Smith Prophet
LDS/Mormons, on what basis did the prophet Joseph Smith, marry 11 women who were already married?
Even according to D&C132 (must be a virgin, and the first wife must consent). Was this followed?
The Doctrine & Covenants in section 132 explicitly says polygamy is to raise up seed. Not only did Smith fail to 'raise up seed', polygamy in general produces fewer kids per woman, and it's the child bearing women that are the limiting factor in population growth. The whole idea that polygamy raises up seed is a dirty joke. It produces more kids for alpha males and none at all for the many unmarried men it creates. Brigham Young had about 100 kids, but his wives only averaged 2 each. They would have had far more in monogamy in Utah back then.
Smith married 14 year olds. He married 2 sisters entrusted to him as foster daughters and living in his home. He married 2 maids living in his house. He seldom told his wife, although he had promised to. Many of his wives have signed affidavits saying their was intimacy. Two credible Mormons wrote of finding him intimate with Fanny Alger before their polygamous 'marriage'.
Several of his widows went on record saying there was intimacy. Several other upstanding Mormons claimed there was intimacy and even pregnancies. Did he have such little discernment that he married a bunch of liars?
All other LDS presidents were polygamists in the traditional sense with children and families. Some of Smith's widows were remarried to other presidents and they had children by them. Brigham Young and John Taylor had children in Nauvoo in polygamy under Smith's rule. If polygamy wasn't about intimacy, one would expect that Young and Taylor would have been censured. If the definition of polygamy changed after Smith, we'd expect a new revelation.
The Wikipedia article about JS (ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith#Death) says:
"By the spring of 1844, a rift had developed between Smith and a half dozen of his closest associates, most notably his trusted counselor William Law and Robert Foster, a general of the Nauvoo Legion. Law and Foster disagreed with Smith about how to manage Nauvoo's theocratic economy, and both believed Smith had proposed marriage to their wives."
Faun Brodie (1971):
"With sorrow and suspicion Law watched Joseph ever enlarging his circle of wives. Then the prophet tried to approach Law's own wife, Jane." (p. 369); Robert D. Foster came home and caught Smith having dinner alone with his wife, and after a confrontation where weapons were drawn, Mrs. Foster fainted and then said Smith had proposed to her (p. 371)); Van Wagoner (1989, p. 39); Ostling & Ostling (1999, p. 14); Bushman (2005, pp. 660–61) (noting that Smith claimed that Jane Law had proposed to him (660–61), citing Journal of Alexander Neibaur, 24 May 1844 (Smith claimed that Jane Law lured him into her house alone, embraced him, and proposed to him, but that Smith resisted her advances); also noting that Smith confronted Mrs. Foster with two witnesses and got her to say that during their dinner, Smith had made no sexual advances and had not "preached the spiritual wife doctrine" (530–31).)).
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