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Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Essays
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Essays on various topics in Joseph Smith's plural marriages
When did plural marriage start? |
Essays on various topics in Joseph Smith's plural marriages
Jump to details:
- Initiation of the practice of plural marriage
- Introduction of eternal marriage & Fanny Alger
- Did Joseph Smith have a long history of "womanizing"?
- Joseph Smith's performance of marriages in Ohio
- Age of polygamous wives
- Children of polygamous marriages
- Polyandry: Women married to more than one husband
- John C. Bennett
Initiation of the practice of plural marriage
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: When did Joseph Smith receive the revelation on plural marriage?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith actually teach and practice polygamy?
- Question: When and how did plural marriage begin in the Church?
Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Essays/Introduction of eternal marriage
Question: Did Joseph Smith have a long history of "womanizing" before practicing plural marriage?
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FAIR Answers—back to home page
A question has many times been asked of the Church and of its individual members, to this effect: In the case of a conflict between the requirements made by the revealed word of God, and those imposed by the secular law, which of these authorities would the members of the Church be bound to obey?…Pending the overruling by Providence in favor of religious liberty, it is the duty of the saints to submit themselves to the laws of their country.
James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1981[1899]),382–383.
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Plural marriage and the law
Summary: Critics charge that Joseph Smith performed monogamous marriages for time of already-married members, violating Ohio law in Kirtland. Such claims are false and represent a misunderstanding about the marriage and divorce law of the day. Accusations about illegal marriage activity in Illinois have likewise been full of misunderstanding.
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Was polygamy illegal?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith violate marriage laws in Ohio by performing marriages?
- Question: When Joseph Smith performed the marriage of Newel Knight and Lydia Bailey, were they guilty of bigamy since Lydia had not been formally divorced from her previous husband?
- Was the practice of polygamy against the law in Illinois in the 1840s?
Question: Was polygamy illegal?
Jump to details:
- Question: Was polygamy illegal?
- Contrary to popular belief, the plural marriages in Illinois were not illegal under the adultery statutes of the day
- The Church believes in honoring and sustaining the law, but it does not believe that members must surrender their religious beliefs or conscience to the state
- The practice of polygamy during periods when it was illegal is a clear case of civil disobedience
Question: Did Joseph Smith violate marriage laws in Ohio by performing marriages?
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- Question: Did Joseph Smith violate marriage laws in Ohio by performing marriages?
- Joseph did not knowingly violate marriage laws in Ohio, and seems to have used his prophetic gifts to spare victims of the nineteenth-century's legal and bureaucratic immaturity unnecessary suffering
- The Knight-Bailey wedding was not illegal, since Newel Knight obtained a marriage license from the secular authorities
- A review of Ohio state law demonstrates that Joseph's decision to perform marriages was correct
Question: When Joseph Smith performed the marriage of Newel Knight and Lydia Bailey, were they guilty of bigamy since Lydia had not been formally divorced from her previous husband?
Jump to details:
- Question: When Joseph Smith performed the marriage of Newel Knight and Lydia Bailey, were they guilty of bigamy since Lydia had not been formally divorced from her previous husband?
- Lydia and Newel were aware of the prohibition on bigamy, and Lydia refused to marry Newel until they approached Joseph for his counsel
- Ohio law had, until just prior to their wedding, allowed spouses to remarry without formal divorce if they had been abandoned for three years
- The Knights' predicament highlights an aspect of early nineteenth-century marriage which modern readers often ignore
- Despite potentially violating some legal niceties, however, Lydia almost certainly did not engage in bigamy since her previous husband had died
Question: Was the practice of polygamy against the law in Illinois in the 1840s?
Summary: Under Illinois law, Joseph Smith and the Saints were not guilty of a crime due to their private practice of plural marriage. In fact, the Illinois legislature would later alter their laws precisely because they feared that their current law would allow Mormon polygamy.
Jump to details:
- M. Scott Bradshaw: "Joseph Smith could not have been properly convicted of adultery under the law of Illinois in 1844"
- Question: Was Joseph Smith ever charged with adultery under Illinois law?
- Question: Were there any similar cases under Illinois adultery statute which demonstrate that Joseph was not breaking the law?
- Question: Why did Joseph Smith say "I had not been married scarcely five minutes...before it was reported that I had seven wives"?
- Question: Was there ever a consummation of the sealing between Maria Lawrence and Joseph Smith?
Gregory L. Smith, M.D., "Polygamy, Prophets, and Prevarication: Frequently and Rarely Asked Questions about the Initiation, Practice, and Cessation of Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"
Gregory L. Smith, M.D., FairMormon Papers, (2005)Critics charge that the Church and its members participated in polygamy in violation of both state and federal laws. It is therefore argued that the Church abandoned its commitment to “obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” Critics, however, make such arguments without a full understanding of the legal considerations of the day and without understanding how civil disobedience plays into the picture.
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Notes
Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Essays/Age of wives
Joseph Smith and children through plural marriage
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Can you summarize what we know about whether or not Joseph Smith fathered any children by his plural wives?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith father any children through polygamous marriages?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith produce any children by his plural wives?: The case for children
- Question: Did Joseph Smith produce any children by his plural wives? The case against children
- Question: What did the husband of Sylvia Sessions know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: Did Prescindia Buell (or Sarah Pratt, or Mrs. Hyde) not know who was the father of her son?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith father children by polyandrous plural wife Prescindia Buell?
- Question: What is the current state of the evidence for proving or disproving that Joseph Smith had children by his plural wives?
- Question: Was the only purpose of polygamy to "multiply and replenish the earth" and "bear the souls of men"?
- Question: If the only purpose of polygamy was to "raise up seed," then why did Joseph not have children by his plural wives?
Joseph Smith's "polyandrous" sealings or plural marriages?
Jump to details:
- Question: What do we know about Joseph Smith's "polyandrous" sealings or plural marriages?
- The doctrine of sealing and adoption
- Evaluating each polyandrous marriage
- Group 1: Women with non-member spouses
- Observations about the first group
- Group 2: Women with non-faithful LDS spouses
- Observations about the second group
- Group 3: Women with faithful LDS spouses
- Observations about the third group
- Group 4: Women likely separated/divorced from their first husbands (i.e., pseudopolyandry)
- A hypothesis—why so many early polyandrous marriages?
- Further evidence against sexual polyandry
- Nauvoo witnesses did not try to justify sexual polyandry
- Nauvoo detractors likewise say nothing about sexual polyandry
- Evidence from the "Temple Lot" case of non-consummation of polyandrous marriages
- Would polyandrous testimony have been harmful to the Church, and so avoided?
- Conclusion