|
GUEST
ARTICLE
FUNDAMENTALIST MORMONISM
IS THE ORIGINAL MORMONISM
Article description: The Fundamentalist Mormon
Church has been in the news of late, with the raid on the
Texas Temple and the rescue of women and children from
their peril. News outlets have repeatedly stated that this “Fundamentalist” movement
bears no relationship to the Mormon Church in Salt Lake
City. That is a serious misconception.
The Fundamentalist Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made significant
news over the past several years. The “Fundamentalist” church
(FLDS) emerged from the Latter-day Saint church in Salt
Lake City (LDS-SLC) around 1930, mainly in protest to the
abolition of the doctrine of polygamy, as originally initiated
by the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith Jr., and also
practiced by Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, and numerous
other Mormon dignitaries.
Allegedly the FLDS church has
a membership of between six and ten thousand, scattered
throughout the western United States and into Canada.
This movement has been in the
media spotlight over the past six years since Warren Jeffs
became president. Jeffs has been convicted of accessory
to rape and could spend a significant time in prison. Jeffs’s
successor is William E. Jessop.
One of the modern centers of
the LDSF movement (with a huge temple) is located near
Eldorado, Texas. After receiving a phone call a couple
of weeks ago from a sixteen-year-old girl, who alleged
sexual abuse (claiming to have been married to the fortynine-year-old
Jessop at the age of fifteen), state troopers stormed the
compound and removed more than four hundred children. A
number of girls were taken into temporary custody. More
than one hundred women also left the compound voluntarily.
The Original Mormonism
It has been strange that news
outlets repeatedly have stressed that this Fundamentalist
LDS cult has “absolutely no connection” to the Salt Lake
City church. This is entirely misleading. The Fundamentalist
church has a paramount connection to the LDS-SLC
church—both historically and doctrinally.
Consider the following facts. (The Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants,
both considered to be inspired documents by the Mormons,
will henceforth be designated as BM and DC.)
The Mormon Church of Salt Lake
City contends that Joseph Smith Jr., was a prophet of God
and that Mormons are required to “give heed unto all his
words and commands” which he gave, and claimed to have
received from God (DC 21:4-5).
Two fundamental doctrines taught
by Smith were “celestial marriage” (a marriage relationship
alleged to continue in heaven (contra Matthew 22:29-30),
and “polygamy” (a marriage involving plural wives). In
a “revelation,” supposedly received by Smith from God,
it is stated:
For
behold, I reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant;
if ye abide not in that covenant, then are ye damned; for
no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter
into my glory (DC 132:4; emphasis added).
Yet this is very curious since
the Book of Mormon (Jacob 2:24) describes polygamy as a
practice “abominable before me, saith the Lord” (BM 111; emphasis added).
Joseph Smith may have had as
many as forty-eight wives (Tanner 1987, 211). Brigham Young
had twenty-seven wives and fifty-seven children. (For a
listing of his wives see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_young.)
If Jeffs and Jessop are vile, lecherous men, what shall
be said of Smith and Young, still highly revered by the
LDS-SLC church?
Abolition
of Polygamy
In 1890 the U. S. Supreme Court
affirmed the constitutionality of “anti-polygamy” laws,
and the Mormon General Conference agreed to abide by the
decision, thus nullifying the “new and everlasting covenant,” which,
according to their own “inspired” book, was given by God.
However, the U. S. government has been ignoring these pockets
of polygamy for years. We are a nation that conveniently
steps around the law in far too many instances. And we
are not yet to the end of that road.
The Fundamentalists, therefore,
are simply saying, in essence: “We must obey God rather
than men” (cf. Acts 5:29), though in their case, the principle
has been egregiously perverted.
It is entirely disingenuous
for the news media to distance the Fundamentalist Mormon
movement from Mormonism as it originally was constituted.
If the ecclesiastical powers in Salt Lake City are horrified
at the degrading situation at Eldorado, Texas, let them
renounce both Smith and Young, instead of continually honoring
them. In the meantime, let it be known that Fundamentalist
Mormonism is the real Mormonism!
Sources/Footnotes
Tanner, Jerald and Sandra.
1987, Mormonism – Shadow or Reality? Salt Lake City,
UT: Utah Lighthouse Ministry.
--Wayne Jackson
© 2008 by Christian Courier
Publications. All rights reserved.
http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/print/
fundamentalist_mormonism_is_the_original_mormonism
|
