Mormon Coffee

(I will be traveling over the next few days. This will be the last Mormon Coffee post until May 3rd or 4th.)

The Aspen Times is celebrating its 125th anniversary. In conjunction with the Aspen Historical Society, the newspaper is printing some old stories that have appeared throughout its history. The following story was printed in The Aspen Times in 1885:

Pugnacious Mormons

Our dispatches this morning announce that the Mormons have determined to test the constitutionality of the Tennessee law which makes the preaching of polygamy a misdemeanor. Three Mormon elders were arrested on Saturday in Carter county in that state and a suit to test the law will grow out of it. This indicates that the Mormon heresy must have gained a strong foothold in that state. It is a commentary upon the condition of public education in Tennessee, for it is a well known fact that the Mormon missionaries are successful in obtaining converts only among the ignorant and debased.

I don’t know if this harsh commentary is more insulting to Mormonism or to Tennessee, but it’s interesting to see that the issue of Mormon polygamy in the 19th century was not confined to Utah Territory. No wonder the citizens of the United States were concerned about it.

You may be tired of reading about polygamy; it’s been in the news so much lately. I’ve not been terribly interested in the subject myself. After all, it’s got 100 years’ worth of distance from Mormonism (officially). But as Warren Jeffs and the FLDS Church have received so much media coverage in recent months, I have realized that the LDS Church and the FLDS Church share much more than just historical Mormon polygamy.

Yesterday an article appeared in Salt Lake City Weekly, “Once a Creeker.” It’s the story of Margaret Cook, an ex-FLDS member and former polygamous wife who left Colorado City twelve years ago for a better life. Though lengthy, the article reveals much about the emotions and behaviors growing out of spiritual bondage. I would encourage anyone interested in Mormon culture to read it.

Let me explain the connection.

Margaret Cook has experienced terrible things in her lifetime, both as an FLDS member and as an ex-member. The things that have been done to her in the name of religion are unconscionable. I do not suggest that the Mormon Church engages in the same behavior as that which has been perpetrated against Margaret Cook; however, I have experienced similar but much less intense actions directed at me by Mormons.

For instance, while Margaret has had pot-shots taken at her, when I’ve been engaged in legal Christian outreach near LDS sites I have had rocks thrown at me. I have been followed and photographed by LDS security. My actions have been discussed between Mormon officials with walkie-talkies. I’ve been falsely accused. I’ve been harassed by Mormon police. I’ve had close-calls when LDS members have wanted to frighten me with their cars. I’ve been flashed lewd hand gestures. And the list could go on.

My point is not that I’ve been victimized. These same things happen to my co-workers in ministry as well. After 17 years I recognize that it just comes with the territory. But what I find interesting are the similarities in the mindsets of both the FLDS and LDS people: the deep suspicion of outsiders; the determination to control every situation; the attitude of being above (or outside) the law; the active hostility toward critics; the use of intimidation against “undesirables.” Where does all this come from?

The Bible tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering. kindness. goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Conversely, the works of the flesh are “lewdness, …hatred, contentions, …outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, …and the like” (Galatians 5:19-20).

Take the time to read the Salt Lake City Weekly article. It’s very revealing.

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The LDS Church has joined with 49 religious leaders around the country in calling for a constitutional amendment “to establish a uniform national definition of marriage as the exclusive union of one man and one woman.” LDS Apostle Russell M. Nelson, as representative for the Mormon Church, has signed the Letter from America’s Religious Leaders in Defense of Marriage, produced by the Religious Coalition for Marriage.

The Coalition’s Mission Statement explains

“The Religious Coalition for Marriage is an ad hoc, interfaith committee of America’s Religious Leaders who share a common concern for the well-being of marriage in our nation. …although we do not share full unity on a host of important theological beliefs, we can all agree and affirm – with one united voice – the definition, nature and purpose of marriage.”

Given the interfaith nature of this coalition as explained above, it’s not surprising to find the LDS Church among its members. I’m glad the Mormon Church lends its support and muscle to this issue. However, the Coalition’s Mission Statement goes on to say

“We, the leaders of the nation’s Jewish and Christian – Anglican, African-American, Catholic, Evangelical, Latter-day Saints, Lutheran, Orthodox, and Presbyterian – communities commit ourselves to working together to preserve, promote, and protect this central institution of personal and communal life.”

Here is where red flags start waving for me. I am of the opinion, along with many others, that the LDS Church is not part of the family of Christian churches due to its non-biblical doctrines; not the least of these being its heretical (according to the Bible) definition of God.

