Why Blog?
Posted on May 12, 2008 by Jamie Larsen, under Thoughts by Jamie Larsen.
As I mentioned in the about me section of my blog, I grew up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a Mormon). If any of you are familiar with this faith, you know that we are extremely active in our religion. It isn’t a go to church a couple of times a year religion. We try to live and breath what is taught and generally try to be good people. Now I don’t consider myself perfect at all, but I try my hardest to live what I believe is right.
I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about the Mormon faith out there. Some being more to the extreme than others. I was a missionary for my church and had the opportunity to share what I believe is true with many people as well as learn from them what they believe to be the truth. I enjoy talking with others about religion and hope the things that I have to say on my blog can help someone out there understand a little more.
With there being so much bad in the world today, I am glad to have had direction in my life towards good.
One thing that really surprised me a little while back was something my co-worker asked me one day. He asked me how many wives my father had. He thought that polygamy was still going on in the Mormon faith until the 1980’s. This actually shocked me a little bit. Although I had been asked similar questions several times on my mission, I had no idea that people in the US still thought this about Mormons. I found the following statement on mormon.org from our Prophet:
In 1998, President Gordon B. Hinckley made the following statement about the Church’s position on plural marriage:
“This Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church. . . . If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church.”
At various times, the Lord has commanded His people to practice plural marriage. For example, He gave this command to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon.
In this dispensation, the Lord commanded some of the early Saints to practice plural marriage. The Prophet Joseph Smith and those closest to him, including Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, were challenged by this command, but they obeyed it. In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff received a revelation that the leaders of the Church should cease teaching the practice of plural marriage. (read more…)
So my answer to my co-worker was that the Mormon’s have not practiced polygamy since the 1800’s. I also told him that I am glad that it isn’t practiced… I could only handle one wife myself.
After the discussion with my co-worker, I talked to my wife about our discussion. This is one of the reasons I have decided to start a blog. I want to put my thoughts down somewhere where people can read them and ask me questions if they need to. I also wanted a place where I could send family members to where they could see my family and see pictures from trips that we take. Please feel free to comment on my blog. Keep the comments clean… If I feel that they are clean, I will approve them where others can see.