LDS Essay Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo

26 October

lds1Fasten your seatbelts folks, here we go.

The Church released another essay on Wednesday, October 22, 2014 just in time for Halloween. This dark and spooky story is about the Church fessin’ up to at least 33 of Smith’s extracurricular activities in life which Smith referred to as ‘The Principle’, better known as Plural Marriage or Eternal Marriage.

Whatever the Church chooses to call it, God has His own ideas about it. It’s called adultery and it’s wrong.

Once again, the Church is long on excuses and short on shame. You can access the essay in their Gospel Topics section here.

In the meantime I have my own thoughts.  I’m certain you’re not surprised!  Let’s take a look at some of what they had to say shall we?

As a heads up on this, I haven’t commented on everything they said in this essay (lucky you!) because of its length.  I did keep all the hyperlinks they embedded into their article intact so you have access to the LDS references they’ve used. You can find their exhaustive list of those at the end of this article.

“Although the Lord commanded the adoption—and later the cessation—of plural marriage in the latter days, He did not give exact instructions on how to obey the commandment. Significant social and cultural changes often include misunderstandings and difficulties.”

Let’s clear a few things up here and look to Him who directs our paths.  God has always, and I do mean always, been very clear when He gives His commandments and directions. I’ve only been a Christian for 21 years, but I’ve yet to find anything in the Bible where He’s not done this.

As a matter of fact He even gave very specific instructions on marriage so I’m listing just a few of those here for us to review.

Gen. 2:24; “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” [emphasis mine]

Leviticus 18:5-6, 18; “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. 6 ¶ None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. 18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.”

Deuteronomy 17:17; “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”

If I had to put all the lies in this essay in order of how awful they are this one would probably sit at the top of that very long list –

“Many details about the early practice of plural marriage are unknown. Plural marriage was introduced among the early Saints incrementally, and participants were asked to keep their actions confidential.”

Why? If God Himself commanded this principle to be employed amongst His children why pray tell would He want to keep it secret? Furthermore, there are a lot of details on the early practice of polygamy. A quick glance on the internet will keep one busy for years on end.

“They did not discuss their experiences publicly or in writing until after the Latter-day Saints had moved to Utah and Church leaders had publicly acknowledged the practice. The historical record of early plural marriage is therefore thin: few records of the time provide details, and later reminiscences are not always reliable.”

There are four distinctive lies in the above statement from the Church.

1.This principle was in writing long before the Saints moved to Utah. Proof is found in D&C 132 and before they rewrote Doctrine and Covenants it was also in D&C 101.

2.Historical records are found all over the place. The Church’s family history portal is the largest databank of deceased names in the world. This houses the names and marriages of everyone imaginable.

3.Temple records and the Church’s practice of temple sealings along with their genealogy records provides ample evidence from long before Utah. All of the info I use for Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders is retrieved directly from the Church. The vast majority of names listed in  our series is from the Nauvoo era.

4.If they’re not reliable why is the Church publishing them? The Church is very particular about accepting outside info about themselves. If the info isn’t from the Church itself they reject it.

“When God commands a difficult task, He sometimes sends additional messengers to encourage His people to obey. Consistent with this pattern, Joseph told associates that an angel appeared to him three times between 1834 and 1842 and commanded him to proceed with plural marriage when he hesitated to move forward. During the third and final appearance, the angel came with a drawn sword, threatening Joseph with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment fully.9

Wow.

Angels with flaming swords eh? That’s odd because another distinctive time this takes place in the Bible is when God placed an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to the Garden of Eden after He booted Adam and Eve out.

It shouldn’t go unnoticed here that in the beginning of their essay they said God didn’t give specific instructions about polygamy and now here we are with a grand event of an angel showing up giving directions about it.  Odd…

“Fragmentary evidence suggests that Joseph Smith acted on the angel’s first command by marrying a plural wife, Fanny Alger, in Kirtland, Ohio, in the mid-1830s.”

More specifically it was 1833, which by the way we know about because of the extensive record keeping the Church burdens itself with.

“Several Latter-day Saints who had lived in Kirtland reported decades later that Joseph Smith had married Alger, who lived and worked in the Smith household, after he had obtained her consent and that of her parents.10 Little is known about this marriage, and nothing is known about the conversations between Joseph and Emma regarding Alger. After the marriage with Alger ended in separation, Joseph seems to have set the subject of plural marriage aside until after the Church moved to Nauvoo, Illinois.”

Oh dear.

