[2011-Nov-23] Polygamy math

[LORD RACIST SATAN]

I seem to remember a comic where some guy was standing in front of a crowd of people on a couch and saying something like "Mom, Dad, Dad, Mom, Dad, Robodad, I have a confession... I'm only gay."

I thought it was SMBC, but I couldn't find it in the archives. Does it sound familiar to anyone else?

That does sound familiar, but I don't think it was SMBC.

[SocalPizza]

Since Step 1: Accuracy, it should be noted that there is no such thing as a fundamentalist Mormon.

The Mormon church does not permit its members to engage in polygamy. There are no fundamentalist Mormons in the LDS church.

The Community of Christ, which broke off from the Mormon church in the mid-nineteenth century, practices polygamy. They are not referred to as fundamentalist Mormons, just members of their own church.

Calling a member of the Community of Christ a fundamentalist Mormon is like calling a Protestant a fundamentalist Catholic.

[DonRetrasado]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamenta ... Day_Saints

Fuck off. Fundamentalist is the word that some sects actually use to describe themselves, so I'm using it here.

[SocalPizza]

Well I guess if Wikipedia says it, it must be true. Who would ever go onto Wikipedia and write something untrue about another person's religion, right? (That's odd, why is the Wikipedia entry for "Islam" protected??)

The Wikipedia article says the FLDS church is a denomination of the Mormon (LDS) church. Since "denomination" in religious terms means a subset (or local congregation) of a larger church organization, the entry is saying the FLDS church (all 10,000 members of it) is a part of the Mormon church. This is patently false.

(edited for a typo)

[smiley_cow]

Calling a member of the Community of Christ a fundamentalist Mormon is like calling a Protestant a fundamentalist Catholic.

I'm pretty sure Mormon means someone who follows the teachings of Joseph Smith, not just LDS members, so yeah, fundamentalist Mormon is good here.

And the Catholic/Protestant comparison doesn't work. Fundamentalism specifically applies to reactionist movements against modernist theology whereas the Protestant movement was a reaction to corruption in the Catholic church. Now had a group of Catholics gotten together, decided the church was getting too liberal and created a splinter church that held onto more conservative Catholic values that would be a fundamentalist Catholic church.


Edit:

The Wikipedia article says the FLDS church is a denomination of the Mormon (LDS) church. Since "denomination" in religious terms means a subset (or local congregation) of a larger church organization, the entry is saying the FLDS church (all 10,000 members of it) is a part of the Mormon church. This is patently false.

de·nom·i·na·tion/diˌnäməˈnāSHən/
Noun:
A recognized autonomous branch of the Christian Church.
A group or branch of any religion.

Yeah, pretty sure denominations can be completely autonomous. Case in point, almost every Christian denomination.

Also what does protecting the page on Islam have to do with anything?

[carbonstealer]

The Mormon church does not permit its members to engage in polygamy anymore.

And this change came only after Utah changed their laws so that the mormon community there no longer could practise polygamy. Its not something you can stand on a high horse about.

Also I'm not sure whether I find this joke hilarious because it is actually funny or because I am so darned prejudiced...

[Felstaff]

I seem to remember a comic where some guy was standing in front of a crowd of people on a couch and saying something like "Mom, Dad, Dad, Mom, Dad, Robodad, I have a confession... I'm only gay."

I thought it was SMBC, but I couldn't find it in the archives. Does it sound familiar to anyone else?

That does sound familiar, but I don't think it was SMBC.

I was reminded of this:

[In Jam]

Posting funny SMBCs only makes it worse.

[austinmiles]

Its entirely possible that the bad math is just a joke rather than a mistake or typo.

If you wanted to analyze it it could be saying that a FLDS or RLDS family may not have the best skills.

also in spite of how many kids polygamist families have I would imagine that there are VERY few occurrences of this happening. That would stay TIGHTLY buttoned up.