Mormons<\/a> live?\u201d \u00a0He had, he said, just watched a really fascinating\u00a0item on television about a Mormon\u00a0in Utah with three wives, who was considering marrying his brother\u2019s three widows. \u00a0\u201cThat,\u201d he observed, \u201cis pretty strange.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought that I should mention that we were Mormons, and that the woman riding with me is my only wife.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cSo they\u2019re not all polygamists?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I responded. \u00a0\u201cIn fact, for the past 127 years, any member of the Church who takes a second wife is excommunicated. \u00a0Booted out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He found that interesting, and remarked that he was always happy to learn new things. \u00a0Had I ever, he then asked, seen the musical The Book of Mormon<\/em>? \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s quite popular here in London,\u201d he said. \u00a0He hadn\u2019t seen it himself, but had heard that it\u2019s funny. \u00a0\u201cAnd aren\u2019t the Osmonds Mormons?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the conversation, I kept thinking that we\u2019re quite often rather pleased with ourselves. \u00a0Heck, at any given time we have scores of thousands of missionaries out. And, yes, there are the Osmonds. \u00a0And Mitt Romney. \u00a0And the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, even singing at presidential inaugurations. \u00a0And there was Harry Reid. \u00a0And there are two temples in England, where missionaries have been preaching since 1837. \u00a0And he was driving us to a prominent Marriott hotel near Hyde Park, which has copies of the Book of Mormon in every room. \u00a0And, for that matter, yes, there\u2019s The Book of Mormon<\/em>, playing near Leicester Square with huge illuminated signs and, even now, advertised on buses and in tube stations. \u00a0We\u2019re well known.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sort of.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still today, most people know almost nothing about us, really.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Except, perhaps, for polygamy.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some critics have argued that polygamy demonstrates the Church false because it has effectively trampled upon and drowned out other, more significant, parts of our message. \u00a0That\u2019s an intriguing argument, actually. \u00a0In some ways, they have a point. \u00a0Not that plural marriage proves Mormonism false and Joseph Smith a false prophet, but because it has indeed obscured something of our message and, to some degree (less so now, certainly, than while we were still practicing it), limited the appeal of that message.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I would respond in several ways. \u00a0One of those ways would be to argue\u00a0that, in conjunction with our doctrine of \u201cgathering\u201d into the isolated valleys of the intermountain West, polygamy\u00a0also created a social (and literal) distance between us and the \u201cworld\u201d that helped to prevent our relapsing into a form of Protestantism \u2014 as, to a very great degree, our cousins of the Reorganized Church (now the Community of Christ) have actually done. \u00a0Mormonism might actually not even have survived without those two factors.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s another issue, and I don\u2019t intend to get into it now.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I just want to observe that we haven\u2019t yet begun to tell our story nearly well enough or widely enough. \u00a0Most of the world hasn\u2019t really rejected the message of the Restoration. \u00a0Most of the world \u2014 even here in England \u2014 hasn\u2019t really ever even heard<\/em> it.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We need to find and use new media and new ways of sharing that message. \u00a0And, frankly, we need to work harder. \u00a0We\u2019ve only begun. \u00a0There are still plenty of people out there who, if they really ever actually heard and understood the truth, would accept it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from London, England<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 On our ride from Heathrow Airport into London yesterday, we had an amusing, curious, knowledgeable, and talkative cab driver. \u00a0 At one point, he asked where in the States we were from. \u00a0When we answered \u201cUtah,\u201d saying that we had just flown in from Salt Lake City, he was thoughtful for a moment. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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At one\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/05\/theres-still-great-deal-work-done.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-03T00:09:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/05\/media_gallery-2016-07-26-11-rsz_the_book_of_mormon_7b38dc3c8d26acfc927521ff826f0e62.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/05\/theres-still-great-deal-work-done.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/05\/theres-still-great-deal-work-done.html\",\"name\":\"There's still a very great deal of work to be done.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-03T00:09:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-03T00:09:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" On our ride from Heathrow Airport into London yesterday, we had an amusing, curious, knowledgeable, and talkative cab driver. 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<\/a>