The history of the Church of Christ is full of men and women imprisoned for putting the Kingdom of God before the kingdom of men. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-Nego, Peter James, John, Paul, Abinadi, the brothers Nephi and Lehi, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum the Patriarch, even the Savior Jesus Christ – all of them were imprisoned because they loved God more than men and were loyal to His commandments no matter what the laws of men said. All of there examples, and many more, prove the truth that no follower of Christ can ever expect to find justice in the courts of men. This address from Apostle Lorenzo Snow, on the eve of his imprisonment by the U.S. government for obeying God’s commandments is one of these stories about how a true Christian acts when the demands of men contradict the commandments of Christ.
Category: LDS Classics
Brigham Young: Anti-Government Activist and First Wave Feminist
Reading through some of President Young’s sermons I have been astounded at the clarity with which he understood and addressed the threat of the State. He understood the threat of its so-called charity and he especially understood the role of public schools as indoctrination centers whose purpose was to implant loyalty and obedience into the minds of children form a tender age. He also clearly understood the threat this indoctrination posed to the Church and the Restored Gospel. Those who would support public schools he labelled as miserable apostates. Openly.
Interwoven with this are his comments about the role of women in Latter-day Saint society. He consistently calls upon them to be self-independent, to be educated, and to take their place in the workforce of Utah. The only jobs that he saw as not being for women were strenuous physical jobs, otherwise he declared a woman could perform any work any man could. Which was remarkably radical for his day.
Brigham Young Explains The Evils of Socialism and Public Schools
In this LDS CLassic, President Young explains that the United Order is based on private property and does not seek to create material or social equality. Instead it promoted economic inequality by rewarding greater profits to those who could earn them. He also explains one of the foundational problems of Socialism and describes how it would only lead to greater poverty than that which it was designed to prevent. He also describes what it will be like when the Saints return to Jackson County to found the City of Zion.
He also addresses the dangers of “free schools” – what we would think of today as tax funded public schools ran by the government. I won’t spoil it here, but he comes out at the end sounding like his name should be Brigham “Taxation is Theft” Young or Brigham “the Government is a Gang of Thieves” Young. He explains how charity is the exact opposite of state taxation and that it works in opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it brings people together. Though he doesn’t dwell on it here, this also further explains how Socialism in education is also dangerous, counterproductive, and in violation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as well as how the Saints should eschew public schools and educate their own children.
Joseph F. Smith On The Satanic and Evil Nature of War
and will twist the scriptures in order to use their events to justify war no matter how many men, women, and children it murders – in shot, to justify reigning with blood and horror upon the Earth. Such Satanic ideas have long been the daily bread of the Natural Man. But when one studies the actual teachings of the scriptures (as opposed to simply assuming that because a “good” person did something then it must be right) and listens to the teachings of the Prophets of God we find that their teachings are the exact opposite. Repeatedly they teach that war is evil, that we do not need violence because God will protect us, and command us to renounce war in all its forms and justifications in order to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This LDS Classic from President Joseph F. Smith preaches these exact truths.
That Time When Brigham Young Absolutely Demolished Young Earth Creationism
In writing my last two articles refuting some erroneous ideas and false doctrines about the creation and age of the Earth, I cam across a rather fantastic address by President Brigham Young from 1871. In it he teaches that there is no antagonism between science and religion. This is especially true for “Mormonism” as our faith embraces all truth from wherever it comes as part of it. Science and religion are both ways that God makes known the truths that He wants His children to know. His specific comments on the Creation and Age of the Earth do a great deal to dismiss the idea that the Earth is only 7,000 years old and that it was created in six literal days. This address will be enlightening to everyone who reads it.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy – The Great Indignation Meeting
The discussion of plural marriage and the practice of polygamy among the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dominated by a lot of ignorance, error, and anti-Mormon lies. While it is no surprise that non-members would believe these things the degree to which members of the church view polygamy as oppressive, anti-woman, and abusive is shocking and depressing. In an effort to correct these lies I have appealed directly to the words of the women who lived polygamy themselves and what they had to say about their lives. For that I turned to the printed account of The Great Indignation Meeting, a mass protest meeting held by the women of Utah in 1870 wherein they declared the ways that polygamy elevated them in society and protected their rights, denounced federal efforts to violate their human rights by making polygamy unconstitutional, and announced that they would rather die than submit to the oppressive laws of the government that would deny them their rights to plural marriage. The words of these powerful and intelligent women absolutely demolish the lies of anti-Mormons and promote the truths of the Restored Gospel.
