Its all about sex

[AllieOop]

Well, there was one wife who was about fifty that he used to talk his cute young things into the marriages. She could say that he was also married to her, and it would kind of normalize the situation for the cute young things. She may have been more about gaining influence, but it was influence used to get sex.

I loved your entire post, alas and agree with your thoughts here.

But in reference to your last comment, this is something that was really disturbing to me when I researched this topic. I discovered the existence of an older group of women who were called the "Mothers of Israel" who helped talk younger girls/women into marrying Joseph. They were also call "Madams" at times.

Elizabeth Durfee and Elizabeth Allred were the ones most commonly named. But there were also records of Eliza R. Snow, Patty Sessions and others who performed this task for Joseph. That is very disturbing, IMO and I can't imagine anyone claiming that coercion and manipulation wasn't used on these young girls (by Joseph and others).

[redjay]

I can remember many years ago (1992) watching the Malcolm X biopic, and seeing Malcolm X's faith in the Nation of Islam come crashing down when he realised the Prophet Elijah Mohammed was having sex with his employees. I was comforted that our prophets were above reproach - JS had one wife only, my mother had taught me that, and polygamy was so the women could be looked after and have land rights.

Only took me 25 years to catch on.

[fh451]

I can remember many years ago (1992) watching the Malcolm X biopic, and seeing Malcolm X's faith in the Nation of Islam come crashing down when he realised the Prophet Elijah Mohammed was having sex with his employees. I was comforted that our prophets were above reproach - JS had one wife only, my mother had taught me that, and polygamy was so the women could be looked after and have land rights.

Only took me 25 years to catch on.

I watched the movie Malcom X after I had lost faith, and I kept thinking that Malcom was the William Law of Nation of Islam.
fh451

[Corsair]

I can remember many years ago (1992) watching the Malcolm X biopic, and seeing Malcolm X's faith in the Nation of Islam come crashing down when he realised the Prophet Elijah Mohammed was having sex with his employees. I was comforted that our prophets were above reproach - JS had one wife only, my mother had taught me that, and polygamy was so the women could be looked after and have land rights.

Only took me 25 years to catch on.

I watched the movie Malcom X after I had lost faith, and I kept thinking that Malcom was the William Law of Nation of Islam.
fh451

I would similarly love to see a movie with William Law in a sympathetic role. Frankly, a whole television miniseries about the Nauvoo years leading up the death of Joseph Smith and the exodus of the Mormons could be a fascinating show. William Law would absolutely have a major part in all this and the story would have this undercurrent of sex and desire carefully hidden by the doctrine of polygamy. They could just repurpose half of the sets from "Westworld".

[AllieOop]

I would similarly love to see a movie with William Law in a sympathetic role. Frankly, a whole television miniseries about the Nauvoo years leading up the death of Joseph Smith and the exodus of the Mormons could be a fascinating show. William Law would absolutely have a major part in all this and the story would have this undercurrent of sex and desire carefully hidden by the doctrine of polygamy.

I'd love a movie that told the truth regarding William Law's role. Of course the movie wouldn't be made by the church as they've made him out to be an evil villain because that suits their purpose and gives them a scapegoat.

One thing I realized was happening quite fast for me after I started really looking into church history was that there were several role reversals for me. I'd revered Joseph Smith and despised William Law and then I learned the truth