I participate in a Latter-Day Saints community on Google+. I left it before because of political reasons. But I'm just perverse enough to have them kick me out this time. The problem is just how right wing and fundamentalist it seems to me. (I should know better, really, the moderators are virulently anti-Obama and pro-Republican.)
Now, you may say: "But, Kirsten, they're Mormons, aren't they?"
Yes, they are. But we should be a more diverse church. And I cannot look at Christ's teachings and say "Well, he's obviously a Republican."
Well, today, it's a little beyond the pale. This incredibly caveman of a poster actually told me that I could not be "fully faithful" since I am against the former Church practices - he called them doctrines - of polygamy and the priesthood ban for Blacks. Since then, we have been going back and forth. And, on top of that, the two moderators have decided to tell me they agree with everything he's said. No criticism for him at all. And I even got a private message from one saying my posts have been "too liberal".
I read some of his comments and it made me think that if his version of the celestial kingdom is true, I may just ask to stay with the souls in prison. I just cannot believe that some of his statement are in line with what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have in mind.
The Lord revealed plural marriage to Joseph Smith as "the moral salvation of the world". It is clear that polygamy will be practiced in the New Jerusalem. It is clear that polygamy will stretch into the eternities. We were forced into a moratorium on the practice, but that doesn't mean we don't believe in it anymore, it just means that the practice has been suspended.
What can I say? I testify that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. I testify that the Book of Mormon is true. But I just cannot accept polygamy as "the moral salvation of the world" if he really said that. Additionally, the idea that polygamy is still not just acceptable, but highly anticipated in the future is horrible. How anyone can think that it is not just morally acceptable but a "salvation" is beyond me. There is more than enough evidence out there of the poisonous effect it has not just on women, but on children. Also, in the Book of Jacob, there is a section where the Prophet Jacob is chastising the men for having plural wives and is given this advice:
"And
I will not suffer, saith the Lord of Hosts, that the cries of the fair
daughters of this people, which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem,
shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of
Hosts." (Jacob 2: 32)
Perhaps the so-called "doctrine" was changed due to the "cries of the fair daughters of this people". More from the same poster:
The world hates us,
because we are not of the world, but of God. Their doctrines of race and
sex blindness are not acceptable to the God of Heaven, and He has
graciously taught His people to avoid these pitfalls, though many choose
not to accept those saving teachings.
Oh, dear, what can I say? "Not acceptable to the God of Heaven"? Really?
I am so glad this man does not run the Church. But he did offer me this advice:
I have no doubt that unless your perspective matures,
you will leave the good ship Zion yourself when the president of the
Church gets up and helps us move on to the next stage of the kingdom,
which will include polygamy, or when other eternally true,
controversial, non-world-approved practices or teachings are revived or
magnified (next up: same-sex marriage/homosexual issues). No need for me
to kick you off.
It is really appalling what kind of people are in my church. I will have to find another community - maybe - of less fundamentalist Mormons to commune with. In some ways, I have so much more in common with secularists and atheists than with the church members I meet on-line. The secularists and atheists are actually more in line with Christ's teachings than so-called devout servants of Christ are.
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