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Show (ft Of course, the LDS Chruch had claimed a l l along to be 'the only true church of God' - an <2thhde which my father supported. tail- bezix And i'liad heard- it^bandied about that my father laid claim to being the only man who held a l l the keys of the Priesthood at one time, although I had heard him admit that he didn't hold the authority to conduct temple ceremonies such as sealings for the dead. But he had c e r t a i n l y believed in his authority to seal and practice plural marriages and had so ferociously asserted that i t cost his belief A his r e l a t i o n s h i p with Saul. Did these LeBarons believe in t h e i r callings to Priesthood with the same whole-hearted, single-minded intensity as my father. Where, then, was the line between divinely-endowed responsibility and mad obsession? How could the average human being determine who to t r u s t , who to follow? To affirm his position as leader of the group, and to discourage the ambitions of Brother Reardon, my father had taken several more wives. (This, at l e a s t , was the reasoning of my mother, who f e l t that my 'father would not deliberately betray his older wives and knowing that my father would not claim that the recent marriages had been ordered by the Lord.) Among the members of the group, i t was said that the man with the most wives was most blessed and most capable of leadership. Joseph Smith himself had married a number of women, taking the wives of his counselors and apostles on the premise that he was more worthy of them than the men of lesser authority. This notion equating many wives with greater magnanimity was counterpart mythology to the idea that the woman with the m°st children was favored by her husband and by God. Few in the group- seemed to question the r e a l i t y of such assumptions- _ . . |