and it will have its desired effect.
But the whole subject of the marriage relation is not in my reach, nor in
any other man's reach on this earth.  It is without beginning of days or
end of years; it is a hard matter to reach.  We can tell some things with
regard to it; it lays the foundation for worlds, for angels, and for the
Gods; for intelligent beings to be crowned with glory, immortality, and
eternal lives.  In fact, it is the thread which runs from the beginning to
the end of the holy Gospel of salvation--of the Gospel of the Son of God;
it is from eternity to eternity.  When the vision of the mind is opened,
you can see a great portion of it, but you see it comparatively as a
speaker sees the faces of a congregation.  To look at, and talk to, each
individual separately, and thinking to become fully acquainted with them,
only to spend five minutes with each would consume too much time, it could
not easily be done.  So it is with the visions of eternity; we can see and
understand, but it is difficult to tell.   May God bless you.  Amen."
Journal of Discourses, Vol.2, p.90, Brigham Young, October 6, 1854

[To take a quote from the Discourses of Brigham Young by Widstoe, and look
up the original takes at most 5 minutes.  If you want to know if the quote
is taken out of context, it only takes a few minutes, isn't that a small
price to pay for intellectual integrity?]


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Again for more:


http://www.xmission.com:80/~plporter/lds/youngman.htm







Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter





Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter





Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

- -

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 22:01:38 -0600
From: "Perry L. Porter" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ---> Something we could learn from the Pope.

Subject: Catholics will ask for forgivness

12:35 PM ET 09/23/98

Vatican to seek forgiveness for past sins


By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Vatican theologians have finished the
draft of a major document in which the Catholic Church will officially ask
forgiveness for its past errors, possibly including the Inquisition and
its treatment of Jews.

The Vatican said on Wednesday its International Theological Commission
would meet next month to work on a document ``on the relationship between
the Church and the errors of the past.''

The theologians will review a working draft of a document ordered by Pope
John Paul, who wants the Church of nearly one billion members to seek
forgiveness for the past as part of celebrations marking the millennium.

The working draft, currently 35 pages, was prepared by a subcommittee and
will be presented to the theological commission for discussion in Rome
from September 28 to October 3.

The document, whose definitive title is not known, will be studied by the
commission and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's top theologian and
head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In the document, the Church is expected to ask forgiveness for past
errors, including contempt for Jews and heretics.

The 2000 celebrations begin on December 24, 1999, and end on January 6,
2001. It was not clear when the document would be issued.

Catholics around the world are due to mark a day of ``Request for
Forgiveness'' on March 8, 2000.

In a major document last March, the Vatican apologised for Catholics who
failed to do enough to help Jews against Nazi persecution during the
Holocaust and acknowledged centuries of Catholic preaching of contempt
against Jews.

In a trip to Germany in 1996, the Pope said not enough of the country's
Catholics stood up to Adolf Hitler.

The Pope has said in various documents and speeches that the Church needed
to assume its responsibility for the Inquisition, which was marked by the
forced conversion of Jews and the torture and killing of heretics.

While there may have been mitigating historical factors for the behaviour
of some Catholics, the Pope has said this did not prevent the Church from
expressing deep regret for the wrongs of its members in some periods of
its history.

One of the first steps of his papacy, which marks it 20th anniversary next
month, was to begin the procedure that led to the rehabilitation of
Galileo, the astronomer who was persecuted by the Church.

The Inquisition prosecuted Galileo for his assertion that the Earth
revolved around the Sun, a teaching which ran counter to Biblical
accounts.

The Vatican has already held a conference on the religious roots of
anti-Semitism and one on the Inquisition is planned for later this year.

^REUTERS@

- ------------

Articles of Faith 13

13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in
doing good to all men; ... If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of
good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Joseph Smith.

[Why is it that the LDS church is not leading the way on repenting of the
previous sins of our past?]


Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

- -

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 23:43:33 -0600
From: "Perry L. Porter" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ---> The Misery of Polygamy

THE MISERY OF POLYGAMY

'WE'RE STUCK.' SAYS WIFE NO.1

A Personal Account of Plural Marriage
By WINA STURGEON

September 11-24, 1 998
Salt Lake Observer
Smart Local News
(c) 1998 Silver King News Corp.
VOLUME I NUMBER VII $1.00

The unhappiness of plural marriage is not a burden that Sharon Smith bears
alone.