But Mormons use a different definition of “Christian” than I do, and so they would place themselves in the center of that Mission Statement list. When I read it, I thought perhaps the Religious Coalition for Marriage also uses a different definition of “Christian” than I do; so I just filed away my disappointment in finding the LDS Church once again publicly affirmed as a Christian denomination.

But then I read the following in the Letter from America’s Religious Leaders in Defense of Marriage:

“…when marriage is entered into and gotten out of lightly, when it is no longer the boundary of sexual activity, or when it is allowed to be radically redefined, a host of personal and civic ills can be expected to follow. Such a point has always been stressed by the world’s great monotheistic religious traditions…”

There it was: The implication that the signers of the Letter represented “monotheistic religious traditions.” I read through the list of the 50 signers and found that all names and affiliations but one were monotheistic. While there is great diversity of theological positions represented on the list, still each one proclaims there is only one true God. All except Mormonism, that is.

Mormonism teaches that many true Gods exist. It teaches that worthy human beings will someday become true Gods in eternity. It teaches that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three true Gods who nevertheless work in unity. How can this clearly polytheistic (or henotheistic) religion be included in a group of monotheistic faiths?

I believe the defense of marriage is an important issue in our nation and I am not opposed to people of differing faiths working together for the common good. But I think this can and should be done without compromising truth and without lending spiritual legitimacy to a religion that leads people after a false god.

For the Christian leaders who formed the Coalition and who wrote the Letter, who determined the Mission Statement and who invited the signers, I would encourage them to consider the Apostle John’s teaching regarding false teachers. He said,

“Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; …If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.” (2 John 1:9-11)

The LDS Church is successful enough on its own at obscuring its disparate doctrines from an undiscerning world. Let’s not support them in this task by greeting them as if they are part of the family.

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Yesterday’s Deseret News carried a very sad and sobering report: “Deadly taboo: Youth suicide an epidemic that many in Utah prefer to ignore.” The report relates the tragic stories of several Utah teens who have taken their own lives in recent months and talks in depth about the widespread problem of youth suicide in Utah.

Leading the nation in suicides among men aged 15-24, Utah also ranks 11th highest in suicides overall with 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people. A graphic prepared by Deseret Morning News comparing Utah and National suicides by age group from 1999-2002 shows Utah suicide death rates higher than the national average in every category. Deseret News says:

“A former surgeon general who recently spoke in Utah about suicide prevention said he was impressed with the state’s warm and friendly people, said Ken Tuttle, director of psychiatry at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.

“But he added, ‘In New York, we kill each other. In Utah, you kill yourselves.’”

But not only in Utah. The article notes that the whole group of Rocky Mountain states has an unexplainable 30 percent higher rate of suicide than the rest of the U.S.

Citing statistics, Deseret News says one in six Utah students have seriously considered suicide in the last 12 months, and one in eight have actually made a specific plan to commit suicide in the same time period. Two percent of Utah youth “attempt suicide in a manner that requires medical attention.” Obviously, this is a serious problem. However,

“Suicide is clearly a taboo subject. And to talk about youth suicide is to wade into the complicated, mysterious arena of mental health and the delicate world of teenage emotion.

“This is a place few want to go.

“No one wants to venture into the dark realms where Utah young people — with the possibility and potential they represent — meet despair and self-destruction. Virtually no one wants to explore factors that contribute to a teenager’s private decision to end his life with a gun, pills, carbon monoxide or a rope.”

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff gave his opinion on this issue when he said,

“We have this ‘All is well in Zion’ kind of thing going here. We’d rather not talk about it at all or maybe to go talk to the bishop about it. If there really is a mental health issue you need help. It doesn’t work to talk to the youth leaders or ecclesiastic leaders.”

Indeed. I did a search of LDS Church magazines and curriculum for the past 10 years. I searched for the word “suicide” in General Conference reports, First Presidency messages, general women’s meetings, Visiting Teaching messages, and the words of all General Authorities and found no discussion of the topic whatsoever. I found only three instances where the word “suicide” was even mentioned, and all three were in passing, in talks on other subjects. It’s amazing to me that the leadership of the Mormon Church does not provide help and hope for those suffering from pain related to suicide. No wonder it’s thought to be a taboo subject that must be borne alone.

In a study done by several doctors associated with the University of Utah School of Medicine, officials examined the suicide deaths of 49 Utah young people, conducting 270 hours of interviews with parents and other survivors:

“The study made clear the role society’s attitude plays in this problem and concluded those who died faced the following barriers for adequate mental health care:

• The belief that nothing could help.
• The belief that seeking help is a sign of weakness or failure.
• The reluctance to admit to having mental health problems.
• The denial of problems.
• The embarrassment about seeking help.

