It was as many as they could support.  The Mormons were attempting to re create many of the cultural / religous practices of ancient Israel.  This included a new chosen people (Mormons), with new prophets (Joseph Smith, Young etc), new revelations (Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenant), new temples and of course, polygamy.

 

Utah was presented as the new promised land and the Mormon forced migration to Utah as identical to that of the  Isrealities escaping  from Egypt to Israel.  For many years, Mormons called non Mormons "gentiles". 

Originally posted by eaglecap what do you know about the God-Adam belief?

Nothing, but bear in mind that Mormonism as been steadily mainstreaming since 1970.  Several of the more ehr..."unusual" beliefs have been quietly either  "de emphasized", modified  or dropped.    The Mormon faith today is not the same faith as it was prior to 1970.

 

Yes, it was Brigham Young.   The issue of sudden revelations aside, Brigham Young was a very capable and wise leader.  When faced with changes ordered from outside powers, many other theocrats would have ordered their followers to fight a holy war rather than change the religion or surrender their own authority.

 

Young, however, saw the "writing on the wall".  Utah was eventually going to become a state instead of a Mormon theocracy.   The rest of the USA was not going to accept polygamy.   Armed resistance (holy war) was futile, would result in the loss of many Mormon lives and would probably result in the destruction of Mormonism as a functioning religion.

 

Brigham Young then took the big step by renouncing alot of his personal power and by banning polygamy through a sudden revelation.   No lives were lost and the Mormon religion survives and thrives.

  

 

As a side note, almost all the settlers were killed after they surrendered and were in Mormon custody.   It is very hard to find unbiased information on the incident.  I have read some accounts stating that there were very few Piautes present during the siege and that there were none present when the settlers surrendered.

 

 

 

 

 

about the mountain meadow massacre, all, it was a "venture" i guess you could say, that was unsantctioned by the leaders, and the members of that "venture" were excummicated for what they did.

 

about God being Adam, no, mormoms do not, nor ever believe that Adam was God.

 

and about polygamy, it was not Young that had the revaltion about ending polygamy, it was President Wilford Woodfruw(sp) that had the revaltion.

 

lets see, was there anything else i missed? let me see...

"Several of the more ehr..."unusual" beliefs"

 are you refering to?

 

Thanks.

 

Anyway, I think I will start a "Mormonism" thread, if no one has any objections. There are certainly a variety of topics to speak of that go beyond the subject of this thread.

 

-Akolouthos

 

sometimes, there is a massive difference between the amount of women vs the amount of men, and becasue of this, this goal of God's is unable to be achomplished by the normal means of one wife for one husband, and such was the case with the early saints.

 

as a sidenote, noone of the early saints choose to have more than one wife, every case of polygamy was, well, "assigned" (though that isnt exactly a good word for it, but i cant think of a better one right now) to have more than one wife.

 

also, if you look at how many people practised polygamy, it never more than even 1% of the population of the early mormons, the vast majority of people only had 1 wife, and in general, most peoples ideas of how "widespread" polygamy was amongst the early mormons is completely out of proportion.

 

 

 

about starting a "mormonism thread" go ahead, just tell me where it is. it could be good.

 

 

Maybe another Waco?  The government doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to "stamping out" religious organizations, and in the end I bet this will not be an exception.  The authorties will cross the line between protecting children and interfering with freedom of religion.  The sect and their lawyers will turn it into a civil rights battle, and the whole issue of child abuse will become clouded.

 

Personally, all moral judgments aside,  you have to be some kind of mutant to want more than one wife.   Given an opportunity for a "do over", I wouldn't have any.

Listening to all of "that stuff" in monaural is bad enough, but Quadraphonic?

 

 

 

no, they might not, and what you say i agree, is probably likely to happen, but hopefully what you say will not happen.

 

1970s-  Belief that Blacks are inherently impure spiritually and thus cannot be full Mormon priests is ended by revelation. 

 

Early 1990s- Temple initiation ceremonies are changed. Obviously Masonic derived symbols and verbage (reveal secrets X and the punishment is Y) are discarded. An individual dressed as the devil is no longer used to symbolize Protestant pastors.  

 

2000 (est) Mormon concept of non Mormons as "gentiles" (and by extension, belief that Mormons are somehow a divenely chosen ethnic grouop) was de emphasized after elderly Mormons (a difficult group in any religion) were boycotting non Mormon, "gentile" stores in Illinois.  Mormonism may still officially view non Mormons as Gentiles, but I seriously doubt that Mormon Bishops use that term when describing non Mormons. Historical use of the terms is that all non Jews, including Mormons, are gentiles.

 

2003 (est) Bishop Hinckley states on 60 Miniutes that Joseph Smith (and by extension follow on Mormon prophets) was a "frail human being, and not every teaching of a prophet is a divine revelation".  At the time, Bisphop Hinckley did not specifially state which of Joseph Smith's, or other leaders teachings were in question

 

2004 (est) In a closed door meeting, Bishop Hinckley is rumored to have greatly de emphasized traditional Mormon teachings that God was married, Jesus was married, God was literally once a man, people can become Gods, God resides on an identifiable planet, etc etc.  As the meeting was closed doors the exact details are not known, the available description, however, does match Hinkley's earlier statements in the 60 Minutes interview.

 

2006- Following DNA tests, Mormon leadership no longer claim that all Native Americans, Meso Americans and South Americans are of Isrealite descent.  Modified teaching is that the actual number of such people is very small.