. . . Not to Mention the Unwanted Advances).

Recovery from Mormonism poster "Deconstructor" lays out the facts, as word-for-word noted and quoted from his examination below:

--1. Did Joseph Smith Have More Than One Wife While He Was Alive?

Absolutely. Just check Joseph Smith's official church marriage record at www.familysearch.org.

Faithful LDS member and historian Todd Compton has found solid documentation for Smith marriages to 33 women while he was alive. True, many more were sealed to him after his death, but Smith had at least 33 wives while he was alive.

Compton writes:

"In the group of Smith's well-documented wives, eleven (33 percent) were 14 to 20 years old when they married him. Nine wives (27 percent) were twenty-one to thirty years old. Eight wives (24 percent) were in Smith's own peer group, ages thirty-one to forty. In the group aged forty-one to fifty, there is a substantial drop off: two wives, or 6 percent, and three (9 percent) in the group aged fifty-one to sixty."

"The teenage representation is the largest, though the twenty-year and thirty-year groups are comparable, which contradicts the Mormon folk-wisdom that sees the beginnings of polygamy was an attempt to care for older, unattached women. These data suggest that sexual attraction was an important part of the motivation for Smith's polygamy. In fact, the command to multiply and replenish the earth was part of the polygamy theology, so non-sexual marriage was generally not in the polygamous program, as Smith taught it."
_____


--2. Why Did Joseph Smith Have 33 Wives?

Jacob 2: 24-30

"24 Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none . . . . For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things."

(The Lord is saying here that the only reason for more than one wife is to "raise up seed" unto Him.)

D&C 132:

Verse 37: "Abraham received concubines, and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness . . .

Verse 41: "And as ye have asked concerning adultery . . ."

(Why is adultery an issue? Simply being married or "sealed" to more than one woman in an otherwise chaste arrangement might be bigamy or polygamy, but it's not adultery. Adultery is a sexual act.)

Verses 62-63: "And if he [Joseph Smith] have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified . . . for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified."

In fact, Joseph Smith's original 1831 polygamy revelation, given to a group of married men while they were visiting a Native-American tribe, also explains procreation as the purpose of polygamy:

"For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and Just, for even now their females are more virtuous than the gentiles." (Prophet Joseph Smith, "The Joseph Smith Revelations Text and Commentary," pp. 374-76, http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/indianpolygamyrevelation.htm)

Brigham Young taught that "[t]his is the reason why the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, that the noble spirits which are waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth." ("Discourses of Brigham Young," p. 197)


--3. But Did Joseph Smith Obey the Commandment and Have Sex with His Wives?

Compton writes:

"Because of claims by Reorganized Latter-day Saints that Joseph was not really married polygamously in the full (i.e., sexual) sense of the term, Utah Mormons (including Joseph's wives) affirmed repeatedly that Joseph had physical sexual relations with his plural wives-despite the Victorian conventions in nineteenth-century American religion which otherwise would have prevented mention of sexual relations in marriage."

- Faithful Mormon Melissa Lott (Smith Willes) testified that she had been Joseph's wife "in very deed." (Affidavit of Melissa Willes, 3 Aug. 1893, "Temple Lot Case," pp. 98, 105; Foster, "Religion and Sexuality," p. 156.)

- In a court affidavit, faithful Mormon Joseph Noble wrote that Joseph told him he had spent the night with Louisa Beaman. ("Temple Lot Case," p. 427)

- Emily D. Partridge (Smith Young) said she "roomed" with Joseph the night following her marriage to him and said that she had "carnal intercourse" with him. ("Temple Lot Case," complete transcript, pp. 364, 367, 384; see Foster, "Religion and Sexuality," p. 15)

In total, 13 faithful Latter-day Saint women who were married to Joseph Smith swore court affidavits that they had sexual relations with him.

