View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 9

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{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 9
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 9: More Than One Wife"
|S=
|L1=
|T=[[../../|Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism]]
|A=Richard Abanes
|<=[[../Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]
|>=[[../Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
}}
{{ChartBecomingGodsCh9}}
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{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 9
|H=Response to claims made in Becoming Gods, "Chapter 9: More Than One Wife"
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 225 - In Mormon theology, "creating" includes not only making a world, but peopling it through procreating, through sexual union with one's spouse
|L2=Response to claim: 226 - The statement in the 1835 D&C condemning polygamy was "perhaps in an attempt to conceal Smith's affair"
|L3=Response to claim: 233, 422n47 - Mormons believed that plural marriage was necessary for deification in the Celestial Kingdom
|L4=Response to claim: 233, 422n48-49 - Brigham Young said, "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy"
|L5=Response to claim: 237 - "Although wives continued to live with their husbands, they would receive conjugal visits from Smith whenever the need arose"
|L6=Response to claim: 237, 424n71 - Zina Huntington married Brigham Young while still married to Henry Jacobs, and Henry stood as a witness
|L7=Response to claim: 237, 425n73-75 - "Wife swapping" was "wholly acceptable"
|L8=Response to claim: 237 - The Bible does not sanction or command polygamy. "Most Israelites were monogamous"
|L9=Response to claim: 239, n. 80-83 - "Early Mormon leaders" believed that Jesus and his apostles were polygamists
|L01=Response to claim: 240 - The Book of Mormon "seems to condemn polygamy," but Latter-day Saints "deny that this is the case"
|L11=Response to claim: 241 - How could Jesus have been a god before he was born, before he had a physical body?
|L12=Response to claim: 241 - How could the Holy Ghost be a god, since he does not have a physical body?
|L13=Response to claim: 244 - "...nowhere in the Old Testament is polygamy linked with any mandates to practice it"
|L14=Response to claim: 245, n97 - Plural marriages were performed after the 1890 Manifesto
}}
</onlyinclude>

==Response to claim: 225 - In Mormon theology, "creating" includes not only making a world, but peopling it through procreating, through sexual union with one's spouse==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
In Mormon theology, "creating" includes not only making a world, but peopling it through procreating, through sexual union with one's spouse.
|authorsources=<br>
# 
{{Dialogue1|author=Melodie Moench Charles|article=The Need for a New Mormon Heaven|date=Fall 1988|vol=21|num=3|start=77-78}} The reference to "sexual union" comes from Melodie Moench Charles, who is not representative of orthodox LDS teaching.
}}
{{propaganda|The offensive term "celestial sex" is the creation of critics, not Latter-day Saints. Latter-day Saints do not claim to know the process by which spirits are created.
}}
{{:Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a practice called "celestial sex," and that this is the manner in which "spirit children" are formed?}}

==Response to claim: 226 - The statement in the 1835 D&C condemning polygamy was "perhaps in an attempt to conceal Smith's affair"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The statement in the 1835 D&C condemning polygamy was "perhaps in an attempt to conceal Smith's affair."
|authorsources=<br>
#D&C CI:4 (1835 edition), p. 251.
}}
{{propaganda|This is the author's fantasy.
}}
{{:Question: Why did the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants include a statement of marriage that denied the practice of polygamy at a time when some were actually practicing it?}}

==Response to claim: 233, 422n47 - Mormons believed that plural marriage was necessary for deification in the Celestial Kingdom==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Mormons believed that plural marriage was necessary for deification in the Celestial Kingdom.
|authorsources=<br>
#J.W. Musser, "The New And Everlasting Covenant Of Marriage: An Interpretation Of Celestial Marriage, Plural Marriage, Polygamy."
}}
{{information|It is true the 19th-century Mormons believed this. This does not mean that present members of the Church believe that the principle of plural marriage is false—rather, they believe that it is a principle only to be practiced when the Lord commands it for His purposes.
}}
{{:Source:Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:LESSON 140:Do not speculate about whether plural marriage is a requirement for the celestial kingdom}}
{{:Source:Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah:Gospel Topics:During the years that plural marriage was publicly taught, all Latter-day Saints were expected to accept the principle as a revelation from God}}
{{:Source:Charles W. Penrose:Improvement Era:September 1912:it is not stated that plural marriage is thus essential}}
{{:Question: Did early Mormon leaders teach the plural marriage was a requirement for exaltation?}}
{{:Question: Because Mormons do not currently practice plural marriage, does this mean that early leaders who taught that is was required were wrong?}}
{{:Question: If early Church leaders taught that plural marriage was required, does this mean that current members are not capable of achieving exaltation?}}

==Response to claim: 233, 422n48-49 - Brigham Young said, "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Brigham Young said, "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy."
|authorsources=<br>
#Brigham Young, ''Journal of Discourses'' 11:268-269
}}
{{misinformation|If you read the entire passage from which this quote is taken, you will see that Brigham is also acknowledging those who do not actually practice plural marriage. Critics of the Church, however, only extract this single phrase.
}}
{{:Question: Is plural marriage required in order to achieve exaltation?}}

