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Talk:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (view source)
Revision as of 00:34, April 11, 2009
, 00:34, April 11, 2009the issues of 1904-5
:::::: RJJensen, the witchhunt in 1904-05 had nothing to do with "official" marriage, but with allegations of "unofficial" polygamy, of which many prominent non-Mormons have been guilty in more recent times. Moreover, the claim that "conservative Protestants" led the 1904-05 Senate hearings (which were a failure, by the way) is unsupported. It seems much of the motivation of those hearings was to deny a seat to the Republican Smoot, and to resist the migration of Mormons from the Democratic to the Republican Party. That said, thanks for bringing this embarrassing episode of Senate history to our attention.--[[User:Aschlafly|Andy Schlafly]] 19:46, 10 April 2009 (EDT)
:::::: RJJensen, the witchhunt in 1904-05 had nothing to do with "official" marriage, but with allegations of "unofficial" polygamy, of which many prominent non-Mormons have been guilty in more recent times. Moreover, the claim that "conservative Protestants" led the 1904-05 Senate hearings (which were a failure, by the way) is unsupported. It seems much of the motivation of those hearings was to deny a seat to the Republican Smoot, and to resist the migration of Mormons from the Democratic to the Republican Party. That said, thanks for bringing this embarrassing episode of Senate history to our attention.--[[User:Aschlafly|Andy Schlafly]] 19:46, 10 April 2009 (EDT)
::well I have looked at the record, and I can assert that conservative Protestants --including every faction of the Presbyterian denomination, which took the lead--were very hostile to Mormons in 1904. Most of the ministers were Republican and they demanded the Senate take action against a Republican (Smoot). Three reasons dominated: whether the Mormons practiced Polygamy, theocracy and Christianity. The top Mormon leaders had multiple wives from official marriages--not unofficial mariages or comcubines or mistresses. (Smoot had only one wife and was seated). Mormon leaders realized the dilemma and forced the explusion after 1904 of outspoken polygamists, but they did not give up their own multiple wives. That is, they tolerated quiet polygamous mariages that had already started but did not allow any new ones. The last official polygamist --a widow--was a young woman in 1904 and died in the 1970s--not so long ago. Several leading Mormons were forced out of the leadership on the polygamy issue, and a faction broke off and still exists that practices polygamy. Theocracy was a somewhat different issue, which the Mormons resolved by splitting Mormon men into Republicans and Democratics, so there would be genuine competition in state politics. As for Christianity that still is a lively issue as the 2008 GOP primary suggests.[[User:RJJensen|RJJensen]] 20:34, 10 April 2009 (EDT)