Celestial Bootlegging

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="043fd5a3.jpg"> <div> <B>Polygamy Versus Common Sense</B><B>   </B></div> <div> <B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Polygamy Versus Common Sense"><U>Home</U></A>     <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Infamous Polygamists"><U>Essays </U></A>    <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Essay Submission"><U>Essay Submission </U></A>  <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Infamous Polygamists"><U>Infamous Polygamists</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="044d2b03.jpg"> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What every potential polygamist man and "><U><B>What every potential polygamist man and woman should know</B></U></A><B>   </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Faith What is it?"><U><B>Faith: What is it?</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Who are the Heroes of Mormon Fundamental"><U><B>Who are the heroes of Mormon Fundamentalism?</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Freedom to be oppressed!"><U><B>Freedom to be oppressed!</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Are Organized Polygamous Groups Cults?"><U><B>Are Organized Polygamous Groups Cults?</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Doctrine Covenants Section 132"><U><B>Doctrine & Covenants Section 132, Fact or Fiction?</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Christian Polygamy What Does the Term Me"><U><B>Christian Polygamy; What Does the Term Mean?</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Duplicity of Religion"><U><B>The Duplicity of Religion</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Celestial Bootlegging</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tricked into Eternal Polygamy"><U><B>Tricked into "eternal polygamy"</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Damning Quotes!"><U><B>Damning quotes!</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Crime Corruption and Sexual Abuse in Pol"><U><B>Crime: Corruption and Sexual Abuse in Polygamous Groups</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>Celestial Bootlegging</B></I></div> <div> The LDS Church has evolved through trial and error into a powerful, affluent, family orientated, corporate entity, outwardly functioning as a religion. In its duel role as corporate kingdom and religion the LDS Church has made some grievous blunders for which it is reluctant to accept accountability. </div> <bR> <div> On the road to world wide acceptance, Church leaders have been quite shrewd and adept at waffling around embarrassing issues, the most despicable and conspicuously bad being the Mountain Meadows Massacre, ironically, a euphemistic Mormon 9-11.</div> <bR> <div> In 1857 LDS Church officials in southern Utah manipulated Utah Indians into attacking a company of immigrants on their way to California. However, after three days of fighting, the Indians were unable to exterminate the immigrants. Therefore, the Mormons, under a flag of truce, pretended to rescue the immigrants. After the California bound pioneers were disarmed, the Mormons and Indians slaughtered 120 adults, sparing the lives of just a few children. The actual killing took place on September 11, 1857.</div> <div> Bones of slain immigrants accidently exhumed were apparently found by pathologists to contain Cherokee Indian genes. Consequently, on the anniversary of the massacre, Cherokee Native Americans are meeting at Mountain Meadows in a ritual of healing. </div> <bR> <div> A ritual of healing to put the past to rest is commendable, but puzzling. How can there be healing without forgiveness? And how can there be forgiveness when the institution responsible for the tragedy has not apologized and perpetually avoids accountability?1 </div> <bR> <div> The 1850s was the most infamous decade of the LDS Church. This was the era when the "illusion of invulnerability" was the driving force behind the tragic deaths of hundreds of innocent immigrants. </div> <div> The impetus that incited numerous injustices was the Mormon Reformation - a ruthless revival that although not as prolonged and severe, was very much motivated and like the Papal Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Non conforming men, women and children were ferreted out and punished for imagined infractions. </div> <bR> <div> Men and women flocked to the [re]baptismal fount to prove their loyalty. It was a time when Blood Atonement was pronounced on their own people and at least one castration was recorded when a young man had the audacity to compete with a polygamist bishop for the hand of his childhood sweetheart. Unsolved murders were commonplace. The Reformation was initiated by Apostle Jedediah M. Grant.2 </div> <bR> <div> Although the Reformation was disguised as renewing the spiritual, it was really a ruthless tactic to discourage apostasy and reinforce the power of Brigham Young and the Priesthood. Collegial historian have yet to isolate this portion of Mormon history, study it, and report the impact it had on the Mormons themselves such as the sending of Johnston’s Army in 1857 and Patrick Edward Connor’s Californian Volunteers in 1862.