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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apostle Dallin Oaks famously told BYU-Idaho graduates Oct. 13 that the negative attention Mormons received after Proposition 8’s passage has been similar to the intimidation of Southern black voters in decades past. Under the din of criticism that analogy received, Oaks made other comments that have mostly escaped criticism. They didn’t escape CityWeekly.net comment luminary Hayduke, however.
In response to comments about John Saltas’s Private Eye column, [“Dallin Oaks, Foot in Mouth,” Oct. 22] in which LDS apologists accused Saltas and others of taking out-of-context Oaks' civil-rights comparison, Hayduke asked:
“Could you please explain why Jo[seph] Smith had over 30 wives and Brigham Young had over 50 even though Oaks said this, ‘We follow Jesus Christ by adhering to God’s law of marriage, which is marriage between one man and one woman. This commandment has been in place from the very beginning.’” (emphasis ours)
Thank you, Hayduke, for showing that the context was as misleading as the most famous quote.
Rant Control’s take is that even more peculiar than a misread of African-American history is LDS leaders misrepresentation of the church’s own history. The church rails against same-sex marriage in the name of eternal tradition but fails to recognize the church’s history of modifying its definition of marriage twice: By instituting polygamy, then by ending it.
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