I've seen 2 requests for "church approved" materials recently that show Joseph Smith had polygamous wives.

Here's one:

Ensign Dec 1978, page 42.
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1978/12/the-newel-k-whitney-family?lang=eng -

Search for:
Sarah Ann Whitney in the 14th paragraph


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Thanks to dealingwithit's video for showing the source:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,695317

Brilliant, thanks! I just sent that to the friend I told you about yesterday.

This is DIRECTLY from the church's website which answers questions about various topics inlcuding polygamy:

"In this dispensation, the Lord commanded some of the early Saints to practice plural marriage. The Prophet Joseph Smith and those closest to him, including Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, were challenged by this command, but they obeyed it."

http://mormon.org/faq/practice-of-polygamy/

There you have it. Straight from the church's own website admitting that Joseph Smith practiced polygamy.

They were "challenged" by it...

Joe: I bet I can bed more women than Briggy.

Briggy: I take your challenge, and I bet I can even father more children than you have the balls to do, Joe.

Heber: I don't know, Briggy, Joe has some big ones--he came up with the idea that we can be gods. Claiming to be gods takes a lot of balls.

Briggy: True, and that shiz all starts with Adam, as god.

Joe: Heber, is Helen available this Friday?

Briggy to Joe: And Joe, will she be available for me the Friday after next? ... And I call dibs on her after you kick off.

One of the apologist works I read as I was trying to decide whether I believed or not ("Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One's Testimony in Face of Criticism and Doubt"---not worth the read) made a huge point that TSCC isn't hiding its history, and listed a variety of sources where they've addressed some of the controversial things.

I was almost convinced until I looked at the bibliography and saw that the most recent one was in 1985, 27 years ago. And most were in the 70s or even 60s. Yeah, they're not hiding anything.

The "Purloined Letter" wasn't hidden either.

The Church will have a sentence deep in a church magazine article once every quarter century and then say, "hey we've never hidden anything, see?"

I'm STILL waiting for the minutes of the Council of Fifty.

And even if they do occasionally make a statement that includes the truth that a lot different than disclosing the truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth.

I kinda doubt the church has ever published information admitting that Joseph Smith married two women while their husbands where serving missions...

the previous LIES denying JSs sexual habits / tendencies / preferences (some said by Joe) Don't Count, that's for sure.

That Mormons would believe that JS was not a polygamist is
amazing. That you have to search for hard-to-find sentences
hidden deep in ENSIGN articles to show to TBMs to convince
them of this astounds me.

I'm in my middle 60s. I remember as a kid that polygamy was
discussed openly at church. One day it was going to be
re-instituted. It was only taken away temporarily when the
evil government leaned to hard on the poor, persecuted Mormons.

The line in the TR interview about "sympathies" with any
apostate groups was because many Mormons accepted polygamy in
principle and, although they didn't practice themselves, were
sympathetic to those who did exactly what their ancestors
proudly did.

Mormons talk a lot about JS's "martyrdom." But they never
talk about what caused it; they never talk about WHY the
"Nauvoo Expositor" was published in the first place or why JS
had it destroyed. All you get is the vague statement that it
was "full of lies." JS didn't mind people lying about him.
The "Expositor" was destroyed because it told the truth.
That's what JS couldn't stand having published.

I also remember someone here posting a 1,2 punch or something like that using the churches sites to show pedofilia, ect

Is this what you are referring to?
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/M18D-5C8

This is definitely an eye opener for a TBM, but I don't know about 1-2 punch.

1) People report mixed results with getting this search to come up consistently.

2) There are lots of "yeah so" Joseph had teenage wives arguments that you then have to wade through.

Most of them are largely dismissed with these:
http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/Age.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3002115/table/T1/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2013 07:37PM by bc.