On the contrary, there’s a boatload of evidence about this marriage. Here are the notes we have that are published in our series Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders. 

Hired help living w/ Smith’s. Kicked out by Emma when pregnancy couldn’t be hidden any longer. Later sep. from Smith & married Solomon Custer, non-LDS. JS excommunicated Oliver Cowdery for accusing Smith of adultery w/ her – HC 3:16, Wednesday, April 11, 1838, Farr West Council (Brodie, pg. 180 -181). Fanny was orphaned, Levi Hancock’s niece  – Mormon Enigma, pg. 319.

In addition to all this info we also have the well documented historical truth from Todd Compton’s book which is what the Church has used in their essay for references. In his book we read;

In Sacred Loneliness, pp 32-33; “William McLellin told his account of Joseph and Fanny Alger to a newspaper reporter in 1875. “[McLellin] . . .informed me of the spot where the first well authenticated case of polygamy took place, in which Joseph Smith was ‘sealed’ to the hired girl. The ‘sealing’ took place in a barn on the hay mow, and was witnessed by Mrs. Smith through a crack in the door!… Long afterwards when he visited Mrs. Emma Smith. . .she then and there declared on her honor that it was a fact—’saw it with her own eyes.’” – Todd Compton

You see, Smith had a habit of taking girls in who were orphaned and presumably for the shadowy reason of hiring them to help Emma. What a guy. Emma was none too pleased when she found that her husband was bedding down with the hired help and making matters worse, the girls were usually underage.

“The sealing of husband and wife for eternity was made possible by the restoration of priesthood keys and ordinances.”

Herein lies the problem. There is no such thing as a restoration if/when you believe in the God of the Bible. He holds all things in His hands and promised us He would never leave, nor desert us.

“On April 3, 1836, the Old Testament prophet Elijah appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple and restored the priesthood keys necessary to perform ordinances for the living and the dead, including sealing families together.13 Marriages performed by priesthood authority could link loved ones to each other for eternity, on condition of righteousness; marriages performed without this authority would end at death.”

In biblical terms, this is known as necromancy. Talking to dead people is forbidden according to God’s word.

1 Chronicles 10:13-14; “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; 14 And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.”

In their continuing saga they went on to say this –

“Marriage performed by priesthood authority meant that the procreation of children and perpetuation of families would continue into the eternities. Joseph Smith’s revelation on marriage declared that the “continuation of the seeds forever and ever” helped to fulfill God’s purposes for His children.15 This promise was given to all couples who were married by priesthood authority and were faithful to their covenants.”

The Bible tells us that we’re saved by grace (Eph 2:8-9) and when we confess Him (Romans 10:9). Besides all that, Jesus told us in Mark 12:25 there are no marriages in heaven. It’s nothing short of amazing that this very subject would be addressed directly by no less a person than Jesus Himself!

Mark 12:25; “For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.”

The Church also pointed out something that’s very revealing about Joe and Emma’s relationship. They went against her father’s wishes. This serves as yet another red flag there’s something wrong.

“…By Joseph Smith’s time, many couples insisted on marrying for love, as he and Emma did when they eloped against her parents’ wishes.”

Just as the Church has lied about marriages in the Post-Manifesto era, they didn’t speak truth in this essay either. Here’s what they had to say about the prevalence of polygamy in Nauvoo –

“…The practice spread slowly at first. By June 1844, when Joseph died, approximately 29 men and 50 women had entered into plural marriage, in addition to Joseph and his wives.”

Again, this is another lie. Here’s  what George D. Smith had to say in his report, ‘Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy 1841-1846; A Preliminary Demographic Report’, p 30;

“By the end of the Nauvoo period in 1846, the 153 polygamous husbands had married 587 women and produced 734 children. About 80 percent of Nauvoo plural marriages occurred after Smith’s death.”

So the Church said there were approximately 29 men, but evidence tells another story. We see the number is more than five times greater than what they just claimed.

Unfortunately for the Church, they just kept on digging the hole deeper by trying to justify Smith’s pedophile behavior when they volunteered info on the ages of his brides.

