My first reaction on hearing about the Texas raid was “Finally, the authorities have stopped ignoring the abuses committed by the polygamists!” Yet the more I hear about this story, the more reservations I have about it. The state took several hundred children away from their parents and put them…
Category: Polygamy
Husband and Wife Swapping = Order of Heaven? (D&C 132)
All credit to Runtu from FLAK goes for the inspiration behind this post. While I’ve read D&C 132 dozens and dozens of times in my life, I’ve never read it with the “eyes of my understanding” being opened, thank you Runtu. Joseph and Brigham and the early prophets used to…
So is Warren Jeffs still the (FLDS) prophet or what?
To help answer this question, a Deseret Morning News article asks (my brother) John Hamer for his analysis. John is a historian specializing in the various scisms within the restoration movement and is the co-editor of Scattering of the Saints: Schism within Mormonism. In addition to clarifying this issue, John…
NYT: Mormons, Gentiles and Polygamists
The New York Times is reporting about the Mormon melting pot in St George: Paul Hanson, who lives in a fundamentalist community about an hour from St. George and works for a building products company, said he had come to understand that the Mormon splinter groups and the Mormon Church,…
God Loveth His Children
So I hear the church is putting out another pamphlet (And I REFUSE to capitalize the word church), “God Loveth His Children.†Once again, I’m so touched by their little warm fuzzies. Should I be encouraged by this “step forwardâ€, or once again frustrated by the homophobia that permeates the…
A Review of September Dawn
I saw an advance screening of the much anticipated September Dawn on Wednesday night. I’ve spent the week at the Kirtland Temple and the local theater invited all the staff here to a free screening. (I wonder if they issued a similar invitation to the LDS Mormons down on the…
Jr High Polygamy
One of the more unfortunate periods of my life was the three years we lived in Utah. We moved to Orem, Utah, when I was just starting sixth grade. So I was what, nearly 12? An awkward time in life anyhow, but moving to Orem certainly made things worse in…