</div> <bR> <div> 1856 is the year of the handcart misadventure. Apostle Franklin D. Richards, an officer in the Perpetual Immigration Fund, shamed English converts, ignorant of the risks, into forging ahead with faulty handcarts, inadequate food and clothing way late in the season. Richards chastised the immigrants for their lack of faith and promised in the name of God, safe passage across the unpredictable Rocky Mountains.</div> <bR> <div> In 2004, after much political manipulation, the LDS Church obtained control over a piece of BLM land called Martin’s Cove. It is believed to be the location where the Martin Handcart Company (576 souls) got caught in a deadly snowstorm. Up ahead, the Willie Company (500 souls) were caught in the same storm. Hundreds died of hunger and exposure before being saved by a rescuers from Salt Lake.</div> <bR> <div> Attempts have been made by LDS Church apologists to place the blame on the immigrants themselves. In <I>Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies, </I>by Rebecca Bartholomew and Leonard J. Arrington, the authors state on page 3: "Given the weather, the causes lay in their own incaution and mismanagement, the responsibility for which lay equally with immigrants and mission leaders and, to a lesser degree, authorities in Utah."</div> <bR> <div> But according to an eye witness and survivor, John Chislett, who’s narrative is recorded in Chapter 37 of T.B.H. Stenhouse’s <I>The Rocky Mountain Saints, </I>the sole responsibility lay on the pious shoulders of Franklin D. Richards as well as Brigham Young who dreamed up the handcart fiasco as an inexpensive way to build up his kingdom with European converts.</div> <bR> <div> The LDS Church has not apologized for Richard’s false prophecy of safe passage and ironically, has built a visitor’s center adjacent to Martin’s Cove. In superb LDS fashion, the Church has turned Richard’s debacle into a proselyting and faith promoting illusion.</div> <bR> <div> The list of Church blunders is not confined to the handcart tragedy, the Reformation or Mountain Meadows Massacre. According to historians the Mormons were not without fault during their flight from Kirtland, their debauched sojourn in Jackson County, Missouri, and their expulsion from Nauvoo, Illinois. But of all their blunders for which Church authorities avoid responsibility, the most long lasting and deceitful is the introduction of plural marriage as an indispensable, damned if you don’t, religious tenet. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>An Issue of Celestial Bootlegging</B></div> <bR> <div> The LDS Church created the religious tenet of plural marriage. In 1890 the Church ostensibly suspended authorization to practice what is generally called Mormon polygamy. Since then Mormon fundamentalists have ignored the 1890 Mandate and have continued to practice the Mormon brand of polygamy, using Mormon doctrine as justification. </div> <bR> <div> The fundamentalists maintain that the Church was wrong to suspend the practice and that they are merely obeying God’s mandate to practice plural marriage. The vast majority of fundamentalists claim priesthood authority through John Taylor, who they say, in 1886 secretly "set apart" select men to forever perpetuate polygamy. This secret conspiracy is known as the Lorin Woolley story.3</div> <bR> <div> Several renegade fundamentalist leaders have used the practice of Mormon polygamy as the cornerstone of their organized cults. As a result, thousands of men, women and children have either had their lives turned upside down or they have been sexually or physically abused.</div> <bR> <div> In the eyes of many victims of polygamy, the LDS Church created a monster that is running amuck in the American West, unimpeded by Church or Government. These renegade Mormon prophets are taking key LDS Church doctrines, and discourses, to merchandise plural marriage and celestial exaltation.</div> <bR> <div> Contemporary anti polygamy activists have asked the LDS Church to speak out against the unauthorized use of Mormon doctrine by renegade prophets, and reprove the abuse that evolves from the unauthorized use of Mormon discourses and doctrine. However, Church officials have declined to speak out or get involved in the polygamy issue, other than to casually say that the practice of polygamy is not doctrinal.4 </div> <bR> <div> <B>Proposition:</B></div> <bR> <div> In view of the overwhelming evidence of abuse by unscrupulous Mormons employing LDS Church doctrine, does the LDS Church have a moral duty to speak out against these atrocities? By neglecting or refusing to speak out, does the LDS Church share in responsibility for these atrocities?</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Facts:</B></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Doctrine and Covenants: </B></I><I>"A revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded July 12, 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant, as also plurality of wives.</I>"</div> <div> This is generally known as the "plural marriage revelation."</div> <bR> <div> D & C 132, Verse 7: "... through the medium of mine anointed, whom I have appointed on the earth to hold this power (and I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred),"</div> <bR> <div> Verse 7 is the most important verse in the D&C because it establishes power in just one man on earth at a time. The president of the LDS Church and several of the renegade prophets all claim to be that one man. </div> <div> This revelation has never been amended and is still an integral part of the Doctrine & Covenants. What this means to me is that the Church still considers plural marriage to be a correct principle, however, the practice has been suspended.