blazerb wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 7:10 pm
I see your point. I am rethinking what I wrote above. It's much like women and the priesthood question. If you ask members if women should hold the priesthood, very few active members respond positively. If you ask them if they would support the prophet if he announced that women should be given the priesthood, the answers are likely very different.
It would be interesting if we could have a lesson that discussed polygamy without those limits. What would people say? I'm not sure I want to know some members views. I might find them deeply disturbing.
You can see this from the Nov 15 policy revelation and the flip-flop revelation. The very members that were up in arms against the 'liberal Mormons' who spoke out against the Nov 15 policy were the very same people talking about how they were just waiting patiently for the church to fix this problem.
They would never admit the church made a mistake with the Nov 15 revelation until the church itself reversed it... and that's exactly what you'd see with women who today say they dont want the priesthood or the ability to be equals with 12 year old boys.
blazerb wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 7:10 pm
On a side note, my mother told me about a "Know Your Religion" lecture she once attended. The speaker asked who in the audience wanted to be in a polygamous relationship. Not a single person raised their hand. The speaker said that was good. Polygamy was not something we needed at this time, he taught. I don't know what he said after that. My mom, while being about as TBM as possible, hated polygamy. It wrecked her family and caused bitter feelings toward the church among many of her relatives. If the speaker said anything positive about polygamy, my mom probably tuned it out. I suspect that some of the people I go to church with expect to be in polygamous relationships, though. I wonder if no one raised their hand because it's just not a socially acceptable position or if they were really opposed to the practice.
Polygamy is an ugly, vile thing and women have to live in its shadow because it's still doctrine and it's still practiced today even if it's not as in your face as it used to be.
And so you have to either ignore it, accept it, or let it eat you up inside... not really a great set of options, but this isn't really a great church so not a shocker there.
My wife would lose her mind if I was with another woman, and yet if you talk about polygamy she has said that we all have a choice and if we are asked to do it by the prophet she would enter a polygamous relationship. That is one of the hardest things I've had to accept her saying, because I have to tell myself she's lying or accept that she would accept being given to another man if a church leader said God wanted it that way. I still can't accept it, but just like above I either have to ignore it, accept it, or let it bother me. I'm still working on that one.