- Joseph Smith's personal secretary records that on May 22nd, 1843, Smith's first wife Emma found Joseph and Eliza Partridge secluded in an upstairs bedroom at the Smith home. Emma was devastated. (William Clayton's journal entry for 23 May (see Smith, pp. 105-106)

- Smith's secretary William Clayton also recorded a visit to young Almera Johnson on May 16, 1843:

"Prest. Joseph and I went to B[enjamin] F. Johnsons to sleep." Johnson himself later noted that on this visit Smith stayed with Almera "as man and wife" and "occupied the same room and bed with my sister, that the previous month he had occupied with the daughter of the late Bishop Partridge as his wife." Almera Johnson also confirmed her secret marriage to Joseph Smith: "I lived with the prophet Joseph as his wife and he visited me at the home of my brother Benjamin F." (Zimmerman, "I Knew the Prophets," p. 44; see also, "The Origin of Plural Marriage," Joseph F. Smith, Jr., Deseret News Press, pp. 70-71.)

- Faithful Mormon and Stake President Angus Cannon told Joseph Smith's son: "Brother Heber C. Kimball, I am informed, asked [Eliza R. Snow] the question if she was not a virgin although married to Joseph Smith and afterwards to Brigham Young, when she replied in a private gathering, "I thought you knew Joseph Smith better than that."" (Stake President Angus M. Cannon, statement of interview with Joseph III, p. 23, LDS archives)
_____


--4. Did Joseph Smith Father Any Children from His Polygamous Wives?

- Stake President Angus Cannon also testified:

"I will now refer you to one case where it was said by the girl's grandmother that your father [Joseph Smith] has a daughter born of a plural wife. The girl's grandmother was Mother Sessions . . . She was the grand-daughter of Mother Sessions. That girl, I believe, is living today, in Bountiful, north of this city. I heard prest. Young, a short time before his death, refer to the report . . . . The woman is now said to have a family of children, and I think she is still living." (Stake President Angus M. Cannon, statement of interview with Joseph III, pp. 25-26, LDS archives)

- Faithful Mormon and wife of Joseph Smith, Sylvia Sessions (Lyon), on her deathbed told her daughter, Josephine, that she (Josephine) was the daughter of Joseph Smith. Josephine testified:

"She (Sylvia) then told me that I was the daughter of the Prophet Joseph Smith, she having been sealed to the Prophet at the time that her husband Mr. Lyon was out of fellowship with the Church." (Affidavit to Church Historian Andrew Jenson, 24 February 1915)

- In her testimony given at a Brigham Young University devotional, Faithful Mormon Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner stated that she knew of children born to Smith's plural wives: "I know he [Joseph Smith] had six wives and I have known some of them from childhood up. I know he had three children. They told me. I think two are living today but they are not known as his children as they go by other names." (Read her full BYU testimony here: http://www.ldshistory.net/pc/merlbyu.htm)

- Faithful Mormon Prescindia D. Huntington, who was Normal Buell's wife and simultaneously a "plural wife" of the Prophet Joseph Smith, said that she did not know whether her husband Norman "or the Prophet was the father of her son, Oliver." And a glance at a photo of Oliver shows a strong resemblance to Emma Smith's boys. (Mary Ettie V. Smith, "Fifteen Years Among the Mormons", page 34; also Fawn Brodie, "No Man Knows My History" pp. 301-302, 437-39)

- Researchers have tentatively identified eight children that Joseph Smith may have had by his plural wives. Besides Josephine Fisher (b. Feb. 8, 1844) and Oliver Buell, named as possible children of Joseph Smith by his plural wives are John R. Hancock (born April 19, 1841), George A. Lightner (born March 12, 1842), Orson W. Hyde (born November 9, 1843), Frank H. Hyde (born January 23, 1845), Moroni Pratt (born December 7, 1844), and Zebulon Jacobs (born January 2, 1842). ("Mormon Polygamy: A History," by LDS historian Richard S. Van Wagoner, pp. 44, 48-49n3.)

