[Blitzgal]

It was interesting reading about how the Mormon church was created because it's such a perfect snapshot of how these religious faiths evolve. Smith started out with this really attractive message -- that people can have a personal relationship with God and receive "revelations" directly from Him. And for Christians who were raised with the idea that only the clergy can interpret the word of God that had to sound very appealing. However, he soon determined that if the congregation was receiving the Truth directly from God then they didn't really need an authority figure on Earth and he wouldn't have that much power or authority over them. So he backtracked on that and said that the only real and vital revelations would come directly to him as leader of the church.

And of course polygamy within the Mormon faith only came about because Smith was such a hornball he couldn't keep it in his pants. So coincidentally God told him that he needed as many wives as possible. Isn't it funny how things just seem to work out for those who are in leadership positions in these religions?

As a sidenote, I know an ex-Mormon and she told me that Edward Cullen from the Twilight series is pretty much exactly how Joseph Smith is described to all little Mormons, and she was skeeved out by how much Stephanie Meyer clearly wants to bone the Prophet.