idea
Question Everything
OK - I thought I would put one more post on here, just to stir things up a bit. On the new Mormon.org profile page, one of the questions is "Do Mormons practice polygamy?" This was my answer. I'm still waiting to see if they accept it or not . It would be cool if they posted it, but my guess is they prob won't.
cont...
Let me first start out by saying that Mormons do not currently practice polygamy. Anyone who is currently practicing polygamy is in no way associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That said, I think it merits some discussion of why polygamy may have been practiced in the past.
Patricia T. Holland wrote a wonderful article entitled “ ‘One Thing Needful’: Becoming Women of Greater Faith in Christ,” in the Oct 1987 Ensign. I would like to share a few paragraphs from this article because to share only a few sentences would not do it justice. In this article, Sr. Holland writes:
“I have heard it said by some that the reason women in the Church struggle to know themselves is because they don’t have a divine female role model. But we do. We believe we have a mother in heaven. May I quote from President Spencer W. Kimball in a general conference address:
“When we sing that doctrinal hymn … ‘O My Father,’ we get a sense of the ultimate in maternal modesty, of the restrained, queenly elegance of our Heavenly Mother, and knowing how profoundly our mortal mothers have shaped us here, do we suppose her influence on us as individuals to be less?” (Ensign, May 1978, p. 6.)
I have never questioned why our mother in heaven seems veiled to us, for I believe the Lord has his reasons for revealing as little as he has on that subject. Furthermore, I believe we know much more about our eternal nature than we think we do; and it is our sacred obligation to express our knowledge, to teach it to our young sisters and daughters, and in so doing to strengthen their faith and help them through the counterfeit confusions of these difficult latter days. Let me point out some examples.
The Lord has not placed us in this lone and dreary world without a blueprint for living. In Doctrine and Covenants 52, we read the Lord’s words: “I will give unto you a pattern in all things, that ye may not be deceived.” (D&C 52:14; italics added.) He certainly includes us women in that promise. He has given us patterns in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price; and he has given us patterns in the temple ceremony. As we study these patterns, we must continually ask, “Why does the Lord choose to say these particular words and present it in just this way?” We know he uses metaphors and symbols and parables and allegories to teach us of his eternal ways. We have all recognized the relationship between Abraham and Isaac that so parallels God’s anguish over the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. But, as women, do we stretch ourselves and also ask about Sarah’s travail in this experience as well? We need to search in this manner, and we need always to look for deeper meaning. We should look for parallels and symbols. We should look for themes and motifs such as those we would find in a Bach or a Mozart composition, and we should look for repeated patterns.”
The above was from sister Holland, the following comments are from me. Before I go farther, let me make it perfectly clear that what follows is not official church doctrine, but rather the thoughts of an imperfect member of the church, and should therefore be taken with a grain of salt.
All women in the this church at one point or another walk down the road of Sarah, Rachal, Rebekah, and the many others who were called to give a great sacrifice that they might raise up seed unto the Lord. We no longer walk down those roads in practice, but we surely walk down those roads in thought, and ponder upon what arrangements will be presented to us beyond the veil.
In Doctrine and Covenants section 132:65 Celestial marriage is referred to as the “law of Sarah” because Sarah was the first example that we have of this principle. Sarah and Abraham were both called upon to make a great sacrifice, and both Sarah and Abraham were let off at the last minute without actually having to go through with it. We all know of the great test in which Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac. Human sacrifice is a horrific pagan act which brought the wrath of God upon all who practiced it. Jeremiah 32:35 is one of the many places Heavenly Father reprimands those who sacrifice their children as burnt offerings. In Jeremiah 32:35 the Lord says “I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination.” Why was Abraham commanded to perform the abomination of sacrificing his beloved son Isaac? Those who have read the New Testament, a book Abraham was not able to read, know that Isaac was in similitude of the only begotten, Jesus Christ. A ram was provided for Abraham, but not for our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father had to actually allow the atonement to happen.
cont...
Last edited: