Title: Class and Race in the Frontier Army: Military Life in the West, 1870 – 1890
Author: Kevin Adams
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Genre: History Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Precursors to Joseph’s Polygamy
[This is the third post in a series. To read the series from the beginning, go to A Faithful Joseph.]
Protovisionary, Robert Carter III of Virginia
It is impossible to truly understand Joseph Smith’s teachings regarding plural marriage without understanding the environment in which he was operating. Medicine was primitive, histories could be hidden, weird sex was rampant, and visions abounded.
Having explored a possible doctrinal purpose for restoring the possibility of plural marriage, let me share three stories that capture the environment that existed prior to Joseph Smith that also inform my hypotheses about Nauvoo in the 1840s.
Old-Fashioned Medicine
We modern folk forget how primitive medicine was in the first half of the 1800s. Even as late as the Civil War, medical procedures were barely more advanced than the medicine practiced during Christ’s lifetime. Alleged advances included practices like injecting tobacco smoke into the orifices of an unconscious person to revive them – literally blowing smoke into their, er, large intestine.
Don’t worry, be happy
Do you notice a trend in this conversation that has taken place in the last 20 years?
Traditionalists in 1993: “We are worried that the increasing acceptance of and concentration on sexuality in the culture will result in the normalization of behavior that is sinful. It will be increasingly difficult to maintain traditional standards of morality and sexuality in the home because there are prominent counter-examples everywhere. Clearly sinful behavior is becoming ‘normal’ and even being ‘glorified.’ ”
The world: “Don’t be such a prude. This won’t affect you and your family, and aren’t you in favor of freedom? People expressing their sexuality does not affect you.”
Traditionalists in the mid-1990s: “Civil unions are OK in principle, but they could lead to gay marriage, which would decrease the importance of traditional marriage. There is a better solution, which is to allow consenting adults to just write out contracts to leave money to each when they die and to write out other contracts related to their shared belongings. Hospitals could also be petitioned to allow close friends to visit their loved ones. We don’t need to fool around with family law.”
The world: “Shut up you homophobe. And by the way, civil unions will NOT lead to gay marriage, which almost nobody wants.”
Traditionalists in 1995: “The Church has just put out a Proclamation to the World on the Family. It says very clearly that marriage is between ‘man and woman’ and that gender is an eternal character of men and women. Phew. Now, latter-day Saints know exactly where the prophets stand on this issue, and active members of the Church will of course follow the prophet.”
The world: “Whatever. The prophets are also racists. Nobody wants gay marriage anyway. Modern people just want civil unions, which you are obviously a homophobe if you oppose.”
Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #1
It’s time again to dust off your Bibles, ladies and gents. It doesn’t seem like it has been 4 years since we were studying the Old Testament, but it has come around again. I will be posting lessons most weeks and providing links to the OT lessons I did 4 years ago, as well.
This time, I’ll be looking at many of the lessons from other angles, so you won’t get the same lessons as before (hopefully).
Lesson #1 is now online at my blog. As always, read there and comment here.