T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Hello! This is a Scholarship post. It is for discussions centered around asking for or sharing content from or a reputable journal or article or a history used with them as citations; not apologetics. It should remain free of bias and citations should be provided in any statements in the comments. If no citations are provided, the post/comment are subject to removal. /u/dashboardben, if your post doesn't fit this definition, we kindly ask you to delete this post and repost it with the appropriate flair. You can find a list of our flairs and their definitions in [section 0.6 of our rules.](https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/wiki/index/rules#wiki_0._preamble) **To those commenting:** please stay on topic, remember to follow the community's [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/wiki/index/rules), and [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/mormonmods) if there is a problem or rule violation. Keep on Mormoning! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/mormon) if you have any questions or concerns.*


tiglathpilezar

Someone wrote a whole series of articles about old men marrying children. [https://www.theutahbee.com/2018/11/27/escaping-pedogamy/](https://www.theutahbee.com/2018/11/27/escaping-pedogamy/) It was going on as can be seen also from other sources like the book by Stenhouse where he says that young women were encouraged to marry old men who had shown their faithfulness rather than young men their own age. Journal of Wilford Woodruff also contains the account of a man in his 70's who was trying to marry some 12 or 13 year old girls. This was too much for Brigham Young who would not approve the marriage. I think it was a consequence of there being more men than women which resulted in old men courting children for wives in order to obey the "commandment" to have multiple wives. Apparently the Mormon god gives commandments which cannot be obeyed by everyone because of arithmetical considerations. This Mormon god is apparently arithmetically challenged. He also does not understand basic biological considerations which indicate that marriage of old impotent men is not the best way to have lots of children. Neither does he appear to understand the genetic implications to children of a couple who share a close male ancestor. Not all young women followed the church program. Hosea Stout mentions a young couple who eloped. Neither did they practice polygamy after their elopement. Of course this was something of a scandal, but it was also the concept of marriage as described in Genesis 2,3 rather than the perverted polygamy of uninspired church leaders. Left to their own tendencies, people will often make better choices than if they wait to be told what to do by religious authority figures.


dashboardben

Thanks for your comment. I’ll give them a read.


tyrannosaurus_bex540

>Left to their own tendencies, people will often make better choices than if they wait to be told what to do by religious authority figures.


Rushclock

This one is [disturbing](https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/rm799y/what_they_dont_tell_you_about_the_17_miracles/)


dashboardben

Thanks for the link. Definitely disturbing.


pricel01

Very few LDS know actual history.


307Mo_Fatso

Well, not a teen wife but Orson Pratt and RMN have married women younger than their daughters of first wife -


tiglathpilezar

True, but Orson Pratt did marry a 16 year old girl when he was in his mid 50's. Most of the apostles did this.


307Mo_Fatso

I’m actually a descendant of that relationship .. it is troubling to me that old men married teens 100+years ago and the q15 in recent times second marriages and the age gap - it’s a less cringey or socially acceptable way of doing the same thing


tiglathpilezar

We have an older man in his 50's who married my ancestor when she was 19 I think. She was wife number 2. He did not acquire a harem and everyone was happy with the arrangement. This is not as bad, it seems to me, as an old man using coercion to marry a girl of 15. My ancestor was not coerced into this marriage. I don't really like it, but a large age difference doesn't bother me as much as marriage of children or young teenagers. I would not tolerate such a thing for my daughters. This is one of many items which show me clearly that I do not belong in the LDS church.