VegasRefugee wrote:Convicted by a community that was turning against him.
Engaged in child rape with Helen Marr Kimball
You're right Vegas, but because you cannot technically state that Joseph "raped" Helen, or his other teenage brides because he was (illegally) married to them and they "consented" to him, and therefore technically he did not "rape" them. Apologists will jump all over you by technical term alone, and if they can’t do that, they will look at your sentence structure and try and find blame in that.
In my mind, Joseph did indeed rape teenage brides if not physically - psychologically. He threatened one after another that if they did not marry him, an angel with a flaming sword would come and destroy them – who he personally claimed visited him over a dozen times stating so. He was charismatic and influential – and to a young teenage girl who was swallowing Mormonism – they would find it utterly difficult to say no to the pressures Joseph put upon them.
How many teenage brides did Joseph take? Seven documented by at least two sources. Two 14 year olds, two 16 year olds and three 17 year olds.
1. 1833, fanny Alger - 16 years old.
2. 1842, Sarah Ann Whitney - 17 years old.
3. 1843, Flora Ann Woodworth - 16 years old.
4. 1843 Lucy Walker - 17 years old.
5. 1843 Sarah Lawrence - 17 years old.
6. 1843 Helen Mar Kimball - 14 years old
7. 1843 Nancy Winchester - 14 years old
Deconstructor wrote:
Of all the gospel doctines Joseph Smith established, none received this much attention from God (polygamy). For God sent an angel to Joseph Smith over a dozen times to make sure he taught and practiced it.
This doctrine had the most saving power over any ordinance, because it guaranteed the salvation of an entire family for only one person's obedience to it.
That's right - Joseph Smith taught that only one person in a family needed to obey this doctrine in order to save their entire family. But if they rejected the doctrine, then their whole family would be damned.
That's exactly the offer the Prophet Joseph Smith gave to fourteen year-old Helen Mar Kimball.
Helen wrote:
"Having a great desire to be connected with the Prophet, Joseph, he (my father) offered me to him; this I afterwards learned from the Prophet's own mouth."
"My father had but one Ewe Lamb, but willingly laid her upon the altar: how cruel this seemed to my mother whose heartstrings were already stretched until they were ready to snap asunder, for she had already taken Sarah Noon to wife and she thought she had made sufficient sacrifice but the Lord required more."
- Helen Mar Whitney Journal, Helen Mar Autobiography, Womans Exponent, 1880 and recently reprinted in A Woman's view.
In fact, Joseph Smith gave Helen only 24 hours to decide on whether or not to marry him. Of this, Helen wrote:
"[my father] left me to reflect upon it for the next twenty four hours. ... I was sceptical - one minute believed, then doubted. I thought of the love and tenderness that he felt for his only daughter, and I knew that he would not cast me off, and this was the only convincing proof That I had of its being right."
The next morning, Joseph Smith finally appeared himself to explain the "law of Celestial Marriage" and claim his teen bride. In her memoir, Helen wrote, "After which he said to me, 'if you take this step, it will ensure your eternal salvation and exaltation and that of your father's household and all of your kindred.' This promise was so great that I willingly gave myself to purchase so glorious a reward."
Helen also writes about her mother's reaction to all of this:
"None but God and his angels could see my mother's bleeding heart - when Joseph asked her if she was willing, she replied 'If Helen is willing I have nothing more to say."
"She had witnessed the sufferings of others, who were older and who better understood the step they were taking, and to see her child, who had yet seen her fifteenth summer, following the same thorny path, in her mind she saw the misery which was as sure to come as the sun was to rise and set; but it was hidden from me."
Helen thought her marriage to Joseph Smith was only dynastic. But to her surprise, it was more. Helen confided to a close friend in Nauvoo: "I would never have been sealed to Joseph had I known it was anything more than ceremony. I was young, and they deceived me, by saying the salvation of our whole family depended on it." ("Mormon Polygamy: A History by LDS member Richard S. Van Wagoner, p. 53.)
