Written privately to a friend:
…Is that Todd Compton’s book (In Sacred Loneliness)? I haven’t read it before. Yeah, that aspect of our history has been on my mind a lot. A while back, I started following discussions in a Facebook group called Hemlock Knots. It’s not just about polygamy, but that’s one of the major topics. They discuss any aspects of our history for which the conventional view might not be entirely accurate. They share documents and other resources that cast new light on what we’ve typically considered well-established and understood parts of our history.
That also led me to an interesting youtube channel called 132 Problems. It’s done by an active member named Michelle Stone. I think she started it a couple years ago with the intention to show, from a scriptural standpoint, that God never approved of polygamy. In an early episode, maybe her first, she explained the background behind the channel. She had always believed in polygamy and believed it could be a beautiful principle, a way to demonstrate devotion and faith to God, given the great personal sacrifice it would involve.
Anyway, one day, her husband came to her and said that he didn’t think polygamy was of God. He had come to that conclusion while reading Jacob chapter 2, which forcefully denounces polygamy. God condemned the practice among those in Jerusalem and told Lehi’s family that he would not permit the same to occur among them (verses 23-26). He said that those who had again embraced the practice among Lehi’s descendants had “done greater iniquities than the Lamanites” (verse 35).
Anyway, Michelle began with the intent to prove from the scriptures that it wasn’t of God. It wasn’t until almost a year in that she began to conclude that Joseph Smith hadn’t practiced polygamy. Up until then, I think she might have assumed Joseph was in error in his practice of it. But, she did an episode around her 1-year anniversary in which she stated unequivocally that she didn’t think Joseph Smith was a polygamist.
It sounds crazy to most people. There are a lot of testimonies and stories from much later in which it was claimed the practice began with Joseph and that he was secretly teaching it and practicing it. Most disturbing to me is that people said he was doing this behind Emma’s back, propositioning women, sometimes very young, sometimes the wives of men who had been sent off on missions. Other than William Clayton’s diaries, these stories come decades later when, first, the Utah LDS church was trying to convince the RLDS church, in the late 1860s, early 1870s, that Joseph was the originator of polygamy, and second, still later when the Utah LDS church was trying to persuade the U.S. government that it originated with Joseph Smith.
What we have as section 132 in the D&C wasn’t made known publicly to the church until 1852 and it was finally published in the 1876 D&C. At that time, the old section 101 from the original 1835 D&C was removed. This section said: “Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.”
Joseph, in his lifetime, never ceased to deny he was involved with the practice. The conventional belief is that he was either “lying for the Lord” or he was essentially denying that he was involved in the “wrong” kinds of polygamy, such as the “spiritual wifery” of John C. Bennett. In May 1844, the month before Joseph was killed, he lamented, in reference to all the accusations that had been brought against him: “I have been chained; I have rattled chains before in a dungeon for the truth’s sake. I am innocent all these charges, and you can bear witness of my innocence; for you know me yourselves.“
On the page before (in the Joseph Smith Papers), he says: “I had not been married scarcely five minutes, and made one proclamation of the gospel before it was reported that I had seven wives. I mean to live and proclaim the truth as long as I can. This new holy prophet (William Law) has gone to Carthage and swore that I had told him that I was guilty of adultery. This spiritual wifeism! why a man dares not speak or wink, for fear of being accused of this.“
I believe this was the lamentation of a virtuous man who had not been involved in the practices that he was accused of. I believe Emma was truthful when she denied that Joseph had ever practiced polygamy. Perhaps she was, somehow, unaware of it. But according to the much later accounts, she was aware of it and hated it. One story says that she pushed Eliza Snow down a flight of stairs in a fit of jealous rage. So, the later accounts don’t make the claim that she was completely unaware of it. And if she was aware of it, she had to have lied when she later denied that Joseph was involved. This may have been why Brigham called her one of the “damnedest liars”.
I don’t believe she ever lied. And I believe her mind was as vibrant when she gave that late testimony as it was when the Lord called her an elect lady who would be ordained under Joseph’s hand to teach the gospel. I believe she stayed behind in Illinois with her children because (1) she didn’t see the quorum of the 12 as rightful successors to Joseph and (2) to protect her children from the ravages of polygamy. Joseph was told in 1823 that “[his] name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.“
I believe the evil spoken of about Joseph Smith includes what has been claimed about his secret practice of polygamy, his propositioning of women, his secrecy with respect to Emma. He may have been sealed to men and women, but, if so, I don’t think he was practicing polygamy. It was only later, during Brigham Young’s time, that “sealing” essentially became synonymous with “marriage”. I take him at his own word and I don’t think these were “carefully worded denials”. I think they were truthful, face-value denials of things being practiced by others during this time, but not by him.
When he told William Marks something to the following effect, I don’t believe he had been deceived by the devil into embracing the practice of polygamy. I think he had been deceived by Elders of the church in their practice of polygamy, unaware that they had been engaged in it:
Joseph supposedly told Marks: “I have been deceived…in reference to its practice; it is wrong; it is a curse to mankind, and we shall have to leave the United States soon, unless it can be put down and its practice stopped in the church. Now,’ said he,’ Brother Marks, you have not received this doctrine, and how glad I am. I want you to go into the high council and I will have charges preferred against all who practice this doctrine, and I want you to try them by the laws of the church, and cut them off, if they will not repent and cease the practice of this doctrine.”
Controversy swirled around Joseph in the final months of his life, fomented by the Laws, Higbees, and others and I believe this is ultimately what led to him being killed.
Anyway, sorry to barf at you. This feels so important to me. So many people have given up Mormonism and a lot of it centers around Joseph Smith and polygamy. Joseph was a beautiful human worthy of Emma, who I believe was exactly what the Lord said she was, an elect lady. One of the great injustices in the history of the world (still small compared to the Lord’s crucifixion) is what happened to Joseph and Emma and their family. Included in that, of course, is what likewise happened to Hyrum.
...it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ...that ye must build your foundation... 