What are your experiences when talking with Mormons about it? Do they just flat out deny it happened, or do they actually defend his actions in some way?

It seems a pretty bizarre thing on top of it being something that exposes Smith as not a good person.

Most members think polygamy started with Brigham Young and was in response to the numbers of men dying on the pioneer trail.

Hardly any members know that Joseph was polygamous and I have yet to meet one that knows about the polyandry.

Gordon B.S. Hinckley told / promoted that LIE himself.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lsBFlcjE-8

My experience is that Mormons who know about Smith's polyandry generally say:

- it was a religious/symbolic relationship only, no sex was involved;
- the husbands approved, so there was nothing wrong;
- Smith only reluctantly acceded to the desires of the women, who simply wanted to belong to him in eternity;
- Since Smith was commanded by God to take those wives, it wasn't wrong;
- Smith was only human, and he made mistakes, and if it was wrong, God will punish him appropriately;
- We are commanded not to judge others....
- Only an enemy of the church would bring this up!

"Smith was only human, and he made mistakes, and if it was wrong, God will punish him appropriately;
- We are commanded not to judge others...."

yeh, my DW knows about the polyandry, and this is kinda her take on it too.

She knows something was very wrong with Joe and the church at that time, but she still thinks god was/is in control, and it will all be worked out in eternity. Chuch is twoo!

I just think she and all Mos lack common decency, or the basics of civil morality. Grow up Mos!

I've heard it explained that JS didn't understand the exact practice of celestial marriage and he thought of it as a sealing not as an actual marriage covenant, he was simply joining everyone into one big eternal family. God must have been difficult to understand when he introduced the plan. Then god found out JS misunderstood him and the practice changed after BY was done misunderstanding how it worked too. Now it all makes sense in a bizarre, convoluted way...which is how the church likes their apologetics.

God forced him to do it. In fact, anything embarassing in church doctrine is usually blamed on god.

I don't know about this. The mormons I have talked to "blame man" when something in the church doesn't sit right. If there are any questions to church history, they pull out the "well the church is governed by man" crap. It is crap because the giant selling point of the church is that the "gang of 15" are receiving divine revelation directly from God. If they weren't, it would just be another church.

+1

The angels with the flaming swords were forcing him to do it.

Geez, give the guy a break. You're all acting like he was some disgusting sex pig or something. :)

ha ha

It is never taught in SS or any other lessons. Because of the internet, a few Mormon apologists have started making excuses for Smith's polyandry. Something about the husbands not being faithful enough so good ol' Joseph came along and married them so at least the wives could get into the CK. They also claim that Joseph didn't have sex with most of his plural wives. It's all nonsense.

I recall being a very new member and asking my wife who was a life long member if Joseph Smith had ever practiced polygany. She told me that no one really knew for certain but that he probably did but only with a couple other wives since wife #1 Emma was not agreeable with the practice. It was very eye openning to me to discover that Smith had several dozen wives according to Brigham Young. I once calculated the rate Joseph accumulated wives during the last couple years of his life when polygamy was in full swing in Nauvoo. It turned out to be something like 1 wife every 3 weeks on average.

Here's a fun fact- I had NO IDEA about any of Joes "activities" UNTIL I checked out the FAIR website.

I was trying to get my shiz together and go back to church, the whole shebang.

So I decided to research on my own to answer my doctrinal questions.

15 minutes after reading about the polyandry and pedophilia, satanism and jupiter stone, (which I never would have known about unless I checked the site), I was done with the Morg.

Shout out to STMC and FAIR apologists, Thanks so much for helping me find my way out of the church :) Bang up job! :)

God told him to.

"oh it's just what they did back then"

Was that as "God's chosen one to bring about the Restoration, Joseph Smith could do as he pleased."

Another said that he was free to sew his seed as he saw fit to raise up children unto Heavenly Father...

This board, of course, is now the "Mormon Dialogue" site, and the common feature is that Denial C. Peterson was "wheel" on three of its incarnations.

I've had a hard time taking anything seriously the Moaps have said since...