What would Mormons do today if the Church still practiced this doctrine? What if a Bishop or Stake President could extend salvation to an entire family by taking one of their teen daughters?
Why can't Mormons today recognize the moral depravity in Joseph Smith's actions towards his followers?
Did angels really force Joseph Smith into behaving like this?
See:
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topic_josephsmithpolyandrypolygamy.html#pub_-1976369635
It's Helen herself that wrote:
"Without any preliminaries, my father asked me if I would believe him if he told me that it was right for married men to take other wives."
"The first impulse was anger... My sensibilities were painfully touched. I felt such a sense of personal injury and displeasure; for to mention such a thing to me I thought altogether unworthy of my father, and as quick he spoke , I replied to him, short and emphatically, NO I WOULDN'T! This is the first time that I ever openly manifested anger towards him."
"Then he (my father) commenced talking seriously and reasoned and explained the principle (of polygamy) and why it was again established upon the earth, etc."
"This first interview had a similar effect to a sudden shock of a small earthquake. When he found (after the first outburst of displeasure for supposed injury) and I received it meekly, he took the first opportunity to introduce Sarah Ann to me as Joseph's Wife. This astonished me beyond measure."
"Having a great desire to be connected with the Prophet, Joseph, he (my father) offered me to him; this I afterwards learned from the Prophet's own mouth. My father had but one Ewe Lamb, but willingly laid her upon the altar: how cruel this seemed to my mother whose heartstrings were already stretched unil they were ready to snap asunder, for she had already taken Sarah Noon to wife and she thought she had made sufficient sacrifice but the Lord required more."-
Helen Mar Whitney Journal, Helen Mar Autobiography, Womans Exponent, 1880 and recently reprinted in A Woman's view
Joseph Smith liked sex and he kept his pants unzipped again and again.
"Under The Banner Of Heaven" it mentions that Joseph Smith visited houses of prostitution.
From the book:
"According to Sarah Pratt, the wife of Mormon "apostle" Orson Pratt: "the prophet Joseph used to frequent houses of ill-fame. Mrs. White, a very pretty and attractive woman, once confessed to me that she made a business of it to be hospitable to the captains of the Mississippi steamboats. She told me that Joseph had made her acquaintance very soon after his arrival in Nauvoo, and that he had visited her dozens of times."
A look at the full testimony of Sister Pratt reveals even more details on the character of Joseph Smith:
"I have told you that the prophet Joseph used to frequent houses of ill-fame. Mrs. White, a very pretty and attractive woman, once confessed to me that she made a business of it to be hospitable to the captains of the Mississippi steamboats. She told me that Joseph had made her acquaintance very soon after his arrival in Nauvoo, and that he had visited her dozens of times."
"My husband (Apostle Orson Pratt) could not be induced to believe such things of his prophet. Seeing his obstinate incredulity, Mrs. White proposed to Mr. Pratt and myself to put us in a position where we could observe what was going on between herself and Joseph the prophet. We, however, declined this proposition."
"Next door to my house was a house of bad reputation. One single woman lived there, not very attractive. She used to be visited by people from Carthage whenever they came to Nauvoo. Joseph used to come on horseback, ride up to the house and tie his horse to a tree, many of which stood before the house. Then he would enter the house of the woman from the back. I have seen him do this repeatedly."
"Joseph Smith, the son of the prophet, and president of the re-organized Mormon church, paid me a visit, and I had a long talk with him. I saw that he was not inclined to believe the truth about his father, so I said to him: 'You pretend to have revelations from the Lord. Why don't you ask the Lord to tell you what kind of a man your father really was?' He answered: 'If my father had so many connections with women, where is the progeny?' I said to him: 'Your father had mostly intercourse with married women, and as to single ones, Dr. Bennett was always on hand, when anything happened."
See:
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topic_joesephsmith_section1.html#pub_666542679
Personally I believe Joseph Smith was a sexual predator and inevitably some teenage girls were caught up in his escapades. He created the doctrine of polygamy to satisfy his sexual desires.