Deja Vue

[Anonymous]

Here are my thoughts on Joseph Smith:

1. We don’t “know” the things that historians claim we know. History is a very inexact science. There are some years of Joseph’s life in which he didn’t write journals, and so we really have no record of what was going on. Both the apologists and the anti-church critics are basing their opinions on what they can reconstruct from letters, journals and newspaper articles – all written by diverse people with diverse agendas. The things we can know for sure are things like: Yes, Joseph practiced polygamy. Any of the motivations or anything else are historical reconstructions and guesses.

2. We know that Joseph wasn’t the only latter-day prophet who was commanded to practice polygamy. All of the latter-day prophets until Joseph F. Smith practiced plural marriage. If you believe in the validity of the restoration at all, you have to believe in the validity of polygamy, unless you want to align yourself with the former RLDS church. The RLDS church taught that polygamy was a lie invented by Brigham Young, but that was based on the fact that Emma had lied to them and to her own children about her husband’s involvement in it. It all boils down to this: if polygamy was a lie and a sham, then the foundation of our religion lies amid lies and shams.

3. We know that the latter-day prophets weren’t the only ones commanded to practice polygamy. Every time I hear a protestant lash out with venom against the LDS practice, I wonder how on earth he justifies the stories of Abraham and David. On the other hand, we know from the Bible that polygamy isn’t a free-for-all, either. We know that Solomon practiced it contrary to the will of God. Evidence on both sides is there in the Bible; it’s reconciled nicely, though, in Jacob 2:30 in the Book of Mormon: “there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none; … For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.”

So how do we reconcile Joseph being both a prophet and a philanderer? Well, first of all, we remove the word philanderer, unless we would call Abraham and Jacob and David and Brigham Young and John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith and countless others philanderers as well. Was Joseph Smith both a prophet and a polygamist? Yes. Does the Lord command men to practice polygamy? Sometimes. Is it an across-the-board principle? Not at all.

I realize that from a modern perspective, it’s a hard principle to accept, but it’s there – it’s all over scripture – and as believing Christians we have to come to terms with it somehow. I’ve been lucky to have the Spirit comfort me in my own times of distress in learning to accept hard doctrines. We are all entitled to the same comfort and enlightenment if we seek it.

[Anonymous]

Joseph Smith both a philanderer and a prophet? Yes. But not at the same time.

When he was good, he was very, very good, but when he was bad he was horrid. (Oops. Sorry for the thread-jack. We were talking about Joseph Smith, not me. I forgot).

Tom

[Anonymous]

I love the recipe. We are all a little looney sometimes. I wonder sometimes what it would be like to be Emma. I don’t know if I could have dealt with everything that went on. I think Joseph was doing what he thought was right. I think the rest will be left up to Heavenly Father to decide. After all he knows better than anyone what was going on.

[Anonymous]

I always assumed that polygamy was a means to grow the young Church from within. I don’t have a problem with it in the Historical LDS Church. It’s already been pointed out that polygamy was acceptable to many of the patriarchs in the OT.

I’ve been inactive so long I didn’t realize it was a stumbling block for some members. I also don’t understand the current fascination with polygamy along with the “who was the real Joseph Smith”, it all didn’t seem to be much of an issue when we were active. No matter what is dug up on JS I will always except the Book of Mormon as scripture, as I find the same Jesus Christ in the BoM that I find in the New Testament. I don’t have the same testimony of the D&C because I have not read it in a long time.

[Anonymous]

I think for a lot of us that grew up in ancestral LDS families, polygamy is not a stumbling block until something makes us step back and really consider it for what it is in all its implications. It then becomes extremely problematic. Nuanced, but problematic.

[Author]

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