Once Upon A Time... Part 4

Ken asked me to come over and talk. He also asked that I bring my scriptures. Ok. He wanted to talk to me about how he ticks and where he's coming from. So, we'll find this in the....scriptures? So I brought them. He knew a lot about the church and what we believe. He actually had been baptized when he was 8 but stopped going to church pretty quick after. I figured maybe he was just trying to get back so he wanted to go through some questions he had. He said his sister and her husband would be coming over to help him explain because they could explain it better. Ok.

When I got to his house, we sat in the living room next to each other on one of the couches. He asked me to read Doctrine & Covenants section 132 with him. Alrighty. We read it together. He asked me questions about what I thought of certain verses and what they meant. He was really intent on the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. It also talks of being obedient or be damned. Umm. I get the obedience part. I even get the "Oooh, you're gonna get it when God finds out!" part. It was the part of multiple wives that kept creeping into the conversation that got me. He was really intent on making me understand that God wants us to live that law. You know the one. The multiple wife one.

I kept saying that that law is no longer in effect. That when the law of the land says we are breaking the law when we live like that, God tells us to obey the law of the land. I went to the Official Declaration-1, you know, the Manifesto, where is states that plural marriage was now not being recognized or practiced in the church or by its leaders. He referenced Teachings Of The Prophet Joseph Smith. He gave his copy to me for keeps. Oh, I'm a lucky girl! He said that prophets still lived the law of plural marriage underground even after the Manifesto. I said no. That was then, this is now. What century are you living in? Anyway, it doesn't matter! We listen to a living prophet. We don't live the law of plural marriage. !!!!!!

He was so certain that it was just a ruse. That the "real" followers of Christ and the "really obedient" people were living the law as section 132 states and that we should all be living it so as to not receive the wrath of God. Ummmm....

I moved to the other couch!

"You're a polygamist, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not" he says very quietly.

"Are you married?"

"No."

"Who was that woman with the kids at Village Inn?"

"Umm. A friend."

"Are you kidding me?"

"My sister is a sister wife and can explain it better than I can. She'll be here soon with her husband and can explain it so you will understand."

"I'm leaving."

"Please don't. Just let her explain."

Slam!

I was so angry! How could he?? Oh, the anger just seethed through me. The jerk. He had been stringing me along. Things started to get clearer as I drove home. She was his wife. She was checking me out to see if I could fit in as a sister wife. He was shopping for another wife. ME!