The fact that he married women who were already married, and was even sealed to some men, is proof to them that it was a spiritual union only and not a physical one. A lot of them think that polygamy started with Brigham Young though.

No excuse is too ridiculous. Richard Packham's bulleted list is really what they say. My favorite is that the husbands didn't mind, so it's okay. Oh yeah, it's okay -- just like swinging today is okay with the Lord, right?

I couldn't think of a way to make it conform with Church teachings when I was a Mormon. It was incompatible with Mormon doctrine. It's a problem.

From FAIR's deceptive website:

"Question

"'I've heard that Joseph Smith was sealed to women who were married to men who were still living. Some of these men were even active members of the Church? What's going on here?
See also: Citations to the critical sources for these claims.'


"Supporting Data

"What is 'Polyandry?'

"Scholars have coined the term 'polyandry' (Greek: poly=many, andros=men) to describe marriages in which one woman is married to more than one man.

"Of all the aspects of Joseph Smith's marital theology, this is the most difficult area to understand, because very little primary evidence exists. As one scholar noted:

"'Perhaps nothing is less understood than Joseph Smith's sealings to women already married, because the evidence supports conflicting interpretations.'[1]

"This inconclusive evidence has been a boon, unsurprisingly, to critics, who can draw many lascivious conclusions from Joseph's actions. The faithful member may feel uneasy because he has no ready 'alibi' for the polyandry material which the gleeful critic insists is a 'smoking gun' for Joseph's base motives.

"However, a close look at the evidence that does exist shows that the critics' confidence is premature and likely misplaced. More than anything else, one's attitude toward Joseph will affect how the fragmentary evidence is interpreted.

"A detailed overview of Joseph's polyandrous marriages
Main article: Joseph's polyandrous marriages (Pre-publication book chapter)

"Were there any children through Joseph's polyandrous marriages?
Main article: Did Joseph have any children through polygamous marriages?

"Endnotes

"[note] Kathryn M. Daynes, 'More Wives than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840–1910' (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 29. ISBN 0252026810."

("Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Polyandry," at: http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith/Polygamy/Polyandry)

*****


Here's what FAIR didn't bother to tell you:

"'Polyandry & Joseph Smith'

"Joseph Smith propositioned polygamous marriage to many married women.

"Some women rebuffed his advances; others married Joseph polyandrously.(Polyandry is when one woman has multiple husbands at one time).

"The following married women married Joseph Smith. (The majority of the information here is from 'No Man Knows My History' by Fawn Brodie & 'Reconsidering No Man Knows My History' by Newell Bringhurst. Additional sources are included in parentheses after each woman's name. Scanned images of 'No Man Knows My History' are available for several of the women. Many thanks go to the authors of the following websites where much of this information was gathered from: http://www.i4m.com/think/history/Joseph_Smth_mens_wives.htm and http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/6552/wives.html)
_____


--"Lucinda Pendleton (Morgan) (Harris) (Smith), 1801-? (died after the Civil War), probably married Joseph polyandrously in 1838, at age 37. She was the widow of the anti-Masonic martyr William Morgan, to whom she had been married from 1819 to 1826; she bore him two children. She then married George Washington Harris in 1830, who became a prominent high councilor in Missouri, Nauvoo, and Council Bluffs. She left Harris in approximately 1853, apparently converted to Catholicism, and served as a nursing nun in Tennessee during the Civil War.

"Parents: Joseph Pendleton and Elizabeth Rilee

"Born: September 27, 1801, Washington Co., Virginia
Died:

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: 1838, Far West, Missouri

"Other Marriages: William Morgan, Virginia
George Washington Harris, January 12, 1831, Arkansas
_____


--"Zina Diantha Huntington (Jacobs) (Smith) (Young), 1821-1901, married Joseph Smith polyandrously on October 27, 1841, at age 20. She had married Henry Jacobs on March 7, 1841, and bore him two children. On February 2, 1846, she married Brigham Young polyandrously, for time. (In Mormon theology and ritual, spouses were generally married for time and eternity, but under special circumstances, as when a widow had already married her first husband for time and eternity, the partners were "seated" for time only. Most of Joseph Smith's plural marriages were re-solemnized in the Nauvoo temple, with living men standing proxy for Smith; generally, the proxy husbands were then married to the women for time.) Her marriage with Jacobs finally came to an end in May 1846, soon after the birth of their second child, when Brigham Young sent Henry on a mission to England. She and Young then began cohabiting as man and wife. In Utah, Zina bore Young a daughter, was a close friend and counselor of Eliza Snow Smith Young, and became the third General Relief Society president of the Latter-day Saint church.

