18. Joseph Lied About Polygamy
September 18, 202417. Joseph Married Mother/Daughter Sets and Sister Sets
September 19, 2024
380 elders volunteered to travel nationwide to distribute a broadside (a two-paged newspaper) filled with affidavits and certificates in a massive effort to convince the public, among other things, that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist. Several anti-polygamy statements were published in church publications. Joseph was an active polygamist at the time, as were several of those who provided denials in the publications.
Table of contents
- 380 elders volunteered to travel nationwide to distribute a broadside (a two-paged newspaper) filled with affidavits and certificates in a massive effort to convince the public, among other things, that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist. Several anti-polygamy statements were published in church publications. Joseph was an active polygamist at the time, as were several of those who provided denials in the publications.
- A1) Joseph sent 380 Elders to convince the public that Joseph was not a polygamist.
- A2) Joseph had printed in the Times and Seasons denying the church practiced polygamy, while he was practicing polygamy.
- A3) Joseph again had printed in the Times and Seasons denying the church practiced polygamy, while he was practicing polygamy. He also included 31 signed affidavits claiming that they only knew monogamy within the church.
- A4) Joseph claimed in his manuscript diary that he forbids polygamy.
- A5) Joseph again had printed in the Times and Seasons denying the church practiced polygamy, while he was practicing polygamy
- A6) Joseph publicly denied he had any plural wives.
- Issues these Facts Raise
- Questions these Facts Raise
A1) Joseph sent 380 Elders to convince the public that Joseph was not a polygamist.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
As more and more rumors spread about Joseph practicing polygamy, he ramped up more and more denials of such.
29 August, 1842 – 380 elders volunteer to travel nationwide to distribute a broadside (a two-paged newspaper) filled with affidavits and certificates in a massive effort to convince the public, among other things, that that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist. LDS History of the Church 5:131–132; RLDS History of the Church 2:613; ; see also Dean C, Jessee, The Papers of Joseph Smith 2 [Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1992]: 443–444)
A2) Joseph had printed in the Times and Seasons denying the church practiced polygamy, while he was practicing polygamy.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
01 September, 1842 – Times and Seasons prints anti-polygamy statement
“All legal contracts of marriage made before a person is baptized into this church, should be held sacred and fulfilled. 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.” (Times and Seasons, Sep 1, 1842, Vol.3, No.21, p.909)
A3) Joseph again had printed in the Times and Seasons denying the church practiced polygamy, while he was practicing polygamy. He also included 31 signed affidavits claiming that they only knew monogamy within the church.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
01 Oct, 1842 – Smith re-publishes denouncement of polygamy from the Sep 1 Times and Seasons, of which he was the editor. The publication also includes affidavits signed by twelve men and nineteen women that states in part, ““we know of no other rule or system of marriage than the one published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.” Times and Seasons, Oct 1, 1842, Vol.3, No.23, p.939 (article titled “Marriage”)
The signers included Apostle John Taylor and Apostle Wilford Woodruff (who had already been taught the doctrine of polygamy by Joseph Smith), Bishop Newel K. Whitney (who had performed a plural marriage ceremony the previous July for his own daughter and Joseph Smith in accordance with a revelation dictated by the Prophet on the occasion), Elizabeth Ann Whitney (who witnessed the plural ceremony), Sarah M. Cleveland (who had become Joseph Smith’’s plural wife early in 1842), and Eliza R. Snow (who also married him on 29 June 1842).
A4) Joseph claimed in his manuscript diary that he forbids polygamy.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
05 October, 1842 – Concerning “the doctrine of plurality of wives,” Smith’s manuscript diary reads: “Joseph forbids it and the practice thereof. No man shall have but one wife.” When incorporating Joseph Smith’s journal into the History of the Church, Apostle George A. Smith, a cousin, altered this passage to reverse this prohibition on polygamy. See Joseph Smith Paper: History Draft [1 March - 31 December 1843]
A5) Joseph again had printed in the Times and Seasons denying the church practiced polygamy, while he was practicing polygamy
Supporting Sources and Quotes
01 November, 1842 – Joseph Smith republishes in the Times and Seasons an earlier 1831 revelation condemning plural marriage (Times and Seasons, Vol.4, No.24, p.369)
A6) Joseph publicly denied he had any plural wives.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
On May 26, 1844 Smith again publicly denied he had any plural wives and included this statement:
“Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet. You know my daily walk and conversation. I am in the bosom of a virtuous and good people. How I do love to hear the wolves howl! When they can get rid of me, the devil will also go.” (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 6, p.408)
Issues these Facts Raise
This is the same concerns I had with Joseph lying to the church, but it gets worse. Joseph is now actively recruiting people to teach a lie and to commit libel. God is okay with dishonesty? Why should Joseph be trusted after being shown to be a liar? This isn’t just a white lie, but a major effort, including sending out missionaries to teach a falsehood.
Questions these Facts Raise
Why does the prophet and the church continue to deny polygamy all the way up to 1853? This was done publicly multiple times and multiple ways.
How is Joseph justified in lying to the church regarding polygamy? If it is God directing him to do so, why is God lying? If it is not God directing him to do so, why did he not correct Joseph to tell the truth in one of the angel visits or when he was talking directly to Joseph in a revelation?
Is God bi-Polar? The following verses were recorded while Joseph was actively practicing polygamy:
1835 Doctrine & Covenants 101:4:
“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.”
1835 Doctrine & Covenants 13:7: “Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else.”
1835 Doctrine & Covenants 65:3: “Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation.”
Again, Why did Joseph have lies fabricated to hide his polygamy in October 1842 Times and Seasons? Joseph gathered 31 witnesses to sign an affidavit published in the LDS October 1, 1842 Times and Seasons which claimed that Joseph was NOT a polygamist. The participants even quoted the D&C section 101 (quoted above). The problem was that several of the signers of the affidavit were currently in a plural marriage at the time, including Eliza R. Snow to Joseph Smith.
