Ooh, I recently read a paper on this: Mark Satta’s “Epistemic Trepassing and Expert Witness Testimony” in the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy.

Imagine forcing universities to admit female students.

Imagine forcing white business owners to serve black customers.

Or perhaps you could imagine that the civil rights progress we’ve made wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t pushed people to do things they weren’t comfortable with.

You are clearly not willing to have a discussion in good faith. How embarrassing for you.

For the past 200 years, the Saints have embraced and rejected and embraced and rejected the term Mormon; you might have noticed that I did not refer to them as Mormons. I am, however, in the field of Mormon Studies, which is the term used in academia, even by academics who are practicing Saints, because it refers to religious communities (including but not limited to the LDS) that follow the Book of Mormon. Your feelings about this are irrelevant. Here are some links to Mormon Studies programs, since you are so convinced that I’m wrong.

https://mormonstudies.as.virginia.edu https://mormon.utah.edu https://mormonstudies.cgu.edu

Hi, thanks for calling me a bigot. Very kind. I didn’t call the Saints bigots, so I’m not sure why you decided to resort to name calling.

The reason I claim this isn’t actually progress is because the Church is making a calculated move in order to inhibit the actual progress that they fear, in the same way that “separate but equal” wasn’t truly progress but rather a concession that ultimately served to protect white supremacy.

I appreciate that you read this as a “you do you, we’ll do our thing, live and let live” sort of momentous leap forward for this religion. But as a religious studies scholar who works primarily in the field of Mormon Studies, I hold a different interpretation. We can disagree peacefully, and that is the basis of a democratic society.

Polygamy was already banned prior to the 1890 Manifesto. The Church was in deep trouble—Congress had disincorporated the Church and confiscated its assets—so this revelation served as a Hail Mary play to save the Church.