Item Detail
-
30052
-
1
-
35
-
English
-
"Denying the Undeniable" : Examining Early Mormon Polygamy Renunciations
-
Journal of Mormon History
-
July 2018
-
44
-
3
-
Champaign, IL
-
University of Illinois Press; Mormon History Association
-
23-44
-
Few aspects of Joseph Smith’s life have raised more questions and emotions than plural marriage. The practice joined religion and sexuality—two hot-button topics in any age that elicited strong feelings. Skeptics thought it was a cover-up for carnal behaviors rather than a divine mandate. Joseph Smith told Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner an angel appeared in 1834 directing him to introduce and practice polygamy. In response, he secretly married Fanny Alger in Kirtland, Ohio, probably in 1835. In the 1840s he introduced plural marriage teachings to selected Latter-day Saints, which included at least 115
men and women at the time of his death.
Smith asked the participants to keep these relationships confidential, but rumors seeped out. Poorly informed voices disseminated half-truths and even falsehoods to listening ears. Church leaders made public statements to squelch the gossip without acknowledging the private teachings and practices. Critics early and late used these statements to accuse Smith and other early leaders of lying and deception. Providing context to the declarations is helpful in evaluating whether charges of prevarication are valid.
Until the 1980s, members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints used these statements to defend the position that Joseph Smith did not introduce or practice polygamy. RLDS fundamentalist offshoots continue to advocate this interpretation. A few dissenting voices from the Utah tradition also embrace this view. [Author's Abstract] -
An Intimate Chronicle : The Journals of William Clayton
"As Neither Apologist nor Cynic : Filling in the Gap and Keeping Theologians Honest"
Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage : A Discussion
Brigham Young Addresses [1836-1877]
Brigham Young : Pioneer Prophet
Conflict in the Quorum : Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith
Doctrines and Dogmas of Brighamism Exposed
Emma Hale Smith and the Polygamy Question
Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage : The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword
"He Had No Other Wife but Me" : Emma Hale Smith and Mormon Polygamy
History of Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints : A source- and text-critical edition
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I : History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself
In Sacred Loneliness : The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
John C. Bennett and Joseph Smith's Polygamy : Addressing the Question of Reliability
John C. Bennett : For Prophet or Profit?
Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy
Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Mormon Succession Question
Joseph Smith's Polygamy
Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism : The Generations After the Manifesto
Mormon Enigma : Emma Hale Smith
No Man Knows My History : The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet
Personal Writings of Joseph Smith
Polygamy Defended : One Side of a Nineteenth-Century Polemic
Real Origin of American Polygamy : A Reply
Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints, Giving an Account of Much Individual Suffering Endured for Religious Conscience
RLDS Views of Polygamy : Some Historiographical Notes
Sidney Rigdon : A Portrait of Religious Excess
Solemn Covenant : The Mormon Polygamous Passage
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Mormon Hierarchy : Origins of Power
The Persistence of Polygamy : Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy
The Ritualization of Mormon History
The Ritualization of Mormon History and Other Essays
The Story of the Mormons : From the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph