Helen Mar Kimball

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Articles about Joseph Smith

Life and Character	Status in Latter-day Saint belief Joseph Smith's family as trustworthy and hard-working Education Trustworthiness The Hurlbut affidavits Alleged narcissism Money digging Folk magic or the occult The Word of Wisdom
Revelations and the Church	Witness of Jesus Christ First Vision Book of Mormon Joseph Smith's inspired revision of the Bible The restoration of the priesthood Personages who appeared to Joseph Smith Use of seer stones as a youth Book of Abraham Kinderhook Plates
Prophetic Statements	The U.S. Civil War Rocky Mountain prophecy The White Horse prophecy Alleged false prophecies of Joseph Smith
Society	Legal issues 1826 trial Creation of the Kirtland Safety Society Failure of the Kirtland Safety Society Campaign for President of the United States
Plural marriage (polygamy)	Plural marriage or polygamy Polygamy navigator
Death	The Nauvoo Expositor Events surrounding the death of Joseph Smith Firing a gun at Carthage Jail Qualification as a martyr 1844 Succession to Joseph Smith

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Articles about Plural marriage

Doctrinal foundation of plural marriage	Purpose of plural marriage Plural marriage as a requirement for exaltation Plural marriage in early Christianity Plural marriage in the Book of Mormon Plural marriage and the Bible
Introduction of plural marriage	Initiation of the practice of plural marriage 1835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy Fanny Alger was Joseph Smith's first plural wife Joseph Smith hid polygamy from the general Church membership Divine manifestations to plural wives and families Plural marriage and the law
Questions about Joseph Smith and plural marriage	Initiation of the practice of plural marriage Fanny Alger was Joseph Smith's first plural wife Joseph Smith hid polygamy from the general Church membership Joseph Smith's marriages to young women Did Joseph Smith coerce women to marry him? Mormon women refusing offers of plural marriage Polyandry Joseph Smith and children through plural marriage Marrying other men's wives? Joseph Smith hiding plural marriages from his first wife, Emma Emma Smith's reaction to Joseph Smith's plural marriages Emma Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 132 Did Joseph have lustful motives for practicing polygamy? Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to steal their wives? Did Joseph Smith practice polygamy for the purpose of monetary gain?
John C. Bennett and Nauvoo polygamy	Bennett before Nauvoo Bennett and Prostitution Brothel at Nauvoo Rise and Fall of Bennett Sarah Pratt Nancy Rigdon Sidney Rigdon
Notable plural wives of Joseph Smith	Emma Smith Fanny Alger Prescindia Lathrop Huntington Buell Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Helen Mar Kimball
Plural marriage in Utah	Difficulties with plural marriage Brigham Young's statements regarding plural marriage John Taylor's statements regarding polygamy Latter-day Saints and divorce in the nineteenth century Prevalence of plural marriage in Utah
End of plural marriage	The First Manifesto Official Declaration Number 1 Plural marriage practiced after the First Manifesto The Church of Jesus Christ and plural marriage today

Helen Mar Kimball

The Prophet said...that it [plural marriage] would damn more than it would have because \so many/ unprincipled men would take advantage of it, but that did not prove that it was not a pure principle. If Joseph had had any impure desires he could have gratified them in the style of the world with less danger of his life or his character, than to do as he did. The Lord commanded him to teach & to practice that principle.

—Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, Letter to Mary Bond, n.d., 3-9 quoted in Brian Hales, Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History, Vol. 1, 26-27. off-site

Question: What were the circumstances surrounding the sealing of Helen Mar Kimball to Joseph Smith?

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• Question: What were the circumstances surrounding the sealing of Helen Mar Kimball to Joseph Smith?
• Helen’s father, Heber C. Kimball, had the most active part in bringing Helen and Joseph together
• Brigham Young instructed polygamous men to wait to consummate their sealings to younger brides until they were at least eighteen
• Helen was not called to testify in the Temple Lot case, in which the Church was attempting to prove that Joseph had normal marital relations with some of his plural wives, even though she was available
• Helen became an advocate of plural marriage and vigorously defended it

1. REDIRECT Question: Was Joseph Smith a "serial practitioner of statutory rape" or a "pedophile"?

Question: Was Helen Mar Kimball's marriage to Joseph Smith ever consummated?

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• Question: Was Helen Mar Kimball's marriage to Joseph Smith ever consummated?
• Critics generally do not reveal that their sources have concluded that Helen's marriage to Joseph Smith was never consummated
• Helen wrote a poem entitled "Reminiscences," which is often cited by critics
• Helen was disappointed that she was not permitted to attend a party or a dance

Question: Did Helen Mar Kimball "confess" to having marital relations with Joseph?

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• Question: Did Helen Mar Kimball "confess" to having marital relations with Joseph?
• Helen allegedly said "I would never have been sealed to Joseph had I known it was anything more than ceremony"
• The source of the statement is "suspect"
• In order for this story to be true, Helen would be telling a story at variance with all other things that she wrote
• If we accept the statement as valid, we may interpret it in other ways than conjugality.

Question: What were Helen Mar Kimball's views on plural marriage?

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• Question: What were Helen Mar Kimball's views on plural marriage?
• Helen disliked plural marriage because of the difficulties it placed on her mother

Helen Mar Kimball: "I have encouraged and sustained my husband in the celestial order of marriage because I knew it was right"

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• Helen Mar Kimball: "I have encouraged and sustained my husband in the celestial order of marriage because I knew it was right"

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Source(s) of the criticism:

Critical sources

Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson, Mormonism 101. Examining the Religion of the Latter-day Saints (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2000), 254. ( Index of claims ) Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, 2nd edition, (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 147. George D. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy: "...but we called it celestial marriage" (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008), 201-202. ( Index of claims , (Detailed book review)) Richard S. Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 2005), 293–294. (Reviews)

Notes