Mormon Heretic

I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I’ve been really busy correcting final exams.  I really enjoyed the last day of Sunstone, since I was able to attend all day, rather than a session here or there.  Don Bradley gave a presentation titled “Dating Fanny Alger”, a bit of a play on words.  I remember he gave a funny line to the effect of “By all accounts, she was hot!”  Anyway, Bradley tried to pin down when the “affair” happened.  Apparently, Emma discovered Joseph and Fanny late at night in the barn.  According to Bradley, Alger appeared pregnant.  Emma threw a fit, and threw Alger out of the house.  (Apparently Alger had been working as a sort of nanny.)

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I usually don’t comment much on politics.  When I do, it seems that my political posts don’t do so well, but here goes anyway.  A few months ago, I got an email from a friend asking me about how the church defines political extremism.  She had some relatives that were concerned about government conspiracies for population control, the New World Order, and a few other things.

Then I was talking to my sister a few days ago.  She asked me what I thought of the Tea Party movement.  In brief, I’m not a big fan.  Anyway, I thought it might be time to put together some of my political thoughts, and quotes from former apostle Hugh B. Brown into a post.  I considered waiting until closer to the election, but decided to go ahead and put this out now, since I was just talking to my sister about this issue.  I have combined a few emails into this post.

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I just finished the book by Sarah Baringer Gordon,  The Mormon Question.  It was a very different book from the previous book I read, More Wives than One, by Kathryn Daynes.  Gordon has degrees in both Law and Religion.  She looked at Constitutional theory and the arguments before the Supreme Court and Congress as the government made many attempts to shut down polygamy.

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President Obama swatted and killed a fly on television, and PETA is upset about it.  In case you think I’m making this up, here is the link from MSNBC.  Let me quote:

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

“We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals,” PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. “We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.”

I’m all for the ethical treatment of animals, but not insects, and especially flies.  This is truly unbelievable.  I wonder what their position is on mosquitos.  Anybody know?

Michael Quinn’s book The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power talks about many incidents which led to the “extermination order” by Missouri Governor Boggs.  These events are often referred to as the Mormon War in Missouri.  While there were some armed struggles, it seems more like vigilante and frontier justice than an all out war.  But with Memorial Day upon us, I wanted to highlight a person that people know a little about, Alexander Doniphan, who was known as one of the first “Jack Mormons.”

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The Faithful Dissident asked a very interesting question in my last post.

Back to Joseph Smith and theocracy, there’s something that puzzles me about Quinn’s claim. If JS truly intended on establishing a theocracy in America, wouldn’t that be in complete contradiction to what his religion proclaimed (i.e. that the US Constitution was a God-inspired document)? I never took American history, so I’m no expert on the Constitution, but how could it have been upheld in a theocracy?

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So, I came across an interview of Richard Bushman at the Pew Research Forum, about both early and modern Mormon politics.  I’ve also been reading a book called The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power by D Michael Quinn on the early leadership of the church.  I want to combine the 2 sources, and talk about Joseph Smith’s presidential plans of 1844.  First, let me quote Bushman.
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On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King game his famous “I have a dream speech.”  He said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

There has been much ado with Barack Obama’s skin color and his upcoming inauguration.  While this is certainly a historic event, I do not believe Mr. King’s dream has been fully realized yet.  Certainly President Obama’s election is a noteworthy event, and he will be the answer to trivia questions for the next several hundred years.  Obama’s election is a wonderful step, but I don’t believe King’s dream has been fully realized yet.  Comments?

Ok, I am interested in politics, but don’t feel I’m an expert.  I love to look at history, and this past weekend found out some interesting things about the father of our country.  I was reading in the Wall Street Journal.  There was an article about possible election fraud, and it talked about some election fraud history in America.  I learned that George Washington actually offered alcohol for votes.  The article also states that James Madison lost for not offering alcohol.  Votes have been for sale in America since 1757, when George Washington bought alcohol for every voter in his district, Baumgartner says.

Now it was so interesting to me that I mentioned it to my brother in law.  He immediately called the Wall Street Journal biased, and said it was just tearing down Washington’s legacy, and he did not believe it was credible.  He even compared it to anti-mormon attacks, and called it revisionist history.  I found this stance interesting, because I have been accused of thinking poorly of Brigham Young.

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Utah is considered one of the “Reddest” of “Red States” (Republicans.) Mitt won 90% of republican votes in the recent primary, and Utah has had a Republican Governor for the last 22 years, and counting. However, it was not always so.

Between 1917 and 1985, 6 of 9 Utah governor’s were Democrats. When the Republican party was founded in 1856, it was mainly opposed to “the twin relics of barbarism—slavery and polygamy,” and pledged themselves to rid the country of these two evils. Mormons were understandably anti-Republican Party, and voted for Democrats in droves. Read more…

First of all, I have to say of the 3 Republicans that were left, Romney was my first choice. I wasn’t 100% for Romney–I think the flip-flopping charge stuck because it was true, and I didn’t like his previous stances on abortion and gay rights, but overall, I thought he was the best, and I still think that.

I keep hearing everyone say the sky is falling now that John McCain is probably going to win the republican nomination. I think this is ridiculous. This link on MSNBC Hardball shows 10 reasons why conservatives hate McCain. Of these 10 reasons, I can only agree with one of them, and am lukewarm on 2 others. Do these 10 reasons describe your position? Here’s what I think about these.

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Normally my wife is not interested in politics. But this year is different. Here is a spreadsheet we came up with to predict how Mitt is going to do on Tuesday, and it doesn’t look promising. Now, I have no idea how states allocate delegates, but we got this off the web for the most recent polls for the Republican Super Tuesday states. Alaska, ND, and Montana didn’t have any polls, so we just gave all 3 candidates (Huck, McCain, and Mitt) 33% each. In some cases, Rudy was still in the race when the poll was taken, so I don’t know how that will impact the race, because he had a sizable lead in some cases. Super Tuesday Predictions with results

(You may need to click the link twice to see the file.) Remember this is for entertainment purposes only, but I’m curious to see how things go. Roughly McCain should take home 580 delegates, Mitt should get 200, and Huck should get 178, but these are all probably low numbers, because I doubt Rudy will get any. By the way, these result were found at USA Election Polls.