Quote:
Originally Posted by Cervantes
I've never really indluged into the Mormon faith as much as I have in the general Christian faith. (I am an atheist but I find the study of religion and it's impact on society to be extremely facinating). As I live in Sweden, a country that is among the most secular and unreligious ones without resorting to totalitarian abolishment of religion, we still do have a few mormons that walk about our streets every now and then (mainly american missionaries I might add, still haven't met a true swedish convert to the faith). Very little is known about the religion itself among the general public but there are many myths and urban legends.
One of these caught my interest a while back (as it has to do with societal changes, adaptations and emergence of fringe groups of the faith) but I have yet to recieve an answer whether the myth itself bears any historical accuracy or not.
The myth itself is simple, during the early years of LDS there were widespread religious prosecution and mob executions of those that ascribed to the Mormon faith. During this time, there were so few men (as they were presumably killed) that an exception was made in the marrital laws for mormons, men were allowed to take more than one wife. The myth continues that after the mormon prosecutions ended this exeption was removed but that that parts of the mormon followers were not happy about that (especially the men) and that they broke free from the mainstream LDS and gave rise to the more fundamental polygamous societies in USA.
All of this is what I've heard and pieced together from word of mouth, but I can't find any historical records about this to neither verify nor refute the myth online.
My question is simple, is the myth true? Partially true? Or just plain bogus?
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Good question, Cervantes.
I do not have any documentation on the matter, but the "myth" as you describe is entirely consistent with what I was taught in sunday school as a teenager. I will elaborate with the bits that you seem to have missed. There was significant social and political pressure placed on the LDS to end the practice of polygamy. This pressure was most prevalent in the United States, so those who wished to practice polygamy retreated into isolated communities, some went so far as to emmigrate to Mexico and Canada, where they set up Mormon colonies. Eventually the Prophet came out with an official document that ended polygamy (on earth, it is still said to be practiced in heaven). The groups that disagreed with the end to polygamy remained in their little isolated enclaves and the Fundamentalist sects began.
One of my friends in the dorms at BYU was a blue-eyed woman with a typical mormon name who was an international student from Mexico. She spoke fluent English, though she did have an accent that was a little off. She said she was from "the colonies" - I hadn't realized that they were still around.
---------- Post added at 12:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:04 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by eribrav
I have this vague notion, and I can't remember the source, that Mormons have a special affinity for Jews.
True?
If so, why?
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Yes.
I'd like to say that they have no more affinity for Jews than any other Christian group, but that's not really accurate. There's a few reasons for their love for Judaism.
1) Judaism came first. Christianity is built on Judaism. Much of the symbolism prevalent in their practices hints at a Jewish origin. It's said that you can better understand Christianity by understanding Judaism.
Now here's where it gets confusing, so bear with me...
2) Mormons believe that the "lost tribes" of Israel are not really lost.
At age 14, most LDS receive what is called a Patriarichal Blessing. This is a once-in-a-lifetime personal message from God, spoken through a specially ordained Patriarch. These blessings are recorded, transcribed, then placed on your church record along with other more mundane records like the date of your baptism. If you loose your copy of your blessing, you can always order another one from Salt Lake. No one ever really loses their blessing, it's too special.
In your patriarichal blessing it is revealed which of the 10 tribes of Israel you fit into. Everyone on Earth is either born into or adopted into one of the 10 tribes (Why? I'm not entirely sure, but it has something to do with promises that God made to the Israelites and the chain of events for the last days as mentioned in the book of Revelation). The general trend of these tribes seems to be broken down racially. I'm in the tribe of Ephraim, for instance, along with nearly everyone else who is white. Pacific Islanders are typically Manassah. I knew one guy whose blessing said he was adopted into the tribe of Levi when everyone else in his family was Ephraim.
Apparently what tribe among the house of Israel you're a part of is supposed to be a big deal because your responsibilities will be different when it comes closer to the time of the Second Coming of Christ. The tribe of Ephraim is supposed to be the workhorse tribe that brings the rest of the tribes to Christ.
So, Mormons like Jews because they feel kinship, even though Jews themselves don't support such a connection. Clear as mud, isn't it?