<p><a href=“http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/aug/29/082906389.html[/url]”>http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/aug/29/082906389.html</a></p>
<p>I don’t know why, but I’m fascinated by this story. The sheer audacity of someone living the way he does (I mean the compounds, the guns, the money) is just amazing to me.</p>
<p>Zoos, did you ever read Jon Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven”? It feels rather voyeurish to read, but I am fascinated by polygamy myself. Disgusted (with the 13 year old wives, etc) , but fascinated.</p>
<p>Yes I have read it, which is how I came to be so fascinated. I just cannot get beyond creating one’s own universe and what would allow so many people to subjugate themselves to another person’s benefit.</p>
<p>ooo I’ve read Banner too. Very fascinating. But I have to admit to literally laughing at the idea of Joseph Smith having a ‘revelation’ to take a new wife everytime he became…well you know. Especially his ‘revelations’ that were specifically directed at his uncooperative first wife…“Jooooseeph, you must tell Emma I have commanded you to take another wife…” lol…Okay…I’m through being inappropriate. I know I’m gonna get nailed for it.</p>
<p>I love Jon Krakauer…have any of you read one of his other books “Into the Wild”? Good read.</p>
<p>I found some of the theology presented in the book laugh-out-loud funny, too. I haven’t read Into the Wild but will look for it. Thanks for the tip!</p>
<p>Well, Joseph Smith seems to have been borrowing a page from a certain well-known middle eastern prophet who’s in the news a lot these days…who had several similar divine “revelations” regarding his own conjugal imperatives.</p>
<p>Good point Driver!</p>
<p>Am I the only one who could have some real fun dreaming up my own religion and community? Setting the rules and making it all about me?</p>
<p>Another interesting book is “Secret Ceremonies - A Mormon Woman’s Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond” by Deborah Laake.</p>
<p>I’m going to look for that book, too.</p>
<p>Why is there no book club on CC?</p>
<p>“Well, Joseph Smith seems to have been borrowing a page from a certain well-known middle eastern prophet who’s in the news a lot these days…who had several similar divine “revelations” regarding his own conjugal imperatives.”</p>
<p>I presume you meant Moses? though I’m not sure whether you are referring to Exodus 21:10 or Deuteronomy 21:15. I doubt you are referring to later middle eastern prophets such as Jesus or Muhammed, as they, in contrast, seemed to have set rather stricter limits on the number of wives.</p>
<p>ZM (#7): Actually, L. Ron Hubbard dreamed up his own religion. Iirc, he and two other science fiction writers were talking in the late 40’s about better ways to make money than to write SF and one said something like, “Just think about what you could make if you were the head of your own religion.” As told, Hubbard got a faraway look in his eye and the rest, as they say, is history. But at least he used his SF-writing talents to good use. And he went for money instead of sex.</p>
<p>Tom Cruise will probably now register on CC to refute me.</p>
<p>Point taken driver. I also think it bears mentioning that mainstream Mormons reject polygamy vehemently. One could definitely compare the evolution of their religion to that of Christianity or any other older religion. And I wouldn’t want to be interpreted as being disrespectful of them. </p>
<p>I’d like to confine my disrespect to the gun-toting, militant polygamists who live on the fringe of society and who abduct and rape teenagers (Elizabeth Smart), murder babies (the Lafferty brothers) and marry their own daughters.</p>
<p>We all know what it’s like when men start religions (money for nuthin’, chicks for free). I wonder what it’d be like for a woman to start her own fringe religion?:)</p>
<p>uc dad - I think, for starters, we’d all be praying at an altar that looked remarkably like a toilet WITH THE SEAT DOWN.</p>
<p>
I was of course referring to Muhammed, as you well know. He did set limits on the size of the harems of his followers, although it doesn’t seem to have been well-followed through the ages, perhaps because divine revelations kept expanding the size of his own.</p>
<p>That wasn’t the point, however. I was referring to the passages wherein Muhammed revealed direct instructions from the almighty with regard to his wives. Chapters 33 and 66 are particularly rich veins…look for the “revelations” that begin: “O wives of the Prophet!” and then proceed to instruct the ladies, with specificity, to do what big daddy tells them to do.</p>
<p>I tried this with my husband once (having divine revelations), to no avail. “O husband of Driver: fill not thy garage with your foolish boy-toys. Listen to the wise countenance of your spouse, chosen by the Almighty. Leave a space wherein she may park her horseless carriage. Else, thy wrenches and screwdrivers and timing lights may be taken from you, and sold on E-bay.” Didn’t work. </p>
<p><a href=“http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/koran.html[/url]”>http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/koran.html</a></p>
<p>Speaking of the polygamist Muhammad, he married one of his wives (Aisha) when she was six years old and consummated the marriage when she was nine years old. I can understand marrying many women, but I cannot understand marrying a child.</p>
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<p>Or maybe you’d side with Oscar Wilde…“Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.”</p>
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<p>How about the Shakers and Mother Ann Lee? </p>
<p>“During her imprisonment she experienced a series of visions, which revealed that sex was the main cause of sin and should be avoided; that she herself was the fulfillment of Christs Second Coming; and that it was her duty to carry the Word, which she embodied, to the New World.”</p>
<p>…and T’is a Gift to be Simple…</p>
<p>Love the Oscar Wilde quote! 
Also, a big LOL to Driver! </p>
<p>Many I’m old-fashioned, but, even when you’re putting size limits on your harem, you’re still (to state the obvious here) putting size limits on your harem. I mean, isn’t that a bit like saying, “Oh, he’s not too bad a person - he has pain limits on the people he kills.”</p>
<p>Oooohh, women get to invent our own religion? How 'bout a commandment that requires men to cultivate British or Russian accents? Much in the same way that other religions have laws about cleanliness and attire, the new, female-prophet religion will require Queer-Eye levels of hygiene, grooming, and clothing selection. 
Updated kosher laws will state that a meal is not acceptable if both man and wife did not take part in its creation and its clean-up. Wine would retain its place as a sacred drink; the fact that it would be joined by bourbon, hot chocolate, and champagne would not diminish its importance. </p>
<p>Why would this have to be a fringe religion? With some tweaking from the CC ladies, esp. those in Sinner’s Alley, I think we could get this to go mainstream.</p>
<p>“Tom Cruise will probably now register on CC to refute me.”</p>
<p>As long as he doesn’t hire someone to silence you, there’s nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>Creating his own religion really worked out for 'ol L. Ron, didn’t it?</p>