“The study concluded, ‘It is suggested that the stigma of mental illness is a considerable barrier to mental health treatment.’

Of course I realize that mental illness must overcome stigmas everywhere, not just in Utah. Yet in a state where well over half the population share a common and dedicated faith and pride themselves on the extraordinary way they care for one another, the hopelessness of Utah teens as they suffer in silence is hard to understand.

Friends, those of you who are Christians, please pray for the children in Utah. Deseret News reports:

“And today, in the warming days of April, Utahns should have particular reason for concern:

“According to therapists and research, suicide rates are highest in the spring. As child psychiatrist Karen Black says: ‘We are headed into the manic season.’”

Tuesday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer carried an Associated Press article about the LDS Church’s Temple Square, located in Salt Lake City. Touted as “Utah’s hottest tourist destination,” the article notes that Temple Square receives 3 to 5 million visitors each year while Utah’s five stunning national parks put together had only 5.3 million visitors in 2005.

The AP article gives a typical summation of the LDS Church: one of the world’s fastest growing religions…estimated 12 million members…growing influence…Joseph Smith. And it praises the friendliness of the sister missionaries and the cleanliness of the grounds. But nestled between the parts that sound almost as if they were composed by the LDS Church PR department, we find this interesting tidbit:

“Even a quick, 30-minute tour of the grounds reveals a history of epic American drama and Western adventure: Smith’s death at the hands of an angry mob; early Mormons fleeing religious persecution in the Midwest; controversy over a church doctrine (officially abandoned in 1890) that endorsed polygamy; and Mormon pioneers who trekked across the plains in 1847 to find refuge and build a city near the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

“Like visitors to St. Peter’s Square in Rome, people touring Temple Square should expect to find a church-sanctioned version of history. So don’t come looking for a lengthy discussion of polygamy or a detailed explanation of the “Utah War” of 1857, when Mormon militia and federal troops engaged in a tense standoff.”

This reads as if reporter Jim Graham is connecting the synopsis of the Mormon story he’s just related–the “history of epic American drama and Western adventure”–with the caveat that this history is a “church-sanctioned” version that should be taken with a grain of salt.

It comes as no surprise that the LDS Church has designed Temple Square as a proselytizing tool. There, Mormon Church history is presented in a faith-promoting way, intended to evoke the strong emotions of sympathy and longing from visitors. The friendly sister missionaries present the Mormon faith in the same “church-sanctioned” fashion, being rather selective in which aspects of their religion they will and will not discuss.

As the tourist season is now upon us, perhaps some of you will be visiting Salt Lake City and Temple Square in the near future. In preparation for your trip I recommend you visit Temple-Square.org, a web site operated by Mormonism Research Ministry. Here you will find additional historical information about the LDS Church that will be helpful for you to know.

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Since we’re on the topic of polygamy, here’s a bit of news that raises a question or two.

In 1945 LDS Apostle Russell M. Nelson married his first wife, Dantzel, “for time and eternity” in the Salt Lake Temple. They made their life together for almost 60 years; Dantzel passed away in February 2005. However, it’s believed by Mormons that she will, by virtue of her temple marriage, reunite with her husband after his death and spend eternity as his wife in the celestial kingdom.

A little over a year after Dantzel’s death Mr. Nelson married again. On April 6th, 2006 Mr. Nelson and BYU professor Wendy L. Watson were wed in the Salt Lake Temple. This is the first marriage for the new Mrs. Nelson, so it’s reasonable to assume her marriage was not just for “time,” but for “eternity” as well. By her temple marriage she has secured the right, if she remains worthy, to also be her husband’s eternal wife in the celestial kingdom.

It’s not allowed within Mormonism for women to be “sealed” (married in the temple for eternity) to more than one man; however, men are allowed to be eternally “sealed” to more than one woman. This is apparently what has taken place in Mr. Nelson’s case.

So the question is, according to LDS beliefs, doesn’t this mean Mr. Nelson will be a polygamist in heaven?

Furthermore, isn’t he a polygamist now though he is currently only living with one of his two wives?

The LDS Church web site defines polygamy as “more correctly polygyny, the marriage of more than one woman to the same man.” The web site also states,

“The Church discontinued polygamy more than a century ago. No members of the Church today can enter into polygamy without being excommunicated.”

I don’t believe Apostle Nelson will be excommunicated for his temple marriage to Wendy Watson. Yet the declaration on the LDS web site, “There is no such thing as a ‘polygamous’ Mormon,” is not entirely accurate. As is so often the case with this religion, there is much more to it than publicly meets the eye.