“Most of those sealed to Joseph Smith were between 20 and 40 years of age at the time of their sealing to him. The oldest, Fanny Young, was 56 years old. The youngest was Helen Mar Kimball, daughter of Joseph’s close friends Heber C. and Vilate Murray Kimball, who was sealed to Joseph several months before her 15th birthday. Marriage at such an age, inappropriate by today’s standards, was legal in that era, and some women married in their mid-teens.26 Helen Mar Kimball spoke of her sealing to Joseph as being “for eternity alone,” suggesting that the relationship did not involve sexual relations.27 After Joseph’s death, Helen remarried and became an articulate defender of him and of plural marriage.28

Here’s what Helen Mar Kimball had to say about the whole thing;

“Having a great desire to be connected with the Prophet Joseph, he [her father, Heber] offered me to him; this I afterwards learned from the Prophet’s own mouth. My father had but one Ewe Lamb, but willingly laid her upon the alter”

Now if that isn’t heart wrenching, nothing is. And for the record, marrying a 14 yr old girl back in Joseph’s day was also frowned upon, just as it is today. Theaverage marrying age at the time was 24.  To think that Smith didn’t want to have sex with that young girl is to believe that he’s a true prophet of God.

By the way…

Why are they referring to these female children as women? Would they refer to male children as men? I think not! They’re always referred to as boys, because that’s what you are at the age of 14, just as girls are children when they’re 14 years old.

“Following his marriage to Louisa Beaman and before he married other single women, Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married.29 Neither these women nor Joseph explained much about these sealings, though several women said they were for eternity alone.30 Other women left no records, making it unknown whether their sealings were for time and eternity or were for eternity alone.”

A number of women who were already married…

The technical word for that is polyandry and in many of the cases with Smith and these married women, their husbands had no idea of the illicit affair they were having with this so-called man of God.

Furthermore, the women had no choice as to whether or not they could keep records of it. The Church just imposes itself into the lives of people whether they intended for them to do so or not. All people are recorded, sealed, dunked and married regardless of any permission granted.

While explaining the polyandrous relationships he continued to engage himself in, any morsel or hint of remorse or denouncing this behavior by the Church is non-existent.

“In Nauvoo, most if not all of the first husbands seem to have continued living in the same household with their wives during Joseph’s lifetime, and complaints about these sealings with Joseph Smith are virtually absent from the documentary record.32

Like I said, most were unaware that their wives and the prophet were lying to them.

“These sealings may also be explained by Joseph’s reluctance to enter plural marriage because of the sorrow it would bring to his wife Emma.”

Yeah…okay…

“Plural marriage was difficult for all involved. For Joseph Smith’s wife Emma, it was an excruciating ordeal. Records of Emma’s reactions to plural marriage are sparse; she left no firsthand accounts, making it impossible to reconstruct her thoughts.”

Oh have mercy! Again, this is another lie.

There’s a plethora of written info about Emma’s reaction. She adopted her late husband’s nasty habit of lying as well and denied that Joe was a polygamist.

“Joseph and Emma loved and respected each other deeply.”

That’s hard to believe. People who love each other don’t do such things.

“Emma approved, at least for a time, of four of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages in Nauvoo, and she accepted all four of those wives into her household. She may have approved of other marriages as well.39 But Emma likely did not know about all of Joseph’s sealings.40 She vacillated in her view of plural marriage, at some points supporting it and at other times denouncing it.”

Wait a minute here. Didn’t they just say she was all but mum about this?  You can read an excellent account of her views in the book Mormon Enigma. I highlyencourage every Mormon to read this!

Sadly, Emma lived in denial either publicly or privately or both. In a sworn statement that she willingly gave to her son Joseph Smith III, she flat out denied that Smith was a polygamist.

History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, volume 3, pp. 355–56; “No such thing as polygamy, or spiritual wifery, was taught, publicly or privately, before my husband’s death, that I have now, or ever had any knowledge of …. He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have.”

As we saw in this essay the story is the same and only the subject matter has been changed.

Oh please, let us not forget or put aside our task of praying for those caught in this nightmare! I am indebted beyond words to Jesus for saving me from such lies and darkness!

While I’ve only touched on some of the things this essay presented, I’ve left their references intact so that you can look them up if needed.