"I don't think she's any happier than I am," said Ms. Smith of her 'sister
wife,' who lives 15 miles away.

"The irony is this: It was Ms. Smith's idea to add another wife.

Sharon Smith isn't her real name, of course. To be identified might Mean
the loss of her job as a public school teacher.
Polygamy in Utah is enduring another round of scrutiny and criticism as
allegations of child abuse and incest have surfaced in
recent weeks. To avoid prosecution as well as persecution, the family Ms.
Smith belongs to - two wives, a husband, 11
children - keeps its Marital arrangement secret

"About 11 years after we were married, I encouraged my husband to take
another wife. I grew up that way and believed in it,"
said the softspoken Ms. Smith, who is in her late 40's. "I thought it was
the right thing do."

Raised in a home that was part of Utah's largest polygamist clans, she was
the youngest of 25 siblings.

But Ms. Smith, in trying to follow her religion, lost most of her faith -
as feelings of inadequacy, the pain of competing for her
husband's attenion and the hardship of being essentially a single parent
overwhelmed her..

                                 - CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 -

Polygamy

                                 - CONTINUED FROM PAGE I -

"The hardest thing for me was the sexual relationship. I remember when
they came home after their honeynoon, I kept so busy
that I couldn't possibly think. I wouldn't allow myself to stop. just the
memory hurts," she said.

'My heart and my head has gone from the belief, just going through the
hardship and the jealousy. But the reason I'm still with
my husband is because I love him. And he loves me," Ms. Smith said, adding
that she thinks she is the preferred wife.

"I think he is as unhappy about it as I am. But it's a commitment" she
said. "He's taking responsibility for our decision." And,
practically speaking, she sees no other choice. She has eight children.
Her sister wife has three.

"We're stuck," she said.

"People out there say, 'Oh it's all for the man,' but I think it's hell
for them too. Why would they marry if it was just for sex?
Why take on all that responsibility?"

It's easy to understand the present- day secrecy and clannishness of
Polygamy if you view it in historical context. 'Me early
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was so persecuted for the
practice that at one point the U.S. government sent an
army to Salt Lake City to crack down. But some LDS church leaders secretly
continued the practice after officially banning it in
order to achieve statehood for Utah. 'Me discomfort and ambivalence among
LDS Church

leaders and state officials stems partly from this painful past and partly
because Mormon doctrine still holds that polygamy will
be practiced in the highest level of Heaven.

That theological promise doesn't do much to ease the difficulty of being a
practicing polygamist on Earth, however.

"It was pretty tough being raised as a polygamist child," said Ms. Smith.
- -Me other kids would throw rocks at us and call us
names. Every friend I ever had abandoned me as soon as they found out I
was a polygamist kid. Every one of them."

She was brought up to believe that the outside world was going to 'get'
her. "And it was kind of proved to me, because as a
kid, they always had."

Ms. Smith was about 6 years old when the last government raids on Utah's
polygamist communities took place. At the time, her
mother told her she might have to go live with an older sister.

"She was trying not to scare me to death, but she said she might not be
able to see me for a long time. She said, 'Dad and I
might be here tomorrow, but we might not, and if that's the case, remember
that we love you.' She was terrified about Dad
going to jail and us kids being taken away."

The raids reinforced the need for secrecy and also increased the taunts
from other youngsters, Ms. Smith said.


"I begged my parents to let me stay home from school. I would cry all the
way there because I was so afraid of everyone," she
said.

Home schooling became the escape from playground persecution. But there
was fear at home, too: Ms. Smith remembers her
grandfather as an abusive man.

"He was the ultimate chauvinist pig. Some of that rubbed off on my mother,
and some on us, which was to fear God. If you did
exactly as God wanted, then he would look out for you, but if you didn't,
you would be punished."

She married at age 17 and for a time, when her children were young, she
and her sister wife lived together


"because then (her husband) could be there and be with the children. I've
done so many things with my children alone that I
resent because he should have been there."

Ms. Smith said the factor that finally made her wake up and abandon her
religious convictions was the pain of repressing her
troubled feelings.

"We're taught those feelings of jealousy or sadness are bad, and not to be
angry, to be calm, to be sweet," she said. "If you feel
negative feelings, then it's your fault, there's something wrong with you.
I spent my whole fife stuffing my feelings down, over
and over and over again."

