One of the thing the Q movement does unintentionally is expose hypocrisy among its followers, particularly evangelical Christians. There is a lot of anti-Mormon sentiment in their ranks, just like they hate Jews, Muslims, and Catholics.
It is curious that sectarian Christians tend to gloss over reports of Trump’s personality flaws, particularly reports of marital infidelity. These reports are what turned many Mormons off to Trump at the beginning. Over time, LDS conservatives had strongly endorsed Trump, but at first, they were wary of him. They were uncomfortable with his history.
Since I am a firm Trump-supporter, you may wonder why I mention this now. It’s not that I don’t support Trump. It’s just that, if you are going to apply “equal justice” to Trump and a historical person like Joseph Smith, for example, you should be consistent.
Anti-Mormons attack Joseph Smith constantly. They want to focus on his practice of plural marriage and particularly one marriage to a young woman of about 14 years of age. They ignore that people married much younger in the early nineteenth century. If most Americans did their genealogy, they’d find that they had ancestors who married when they were 14, 15, or 16 years of age. For males, age 16 was old enough to start life as an adult. Fathers passed on acreage to 16 year-old sons for them to have to raise a family in many cases. Their brides were often younger than 16.
That seems crazy to us today, especially when worldly attitudes have raised our expectations that a person won’t marry until they are in their thirties, when they have finished a college education and become established in a career. Culturally, America is very different today than the nineteenth century.
Now the point I wish to make is that, when Mitt Romney was running for President (ick!) his anti-Mormon conservative foes attacked the polygamy of his Mormon ancestors and his religion. Meanwhile, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention said that Newt Gingrich’s adultery was less of a problem for them than was Romney’s religion. Similarly, the Christian right defends Trump even to the point of depicting him as chosen by God and protected by angels today, despite his past indiscretions.
Why give a pass to Trump, but condemn Joseph Smith? Anti-Mormon hate. That’s all. If God does not choose perfect men, but he chooses men perfect for the job, why could not Joseph Smith have been called as the prophet of the Restoration?
In Doctrine and Covenants 101, the Lord said that he would bring to pass his “strange act,” before men—a divine plan devised in such a way “...that all men may be left without excuse...” for their choices. In Section 123 of the D&C, the Lord instructed the Church to gather anti-Mormon articles, publications, and reports and to archive them. He told them to seek redress through the civil courts and through the law and when the time comes that the anti-Mormon world refuses to give redress for the wrongs committed against the saints of God, the archive will be published. It’s “DECLAS” for the world when that happens. The result will be:
“That we may not only publish to all the world, but present them to the heads of government in all their dark and hellish hue, as the last effort which is enjoined on us by our Heavenly Father, before we can fully and completely claim that promise which shall call him forth from his hiding place; and also that the whole nation may be left without excuse before he can send forth the power of his mighty arm.”
Think of it this way. If the Gentile churches are so willing to embrace Trump as a divinely-appointed figure, despite his manifest flaws, how great will be their condemnation for judging and rejecting the Prophet Joseph Smith for what they consider to be moral turpitude? They are being left without excuse. As they judge Joseph Smith, so shall they be judged at the last day. Joseph Smith was not a perfect man, but God chose him because he was perfect for the job.
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