Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiannan
I think the best way to illustrate the "immorality" of polygamy is to use the example of male circumcism.
It was commanded of God to circumcise male children and was still promoted even in the days after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Yet eventually it lost popularity as a mandate.
Now there are religions that still mandate male circumcism -- Judaism and Islam come to mind. There are some who would make this practice illegal and they often say it is a form of child abuse -- and of course child abuse is considered immoral. So are those who slice off the foreskin of their male infants immoral? Those who would make it illegal could say it is but they would then have to say that the God of the Old Testament was promoting immorality.
Now even though it is not a requirement for LDS parents to circumcise their boys I think it would be very strange for an LDS person to promote the idea that it's immoral and should be an illegal form of child abuse because to do so, and to say that parents who do this are child abusers, would be to admit that the foundation of their religion has holes in it. In the same sense so it is to attack polygamy or polygamists. Polygamy can be seen as something that is suspended in our beliefs but then again who are we to judge those who are Mormon who broke away due to their sincere belief that God intended for polygamy to remain? Then again there is the "It's illegal" arguement but that is just a cop out -- it was illegal in Joseph Smith's day too and the Church practiced it. Also, in many countries polygamy is legal so to say that it is immoral based on the law of the USA is to say immorality depends on one's geographical position on the globe.
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Official Declaration 1
Show me where the Lord has commanded that the practice of circumcision should be ended and your argument becomes valid. Furthermore, I very rarely hear complaints against circumcision of males, especially from people that have any education about it. The much larger uproar is over circumcision of females.
Lastly, I'm curious how you know that polygamy will in fact be reinstated. I'm pretty sure the Lord reserves the right to make those decisions and, to date, I know of no resources to indicate that it will certainly be reinstated. Perhaps it would be best to keep an open mind.