3 Secrets Mormons Don’t Want You To Know
Or They Don’t Even Know Themselves
1 — Polygamy, polygyny, or in Mormon land, ‘plural’ or ‘celestial’ marriage was supposedly eradicated in 1910 after the Abraham Smoot hearings of 1904–1907. The Mormon church had no choice but to state polygamy had been killed off so that Abraham Smoot could take his seat in the Senate. Although this 1910 statement helped seat Senator Smoot, the truth was polygamy within the mainstream Mormon church lasted for at least another twenty years. Today? The truth is, again, very different than the PR guy would have you believe. The practice of polygamy or ‘celestial marriage’ is actually ‘suspended’ or postponed to a time when it will be reinstituted in the future. Anyone who has entered the Mormon temple will know this if they listen carefully.
2 — Racism, no matter what the Mormon PR guy says, is deeply embedded within Mormon beliefs. Apostle Mark E. Petersen once said, “If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the Celestial Kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get a Celestial resurrection.” Now that may have been in 1954, but remember that Mormon scripture actually states today, in 2 Nephi 5:21–24,
“And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities. And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done. And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.”
How do you read and understand that ‘scripture’? To me, it implies that having black skin is cursed by God. Furthermore, it suggests those cursed with dark skin are lazy, mischievous, and ugly. This isn’t the early 19th century; it is today!
When I asked my church leaders about these scriptures and other church writings, I was advised, as usual, not to worry; God is in control. Meaning shut up and go away.
In a similar vein throughout many, many Mormon publications, one can read examples such as Elder Arthur M. Richardson, in That Ye May Not Be Desired, “the Negroes tread the earth with black dishonorable bodies as a judgment of God because at the time of decision in the pre-existence they were faint-hearted and exhibited an infirmity of purpose — they were not valiant in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, they were entitled to no better earthly lineage than that of the first early murderer, Cain. They were to be the ‘servant of servants.’”
While the 1978 priesthood declaration for all men seemed to solve the racism of the past within the church, the Mormon leadership still maintains the racist writings and revelations of the past are valid today.
3—LGBTQ+ Issues? The Mormon church struggles to maintain its PR stance of ‘we disagree with homosexuality, but we love the people.’ The controversy surrounding LGBTQ+ people in and out of the church is often in the news. How do the highest levels of Mormon church leadership show their love to others who may be different?
In 2019, President Dallin H. Oaks stated, “We are confronted by a culture of evil and personal wickedness in the world . . . The increasing frequency and power of the culture and phenomenon of lesbian, gay, and transgender lifestyles and values.” He also said, with gross exaggeration, “One generation of homosexual ‘marriages’ would depopulate a nation, and, if sufficiently widespread, would extinguish its people. Our marriage laws should not abet national suicide.”
If that weren’t so serious, it would be hilarious. Patently false, of course. President Oaks continued, “It would also be desirable to permit employers to exclude homosexuals from influential positions in media, literature, and entertainment since those jobs influence the tone and ideals of a society.” Only ten years earlier, Oaks, no doubt based on his previous employment within the US legal system, also said, “First, I believe in retaining criminal penalties on sex crimes such as adultery, fornication, prostitution, homosexuality, and other forms of deviant sexual behavior.”
How would you feel, whether LGBTQ+ or straight, if your daily sexual activities were criminal? The prisons would be overrun if all the adulters and fornicators of the world would do time.
© Stephen G. Arrowsmith 2022
To see more of my work, please check out the following articles. Please feel free to share, give me a clap, and follow me for up-to-date writings.