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

Resources

  1. See“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”Jacob 2:27, 30.
  2. Doctrine and Covenants 132:34–39;Jacob 2:30; see also Genesis 16.
  3. 1 Corinthians 13:12; Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lord, I Believe,”Ensign, May 2013.
  4. See Andrew Jenson, “Plural Marriage,”Historical Record 6 (May 1887): 232–33; “Report of Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith,” Millennial Star 40 (Dec. 16, 1878): 788; Danel W. Bachman, “New Light on an Old Hypothesis: The Ohio Origins of the Revelation on Eternal Marriage,” Journal of Mormon History 5 (1978): 19–32.
  5. SeeDoctrine and Covenants 132:1, 34–38.
  6. Doctrine and Covenants 112:30;124:41128:18.
  7. “Polygamy,” inThe Oxford Dictionary of World Religions,  John Bowker (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 757; John Cairncross, After Polygamy Was Made a Sin: The Social History of Christian Polygamy (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974).
  8. Lorenzo Snow, deposition, United States Testimony 1892 (Temple Lot Case), part 3, p. 124, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; Orson Pratt, inJournal of Discourses, 13:193; Ezra Booth to Ira Eddy, Dec. 6, 1831, in Ohio Star,  8, 1831.
  9. See Brian C. Hales, “Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword,”Mormon Historical Studies 11, no. 2 (Fall 2010): 69–70.
  10. See Andrew Jenson, Research Notes, Andrew Jenson Collection, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; Benjamin F. Johnson to Gibbs, 1903, Benjamin F. Johnson Papers, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; “Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock,” Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
  11. Parley P. Pratt,The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,  Parley P. Pratt Jr. (New York: Russell Brothers, 1874), 329.
  12. Hyrum Smith, sermon, Apr. 8, 1844, Historian’s Office General Church Minutes, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
  13. These were the same priesthood keys Elijah had given to Apostles anciently. (SeeMatthew 16:1917:1–9Doctrine and Covenants 2.)
  14. Doctrine and Covenants 132:7;131:2–3.
  15. Doctrine and Covenants 132:19–20, 63; see also “Becoming Like God.”
  16. Stephanie Coontz,Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage (New York: Viking Penguin, 2005), 145–60; Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500–1800, abridged ed. (Middlesex, UK: Penguin Books, 1985), 217–53.
  17. Doctrine and Covenants 132:55, 63.
  18. Doctrine and Covenants 132:46;Matthew 16:19.
  19. Joseph Smith’s practice of plural marriage has been discussed by Latter-day Saint authors in official, semi-official, and independent publications. See, for example, Jenson, “Plural Marriage,” 219–34; B. H. Roberts,A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930), 2:93–110, Danel W. Bachman and Ronald K. Esplin, “Plural Marriage,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 2:1091-95; and Glen M. Leonard, Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Brigham Young University, 2002), 343–49.
  20. Brian C. Hales,Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013),1:3, 2:165.
  21. Joseph Smith, Journal, May 19, 24, and 26, 1842; June 4, 1842, available atorg. Proponents of “spiritual wifery” taught that sexual relations were permissible outside of legalized marital relationships, on condition that the relations remained secret.
  22. In the denials, “polygamy” was understood to mean the marriage of one man to more than one woman but without Church sanction.
  23. See, for example, “On Marriage,”Times and Seasons,  1, 1842, 939–40; and Wilford Woodruff journal, Nov. 25, 1843, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; Parley P. Pratt, “This Number Closes the First Volume of the ‘Prophet,’” The Prophet, May 24, 1845, 2. George A. Smith explained, “Any one who will read carefully the denials, as they are termed, of plurality of wives in connection with the circumstances will see clearly that they denounce adultery, fornication, brutal lust and the teaching of plurality of wives by those who were not commanded to do so” (George A. Smith letter to Joseph Smith III, Oct. 9, 1869, in Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Oct. 9, 1869, Church History Library, Salt Lake City).
  24. Careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40. See Hales,Joseph Smith’s Polygamy,2:272–73.
  25. See Hales,Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, 2:277–302. Despite claims that Joseph Smith fathered children within plural marriage, genetic testing has so far been negative, though it is possible he fathered two or three children with plural wives. (See Ugo A. Perego, “Joseph Smith, the Question of Polygamous Offspring, and DNA Analysis,” in Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster, eds., The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy [Independence, MO: John Whitmer Books, 2010], 233–56.)
  26. Spencer Fluhman, “A Subject that Can Bear Investigation’: Anguish, Faith, and Joseph Smith’s Youngest Plural Wife,” in Robert L. Millet, ed.,No Weapon Shall Prosper: New Light on Sensitive Issues (Provo and Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2011), 104–19; Craig L. Foster, David Keller, and Gregory L. Smith, “The Age of Joseph Smith’s Plural Wives in Social and Demographic Context,” in Bringhurst and Foster, eds., The Persistence of Polygamy, 152–83.
