How old were you when you first learned JS practiced polyandry?

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Assuming Joseph Smith indeed "committed" polyandry, was his polyandry not acceptable to God? I think God has made it abundantly clear how severe a sin unchaste behavior is. Do you think he would let this slide, given that Joseph was His prophet?

What if...

JS committed a sexual sin relating to polygamy/polyandry that was not acceptable to God but JS believed it was right? What then?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts if what Joseph Smith did was wrong and he continued to do it over a lengthy period of time and with multiple women, that God wasn't going to all of the sudden go laissez-faire with him and take him to task about it in the Hereafter.

Kingship <> Prophet



http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOr...004d82620a____

Yes, I'm aware of that perspective, promoted by leadership, but in this instance, I don't believe it was followed. That doesn't make me a disbeliever, only that I don't believe the explanation or lack of explanation.

I can accept the fact that people may not be held responsible for the actions of their leaders.

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by jay santos

What if...

JS committed a sexual sin relating to polygamy/polyandry that was not acceptable to God but JS believed it was right? What then?

Then God taps him on the shoulder and tells him to knock it off. How long was the Brother of Jared chewed out for not praying to God?

[EDIT]Never mind, I forgot the Book of Mormon was allegory and that it's likely a Brother of Jared never existed, so the chewing out was merely the symbolic consequence of a symbolic transgression.[/EDIT]

[Sleeping in EQ]

I was a Salt Lake City missionary at age 19, and encountered the idea then (as did many in my mission).

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

I was a Salt Lake City missionary at age 19, and encountered the idea then (as did many in my mission).

And your response was?

I remember the first time I discussed it with leadership, it was, this, 'hum, hah,"

Well he didn't have sex. Well maybe he did. Well ...

no good answers.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Then God taps him on the shoulder and tells him to knock it off. How long was the Brother of Jared chewed out for not praying to God?

Maybe God tapped him and the next couple guys on the shoulder and it took the fourth guy to pay attention. I just think there's so much we don't know about God and how and when and why he reveals things to us, that we can't say definitively how things really went down re: the whole polygamy fiasco.

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by jay santos

Maybe God tapped him and the next couple guys on the shoulder and it took the fourth guy to pay attention. I just think there's so much we don't know about God and how and when and why he reveals things to us, that we can't say definitively how things really went down re: the whole polygamy fiasco.

Is God really that impotent?

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Is God really that impotent?

Absolutely not.

1. Agency is a really important concept that we probably don't understand well and how it might play it out in situations like this.

2. Since God obviously knows the world beginning to the end, the polygamy fiasco, while resulting from a mistake or blunder by man might have been the exact thing to further God's will in how the restoration of His church would go.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by Archaea

And your response was?

I remember the first time I discussed it with leadership, it was, this, 'hum, hah,"

Well he didn't have sex. Well maybe he did. Well ...

no good answers.

I don't remember exactly what I said, but I do remember that I argued that prophets can be very, very flawed. I might have mentioned Paul's involvement with the stoning of Steven.

On P-day, though, I went to a bookstore (either Sam Wellers or Benchmark Books) and I asked somebody there to steer me to books on J.S. and polygamy/polyandry. I bought Carmen Hardy's book. Most missionaries don't have easy access to those resources...

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by jay santos

Absolutely not.

1. Agency is a really important concept that we probably don't understand well and how it might play it out in situations like this.

2. Since God obviously knows the world beginning to the end, the polygamy fiasco, while resulting from a mistake or blunder by man might have been the exact thing to further God's will in how the restoration of His church would go.

I'm not buying it. There just isn't any recorded history of God allowing something of this magnitude going on against His will without subsequent Divine intervention/correction; whereas there are several examples that show God steps in when His prophets stray off the straight and narrow.