What Does Mormonism Teach About The Meaning of Life and Life on Other Worlds?
What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose behind Creation? Why am I here? Am I alone here? Are humans alone in the Universe? Is their life, intelligent life, on other worlds? If there is, what do they look like? What do they believe? How do they live? Is everything just one big cosmic accident, one great big empyrean joke?
These are some of the most meaningful and important questions that we ask ourselves. The Universe seems dark, chaotic, and full of impassable distances, and looming terrors. And it doesn’t give up its answers easily. But there are answers to our questions, a balm for our troubles, answers to our prayers.
There is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it answers all those questions and more. That is what this article is about.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 3
This is the final part in this series where I have been comparing the actual words from women who lived in plural marriages with the claims that anti-Mormons make about what is was like for Latter-day Saint women. Unsurprisingly they do not match up. Latter-day Saint women found polygamy to be a liberating experience and say government efforts to eliminate polygamy as tyrannical and oppressive. They called the government out on the hypocrisy of claiming polygamy was oppressive whilst using state power to actually engage in oppressing women who wanted to engage in polygamy.
In the addresses reprinted herein they also discuss how polygamy helps to limit and eliminate serious social ills such as adultery, prostitution, elective abortion, and sexual immorality.
We also get an interpretation of the Twelfth Article of Faith that contradicts how most members today understand it but which the speaker learned directly from the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Finally these women saw that as the government increasingly legislated morality it wouldn’t only cause a massive loss of liberty but it would lead to social chaos, predicting the situation we find ourselves in now. They even endorse what today we would recognize as nullification.
These women were incredible and they deserve your time. You will be enlightened.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 2
I pick up here right where I left off in Part 1 – in the middle of the Great Indignation Meeting. Threatened by new anti-Mormon legislation aimed at destroying polygamy and annihilating the church, the women of the church have come together in a mass meeting. In it they defend polygamy as one of the greatest revelations God had given, demand that the United States government honor and recognize their rights to believe and live how they choose, declare that polygamy and the doctrines of the church have helped them to have greater rights than any other place in the United States, proclaim their status as mutual helpmeets and workers with men, and denounce efforts to attack the church and end plural marriage as being inspired by Satan himself. When you listen to them it becomes clear that they were not oppressed or abused, rather these were powerful, intelligent, and empowered women who were acting to protect one of the most important factors in their independence, the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage. Their experiences, their voices, their truths counter anti-Mormon lies and show us why we shouldn’t be ashamed of our past practice of plural marriage. Instead of listening to the ignorant and liars, read the words of the women themselves who lived it. You might be surprised.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 1
We all know how we are supposed to think and feel about the practice of polygamy by early Latter-day Saints. We have been told that it was sexist, oppressive, abusive, and harmful to women, something we should be ashamed of, so much that even many Latter-day Saints assume the assertions are axiomatic. But, are they? Are these statements in fact true or are they, like so many other things today, merely modern anti-Mormon drivel projected onto the past?
In order to figure this out I have decided to go back to listen the voices of the women who had firsthand experience with plural marriage, the polygamous women of Utah, to see what they had to say about the practice. Needless to say what I found is quite the opposite of the malignancies spread about plural marriage today. These powerful, intelligent, educated women saw plural marriage as an essential right of theirs that brought numerous blessings and protections to their lives which they would rather die fighting to protect than give up at the demand of the law. In this series I want to make their voices heard to counter the lies falsely spread in their name in by anti-Mormons. When it comes to plural marriage, thee truth about, like everything else, will set us free of the falsehoods we believe and reaffirm the truth of the Restored Gospel.