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Mormons are always telling me that I should know Joseph Smith was a true prophet because (they quote Matthew 7:20) “by their fruits you shall know them.” Then they point out all the good things the Mormon Church is responsible for like humanitarian aid, boy scout training, good citizens with strong work ethics, etc.

I think Mormons misuse or misunderstand the passage from Matthew. While it is absolutely true that you will know a false prophet by his “fruit,” the fruit is not identified as the kind of good works Mormons bring up. The New Testament describes some of the “fruit” of false prophets as:

• controversies (1 Timothy 1:3-4)
• divisions (1 Timothy 6:3-4)
• destruction of faith (2 Timothy 2:18), and
• self-destruction by heresy. (2 Peter 2:1)

Be that as it may, let’s for a moment use the Mormon approach to Matthew 7:20. What “fruit” might we discover from the ministry of Joseph Smith?

One “fruit” that comes to my mind is that of polygamy. I know–and I’m sure you do, too–that the Mormon Church no longer practices polygamy; there’s been practically nothing else in the entertainment news for weeks. I’m sure we all know the LDS Church excommunicates anyone today who is caught engaging in polygamy. I’m not talking about what Latter-day Saints do these days during their sojourn on earth. I’m talking about the fruitful harvest from the seeds Joseph Smith planted as a prophet.

That Joseph practiced and taught the doctrine of plural wives is beyond dispute. After Joseph died, Brigham Young picked up that ball and ran with it. During the time he was president of the Mormon Church the doctrine was published to the world and practiced openly throughout the Mormon kingdom. Brigham Young’s successor, John Taylor, continued the doctrine of plural marriage as a necessity for those who desired to reach the celestial kingdom in the hereafter. But not only that; in 1886 he strengthened the teaching by receiving a revelation that declared God would never revoke this new and everlasting covenant; it was to stand as God’s law forever. Joseph planted, Brigham watered, John fertilized the crop.

Two years later John Taylor died and along came Wilford Woodruff as the 4th prophet and president of the Mormon Church. In 1888 he echoed John Taylor’s revelation when he said, “The doctrine of plural marriage has come to stay for all time.” However, great pressure was brought to bear upon the LDS Church due to polygamy so in 1890 Wilford Woodruff revealed he “had sought the will of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit had revealed that it was necessary for the church to relinquish the practice of that principle for which the brethren had been willing to lay down their lives.” The “Manifesto” was given to the Church ordering them to stop “contracting any marriage forbidden by the laws of the land.”

However, some did not recognize this directive as being the will of God. Over the next 14 years there were at least 250 church-approved plural marriages performed, demonstrating the need for yet another “Manifesto.” This one was issued in 1904 by 6th Church president Joseph F. Smith, finally ending church-sanctioned plural marriage.

But there were still some that did not believe God had ordained the cessation of the eternal principle of plural marriage. After all, didn’t God affirm, via revelation to His prophets, that The Principle would abide forever? What were these committed Church members to think and how were they to respond? Perhaps they found guidance in the words of the Apostle Paul: “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.”

Whatever drove these men to cling to the eternal and essential LDS doctrine of plural marriage, cling they did; and Mormon Fundamentalism was born. Growing directly from the root of the Mormon Church, as planted, watered and harvested by LDS prophets, the practice of religious polygamy flourishes in the United States today with somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 people living The Principle.

The LDS-generated polygamous lifestyle has always been marked by sin and things about which people ought to be ashamed, but it has deteriorated even more in these latter latter-days. Linked with child rape, child abuse, abandonment, intimidation, spouse abuse, spiritual tyranny and more–all in done in the name of God–this is rotten, despicable fruit.

And now, as if the state of polygamy in the inter-mountain west isn’t bad enough, there’s a new report coming out of a polygamous community in Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada. The people of this community, led by Rulon Jeffs until his death, were members of the now-infamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the LDS Church. When Mr. Jeffs died and his son Warren took over, about 1,000 members split from the FLDS Church in Bountiful to follow new leaders. On April 7th 2006 the Vancouver Sun reported a same-sex marriage between two of the wives of Winston Blackmore, one of the community’s leaders. Mr. Blackmore’s 18th plural wife quietly married his 22nd plural wife in December. Though they have both been “wed” to Mr. Blackmore since they were in their mid-teens and are the mothers of several of his 100+ children, this was the first legal marriage for both women.

Okay, Mormon friends. Let’s talk about Matthew 7:20. Let’s take a look at the “fruit” of Joseph Smith and the other LDS founding prophets. Let’s start with polygamy.

(Information on the history of LDS polygamy is from Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History, pages 128, 134, 139, 140, 156 and 158. The words of the Apostle Paul quoted above can be found in Romans 3:4.)

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