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Plural Marriage Revealed: </B>It was not until August 1852 that Brigham Young instructed Orson Pratt to publicly address the subject of plural marriage and reveal it to the world. (See Journal of Discourses 1:62-3, :64-5. Besides the aforementioned JD citation, there are dozens of publications addressing this issue in both pro and anti Mormon writings.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Joseph Smith’s plural marriage indulgement: </B>Exhaustive research has been done on this subject by credible historians. Joseph took his first plural wife, Fanny Alger, age 16, in 1833, ten years before the date of the Plural Marriage Revelation. </div> <bR> <div> Historians have provided clear and convincing evidence that Joseph seduced into plural marriage 28 women prior to the July 1843 revelation, and that is a conservative estimate. (See: <I>In Sacred Loneliness, the Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, </I>by Todd Compton.)</div> <bR> <div> These women ranged from Helen Mar Kimball, age 14, to Rhoda Richards, age 58. These were women in close proximity to Joseph - young orphan girls in his care and custody, girl friends of his wife Emma, new converts, and women legally married to his friends and apostles. Although the revelation made direct reference to "virgins as plural wives" (verses 61 and 62) God apparently did not impose that stipulation on Joseph. He took whomever was available, whether she was a youthful lass blossoming into puberty or any woman, married or single, that would accept his proposal.</div> <bR> <div> Nineteenth century polygamists, as well as contemporary polygamists anxious to conform to the "new and everlasting covenant," have also ignored the virgin reference in Section 132 and have taken any woman at any age which includes incestuous relationships.</div> <bR> <div> The Peacemaker: "The Peacemaker or The Doctrines of the Millennium," is a discourse proposing the practice of polygamy as a panacea for the ills of the world. It was printed on Joseph Smith’s printing press at Nauvoo, Illinois in 1842 under the name of Udney Hay Jacobs. </div> <bR> <div> At the time of its publication Joseph denied any knowledge or collaboration with its publication. But John D. Lee in his confessions, <I>Mormonism Unveiled or The Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee, </I>revealed that Joseph Smith was the impetus behind The Peacemaker and that it was intended to test the reaction of the American people towards polygamy. A copy was sent to President Martin Van Buren bearing the date March 19, 1840. Apparently the reaction was not good which is why Joseph denied any knowledge of the Peacemaker.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Brigham Young: </B>Following are excerpts from Brigham Young sermons found in the Journal of Discourses:</div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 18:241-249 ;the revelation [D&C 132] </I>was given in 1843, but the doctrine was revealed before this. 6-23-1874</div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 17:360-1 I heard brother Kimball talk at the time the revelation on celestial marriage was published say. "The cat is out of the bag, and this cat is going to have kittens and those kittens are going to have cats." 4-7-1875</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD17:159-60 Sisters if you lift your heels against the revelation on celestial marriage [D&C 132] and say you will obliterate it, put it out of existence and imbibe that spirit, you will go to hell. 8-9-1874</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 16-166-7 Where a man in this Church says, "I don’t want but one wife, I will live my religion with one," he will perhaps be saved in the celestial kingdom; but when he gets there he will not find himself in possession of any wife at all. 8-31-1873</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 15-133 Ladies if you ever had any faith in the Gospel and in celestial marriage, and you renounce or disbelieve and deny this doctrine, you will be damned. I promise you that, no matter who it is. Now take heed to yourselves! 8-18-1872</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 14:43 I will say a few words on celestial marriage. God has given a revelation to seal for time and eternity. In our day he has commanded his people to receive the New & Everlasting Covenant and "If ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned." 5-8-1871</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 14:119-20 Our political friends ask, "What are you going to do? Are you going to observe the law against plurality of wives, or are you going to obey the revelation?" We have obeyed the revelation thus far, and still live. 5-21-1871</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 12-97-8 Woe to every female in this Church who says, "I will not submit to the doctrine of plurality of wives, that God has revealed. [...] It would be better for every female in this Church, to marry men who have proved themselves to be men of God, no matter how many wives they have. 6-30-1867</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 11:139 Suppose this Church should give up this holy order of marriage, then would the devil rejoice that they had prevailed upon the Saints to refuse to obey one of the revelations and commandments of God to them. [...] Will the LDS do this? 6-3-1866</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>JD 11:268-9 If you desire with all your hearts to obtain the blessings which Abraham obtained, you will be polygamists at least in your faith, or you will come short of enjoying the salvation and the glory which Abraham obtained.