She got depressed. She gained a lot of weight "I just wanted to stay in
bed all the time, because I felt like a failure. The biggest
thing was the feeling of inadequacy. It didn't matter how hard I tried, I
could never match up," Ms. Smith said.

Such feelings were exacerbated by a sense of having to compete for a
husband's attention.

"It's not so much that he will leave if a woman isn't submissive, but his
time is so rare if there are a lot of wives. And you always
fear that if you cause trouble, he's going to love her more," Ms. Smith
said. "There's always that within the women. Some
men promote it. Some women make sure to always treat him like a king,
because that will keep them in favor.

"This is another thing that has to do with the man. The man is the one who
takes you to the Celestial Kingdom. Therefore, if the
man isn't the one leading the way,

then you don't have a chance. He is supposed to be the spiritual leader,
but if he isn't, then you do what you have to do on your
own, but there is no benefit to that No matter what you do, if there isn't
a man leading, you just don't belong."

Polygamists also believe part of God's plan is for them to have large
families, but Ms. Smith was distressed by this even as a
child.

"There are people who can't take care of the children they have, yet they
keep on having more. They think that's what they are
supposed to do, and God will provide."

And if God provides through public assistance, so be it. Government
efforts to crack down on Polygamists who abuse welfare
- - or who abuse their wives and children - won't stop the practice, Ms.
Smith said.

"It's God's law, and God's laws are higher than those of man," she said.

She sees this as the coming battleground: Polygamists who have children
they can't support vs. taxpayers who are repelled by
the practice and don't want to subsidize it.

Despite such controversy, plural marriage is a growing movement. With each
new wave of attention, outsiders come to join.
And their children often grow up and marry into the system.

To Ms. Smith, this is nothing less than a tragedy.

Not long ago she
met a Middle Eastern couple whose religion and government permit polygamy.


"I asked the wife if she would ever want him to take another wife, and she
said, 'I might someday.' I wanted to tell her, 'No,
don't. Don't.'"



Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

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Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 23:41:12 -0600
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [none]

Building the Kingdom with Total Honesty
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: gdm

I enjoyed and empathized very much with Robert Anderson's article on "The
Dilemma of the Mormon Rationalist," and appreciated the response of Allen
Roberts, both in the winter 1997 issue. I wish to Comment on two of
President Hinckley's recent statements cited by Roberts.

The first was President Hinckley's response to questions asked by the
national media about the Mormon doctrines of God having once been a man,
and about the potential of humans to become gods (on p. 99). Roberts found
Hinckley's responses, which seemed to be questioning the validity of these
ideas, to be "refreshingly honest and human." However, I believe his
equivocating to be just an extension of Mormon leaders' efforts since the
turn of the century to publicly distance the church from its more radical
teachings, in order to make it appear more mainstream. it's difficult for
me to imagine that President Hinckley seriously questions doctrines which
have been central to the Mormon concepts of God and man ever since Joseph
Smith proclaimed them in Nauvoo. The second statement of President
Hinckley referred to by Roberts was his seemingly callous dismissal of the
five intellectuals excommunicated by the church, explaining "... that
given the baptism of hundreds of thousands of new members that year, the
loss of five was insignificant" (on p. 100).

[Letters to the Editor page v]

Roberts wonders if "the worth of souls is no longer great in the eyes of
God." I wondered the same thing many years ago as a result of my own
inquiries of the brethren regarding an issue then troubling me.
Ironically, that issue also concerned church leaders' public equivocation
on the topic of the Mormon doctrine of God.

For several years, beginning with challenges presented to me in the
mission field, I had been struggling with the many conflicting statements
of church leaders about the Adam-God doctrine. Initially, I deemed the
subject to be one of those dangerous "mysteries" best left to the
proverbial "backburner." Much new provocative material on the subject was
coming to light in the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, however, and was
being used very effectively by anti-Mormons to attack the church and its
leaders. Concerned, and feeling my own testimony challenged, I wrote a
letter to President Spencer W.

Kimball in the summer of 1980, asking why he, as well as Mark E. Petersen,
Bruce R. McConkie, and other general authorities, had been so vocally
denouncing the Adam- God doctrine, while at the same time denying that
Brigham Young had been the source of the idea, when there was an abundance
of good evidence to the contrary (for example, see Kimball, Ensign, Nov.
1975, 77: Petersen, Adam: Who Is He?

