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Show my father's house/ 3 6 Q I learned that the province given women through the blessing of children involved considerable power. In the Principle of Plural Marriage, the sexual activities of all partners are governed by the Law of Chastity which states that sex is purely for procreation, not for lustful desires. To obey the Law, a man must not approach any of his wives unless under special command from the Lord. He must wait until she intiates sexual contact for she, and only she can know when she is ready to bear the burden of a child. Anytime conception is impossible during menses, preganacy; lactation, and after menopause - it is considered wrong to engage in sex. Here, had I known it , was a woman's power (a power I desperately needed to claim, for I believed that men had all power, and I was determined to wrest my fair share - just what I needed to survive - from them). A woman had power over coming together, power over the ability to have children, power over the children • could themselves, through their upbringing. A woman A turn a child's heart toward his father, or against hilh, as with Aunt LaVona and her children and, subterraneally, as with my mother and her children. "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" is more true in the pro-evince of Celestial Marriage than anywhere else. There, children are the ransom against abuse and neglect, the treasure of tomorrow in today's hold, against giving ballast A lost priesthood and physical frailty. But I did not know these things when I needed most to know them. Sex was not discussed in our family. My father seemed to shy from the topic, even to shy from his children when they became sexual beings. ~ • |