Gospel Thoughts – Speaking of Polygamy…

The Constitution of the United States of America requires leaders to promise to defend it, limits their power if they don’t, and enshrines the God-given rights of the People, just in case. The Constitution promotes liberty and remains relevant today.

“I can if I want to. It’s a free country.”

I heard this spoken many times in my childhood. When one child tried to stop another from doing something, they would often appeal to the fact that this “is a free country.” They seemed to understand that they had rights no one could take away.

The Constitution enumerates certain government powers, delegated by the people, and includes a list of rights it’s forbidden to abridge. Even when a leader wants to trample our rights, the Constitution limits his power. The first line of defense is that every elected official promises to defend the Constitution. Let’s consider three built-in safeguards of liberty.

First, the oath of office. Article VI states that elected officials “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.” This keeps the Constitution fresh in their mind. Hopefully, we elect honest men who keep their promise.

Inevitably, dishonest men get elected who have no intention of defending the Constitution, but there is a second safeguard against power-hungry men: the limit of their authority. If the oath of office was the only safeguard of liberty, it would quickly fail. It is almost always the nature of men to abuse power. Therefore, the wise framers put limits on government and those holding positions within it. Limiting flawed humans in power is the only way to create a free society.

The division of the government into three branches keeps anyone from having too much authority, which limits the potential for abuse, even by malicious politicians. Each branch is limited to the powers explicitly delegated to it. Even the President has only a short list of delegated powers. The inclusion of checks and balances between branches also prevents abuses.

When leaders do try to abuse us, the Constitution contains a third safeguard: the Bill of Rights, which explicitly lists some rights that tyrants are likely to trample. Such a list makes it simple and obvious for the people to recognize many things the government shouldn’t touch. We know we have free speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms, for instance. When the government attempts to abridge any of these, we know sinister things are happening, and we can civilly disobey, rather than let our rights be trampled. In other words, we can say, “I can if I want to. It’s a free country.”

The framers understood that men are not angels. From Cain murdering Abel to today’s news headlines, it seems like nothing changes. As long as there have been humans, there has been abuse. Fortunately for those who live in this “free country”, the Constitution has built-in protections for the liberty of the people.

As long as human nature doesn’t change, the Constitution will remain as relevant as ever.

Happy Constitution Day.

Christians read the Sermon on the Mount wrong. They commit interpretive error in one of two ways. The first, and most nonsensical, error is to say that Jesus, in delivering this sermon, did away with the Law and replaced it with an easier, less burdensome, less strict set of commands. This view might be expressed like: “Ancient Israel was required to keep an endless list of largely meaningless, needless, busywork laws as punishment, but all we have to do now is simply love each other,” or some variation of that. Anyone can clearly see that this interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is false since Jesus speaks not only of avoiding murder, but of avoiding even anger (a.k.a. murder in your heart). Which is more strict, more difficult? Each will answer for themselves. Speaking personally, I have never struggled with the sin of murder, while anger is another matter (not that I am an angry person generally, but I have been guilty in this regard).

The other error is to say that Jesus gave commands stricter, and more demanding than the Law. This understanding, that the ancient Law is merely concerned with outward performances, is also a misunderstanding. The truth is that the Law of God has always been concerned both with conditions of the heart (or the inner person), as well as outward, observable actions. There are whole books to be written here, but I will briefly expound on Jesus’ teaching about adultery in the Sermon.

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” – Matthew 5:27-28

Some might say, “See, Jesus is elevating us to a different, higher law. The Law of Moses was concerned with physical adultery, but Jesus now tells us to avoid even desiring a woman.” The simple rebuttal to this naïve assertion is that Jesus’ comments about lusting after a woman do not constitute a change (neither in substance nor interpretation) to the 7^th commandment (no adultery). Rather, his comments are a reiteration of the 10^th commandment (no coveting)!

In the Law there is no punishment for coveting your neighbor’s wife (committing adultery with your heart). Afterall, how would anyone even know? Meanwhile, actual adultery (committed with your body), was punishable up to death (the penalty being carried out by stoning).

“And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” – Leviticus 20:10

This brings me to the point I want to make in this post. Jesus, lamenting the wickedness, pride, and hard-heartedness of his people proclaimed:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee!” – Matthew 23:37

I have observed animosity towards polygamy from certain segments of Mormonism as well as broader Christianity; however, I am also observing an alarming increase (especially among Mormon circles) of those eager to hurl accusations of adultery at those, both past and present (from Abraham forward), who have polygamous families. It is becoming particularly popular to accuse the early Mormon apostles (after Joseph Smith’s death), particularly Brigham Young (but also other LDS presidents/prophets), of both committing and preaching gross wickedness, abomination, whoredom, and adultery in consequence of their stance on plural marriage.

These accusations are of course false (speaking of accusations against plural marriage generally and not against any individual crimes), and those who make false accusations (i.e. bear false witness) bring condemnation upon themselves (see Deuteronomy and Proverbs). What is worse, they also accuse other faithful Mormons of making accusations of adultery against Joseph Smith if they don’t align with their anti-polygamy ideology. Their assertion is that anyone who believes Joseph had more than one wife, is accusing Joseph of adultery, etc. They are falsely accusing believers of bearing false witness (they are bearing false witness of false witness – if you can wrap your mind around that). Of course this is a ridiculous accusation. Those who faithfully believe that Joseph taught and/or practiced plural marriage do not accuse him of adultery – they simply believe that he had multiple marriages. It is the anti-polygamy crowd that has changed the scriptural definition of adultery, slapped that label onto polygamy, then made accusations of accusations with their new and false definitions .

Regardless, these are serious pronouncements to make. According to God’s Law, those guilty of such false allegations (adultery, whoredom, etc.) earn themselves potential capital punishments – because the law for false witnesses is to receive the punishment that their witness would have brought upon the accused. Therefore, those who make such accusations desire to kill the prophets. By their accusations they desire to stone them (this is according to the Law). They have in fact stoned them – in their hearts. Therefore, I say to them:

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (for whosoever bears false witness shall receive the punishment affixed): But I say unto you, That whosoever falsely accuses the prophets, has stoned the prophets already in their heart. (a synthesis of Matthew 5:27-28 and Matthew 23:37)