To Marsha Harmon:

In your letter (Sept. 26, 1996) you talked about the issue of legalizing same-sex marriages. Your opinions are your own and I can respect them.

In your letter, you used the issue of Mormons and plural marriage, specifically: “The Mormon religion believes in a man having more than one wife even now in many literal believing members and temples in their religion….We all know that bigamy is against the law, and that even goes against one of the foundations of The Mormon religion.”

Your description of the beliefs of the Mormon religion is inaccurate and I take exception to the inference that being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is morally wrong (based on your discussion of the morality of homosexuality later in your letter).

In “Articles of Faith,” a document, that is an important part of our church, is states clearly: “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.”

While it was true that for a period in Mormon history men took on more than one wife, the federal government passed a legislation making such marriages illegal in 1860’s.

The members of the church complied with the law, in keeping with the “Articles of Faith.”

In fact, during the period that the law was passed there was already a decline in the number of members entering into such marriages, which were very few to begin with, (Lenord J. Arrington “The Mormon Experience”).

Today if any Latter Day Saint is found practicing bigamy they are excommunicated, plain and simple.

Having cleared that issue up, I want to know why this subject was even brought up in the first place?

Your assertion and inference shows that you haven’t really looked into a people and religion that you are so quick to label wrong and immoral.

The fact that you used that particular faith as an example shows your bias and intolerance (something you claim NOT to have regarding homosexuals). There is a popular phrase that says that “opinions are like anal orifices. Everybody has one.”

There are plenty of IMPARTIAL literature regarding the issue of what Mormons do and don’t do.

It would have been nice if you would have taken the time to get the whole picture before putting your opinion on paper.

M.C. Parks

Graduate Student

Community and Regional Planning