==Response to claim: 237 - "Although wives continued to live with their husbands, they would receive conjugal visits from Smith whenever the need arose"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
"Although wives continued to live with their husbands, they would receive conjugal visits from Smith whenever the need arose."
|authorsources=<br>
*{{CriticalWork:Van Wagoner:Mormon Polygamy|pages=62}}
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Jedediah Grant|disc=2|vol=2|start=14}}
}}
{{disinformation|The sources quoted in the endnotes do not say anything about "conjugal visits" to women to whom Joseph was sealed who already had husbands for time.
}}

==Response to claim: 237, 424n71 - Zina Huntington married Brigham Young while still married to Henry Jacobs, and Henry stood as a witness==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Zina Huntington married Brigham Young while still married to Henry Jacobs, and Henry stood as a witness.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Compton:Sacred Loneliness|pages=20, 48-49}}
}}
{{misinformation|Zina and Henry had ended their marriage before she was married to Brigham Young.
}}
*{{Wyatt-Zina}}
{{:Question: Why would Joseph be sealed to the wife of someone who was not only married to someone else, but pregnant with her husband's child?}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith and Brigham Young steal Henry Jacobs' family?}}
{{:Question: What did the husband of Zina D. Huntington know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young tell Henry Jacobs in front of hundreds of people that he needed to find another wife?}}

==Response to claim: 237, 425n73-75 - "Wife swapping" was "wholly acceptable"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
"Wife swapping" was "wholly acceptable."
|authorsources=<br>
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Jedediah Grant|disc=2|vol=2|start=14}}
*Lee, ''Confessions of John D. Lee'', p. 165
*C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, ''Commentary on the Old Testament'', vol. 1, p. 73.
}}
{{disinformation|Jedediah Grant's quote is about consecrating everything to God's service: money, wives, etc. It does not sanction "wife swapping."
}}
*See: [[One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/Wife swapping]]
*{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=13|pages=295, 582n81-82 (HB) 580n81-82 (PB)}}
{{:Question: Did Jedediah Grant sanction "wife swapping"?}}

==Response to claim: 237 - The Bible does not sanction or command polygamy. "Most Israelites were monogamous"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The Bible does not sanction or command polygamy. "Most Israelites were monogamous." Abraham's polygamy "portrays his acceptance of plural marriage as a mark of disobedience to, and a lack of faith in, God."
|authorsources=<br>
#Author's interpretation.
}}
{{propaganda|This claim is simply nonsense.
}}
{{:Question: Does the Bible forbid plural marriage?}}

==Response to claim: 239, n. 80-83 - "Early Mormon leaders" believed that Jesus and his apostles were polygamists==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
"Early Mormon leaders" believed that Jesus and his apostles were polygamists.
|authorsources=<br>
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Jedediah M. Grant|disc=49|vol=1|start=346}}.
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Orson Hyde|disc=34|vol=2|start=210}}.
*Orson Pratt, "Celestial Marriage," ''The Seer'', vol. 1, no. 11, p. 172.
}}
{{misinformation|A few believed this, but it was never official doctrine of the Church.
}}
{{:Question: Did early Mormon leaders believe that Jesus Christ was a polygamist?}}

==Response to claim: 240 - The Book of Mormon "seems to condemn polygamy," but Latter-day Saints "deny that this is the case"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The Book of Mormon "seems to condemn polygamy," but Latter-day Saints "deny that this is the case." 
|authorsources=<br>
*{{s||Jacob|1|15}}
*{{s||Jacob|2|24-27}}
*{{s||Jacob|3|5}}
}}
{{misinformation|The author does not mention {{s||Jacob|2|30}}, which states "For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things" as the reason that Latter-day Saints "deny that this is the case."
}}
{{:Question: Does the Book of Mormon condemn polygamy?}}

==Response to claim: 241 - How could Jesus have been a god before he was born, before he had a physical body?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
How could Jesus have been a god before he was born, before he had a physical body?
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given
}}
{{misinformation|Critics ignore that the gospel teaches us what we must do to fulfill God's commandments and purposes. It does not spend much time telling us what Jesus was required to do—clearly, he had many duties and abilities which far outstripped ours.
}}
{{:Question: How did Christ achieve deification before mortality?}}

==Response to claim: 241 - How could the Holy Ghost be a god, since he does not have a physical body?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
How could the Holy Ghost be a god, since he does not have a physical body? 
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given
}}
{{misinformation|Jehovah, the premortal Jesus Christ, was part of the Godhead before his mortal birth. Why not the Holy Ghost?
}}
{{:Question: Can the Holy Ghost not be fully God, because he does not have a physical body?}}

==Response to claim: 244 - "...nowhere in the Old Testament is polygamy linked with any mandates to practice it"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
"...nowhere in the Old Testament is polygamy linked with any mandates to practice it."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given.
}}
{{disinformation|[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yibbum Levirate marriage] was mandated by the law of Moses ({{b||Deuteronomy|25|5-6}}). Even if true, this claim is immaterial. God did not condemn the practice of plural marriage in the Bible. If it was everywhere and always forbidden, God could and would have done so. [[Early_Christians_on_plural_marriage|Early Christian]] authors understood this.
}}

==Response to claim: 245, n97 - Plural marriages were performed after the 1890 Manifesto==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Plural marriages were performed after the 1890 Manifesto.
|authorsources=<br>
#1911 telegram to Reed Smoot from Joseph F. Smith, Apr. 1, 1911.
}}
{{information|This is correct.
}}
{{:Source:Gospel Topics:The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage:The Second Manifesto}}

{{endnotes sources}}


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