Longer and more informative answer: Any members of the LDS
church that are practicing polygamy are instantly excommunicated for violating
both Church law and civil law. Hollywood and the anti-mormon brigade enjoy
pedalling this myth as it holds a bigger shock value. Unfortunately, it’s not
at all true, but of course, that doesn’t make a good story. It's better to rehash lies or bring up older doctrine that's no longer taught, and get more readers, right?
President Gordon B Hinckley stated in 1990:
“This Church has nothing whatever to do with those
practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church.... If any of our
members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated,
the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved
in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this
Church.”
The thing that surprises me most as to why people keep
recycling this myth, is that it is actually written in the Book Of Mormon, the
book which LDS members keep most sacred, that polygamy is wrong.
Jacob 2:27-30
27 Wherefore, my
brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any
man
among you have save it be one
wife;
and concubines he shall have none;
28 For
I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity
of women. And whoredoms
are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.
At various times, the Lord has commanded His people to
practice plural marriage. For example, He gave this command to Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon in the Old Testaments, yet other denominations
and religious faiths that believe in this book are not mocked and criticised in
the same way. Why is that?
The answer lies in the beginning of the LDS church. We
believe that the Prophet Joseph Smith was given the same instruction, as were a
couple of other early saints. They, therefore, believed what they were doing
was correct and required of God. In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff received a
revelation that the leaders of the Church should cease teaching the practice of
plural marriage.
But despite the practice being banned in the Church for over
120 years, STILL some people insist on wheeling out this issue as a basis for
mockery. We do still suffer from this on a regular basis though. Partially because
there are still people out there who DO practice plural marriage, and then they
associate themselves with churches that use similar wording to the LDS church,
or that are splinter groups of the LDS church.
One of these call themselves ‘The Fundamentalist Church Of
Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints’. Many people at a glance would ignore the
prefix, and simply see ‘Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints’, and
decide that means that all Mormons are into polygamy.
Do Mormons practice polygamy? No, and the Book Of Mormon
makes that very clear.
No comments:
Post a Comment