Considering that those teachings of Christ include respect, love and tolerance (and much more), anyone who practices even one of those ideals ought to be happier than otherwise whomever they may be or whatever else they may believe. And it is always the case that people find those ideals in a great variety of sources depending on the life of an individual whether it be the Bible, Koran, Torah or life experiences.

You’re right – religiously heterogeneous families are less happy (Lehrer, Evelyn L., and Carmel U. Chiswick. 1993. “Religion as a Determinant of Marital Stability.” Demography 30.).

As for never saying that Mormons have a monopoly, you’re right, but this is awfully close, “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Though, ironically, atheists are less likely to divorce than are evangelical Christians… Go figure?!?)

I gave one example to show that the Church does not encourage this disunity, but it may be perceived that way. In any part-member family, the relationships will be strained. This is true of Jews, Baptists, Muslims and many other religions.

Mormons don’t have a monopoly on happy families and I never claimed that.

So, let me see if I got your response straight: Apostate spouse leaves, it causes tension, but only because the “apostate” is trying to “force” his beliefs on his “believing” wife. It could never be because the believing “spouse” is trying to force his/her beliefs on the apostate? (Note: That is exactly what happened in every divorce I’ve seen resulting from one spouse losing faith and the other staying – it was the Mormon insisting on the divorce and not the other way around; and in most cases, the apostate was still willing to go to church, raise the kids Mormon, etc., but the believing spouse just couldn’t take living with a non-believer). So, it seems to me like you are putting all the blame on the apostate and none of it on the Mormon. This seems like black and white thinking – Mormons can do no wrong, ergo, it must be the non-Mormon who is at fault.

Also, you really want me to believe that the only happy families are Mormon families? That means 99+% of the world is wallowing in misery and their family lives suck. That, Thaddeus, is patently absurd! Mormons do not report themselves to be any happier than non-Mormons, nor do they rate their marital satisfaction as higher. (Again, look up Tim Heaton’s work on this – it’s a scientific and statistical question, not a question of what you want to believe.)

A Family is only happy in an atmosphere of love and respect. A critic of the Church may think he is doing his wife a big favor by “helping” her out of delusion, but consider how she feels. Attacked. Scorned. Made to feel stupid. (His reliance on rational arguments blinds him to her feelings). She is put on the defensive. Suddenly her husband is not supporting her and she pulls away from him so as not to be hurt any more.

The critic, still hoping to open his wife’s eyes now sees his wife pulling away from him in favor of the Church. He blames the Church further. All he sees is the stranglehold they have on her.

In such a circumstance it would be difficult to maintain any semblance of a happy family.

Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jancisco… Stopping the practice of polygamy is not the same as repealing the doctrine. Are you trying to tell me that the first Manifesto nullified D&C 132? If so, your original post about families is null and void. If all it did is delay the practice, then polygamy is still the doctrine of Mormonism, just not the practice. Again, you don’t get to have your cake and eat it too.

Also, we are absolutely approaching things from different perspectives. Your assertion is basically like you are saying you don’t use logic and reason (semantics is a non-issue here); you prefer blind faith. That’s your choice, but I prefer reason over blind faith.

In Mormonism, religion is more important than the family. Family always comes second. Let me give you an illustration: If you were married to someone in the temple and they left the religion then proceeded to become a critic of the religion, would you remain married to them?

That’s an interesting link. I’m not sure I buy into it, though, since it is all taken out of context and shaped to fit their argument. Perhaps that is the direction the Church would have gone if they had not repealed polygamy, but they did. So it is really irrelevant.

I am sorry for your discontent with the church. But I think we are approaching these issues from different dimensions–you love logic, semantics and reason.
I love my faith, peace and knowledge gained from the Spirit.

As to the family, you are right–it is the most important thing on the earth. That is why being sealed to them through the proper authority and living worthily is so critical. So, in this respect, religion is AS important as the family inasmuch as God can keep the family together forever.

Jancisco… Thanks for responding. First, I’m pretty sure it does allow for polygamy and polyandry. We recently debated this here:
http://latterdaymainstreet.com/?p=273

Second, yes, joining Mormonism breaks up families, just like leaving it does. Both of which support my assertion: nothing is more important than family, definitely not religion.

rtc,

you’re partially right–that is the section where Joseph Smith introduces the principle of multiple wives. He never talks about multiple husbands, however, nor does he say that the Lord requires plural marriage for exaltation. If you look into the history of plural marriage in the LDS church, you’ll find that actually a small percentage of men actually had multiple wives. It wasn’t like everyone was going out to marry as many people as they could. It all had to be authorized and sanctioned not only by the president of the Church, but by the other wives. But polygamy isn’t what our church is about. At all.

As far as the pro-family thing, you are right there too. Sometimes people (mormon or not) don’t know how to handle what they see as an affront to their ideals, and they just turn away. But God doesn’t, and the church doesn’t support that kind of response. People are just imperfect. For every number of people who have been disowned or divorced for leaving the church, there are probably that many again who were disowned or divorced for joining the church.

Luckily, God never disowns us. Even if we disown Him, He’ll never give up on us.

Two points:
(1) That section is also the one in which Joseph Smith says men should have multiple wives and women should have multiple husbands, and without polygynous marriage, no man or woman can make it to the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom.
(2) Mormons are very pro-family until a member of the family leaves the religion. I know dozens of people who have divorced or being disowned as a result of leaving the religion. If Mormonism is so pro-family, why doesn’t family come first?