"Parents: William Huntington, Jr. and Zina Baker

"Born: January 31, 1821, Watertown, New York
Died: August 28, 1901, Salt Lake City, Utah

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: October 27, 1841, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Other Marriages: Henry Bailey Jacobs, March 7, 1841
Brigham Young, February 2, 1846, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Children:
1. Zebulon William Jacobs, January 2, 1842, Nauvoo, Illinois
2. Henry Chariton Jacobs, March 22, 1846, Chariton, Iowa
3. Zina Prescindia Young, April 3, 1850, Salt Lake City, Utah
(Also see 'History of Henry Bailey Jacobs,' by Ora J. Cannon, page 5-7; also see, 'Recollections of Zina D. Young,' by Mary Brown Firmage; 'Short Sketch of the Life of Henry B. Jacobs,' by Ora J. Cannon).
_____


--"Prescendia Lathrop Huntington (Buell) (Smith) (Kimball), 1810-92. The older sister of Zina Huntington, she married Joseph Smith polyandrously on December 11, 1841, at age 31. She had married Norman Buell in 1827, with whom she lived for nineteen years even though he became disaffected from Mormonism in 1838. She bore him seven children, five of whom died young. After Smith's death, she married Heber C. Kimball polyandrously on February 4, 1846. She finally left Buell in May 1846 and traveled to Utah, where she bore Kimball two children.

"Parents: William Huntington, Jr. and Zina Baker

"Born: September 7, 1810, Watertown, New York
Died: February 1, 1892, Salt Lake City, Utah

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: December 11, 1841, Smith's Store, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Other Marriages: Norman Buell, January 6, 1828, Watertown, New York
Heber Chase Kimball, November 7, 1846, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Children:
1. George William Buell, December 12, 1829, Ellisburgh, New York
2. Silas Dimick Buell, December 25, 1831, Rodman, New York
3. Thomas D. Buell, March 8, 1834, Lorraine, New York
4. Chancy Dressor Buell, September 8, 1836, Kirtland, Ohio
5. Adaline Elizabeth Buell, April 24, 1838, Washington Township, Missouri
6. Oliver Norman Buell, January 31, 1840, Washington Township, Missouri
7. John Hiram Buell, July 13, 1843, Adams Co., Illinois
8. Prescindia Celestia Kimball, January 9, 1849, Salt Lake City, Utah
9. Joseph Smith Kimball, December 22, 1851, Salt Lake City, Utah
(See also 'Mormon Polygamy: A History,' by Richard S. Van Wagoner, p. 44; Mary Ettie V. Smith, 'Fifteen Years Among the Mormons,' p. 34; Fawn Brodie 'No Man Knows My History,' pp. 301-302, 437-39)
_____


--"Sylvia Porter Sessions (Lyon) (Smith) (Kimball) (Clark), 1818-82, married Joseph Smith polyandrously on February 8, 1842, at age 23, and bore him one child, Josephine Lyon (Fisher), on February 8, 1844. Sylvia had married Windsor Lyon in 1838 and stayed with him for eleven years, bearing him four children, all of whom died as infants. He was excommunicated in Nauvoo in November 1842, due to a financial/legal conflict with Nauvoo Stake President William Marks, but was rebaptized in January 1846. Sylvia married Heber C. Kimball for time, polyandrously, on January 26, 1846, but did not go west with him, staying with Lyon. After Lyon's death in January 1849, she married a non-Mormon, Ezekiel Clark, in Iowa on January 1, 1850. She bore him three children (all of whom survived) but left him and came to Bountiful, Utah, in 1854.