There is another piece of evidence you might consider in examining Joseph Smith's sexual behavior. The following excerpt is from a love letter Joseph Smith wrote when he wanted to arrange a liaison with Newel K. Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann, whom Smith had secretly "married." It reveals Smith's cloak-and-dagger approach to his extramarital affairs:

". . . [T]he only thing to be careful of; is to find out when Emma comes then you cannot be safe, but when she is not here, there is the most perfect safty. . . . Only be careful to escape observation, as much as possible, I know it is a heroick undertakeing; but so much the greater friendship, and the more Joy, when I see you I will tell you all my plans, I cannot write them on paper, burn this letter as soon as you read it; keep all locked up in your breasts, my life depends upon it. . . . I close my letter, I think Emma wont come tonight if she dont, dont fail to come to night, I subscribe myself your most obedient, and affectionate, companion, and friend. Joseph Smith."

("Joseph Smith, Polygamy, Sex: Did Joseph Smith Have Sex with His|Wives?," at: http://www.i4m.com/think/history/joseph_smith_sex.htm)

*****


More on Joseph Smith's sexcapades from "Deconstructor" follows below, again referencing "Deconstructor's" research directly:

"When the family organization was revealed from heaven—the patriarchal order of God, and Joseph began, on the right and the left, to add to his family, what a quaking there was in Israel. Says one brother to another, 'Joseph says all covenants [previous marriages] are done away, and none are binding but the new covenants [marriage by priesthood sealing power]; now suppose Joseph should come and say he wanted your wife, what would you say to that?' 'I would tell him to go to hell.'

"This was the spirit of many in the early days of this Church. . . . What would a man of God say, who felt aright, when Joseph asked him for his money? [he would give it all willingly] Or if he came and said, 'I want your wife?' 'O yes," he would say, 'Here she is, there are plenty more' . . . Did the Prophet Joseph want every man's wife he asked for? He did not . . . the grand object in view was to try the people of God, to see what was in them.

"If such a man of God should come to me and say, 'I want your gold and silver, or your wives,' I should say, 'Here they are, I wish I had more to give you, take all I have got.' A man who has got the Spirit of God, and the light of eternity in him, has no trouble about such matters." (Apostle Jedediah M. Grant, second counselor to Brigham Young and father of President Heber J. Grant, sermon delivered on 19 February 1854 ("Journal of Discourses," 2: 13-14)
_____


--Joseph Smith's Failed Proposals to Married Women

*John Taylor's Wife, Leonora

"The Prophet went to the home of President Taylor, and said to him, 'Brother John, I WANT LEONORA.'" Taylor was stunned, but after walking the floor all night, the obedient elder said to Smith, "If GOD wants Leonora He can have her." Woodruff concluded: "That was all the prophet was after, to see where President Taylor stood in the matter, and said to him, Brother Taylor, I dont want your wife, I just wanted to know just where you stood." (Prophet Wilford Woodruff, "John Mills Whitaker Journal," Nov. 1 1890; emphasis in original)


*Heber C. Kimball's Wife, Vilate

“During the summer of 1841, shortly after Heber's return from England, he was introduced to the doctrine of plural marriage directly through a startling test-a sacrifice which shook his very being and challenged his faith to the ultimate. He had already sacrificed homes, possessions, friends, relatives, all worldly rewards, peace, and tranquility for the Restoration. Nothing was left to place on the altar save his life, his children, and his wife.

"Joseph demanded for himself what to Heber was the unthinkable, his Vilate. Totally crushed spiritually and emotionally, Heber touched neither food nor water for three days and three nights and continually sought confirmation and comfort from God." Finally, after 'some kind of assurance,' Heber took Vilate to the upper room of Joseph's store on Water Street. The Prophet wept at this act of faith, devotion, and obedience. Joseph had never intended to take Vilate. It was all a test." (Biography of Heber C. Kimball, "Heber C. Kimball, Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer," by Stanley B. Kimball, p. 93.)


*Orson Pratt's Wife, Sarah

"Sometime in late 1840 or early 1841, Joseph Smith confided to his friend that he was smitten by the 'amiable and accomplished' Sarah Pratt and wanted her for 'one of his spiritual wives, for the Lord had given her to him as a special favor for his faithfulness.' Shortly afterward, the two men took some of Bennett's sewing to Sarah's house.

