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Show remember him - thought he could solve everything by forcing everyone to live the United Order. But of course, force is the way of the Devil. The Lord always gives us our free agency." Her voice was suddenly forceCful and explosive and her eyes flickered with momentary anger. I was surprised to see such feeling surface in her usually-placid face, contradicting her words. I was swept with a longing to get at the knots of her confusion, feeling that unraveling them would somehow unravel my own, although our lives were so different, mine steeped in sin while hers had only been damned by self-denial borne of love. I became aware that I had been staring deeply into her face, as though trying to trace her sorrow in the crevices of her hazel eyes. "Uh. . .whose fault was it . . . that the businesses failed?" My mother shrugged. "Some put the blame on your daddy, of course. Others blame the council. It's hard to say who is at fault. Some people didn't give what they promised. Some of the ideas simply didn't pan out. Your daddy never has been a great businessman - though he certainly has talents far more valuable." I thought of Joseph Smith, how the Church had nearly been divided during its early days by the Prophet's poor financial decisions - a wildcat bank in Kirtland that lost the life-savings of many converts, and of poor real estate investments in Missouri and Illinois. Money had always been the supreme test of dedication. Mormon As I heard my mother out, I began to feel that*history was repeating itself on a microcosmic scale. Polygamy had |