  27. Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, Autobiography, [2], Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
  28. Helen Mar Kimball Whitney,Plural Marriage as Taught by the Prophet Joseph: A Reply to Joseph Smith, Editor of the Lamoni (Iowa) “Herald” (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1882); Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, Why We Practice Plural Marriage (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1884).
  29. Estimates of the number of these sealings range from 12 to 14. (See Todd Compton,In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997], 4, 6; Hales, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, 1:253–76, 303–48.) For an early summary of this practice, see John A. Widtsoe, “Evidences and Reconciliations: Did Joseph Smith Introduce Plural Marriage?” Improvement Era 49, no. 11 (Nov. 1946): 766–67.
  30. Hales,Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, 1:421–37. Polyandry, the marriage of one woman to more than one man, typically involves shared financial, residential, and sexual resources, and children are often raised communally. There is no evidence that Joseph Smith’s sealings functioned in this way, and much evidence works against that view.
  31. Rex Eugene Cooper,Promises Made to the Fathers: Mormon Covenant Organization (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990), 138–45; Jonathan A. Stapley, “Adoptive Sealing Ritual in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 3 (Summer 2011): 53–117.
  32. For a review of the evidence, see Hales,Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, 1:390–96.
  33. Richard Lyman Bushman,Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 440.
  34. See Lorenzo Snow, deposition, United States Testimony 1892 (Temple Lot Case), part 3, p. 124.
  35. The revelation on marriage provided powerful incentives for a marriage performed by priesthood authority. (See Doctrine and Covenants 132:17–19, 63.)
  36. Zina Huntington Jacobs, autobiographical sketch, Zina Card Brown Family Collection, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; spelling modernized.
  37. The historical record is striking for the lack of criticism found among those who had once been Joseph Smith’s plural wives, although most of the wives left no written record.
  38. Joseph Smith, Journal, Aug. 16, 1842, in Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Richard Lloyd Anderson, eds.,Journals, Volume 2: December 1841–April 1843, vol. 2 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011), 93–96, available at org; Mary Audentia Smith Anderson, ed., Joseph Smith III and the Restoration (Independence, MO: Herald House, 1952), 85.
  39. Jenson, “Historical Record,” 229–30, 240; Emily Dow Partridge Young, deposition, United States Testimony 1892 (Temple Lot Case), part 3, pp. 365–66, 384; Orson Pratt, inJournal of Discourses, 13:194.
  40. Hales,Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, 2:8, 48–50, 80; Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling,
  41. Doctrine and Covenants 132:54, 64. The warning to Emma Smith also applies to all who receive sacred ordinances by authority of the priesthood but do not abide the covenants associated with those ordinances. See, for example,Psalm 37:38Isaiah 1:28Acts 3:19–25; and Doctrine and Covenants 132:26, 64.
  42. Doctrine and Covenants 132:61. In Utah, the first wife was part of the plural marriage ceremony, standing between her husband and the bride and placing the hand of the bride in the hand of the husband. “Celestial Marriage,”The Seer 1 (Feb. 1853): 31.
  43. Doctrine and Covenants 132:65; see alsoGenesis 16:1–3.
  44. Jacob 2:30.
  45. On the question of children, see note 6 of “Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah.”
  46. Helen Mar Kimball Whitney,Why We Practice Plural Marriage, 23–24.
  47. Heber C. Kimball, Discourse, Sept. 2, 1866, George D. Watt Papers, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, transcribed from Pitman shorthand by LaJean Purcell Carruth.
  48. Brigham Young, inJournal of Discourses, 3:266.
  49. Brigham Young, Discourse, June 18, 1865, George D. Watt Papers, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, transcribed from Pitman shorthand by LaJean Purcell Carruth; see also Brigham Young, inJournal of Discourses, 11:128.
  50. Orson F. Whitney,Life of Heber C. Kimball, an Apostle: The Father and Founder of the British Mission (Salt Lake City: Kimball Family, 1888), 338; see also Kiersten Olson, “‘The Embodiment of Strength and Endurance’: Vilate Murray Kimball (1806–1867),” in Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume One, 1775–1820,  Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 137.
  51. Lucy Walker Kimball, “Brief Biographical Sketch,” 10–11, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
  52. Sarah Granger Kimball, for example, rejected plural marriage in Nauvoo but came west with the Saints. Many of the individuals who rejected plural marriage, including Emma Smith, later became members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
  53. For example, see “Evidence from Zina D. Huntington-Young,”Saints’ Herald,  11, 1905, 29; Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, “Mary Elizabeth Rollins,” Susa Young Gates Papers, Utah State Historical Society.
  54. Gordon B. Hinckley, “What Are People Asking about Us?Ensign,  1998; “Polygamy,” Newsroom, topics page.
  55. Alma 26:35;Doctrine and Covenants 88:411 Nephi 11:17.

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