"During the visit, as Bennett describes it, Joseph said, 'Sister Pratt, the Lord has given you to me as one of my spiritual wives. I have the blessings of Jacob granted me, as God granted holy men of old, and as I have long looked upon you with favor, and an earnest desire of connubial bliss, I hope you will not repulse or deny me.' 'And is that the great secret that I am not to utter,' Sarah replied. 'Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant, and prove recreant to my lawful husband! I never will.' She added, 'I care not for the blessings of Jacob. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me.'

"But according to Bennett, the Prophet was persistent. Finally Sarah angrily told him on a subsequent visit, 'Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will make a full disclosure to Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it.' 'Sister Pratt,' the Prophet responded, 'I hope you will not expose me, for if I suffer, all must suffer; so do not expose me. Will you promise me that you will not do it?' 'If you will never insult me again,' Sarah replied, 'I will not expose you unless strong circumstances should require it.' 'If you should tell,' the Prophet added, 'I will ruin your reputation, remember that.'" ("Sarah M. Pratt" by Richard A. Van Wagoner, "Dialogue," Vol.19, No.2, p. 72. Also see: http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/spratt.htm)


*William Law's Wife, Jane

"William Law, a former counselor in the First Presidency, wrote in his 13 May 1844 diary: '[Joseph] ha[s] lately endeavored to seduce my wife, and ha[s] found her a virtuous woman.'

"The Laws elaborated on this in a public meeting shortly thereafter. 'The Prophet had made dishonorable proposals to [my] wife . . . under cover of his asserted "Revelation,"' Law stated. He further explained that Joseph came to the Law home in the middle of the night when William was absent and told Jane that 'the Lord had commanded that he should take spiritual wives, to add to his glory.' Law then called on his wife to corroborate what he had said. She did so and further explained that Joseph had 'asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband.'

"Jane refused the Prophet, and according to William Law's 20 January 1887 letter to the 'Salt Lake Tribune,' Smith then considered the couple apostates. 'Jane had been speaking evil of him for a long time . . . slandered him, and lied about him without cause,' Law reported Smith as saying. 'My wife would not speak evil of . . . anyone . . . without cause,' Law asserted. 'Joseph is the liar and not she. That Smith admired and lusted after many men's wives and daughters, is a fact, but they could not help that. They or most of them considered his admiration an insult, and treated him with scorn. In return for this scorn, he generally managed to blacken their reputations--see the case of . . . Mrs. Pratt, a good, virtuous woman.'" ("Mormon Polygamy" by Richard S. Van Wagoner, p. 44)


*Hiram Kimball's Wife, Sarah

Sarah M. Kimball, a prominent Nauvoo and Salt Lake City Relief Society leader was also approached by the Prophet in early 1842 despite her solid 1840 marriage to Hiram Kimball. Sarah later recalled that:

"Joseph Smith taught me the principle of marriage for eternity, and the doctrine of plural marriage. He said that in teaching this he realized that he jeopardized his life; but God had revealed it to him many years before as a privilege with blessings, now God had revealed it again and instructed him to teach with commandment, as the Church could travel [progress] no further without the introduction of this principle." ("LDS Biographical Encyclopedia" by Elder Andrew Jensen, 6:232, 1887)

Sarah Kimball, like Sarah Pratt, was committed to her husband, and refused the Prophet's invitation, asking that he "teach it to someone else." Although she kept the matter quiet, her husband and Smith evidently had difficulties over Smith's proposal. On 19 May 1842, at a Nauvoo City Council meeting, Smith jotted down and then "threw across the room" a revelation to Kimball which declared that "Hiram Kimball has been insinuating evil, and formulating evil opinions" against the Prophet, which if he does not desist from, he "shall be accursed." Sarah remained a lifetime member of the Church and a lifelong wife to Hiram Kimball. ("LDS Biographical Encyclopedia," by Elder Andrew Jensen, 6:232, 1887, "Official History of the Church," 5: 12-13)
_____


