Under the Banner of Corruption

A couple months back, I recommended the book, "Shattered Dreams" to my sis, Bekah. And she was telling me how some of it reminded her of "Under the Banner of Heaven"...similar stories of fundamentalist Mormons and polygamists.

As I read this book, I am amazed at how corrupt the Mormons' leader and founding father was.

Krakauer, the author, has been setting up the history of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith's background, the beginning of the religion, and the persecutions that the Saints endeavored those first few years. But just now he's getting into when Joseph Smith first publicly instituted polygamy. Smith himself secretly engaged in plural marriage for the 11 years leading up to his death.

Between 1840 and 1844, God instructed him to marry some FORTY women. Today, I know that Joseph Smith would simply be labeled a sex-addict and probably brushed aside but because he was a self-proclaimed prophet, he turned this addiction into a commandment from God. Since then, this commandment has drug thousands and thousands of men, women and children into the lie of polygamy. It's so sad.

Check out an excerpt from his revelation on the matter:
If any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another..., then he is justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him...

And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore he is justified...

But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment.

Sounds pretty fair, eh?