Mormon Dilemmas 13

16 June

Mormon Dilemma 13

Joseph Smith’s Polygamy Problem

In Sacred Loneliness, pg. 463; “In the year 1842 President Joseph Smith sought an interview with me, and said, ‘I have a message for you, I have been commanded of God to take another wife, and you are the woman.’ … He asked me if I believed him to be a Prophet of God. … He fully Explained to me the principle of plural or celestial marriage … that it would prove an everlasting blessing to my father’s house. … [Joseph encouraged her to pray] ‘that the grave would kindly receive me that I might find rest on the bosom of my dear [recently deceased] mother … Why Should I be chosen from among thy daughters, Father I am only a child in years and experience.’ And thus I prayed in the agony of my soul. … [The marriage] was not a love matter—at least on my part it was not, but simply the giving up of myself as a sacrifice to establish that grand and glorious principle that God had revealed to the world.

The Church has gone out of its way trying to discredit the critics of Joseph Smith’s polygamous ways.  They may have convinced a few people in the Church that all the persecution in Smith’s life was unfounded; truth stands as a beacon in the night proving otherwise.  The quote above is just one example of many that sheds light on how Smith really behaved.  The girl that wrote the words above was 17 year old Lucy Walker.  They were married on May 1, 1843 without the consent of knowledge of Emma who happened to be out of town shopping for groceries in Iowa at the time.  (Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, pg. 139)

If you’re not supposed to be practicing polygamy because it’s against the law, why was Smith scurrying around in secret doing the very thing he swore up and down he wasn’t doing?  It’s quite the dilemma when you have to keep making excuses.

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One Response to “Mormon Dilemmas 13”

  1. shematwater June 17, 2011 at 1:40 am #

    He didn’t make excuses, and in 1843, when Emma declared that he did not have multiple wives he published affidavits from his wives and witnesses to prove that he did in fact have them.

    He denied living this while he wasn’t living it, but never tried to hide it after he started.

    As to being illegal, it wasn’t illegal at the time so the argument is mute.

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