--Joseph Smith's Successful Proposals to Married Women

*Adam Lightner's Wife, Mary

Mary Elizabeth Rollins, already married to non-Mormon Adam Lightner since 11 August 1835, was one of the first women to accept a polyandrous proposal from Joseph Smith. "He was commanded to take me for a wife," she wrote in a 21 November 1880 letter to Emmeline B. Wells. "I was his, before I came here," she added in an 8 February 1902 statement. Brigham Young secretly sealed the two in February 1842 when Mary was eight months pregnant with her son George Algernon Lightner. She lived with her real husband Adam Lightner until his death in Utah many years later. In her 1880 letter to Emmeline B. Wells, Mary explained: "I could tell you why I stayed with Mr. Lightner. Things the leaders of the Church do not know anything about. I did just as Joseph told me to do, as he knew what troubles I would have to contend with." She added on 23 January 1892 in a letter to John R. Young: "I could explain some things in regard to my living with Mr. L[ightner] after becoming the Wife of Another (Joseph Smith), which would throw light, on what now seems mysterious--and you would be perfectly satisfied with me. I write this; because I have heard that it had been commented on to my injury" (Lightner, Mary E. "Statement," 8 February 1902; Lightner to Emmeline B. Wells, 21 November 1880; Lightner to John R. Young, 25 January 1892, "George A. Smith Papers," Special Collections, University of Utah)


*Orson Hyde's Wife, Marinda

Marinda Nancy Johnson, sister of Apostles Luke and Lyman Johnson, married Orson Hyde in 1834. A year before Hyde returned from Jerusalem in 1843, Marinda was sealed to Joseph Smith in April of 1842, though she lived with Orson until their divorce in 1870.

Many suspect Joseph Smith was the actual father of Marinda's son Frank Henry who was born on 23 Jan 1845, for two reasons: First, because Marinda had been the polygamous wife of Smith since Apr 1842. Second, because Smith had sent her first husband, Orson Hyde, on a mission to Washington on April 4, 1844 "immediately" after a meeting with Joseph Smith ("History of the Church," p. 286). The gestation period for a human is on average 266 days (not 9 months), which would date the conception to early May 1844.

Of course, 266 is an average date and the figures vary. To give you an idea of the range, only four percent of pregnancies are actually carried two weeks or more beyond the average time (Guttmacher, 1983). Frank Henry was born on January 23, 1845. Orson Hyde left for Washington April 4, 1844. The difference in these two dates is 294 days! That is almost a month longer than expected and is basically physiologically impossible, especially considering that Orson Hyde had not returned to Nauvoo until August 6, 1844 (Andrew Jenson, "Church Chronology," August 6, 1844) Marinda later divorced Orson Hyde and voiced her disgust of polygamy.


*Windsor Lyon's Wife, Sylvia

Sylvia P. Sessions, married to Windsor P. Lyon, gave birth to a daughter on 8 February 1844, less than five months before Joseph Smith's martyrdom. That daughter, Josephine, related in a 24 February 1915 statement that prior to her mother's death in 1882 "she called me to her bedside and told me that her days on earth were about numbered and before she passed away from mortality she desired to tell me something which she had kept as an entire secret from me and all others but which she now desired to communicate to me." Josephine's mother told her she was "the daughter of the Prophet Joseph Smith, she having been sealed to the Prophet at the time that her husband Mr. Lyon was out of fellowship with the Church." (Affidavit to Church Historian Andrew Jenson, 24 February 1915)


*Norman Buell's Wife, Prescindia

Prescindia D. Huntington, a faithful Mormon and married woman in Nauvoo, was also a polyandrous wife of Joseph Smith. Prescindia had married Norman Buell in 1827 and had two sons by him before joining Mormonism in 1836. She was secretly sealed to Joseph Smith by her brother Dimick on 11 December 1841, though she continued to live with her husband Buell until 1846, when she left him to marry Heber C. Kimball.

In a "letter to my eldest grand-daughter living in 1880," she explained that Norman Buell had left the Church in 1839, but that "the Lord gave me strength to Stand alone & keep the faith amid heavy persecution."


*Henry Jacob's Wife, Zina

Prescindia's twenty-year-old sister Zina was living in the Joseph Smith home when Elder Henry B. Jacobs married her in March 1841. According to family records, when Zina and Henry asked Joseph Smith why he had not honored them by performing their marriage, Smith replied that "the Lord had made it known to him that [Zina] was to be his Celestial wife." Believing that "whatever the Prophet did was right, without making the wisdom of God's authorities bend to the reasoning of any man," the devout Elder Jacobs consented for six-months-pregnant Zina to be sealed to Joseph Smith 27 October 1841.