</I></div> <bR> <div> "Polygamists at least in your faith," and interesting phrase. Does this mean that retention of Section 132 labels the LDS as "polygamists in faith?<I>"</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Abuses by Contemporary Mormon Polygamists</B>:</div> <bR> <div> The <I>Spectrum of St. George, Phoenix New Times, </I>and <I>The Salt Lake Tribune, </I>along with other leading newspapers, have covered the abuses occurring in contemporary polygamist cults for the last decade. References and citations should not be necessary other than the aforementioned newspapers to establish that abuse among the polygamist cults has been an ongoing thing. </div> <bR> <div> However, I will list the contemporary books and the nineteenth century books that well establishes the abuse, corruption and criminal conduct that frequently occurs in polygamist cults. The LDS Church in the nineteenth century was by definition a cult. But by twenty-first century standards, the LDS Church has refined to the point that it would not be classified as a cult, although it retains many of the cult doctrines of the nineteenth century. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>A Few Nineteenth Century Books</B></div> <bR> <div> <I>The Rocky Mountain Saints, </I>by T. [Thomas] B. H. Stenhouse, 1873.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Tell It All, </I>by Mrs. [Fannyl] T.B.H. Stenhouse, 1874</div> <bR> <div> <I>Western Wilds, </I>by J. H. Beadle, 1878</div> <bR> <div> <I>Life In Utah, or The Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism, </I>by J. H. Beadle, 1870.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs, </I>by John Hyde, Jun., 1857</div> <bR> <div> <I>The Mormon Prophet and His Harem, </I>by Mrs. C. V. Waite, 1866</div> <bR> <div> <I>Fifteen Years Among The Mormons, Being the Narrative of Mrs.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Mary Ettie V. Smith, </I>by Nelson Wilnch Green, 1860</div> <bR> <div> <I>Wife No. 19</I>, by Ann Eliza Young, 1878</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>A Few Twenty-first Century Books</B></div> <bR> <div> <I>Under The Banner of Heaven, </I>by John Krakauer, 2003</div> <bR> <div> <I>Polygamy Under Attack, </I>by John R. Llewellyn, 2004</div> <bR> <div> <I>God’s Brothel, </I>by Andrea Moore-Emmett, 2004</div> <bR> <div> <I>Colorado City Polygamists, </I>by Benjamin G. Bistline, 2004</div> <bR> <div> This essay has gone on longer than I intended. However, I want to show that plural marriage is still a valid tenet of the LDS Church, only the authorization to practice plural marriage has been suspended. Although the LDS Church claims to have the "restored gospel," no where can it be found in the Bible, archeology or any other source, where plural marriage has been a religious tenet. Yes, Abraham and many other biblical patriarchs had more than one wife, but no where in the Bible does it say God commanded them to have more than one wife, and that plural marriage was essential for a celestial exaltation. So my question is: if Mormon plural marriage is part of a restored gospel, restored from where?</div> <bR> <div> It is safe to say that the LDS Church is the guardian of this doctrine. Although the LDS Church has no control over who believes and practices this doctrine, as guardians of the doctrine, it is my contention that the Church has a duty to forcefull and continuously speak out against the unauthorized practice of plural marriage, and the enrichment of renegade prophets claiming authority. </div> <bR> <div> The LDS Church started something, plural marriage, which has gotten out of hand. In the nineteenth century they introduced it, extolled it, commanded church members to practice it. Now they don’t want anything to do with it, nor do they want to be accountable for introducing it. Its like turning a vicious dog loose and declining ownership. But like it or not, as long as the Church retains the "plural marriage doctrine" on their books, they own it.</div> <bR> <div> <B>My question is, do you agree, disagree or even dare take a stand? </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arrus BT" >Contact me at:  </FONT><A HREF="mailto:webmaster@polygamyversuscommonsense.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:webmaster@polygamyversuscommonsen"><U>webmaster@polygamyversuscommonsense.com</U></A> .                                                                            <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arrus BT" ><B>Copyright 2004 John R. Llewellyn and Power Link ISP, Inc. 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