Live data from Hacker News

The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

thedailybeast.com

1–10 of 59 posts

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#2
I'm an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I've tried to be as educated as possible about the controversial/anti-mormon stuff (for example I've read the CES letter). But this is the first time I've come across this claim:

"During that time [when plural marriage was part of the doctrine] some male followers of the Latter Day Saint movement took dozens of wives each, disproportionately favoring girls between 14 and 16 years old."

There's no reference, does anyone have a source for that?

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#3
post #2

I'm an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I've tried to be as educated as possible about the controversial/anti-mormon stuff (for example I've read the CES letter). But this is the first time I've come across this claim: "During that time [when plural marriage was part of the doctrine] some male followers of the Latter Day Saint movement took dozens of wives each, disproportionately…

I've never been involved with the LDS church, but you could find a lot of interesting information at the Ex Mormon section of Reddit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/top/

And the wiki that goes along with it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/wiki/index

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#4
post #3
post #2

I'm an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I've tried to be as educated as possible about the controversial/anti-mormon stuff (for example I've read the CES letter). But this is the first time I've come across this claim: "During that time [when plural marriage was part of the doctrine] some male followers of the Latter Day Saint movement took dozens of wives each, disproportionately…

I've never been involved with the LDS church, but you could find a lot of interesting information at the Ex Mormon section of Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/top/ And the wiki that goes along with it: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/wiki/index

There's no dearth of places to find ex-mormon/anti-mormon info. I'm looking for documentation of that specific claim.

I did follow the links, but I didn't see anything promising.

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#5
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been involved with the LDS church, but you could find a lot of interesting information at the Ex Mormon section of Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/top/ And the wiki that goes along with it: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/wiki/index

There's no dearth of places to find ex-mormon/anti-mormon info. I'm looking for documentation of that specific claim. I did follow the links, but I didn't see anything promising.

A quick Google search returned a Wikipedia article[0] listing 49 women that were allegedly married to Joseph Smith, plus other articles detailing his marriages, so there's one good lead to follow up on.

Wikipedia also has a table of other early church leaders with the number of wives they had[1], which at least gives you some leads to dig further to validate their claims.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Joseph_Smith%27s_wives

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latter_Day_Saint_pract...

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#6
post #2

I'm an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I've tried to be as educated as possible about the controversial/anti-mormon stuff (for example I've read the CES letter). But this is the first time I've come across this claim: "During that time [when plural marriage was part of the doctrine] some male followers of the Latter Day Saint movement took dozens of wives each, disproportionately…

The original demographic research:

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/artic...

And a review of its more recent book-length expansion:

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/artic...

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#7
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been involved with the LDS church, but you could find a lot of interesting information at the Ex Mormon section of Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/top/ And the wiki that goes along with it: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/wiki/index

There's no dearth of places to find ex-mormon/anti-mormon info. I'm looking for documentation of that specific claim. I did follow the links, but I didn't see anything promising.

A lot of people in that sub Reddit have researched the church's history. Maybe the way to go is to post a question there and see if anybody can get you a source in support of the claim, or a source that refutes the claim. No need to redo legwork that's already been done.

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#8
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been involved with the LDS church, but you could find a lot of interesting information at the Ex Mormon section of Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/exmormon/top/ And the wiki that goes along with it: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/wiki/index

There's no dearth of places to find ex-mormon/anti-mormon info. I'm looking for documentation of that specific claim. I did follow the links, but I didn't see anything promising.

Fair point. I will give it a shot.

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#9
post #2

I'm an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I've tried to be as educated as possible about the controversial/anti-mormon stuff (for example I've read the CES letter). But this is the first time I've come across this claim: "During that time [when plural marriage was part of the doctrine] some male followers of the Latter Day Saint movement took dozens of wives each, disproportionately…

The founder Joseph Smith had 14, 16, 17 year old brides. If it was allowed for Joseph Smith why should anyone else be different?

Re: The Secret Facebook War for Mormon Hearts and Minds

#10
post #6
post #2

I'm an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I've tried to be as educated as possible about the controversial/anti-mormon stuff (for example I've read the CES letter). But this is the first time I've come across this claim: "During that time [when plural marriage was part of the doctrine] some male followers of the Latter Day Saint movement took dozens of wives each, disproportionately…

The original demographic research: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/artic... And a review of its more recent book-length expansion: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/artic...

I did a search for the number 14 and 16 without seeing anything that matched the claim. The closest I saw was

"These men averaged thirty-six years of age (range: 24-60) and had been married an average of ten years (1-32 years) before marrying a second wife of a mean twenty-five years of age (14-39 years). At that time, their legal wives averaged thirty-two years of age (22-56)."

Post reply on HN