You guys catch the Mormon special on OETA?

No! Really! The bush was burning!

:les: AND IT TALKED!!!1

 

I can barely handle ONE wife.

And by "barely handle", I mean "can't".

:O

 

http://www.septemberdawn.net/

John Voight? Really?

 

They covered it in detail. Consensus among Non-LDS historians was that Brigham ordered the murders. The Church historian opined that while Brigham didn't give the order, he had allowed a cult of personality and the Church's absolute authority over all matters to evolve into a pretty robotic reaction to external threats. After statehood, that theocratic stuff pretty much went by the wayside.

 

Did they mention some of the jacked up laws passed by Congress to condition their statehood? Such as no official can even believe in astro-something or another?

 

No, but the did explain that these people believe God has a physical, fleshly body and still gets jiggy with His wives constantly. That's where all of our souls came from. Pretty bizarro stuff.

Anyway, according to the program, if an LDS man gets married and his wedding is solemnized or "sealed for eternity" in a temple, then someday, that couple, can get warped over to some other part of the universe and make spirit babies forever just like the God in charge of our corner of the universe is doing. No foolin'

 

I had a discussion about that with my Mormon officemate the other day when we were talking about the discovery of an earth like planet last week. Interesting stuff.

 

I like secks as much as the next guy, but populating an entire planet for infinity would be a pretty big responsibility.

That's almost as wacky as the 70 virgins for each dead jihaadii story.

 

Adam's a pretty virile guy. I think he can handle it.

 

NOBODY is that virile, particularly with the same woman for the last 10,000 years.

 

Good stuff. I really appreciated the balance the documentary showed. I didn't see much new stuff, but maybe that's because I've studied our religion's history since I was a youngster.

No doubt Mountain Meadows was a debacle that seems to divide folks. I wasn't there so I won't make any authoritative statement. Either way, I'm sure there were some murderous Mormons out there.

Alot of family members ask what its like living in Utah where the majority of folks are LDS. I tell them the state has the same problems as other places it's just that the thugs, criminal element, and vices are predominantly LDS. Just as the majority of criminals in Iran are Muslim.

 

I'm sure there are drugs that can help with that for the last 9000 though.

 

I'm not LDS, and I had a lot of people ask my wife and me about our three years we lived there. I'd agree totally with your statement.

 

anyone interested in the history of the LDS should read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Krakauer

 

One true Church?

http://www.exmormon.org

 

Found it. Davis v. Beason. The Idaho Territory (through congressional laws) required an oath that in order to vote the person swear that they do not practice or advocate celestial marriage (or polygamy) as a religious duty, nor belong to an organization that does. The court found these prohibitions acceptable.

The narrowest definition ever expressed for freedom of religion, and from the same court that first dug up a private letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists.

 

I watched the last 1/4 tonight. I think it was done nicely and matter of factly. Kind of what you'd expect from PBS. It was kind of refreshing to watch a documentary that wasn't all hype and craziness.

I am going to try to watch the rest on Tivo.

 

Kinda what I was thinking. No obvious slant or propaganda. I knew a lot of the stuff they presented tonight but would be curious to see the first part. They mentioned at the end that you could watch the whole thing on their website, so I may do that soon.