Why are some people so defensive about Joseph Smith and polygamy?

[_harmony]

Tiger Woods had sex with several women behind his wife's back...

OMG, did you see the major smack down I just put on Tiger Woods? That was one vicious, underhanded attack!

I bet some of you are thinking that I was full of crap when I said it, too.

The state of your colon isn't germane to the discussion. ;-)

Tiger Woods claims to be a prophet? Tiger Woods claims an angel made him do it?

[_Aristotle Smith]

Question Runtu,

What is your source for your example of the Partridge sisters. Is it from the journals or a third party?
I ask this because church leaders and bishops will say we don't really know what happened in the past.
I don't know to much about Joseph's polygamy but I do plan on getting "In Sacred Loneliness"

"In Sacred Loneliness" is a good resource but it is incredibly long and detailed. If you just want the highlight reel I would suggest "Mormon Enigma" which is a biography of Emma.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Tiger Woods had sex with several women behind his wife's back...

OMG, did you see the major smack down I just put on Tiger Woods? That was one vicious, underhanded attack!

I bet some of you are thinking that I was full of crap when I said it, too.

No excuses left.. at least where god will take the hit as the Gospel™ has already been restored.. Like God would have the Gospel Restored® by a Black man who is married to a white woman. C'MON!

[_Runtu]

Question Runtu,

What is your source for your example of the Partridge sisters. Is it from the journals or a third party?
I ask this because church leaders and bishops will say we don't really know what happened in the past.
I don't know to much about Joseph's polygamy but I do plan on getting "In Sacred Loneliness"

Eliza Partridge married Joseph on February 28, 1843, and her sister Emily married him four days later. Eliza wrote, “I cannot tell all Joseph said, but he said the Lord had commanded [him] to enter into plural marriage and had given me to him and although I had got badly frightened he knew I would yet have him.... Well I was married there and then. Joseph went home his way and I going my way alone. A strange way of getting married wasen’t it?”

Emily said that she and Joseph "roomed" together the night of their marriage and had "carnal intercourse." (Temple Lot case (complete transcript), 364, 367, 384; see also Foster, Religion and Sexuality, 15.)

Benjamin Johnson wrote that in April, 1843, "The Prophet again Came and at my house occupied the Same Room & Bed with my Sister [Almera Johnson] that the month previous he had occupied with the Daughter of the Late Bishop Partridge.” (Zimmerman, I Knew the Prophets, 44. See also "The Origin of Plural Marriage, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., Deseret News Press, page 70-71.)

So, it appears that Joseph consummated both of those marriages in March of 1843. Two months later, Joseph convinced Emma that she could not receive her temple endowment until she accepted plural marriage. She consented, as long as she could choose the wives; she chose Emily and Eliza, unaware that they had already married Joseph. Both sisters swore in published affidavits that they were married a second time on May 11, 1843 (see the Historical Record, Vols 5-8, p. 223).

Emily wrote, "To save the family trouble Brother Joseph thought it best to have another ceremony performed...[Emma] had her feelings, and so we thought there was no use in saying anything about it so long as she had chosen us herself.... Accordingly ... we were sealed to Joseph Smith a second time, in Emma’s presence.”

I don't think the facts here are in dispute.

[_dblagent007]

Question Runtu,

What is your source for your example of the Partridge sisters. Is it from the journals or a third party?
I ask this because church leaders and bishops will say we don't really know what happened in the past.
I don't know to much about Joseph's polygamy but I do plan on getting "In Sacred Loneliness"

You can also find an account of this in Rough Stone Rolling, which was written by a faithful member of the church (Richard Bushman).

[_Brackite]

You beat me to it, Runtu. Good Job! Rambo, here is an introduction to this book.

[_Phaedrus Ut]

Runtu is leaving out what I consider the worst parts of the story of the Lawrence sisters.

In June, 1841, Joseph was appointed guardian of the minor heirs of the Edward Lawrence and trustee for them and of an estate of $3,831. In 1842 both girls began living with Joseph and Emma in their home. In May of 1843 Joseph married both girls. He was 37 and they were 19 and 17 years old.

At the time Joseph would have been their foster father, executor of their parents estate, landlord, prophet, mayor, commander in chief of the militia, and husband.

Therefore if he approached the prophet for a spiritual marriage or the mayor for a civil marriage he could have granted himself permission as their legal guardian. Pretty tricky eh?


Phaedrus

[_Nimrod]

At the time Joseph would have been their foster father, executor of their parents estate, landlord, prophet, mayor, commander in chief of the militia, and husband.

This proves it. The Mormon God could not have inspired the U.S. Constitution. This shows that He does not believe in checks and balances.

[_zzyzx]

"In May of 1843 Joseph married both girls. He was 37 and they were 19 and 17 years old."

But... Joseph did not have a naked hot tub pary with them so it is OK.

Joseph married Fannie Alger a couple years BEFORE the restoration of the keys for sealing in celestial marriage. Joseph married Orson Hydes wife after sending Orson on a Mission to Palenstine.
None of the plural/bigamy marriages were legal. Not one.

People get very defensive when they know there really isn't a defense to the crime and they are caught with nothing they can really defend with.

[_Runtu]

I'm now told that suggesting that Joseph married young girls, slept with them, and did so without his wife's knowledge and consent constitutes tabloid-style slander. I've provided firsthand accounts that Joseph did exactly that. If someone can show me how I'm being slanderous, underhanded or not, let's have it.

I do not believe that Joseph Smith was motivated by simple lust. From everything I know, his institution of polygamy was the result of a complex thought process, and may indeed have been motivated by "theological imperative," if I can steal a phrase.

That said, he did marry young girls, and he slept with them, and he did so without Emma's consent. Saying so doesn't constitute slander.