"Parents: David Sessions and Patty Bartlett

"Born: July 31, 1818, Newry, Maine
Died: April 12, 1882, Bountiful, Utah

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: about 1843

"Other Marriages: Windsor Palmer Lyon, 1838, Far West, Missouri
Heber Chase Kimball, January 1846, Nauvoo, Illinois
Ezekiel Clark, January 1, 1850, Iowa City, Iowa

"Children:
1. Marian Lyon, July 30, 1839, Nauvoo, Illinois
2. Philofreen Lyon, June 11, 1841, Nauvoo, Illinois
3. Asa Windsor Lyon, December 25, 1842, Nauvoo, Illinois
4. Josephine Rosetta Lyon, February 8, 1844, Nauvoo, Illinois
5. Byron Windsor Lyon, September 4, 1847, Iowa City, Iowa
6. David Carlos Lyon, August 8, 1848, Iowa City, Iowa
7. Perry Ezekiel Clark, February 8, 1851, Iowa City, Iowa
8. Phebe Jane Clark, September 1, 1852, Iowa City, Iowa
9. Martha Sylvia Clark, January 20, 1854, Iowa City, Iowa
(See also Affidavit to Church Historian Andrew Jenson, 24 Feb. 1915)
_____


--"Mary Elizabeth Rollins (Lightner) (Smith) (Young), 1818-1913, married Joseph Smith polyandrously approximately at the end of February 1842, at age 23. She had married Adam Lightner, a non-Mormon, in 1835, with whom she had ten children. Mary and Adam lived together until his death in 1885. She also married Brigham Young for time, polyandrously, on May 22, 1845, but never lived with him as his wife. The Lightner family resided in Wisconsin for a number of years but came to Utah in 1863. Mary lived most of her later life in Minerville in southern Utah.

"Parents: John Porter Rollins and Keziah Keturah Van Benthuysen

"Born: April 9, 1818, Lima, New York
Died: December 17, 1913, Minersville, Utah

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: January 17, 1842, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Other Marriages: Adam Lightner, August 11, 1835, Independence, Missouri
Brigham Young, January 17, 1846, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Children:
1. Miles Henry Lightner, June 18, 1836, Far West, Missouri
2. Caroline Keziah Lightner, October 18, 1840, Half Breed Tract, Lee Co., Iowa
3. George Algernon Lightner, March 22, 1842, Nauvoo, Illinois
4. Florentine Mathias Lightner, March 23, 1843, Far West, Missouri
5. John Horace Gilbert Lightner, February 9, 1847, Galena, Illinois
6. Elizabeth Lightner, April 3, 1849, Stillwater, Minnesota
7. Mary Rollins Lightner, April 9, 1850, Willow River, Wisconsin
8. Algernon Sidney Lightner, March 25, 1853, Hudson, Wisconsin
9. Charles Washington Lightner, March 17, 1857, Marine, Minnesota
10. Adam Lightner, Jr., October 28, 1861, Chisago, Minnesota
(See also Lightner, Mary E. Statement. 8 Feb. 1902; Lightner to Emmeline B. Wells, 21 Nov. 1880; Lightner to John R. Young, 25 Jan. 1892; 'George A. Smith Papers,' Special Collections, University of Utah)
_____


--"Patty Bartlett (Sessions) (Smith) (Parry), 1795-1892, married Joseph Smith polyandrously on March 9, 1842, at age 47. The mother of Sylvia Sessions, Patty was famous as a frontier midwife and diarist. She married David Sessions in 1812, lived with him in Missouri, Nauvoo, and Utah, and bore him eight children; he died on August 11, 1850, in Salt Lake City. She then married John Parry for time in 1851; he died in 1868. She moved from Salt Lake City to Bountiful in 1872.

