I am not competent to comment on whether that was true or not, any more than I can comment on whether Jesus rose from the dead, was born of "virgin birth."
But, if you accept either of the latter, or at least accept the possibility of either of the later, than you, as a matter of comity, ought to accept the former. So, in that sense, your question is answered by God.
On the other had, if you do not accept the possibility of virgin birth and rising from the dead, then you might not accept the idea that God told the president of the LDS to change the rules of polygamy, and then we are back to the political question. The U.S. Government had been conducting a "war" of sorts against the Mormons, with the Supreme Court often leading the way. Congress had authorized, and the Court upheld (see Late Corporation of the Church of LDS) the confiscation of almost all Church property; thousands of Mormons were in jails and persecution was rampant. Under those circumstance, the Church changed its doctrine. See generally Edwin Frimage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts.
It is important to note that polygamy was a requirement for Mormon men who could afford to support more than one wife, if there wre single women in the community. Thus the war on the Mormons was persecution for religous doctinre and belief. Davis v. Beason (1890) upheld a proseution for belief, not action. It shows how far the U.S. govt. and the Court can go in persecuting religious minorities.
Paul Finkelman
-- Paul Finkelman Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law University of Tulsa College of Law 3120 East 4th Place Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
918-631-3706 (office) 918-631-2194 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Nelson Lund wrote:
Of course the church changed its position. My question was and is: exactly what did the change consist of, and was it more than an accommodation, possibly temporary, to American law? Paul Finkelman wrote:The Church of LDS in fact officially changed its position, claiming revelation from God. The literature on this is pretty strong. You could start with RELIGION AND AMERICAN LAW: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA (Garland, not Routledge, 2000) (Paul Finkelman, ed.) which has a number of entries on the Mormon church and lots of bibliographic leads to other more complete sources. Paul Finkelman Univ. of Tulsa College of Law Quoting Nelson Lund <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:Jack Balkin wrote:. . . It is very unlikely that the Catholic Church is goingto change its viewson homosexuality in the same way that the Mormon churchchanged its viewson polygamy. . . .In what way has the Mormon Church "changed it views"? Has the church gone beyond a decision to submit, for the time being, to the legal prohibitions that the dominant culture insists upon? Nelson Lund
