Strange Bedfellows : Mormon Polygamy and Baptist History
Free Inquiry
Spring 1996
16
1996
41-45
presented at the Baptist/Humanist dialogue entitled 'Freedom of Conscience' held at the University of Richmond, Virginia, in September 1995. Joseph Smith was a New York seer and translator who established the Mormon church in 1830. Smith also introduced polygamy among his followers, a practice which was both accepted and rejected by the women he selected as wives. However, opposition to polygamy grew and later led to Smith's imprisonment where he was later killed. A similar pattern of practice and resistance to polygamy was also observed among sixteenth century Anabaptists.