"Parents:Enoch Bartlett and Anna Hall

"Born: February 4, 1795, Bethel, Maine
Died: December 14, 1893, Bountiful, Utah

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: March 9, 1842, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Other Marriages: David Sessions, June 28, 1812, Newry, Maine
John Perry, March 27, 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah

"Children:
1. Perrigrine Sessions, June 14, 1814, Newry, Maine
2. Sylvannus Sessions, June 5, 1816, Newry, Maine
3. Amanda Sessions, March 19, 1817, Newry, Maine
4. Sylvia Porter Session, July 31, 1818, Newry, Maine
5. Asa Sessions, about 1819, Newry, Maine
6. Anna B. Sessions, March 21, 1820, Newry, Maine
7. David Sessions, Jr., May 9, 1823, Newry, Maine
8. Anna B. Sessions, March 16, 1825, Newry, Maine
9. Bartlett Sessions, August 1, 1827, Newry, Maine
10. Amanda Sessions, March 19, 1837, Far West, Missouri
_____


--"Sarah Maryetta Kingsley (Howe) (Cleveland) (Smith) (Smith), 1788-1856, married Joseph Smith polyandrously before June 29, 1842, approximately at age 53 or 54. She had married John Howe in 1807, with whom she had one son, but John died between 1823 and 1826. She then martied John Cleveland in 1826, with whom she lived for the rest of her life and to whom she bore two children. Sarah became Mormon between 1832 and 1836, but Cleveland never converted to Mormonism, although they eventually moved to Nauvoo. She served as first counselor to Emma Smith in the first Relief Society organization. After Smith's death, Sarah married John Smith, later church patriarch, her daughter's father-inlaw, in a polyandrous proxy marriage but never lived with him. The Clevelands stayed in Illinois when the Mormons went west.

"Parents:Ebenezer Kingsley and Sarah Chaplin

"Born: November 23, 1813, Massachusetts
Died: April 20, 1856, Plymouth, Illinois

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: after June 1842

"Other Marriages:John Howe, about 1807 John Cleveland, March 16, 1826, Cincinatti, Ohio
John Smith, January 1856, Nauvoo, Illinois
Children:
1. Edward Howe, 1808, Becket, Massachusetts
2. Augusta Bowen Cleveland, December 7, 1828, Cincinatti, Ohio
3. Alexander Dennison Cleveland, October 7, 1832, Cincinatti, Ohio
_____


--"Ruth Daggett Vose (Sayers) (Smith), 1808-84, married Joseph Smith polyandrously in- February 1843, at age 33. She had married Edward Sayers in 1841 and stayed with him until his death in 1861. Sayers was never baptized but lived with Ruth in Nauvoo and Salt Lake City, where they both died. She bore no children.

"Parents:

"Born: February 26, 1808, Boston, Massachusetts
Died: August 18, 1884, Salt Lake City, Utah

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: August 1842

"Other Marriages: Edward Sayers, January 23, 1841, St. Louis, Missouri

"Children:
_____


--"Elvira Annie Cowles (Holmes) (Smith), 1813-71, married Joseph Smith polyandrously on June 1, 1843, at age 29. She was the daughter of Austin Cowles, a counselor in the Nauvoo stake presidency, who joined William Law's dissenting church in Nauvoo, perhaps because he disapproved of joseph's marriage to his daughter. Elvira had married Jonathan Holmes on December 1, 1842, and stayed with him until her death, living most of her later life in Farmington, Utah. She bore Holmes five daughters from 1845 to 1856.

"Parents: Austin Cowles and Phoebe Wilbur

"Born: November 23, 1813, Unadilla, New York
Died: March 10, 1871, Farmington, Utah

"Marriage to Joseph Smith: before December 1842

"Other Marriages: Jonathan Harriman Holmes, December 1, 1842, Nauvoo, Illinois

"Children:
1. Lucy Elvira Holmes, October 11, 1845, Nauvoo, Illinois
2. Marietta Holmes, July 17, 1849, Salt Lake City, Utah
3. Phebe Louisa Holmes, February 5, 1851, Farmington, Utah
4. Josephine Octavia Ann Holmes, July 8, 1854, Farmington, Utah
5. Emma Lucinda Holmes, February 1, 1856, Farmington, Utah
_____


--"Marinda Hyde, [do not have full information](See Andrew Jenson, 'Church Chronology,' August 6, 1844)

"These married women were propositioned by Joseph Smith but turned him down.

"(The bulk of this information was taken from http://www.i4m.com/think/history/Joseph_Smth_mens_wives.htm; many thanks to the author(s) of this site).
_____


--"Sarah Pratt, wife of Orson Pratt

"'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."

"(Article, 'Sarah M. Pratt,' by Richard A. Van Wagoner, 'Dialogue,' Vol.19, No.2, p.72. Also see, 'The History of the Saints Sarah Pratt,' Section from http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/spratt.htm)
_____


--"Jane Law, wife of William Law

"'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 woma.' 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)
_____


--"Sarah Kimball, wife of Hiram Kimball

"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)"

(Source for above: "Polyandry & Joseph Smith," at: http://www.ldsfreedom.org/node/7)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2012 12:04AM by steve benson.

Steve Great post as always however only two of the links you provided http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith/Polygamy/Polyandry) and http://www.ldsfreedom.org/node/7) worked when I clicked on them.I have done extensive research on this in the passed and everything you site is correct. However those new to this site might want to research it and would find it frustrating that four of the six links did not work.

From the autobiography of Cordelia Morley Cox:

In the spring of 1844, plural marriage was introduced to me by my parents from Joseph Smith, asking their consent and a request to me to be his wife. Imagine, if you can, my feeling, to be a plural wife. Something I never thought I could ever be. I knew nothing of such religion and could not accept it, neither did I then. I told Joseph I had a sweetheart; his name was Whiting, and I expected to marry him. He, however, was left by the wayside. He could not endure the persecutions and hardships. I told the Prophet I thought him a wonderful man and leader, but I wanted to marry my sweetheart.

After Joseph Smith's death, I was visited by some of his most intimate friends who knew of his request and explained to me this religion, counseling me to accept his wishes, for he now was gone and could do no more for himself. I accepted Joseph Smith's desire, and 27 January 1846, I was married to your father in the Nauvoo Temple. While still kneeling at the alter, my hand clasped in his and ready to become his third plural wife, Heber C. Kimball tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Cordelia, are you going to deprive the Prophet of his desire that you be his wife?" At that, Walter Cox said, "You may be sealed to the Prophet for eternity and I'll marry you for time." Walter was proxy for Joseph Smith, and I was sealed to him for eternity and to Walter for time. (One time when Cordelia told this story to her granddaughter, Mary Verona Cox, she said, "Verona, in eternity I want the man that was the father of my children and was a good husband and father. I lived with him and loved him.")


I was doing a family history lesson. I (convert) came across this story in my husband's (BIC with pioneer ancestors) genealogy papers. I started asking questions. I'd never heard that women married JS while married to other men or that women married him after his death. He did not want to hear them, could not explain and essentially asked me to drop it. I still have questions....

I don't think most know about the polyandry. If they do it is just one of those things you are supposed to accept because it must have made sense back then and not dwell on because of course "we don't practice it today"....

by LYING in a totally PATHETIC & LAME fashion

yah MORmON God Heaven Father sat flat on his ass in the premortal existence out of ultimate respect for free agency while one third of his spirit children wandered off to permanent condemnation with Satan. (NICE PARENTING SKILLS @$$ HOLE!)

HOWEVER, once mortality was started, rolled along for thousands of years and Joe SMith was born, THEN MORmON God Jesus insisted that Joe Smith sex it up plural wife style or be killed.
..... and any one who believes that is a REAL MORmON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmhjgaB2Hi8



this explains it, nails the MORmON doctURINAL jello to the wall, as much as possible, courtesy of the Ex Mo Foundation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36B-c58_WPo

Joseph Smith claims he asked god about a better understanding of the Old testament and plural wives,
then Joe claims he was roped into to polygamy by god,
Imagine that ! FTR Joe never practiced polygamy, back in REALITY
those that study the bible know that what Joe really did was start up with ADULTERY, which by Joe's own idiot proclamations condemned him and DisQualified him for polygamy.

Joe gets an F on old testament studies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpwueXufpL0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqG5skfZcrE

in my own experience of broaching the subject of JS's polyandry.

