At least it was for 14 year old Helen Mar Kimball...

from http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/home.htm

"The next morning Joseph visited the Kimball home.  "[He explained] the principle of Celestial marrage...After which he said to me, ‘If you will take this step, it will ensure your eternal salvation & exaltation and that of your father’s household & all of your kindred.[‘] This promise was so great that I willingly gave myself to purchase so glorious a reward. None but God & his angels could see my mother’s bleeding heart-when Joseph asked her if she was willing...She had witnessed the sufferings of others, who were older & who better understood the step they were taking, & to see her child, who had scarcely seen her fifteenth summer, following in the same thorny path, in her mind she saw the misery which was as sure to come...; but it was all hidden from me.”  Helen’s mother reluctantly agreed and in May of 1843, Helen married Joseph Smith.

I forgot to mention...

This makes me extremely angry and sickens me when I think about how manipulative this must have been and what a mind fnck this was for this 14 year old child. How can anyone even respect Joseph Smith in any capacity after reading this!

Picture all of the 14 year old girls in your ward bearing testimony that they KNOW Joseph Smith was a true prophet...
And then think about Helen Mar Kimball's experience.

Excuse me while I go throw up!

Rowell back Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Picture all of the 14 year old girls in your ward
> bearing testimony that they KNOW Joseph Smith was
> a true prophet...

That sounds like a *GREAT* youtube project! Anybody want to take on the challenge? I'd love to brainstorm ideas - even help out with production!

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WehslA2-j4A

Neither eternal or much of a salvation

And the TBM's can't wrap their minds around the thought that he "MUST have been a prophet to demand something so audacious, no other person would DARE demand something like that...it HAD to have been of God."

I should start going back to church just in respect for the sheer density of Joseph's balls in pulling something off like that!

And he was so very close to God. Who could resist!