Some have suggested that the Jacobs's marriage was "unhappy" and that the couple had separated before her sealing to Joseph Smith. But, though sealed to Joseph Smith for eternity, Zina continued her connubial relationship with her husband Henry Jacobs. On 2 February 1846, pregnant with Henry's second son, Zina was re-sealed by proxy to the murdered Joseph Smith and in that same session was “sealed for time" to Brigham Young. Faithful Henry B. Jacobs stood by as an official witness to both ceremonies. ("History of Henry Bailey Jacobs." by Ora J. Cannon, pp. 5-7; also see, "Recollections of Zina D. Young" by Mary Brown Firmage)

Zina and Henry lived together as husband and wife until the Mormon pioneers reached Mt. Pisgah, Iowa. At this temporary stop on the pioneer trail, Brigham Young announced that "it was time for men who were walking in other men's shoes to step out of them. Brother Jacobs, the woman you claim for a wife does not belong to you. She is the spiritual wife of brother Joseph, sealed up to him. I am his proxy, and she, in this behalf, with her children, are my property. You can go where you please, and get another, but be sure to get one of your own kindred spirit" (Hall, 1853, pp. 43-44). President Young then called Jacobs on a mission to England. Witnesses to his departure commented that he was so emotionally ill they had to "put him on a blanket and carry him to the boat to get him on his way".
("Short Sketch of the Life of Henry B. Jacobs," by Ora J. Cannon)

Henry returned from his mission and settled in California. But he was still in love with his wife Zina, now a plural wife of Brigham Young. Henry's letters to his wife Zina were heartrending. On 2 September 1852 he wrote: "O how happy I should be if I only could see you and the little children, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." "I am unhappy," Henry lamented, "there is no peace for poor me, my pleasure is you, my comfort has vanished.... O Zina, can I ever, will I ever get you again, answer the question please." In an undated Valentine he added:

Zina my mind never will change from Worlds without Ends, no never, the same affection is there and never can be moved I do not murmur nor complain of the handlings of God no verily, no but I feel alone and no one to speak to, to call my own. I feel like a lamb without a mother, I do not blame any person or persons, no--May the Lord our Father bless Brother Brigham and all purtains unto him forever. Tell him for me I have no feelings against him nor never had, all is right according to the Law of the Celestial Kingdom of our god Joseph [Smith]." ("Short Sketch of the Life of Henry B. Jacobs," by Ora J. Cannon)

It was the rule rather than the exception for Smith to encourage a polyandrous wife to remain with her legal husband.
Faithful Mormon Joseph Kingsbury even wrote that he served as a surrogate husband for Joseph Smith:

"I according to Pres. Joseph Smith & council & others, I agreed to stand by Sarah Ann Whitney [sealed to Smith 27 July 1843] as though I was supposed to be her husband and a pretended marriage for the purpose of shielding them from the enemy and for the purpose of bringing out the purposes of God." (Elder Joseph Kingsbury, "History of Joseph Kingsbury Written by His Own Hand," p. 5, Utah State Historical Society)
_____


[Other references]:

--Did Joseph Smith have sex with his wives?
http://www.i4m.com/think/history/joseph_smith_sex.htm

--Did Joseph Smith emotionally blackmail these women for sex?
http://www.i4m.com/think/history/joseph_smith_sex.htm

--Read the detailed history of each of Joseph Smith's 33 plural wives in Todd Compton's excellent book, "In Sacred Loneliness."

--For some details on the other married women Joseph married and impregnated, see:

http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org
http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/polyg.htm
http://www.lds-mormon.com/isl.shtml
http://www.mindspring.com/~engineer_my_dna/mormon/menwives.htm

("Sharing Your Spouse with the Mormon Prophet," posted by "Deconstructor," on "Recovery from Mormonism" board, 21 October 2003, 22:29, at: http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon276.htm)



Edited 17 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2011 03:27AM by steve benson.

Oh, this is good. This is very good!

