Joseph Smith’s plural wives mostly stayed faithful to the Church, and those that didn’t never claimed that they were debauched or seduced or taken advantage of by a libidinous Joseph. (more…)

Is that not what this amounts to?

With the impending nomination of Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate for President of the United States, I believe it is all but inevitable that Orrin Hatch will be proved right, and the Democrats will make a serious effort to throw the Church at Romney. It’s possible that Obama’s official campaign will try to preserve plausible deniability on this ugly tactic, but it will be part of the overall Democratic campaign strategy nonetheless.

So what about the Church will the Democrats throw at Romney? Three very likely candidates are polygamy, the ban on ordaining blacks to the priesthood, and the Church’s opposition to gay marriage.  I am going to try to preempt some of this attack with a (probably very long) post on these topics. Let it be understood that what I post is the opinions of Brother Vader, a mostly orthodox but decidedly unconventional Latter-day Saint, and that I am not an official spokesman for the Church.   (more…)

At National Review Online: (more…)