1) No he didnt do that, that's anti-mo lies (the commonest response)

2) it was a spiritual marriage, no sex involved, for purposes we may not fully understand

3) it was a way for the husband to be closer to the prophet

and if the husband didnt object there cant have been any sex involved,

It was common in those says for women to have spiritual sealings to Joseph. He had no children with them and it did not involve intimate relations
The men helped take care of the less fortunate women who would not otherwise have a chance to be married because of the ratio of men to women
That's history and you are caught up in history. The church doesn't practice it today and excommunicated those who do. It isn't relevant any longer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2012 07:19AM by suckafoo.

They deny it until I verify that it did indeed happen. Then they shelve it as a mystery of the kingdom.

Whenever any of us have conversations with staunch defenders of the LDS practice of plural marriage, the conversation eventually comes to the most difficult practice to defend, and that is Joseph's marriages to 11 women already married to other men. Without fail, the true-believing members always quickly say 'Yes, that's true but he didn't have sex with them'. We started then asking the question 'Would it make a difference to you if Joseph did have sex with them?'

Perhaps the faithful want to say yes, and then just argue that we don't know if Joseph did or did not have sex with his polyandrous wives. However, they almost always pause for a minute and say 'No'. Perhaps they realize that Joseph probably did have sex with them. This is troubling for some of us to think that it wouldn't matter to members if the prophet of the restoration had sex with other men's wives.

Although there is reason to believe that Joseph likely did have sex with these women, it is even more troubling to think that if you had spent your whole life on earth living with your devoted spouse, fully intending to be married together in heaven for all eternity, just like you have enjoyed on earth, then the prophet says he wants your wife to be one of his many wives, you have to give her up. The children are also separated from either the father or the mother. Are we to believe that God actually commanded the prophet to do this and cause the wife, the first husband and the children, a lot of unnecessary anguish just so the prophet can have another unneeded wife in the hereafter?

We don't know of any LDS that really believe in their heart of hearts that our Heavenly Father commanded Joseph to marry another man's wife - to steal away a beloved life-long spouse just to be another one of Joseph's many wives in the next life. And this was not done once, but was done at least 11 times. And if Joseph 'exceeded his authority' in marrying women already married, then he's an adulterer 11 times over and hardly the chosen prophet of the final dispensation.

It was God's will at the time. We don't understand everything!! Duh!! What really upsets me is that Church manuals ALWAYS portray Joseph married to only ONE wife.

The oiliest explanation I ever heard was that when a man ran afoul of the commandments, Joseph Smith had compassion on his faithful wife and wanted her to have a shot at the CK even if her husband was not going to make it.

He was selling it as an insurance policy and, according to them, it was symbolic, definitely not sexual.

Of course that does not explain the women being insulted, or the fact that he found them so "charming." His stating their attractiveness or winning attributes speaks toward his licentiousness as a primary motivator.

Joseph Smith certainly never met a winsome female servant or wife of a friend or counselor that he didn't dive for her crotch.

What a bastard. And he had the nerve to insist that people keep themselves free of sexual sin, resist temptation to drink, use tobacco, etc, etc, not of which temptations he resisted.

Anagrammy

I was a "chapel mormon" my whole life, and I never knew that Joseph Smith engaged in polyandry, let alone polygamy. I believed that Eliza R. Snow and others were sealed to him after his death.

When I did find out about his polyandry, I could find no excuse for it and it made him sound like Jim Jones, David Koresh, and other such men who, once they have a following, need to start sleeping with the followers.

I found out about the polyandry the night before our ward handcart trip to Martin's Cove. My mind was blown. It was a horrible trip!!!

Notice in the FAIR article that very first sentence implies "anti's" are making stuff up to make the church look bad:

"Scholars have coined the term 'polyandry'...."

No, it is a LINGUISTIC term that describes something; I may be reading more into IT than is actually there, but IMO it's similar to the old "careless scribes" chestnut that makes it appear as if some unknown faceless copier made a mistake that renders true LDS doctrine into something perverted, instead of the pure truth Joseph Smith received from God.