+200

Bookmarked.

Well done Steve.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2011 02:37AM by steve benson.

...if he still can't get all the nooky he wants with all the babes he wants?"

I think this is the actual revelation that Joe got and it eventually morphed into D&C 132.

I'm truly amazed that the LDS Church has any active members at all, given the availability of information like this. And what's even more amazing is that the members of the mainstream LDS ChurchCo headed by Monson seem to think that they are somehow more enlightened and evolved than the FLDS Plygnuts, when they revere and honor Joe Smith at every opportunity. Don't they yet realize that Joe was wackier than even the wackiest of the modern FLDS Plygnut leaders?

Another thing that gets me is how they nowadays take great pains to portray Joe and Emma as this ideal couple in a 100% monogamous marriage--the kind of couple you'd see if you looked today at a fine upstanding Stake President and his wife. Nothing could be further from the truth, unless the Stake President's wife is constantly catching the Stake President boinking Beehives, Laurels and MIA Maids in the basement.

Me and old Joe shared Marinda Hyde while Orson was gone on a mission. (Quinn)

Thank you for this info. Very enlightening.

I mean, his own wife and only a few close friends knew about it. He never actually lived with these other women. He just used them for sex. Is that really a "marriage"?

Perhaps that was his intent. But outwardly, JS paid no heed to state laws or political conventions with regard to marriages. He did not even have the authority to perform a civil marriage sanctioned by the state of Illinois. He didn't care. He felt that the "sealing" ordinance was fulfilling a higher law, so a civil marriage by an authorized individual sanctioned by the state was unnecessary.

It's funny to me to see the progression of Joseph Smith's life. The church probably started as a means to make money. Martin Harris personally whetted that appetite. In Kirtland, though, the different attempts at financial stability (united order, anti-banking society...) failed miserably. Missouri was also a disaster. However, in Nauvoo Joseph obtained decent prosperity.

So what does a prophet of the Lord do when he has obtained everything he ever wanted? What could possibly be better than money? He has the devotion of hundreds, could make them do anything he wants, literally anything. What has he not achieved at this point?

Oh yeah, remember how fun that Alger girl was, and how I so totally got away with it? Do I dare push my luck again? Emma really is becoming kind of a prick. What's your name? John C. Bennett? You agree with me, don't you? Why don't you try encouraging me some more while you're staying at my house.

So what could be better than absolute devotion from hundreds of people and all the money I need? How about sex with a few dozen different women? Look how far I've come so far. How long do you think I can keep this up before someone tries to put a bullet through my chest?

I imagine that Joseph was becoming kind of miserable and disenchanted. He didn't have real love from anyone, and he just got out of Liberty jail where he spent months thinking over his life, and he had several women putting their absolute trust in him. It seems the recipe for cheating was pretty ripe, and he had the perfect cover story by taking a doctrine straight out of the Old Testament.

Excelllent as usual. I learned a lot and many questions were answered. Thanks

CANONIZED statements that make it clear the ONLY reason for polygamy was to make "righteous" babies!

Thanks for posting this great info, Steve!

he looked for women, and girls he could control. An ancestor of mine was burned for being a witch. Many scholars believe older women were executed in greater numbers for calculated reasons. Older women were more outspoken, and more likely to challenge the authority of the men. Also, they were often single or widowed, without the support of family. Similarly, JS preyed on the vulnerable: servants, wards, children, women whose husbands were sent away, etc. JS was also a confidence man who drew people into his deception by gaining their trust. He fabricated revelations to subordinate their wills to his. I think he certainly would have avoided the older ones; they would have been more likely to see through his BS.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2011 08:31PM by atheist&happy:-).

Like everyone here, I struggled with this alot once I discovered the real Joseph Smith.

In fact each time it came up in lessons how Joseph Loved and cherished his wife Emma etc, my stomach would church.

Everything seemed to be just completely misleading.

To cap it all off a Widowed and remarried Mormon Man in my Ward was sealing his second wife for eternity (invited the ward to his temple Sealing) and all the time I was being reassured 'we have nothing to do with Polygamy anymore, it's all in the past!'

It was a complete nonsense.