[Deseret Book, 1976], 7, 13-24; and McConkie, "Adam-God Theory," Mormon
Doctrine [Bookcraft, 1966], 18; "The Seven Deadly Heresies," 1980
Devotional Speeches of the Year [BYU Press, 1981]). 1 pointed out that
this approach created a double dilemma for church members aware of the
facts: first, how a prophet (Brigham) could claim as revelation and
promote to the church an idea deemed by later leaders to be a dangerous
heresy: and, second, why later church leaders would dishonestly deny the
true source of the "heresy," claiming it originated with "enemies of the
church." Neither proposition felt very comfortable to me, a faithful
member raised to believe that church leaders, particularly the prophet,
could never lead the church astray, and that they were honorable,
trustworthy men. I indicated in my letter, and truly believed it at the
time, that I felt this dilemma was simply the result of a misunderstanding
or lack of information on the part of the brethren. I suggested that a
thorough investigation of the subject might be undertaken by the church
historian's office to provide better information to the general
authorities.

My letter received no response, and in that fall's general conference both
brothers Petersen and McConkie again spoke out strongly against the
Adam-God doctrine in their usual forceful manner (see Ensign, Nov. 1980,
16-18, 50-52). Dismayed, I phoned the First Presidency's office and spoke
with their secretary, Michael Watson, about my letter, asking why I hadn't
received a response. He indicated that the brethren had intended to write
to me, with the recommendation that I read Mark E. Petersen's book Adam:
Who Is He?, but when it was pointed out that I had already read the book,
and felt it to be part of the problem, they felt they had nothing else
they could say to me. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I felt I had
somehow failed to properly communicate the problem. At Michael Watson's
prompting, I met with an informal committee answering to Mark E. Petersen,
which had been set up to help members confronted with issues

[Page vi Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]

raised by fundamentalist Mormons (the Adam-God doctrine being one of the
chief of these). I'll spare you the details here, but the net result of my
meetings with these people began to make me realize that Brother Petersen
wasn't acting out of ignorance of the facts regarding the Adam- God
problem, and neither was Bro. McConkie. I still wondered about the extent
of President Kimball's knowledge of the subject, however. I suspected that
my letter had never reached him.

In February 1981 1 again phoned Michael Watson, and urged him to grant me
a personal interview, which he did. He was surprisingly candid with me,
revealing that my letter to President Kimball had been forwarded to Mark
E. Petersen. Brother Watson showed me a memo written by Brother Petersen
to the First Presidency with his recommendations as to how to respond to
me. He informed them that the issues I had raised were real, that Brigham
Young had indeed taught these things, but that they could not acknowledge
this lest I would "trap them" into saying this therefore meant Brigham was
a false prophet (which, of course, they did not believe).. He therefore
recommended that I be given a very circuitous response, evading the issue,
which he volunteered to write. I asked Brother Watson, as well as members
of the committee I had previously met with, how this approach would help
people like myself who knew better? Wasn't there concern that some might
be dismayed and disillusioned by their church leaders' lack of candor?
Their response was very similar to President Hinckley's statement
mentioned earlier about losing a few through excommunication: they said,
in essence, "If a few people lose their testimonies over this, so be it;
it's better than letting the true facts be known, and dealing with the
probable wider negative consequences to the mission of the church." I
said, "What about Jesus' parable where the shepherd leaves the ninety and
nine of his flock to pursue the one who has gone astray?" Again the
response was that the brethren had to be more concerned for the majority
of the flock.

Since it became abundantly clear to me that I would never find the answers
I was seeking from church leaders, I continued to pursue the subject on my
own. The end results were three essays published in Sunstone and Dialogue:
A Journal of Mormon Thought, two of which were later published in Line
Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine, edited by Gary Bergera and published
by Signature Books (cited by Anderson, 80n35). So it is from this
perspective that I have difficulty accepting at face value President
Hinckley's hedging about the Mormon doctrine of God. I have it on very
good authority that building the kingdom is a greater priority than total
honesty. Joseph Smith had already set that precedent with his public
denials about polygamy when he was secretly practicing it in Nauvoo. The
ends justify the means.

And looking back on this episode now, I see how incredibly naive it was of
me to expect it to be otherwise.

Boyd Kirkland

Newhall, California



Perry     <[e-mail]>    http://pobox.com/~plporter

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