The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released an essay stating that founder Joseph Smith was married to 30-40 wives. Some of the wives were teens ranging from 14-16 and other were other men's spouses. Smith's marital history has long been a historical debate, but until recently, Mormon leaders took pains to prove that Smith was married to only one woman. The church had actually disavowed polygamy in 1890 due to the pressure of the United States government, which had imprisoned those who practiced it and took their assets. Since Smith has served a very great importance to the church, the news that he had taken teenagers and other men's wives as his own has rocked some of the Mormons' faiths.
Joseph Smith was known throughout the Antebellum Age, for his supernatural discovery of a face to face meeting with God. He is known as a prophet among the Mormon church, and is revered. Mormons presently do not practice polygamy, so this news must be a big blow to them. I think this is very interesting and intriguing, not only because the church had found this news so late after his time, but to see how the members of the church would respond to it.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/11/living/mormon-founder-polygamy/?hpt=us_c2
This is quite interesting and let's us know more about the leader of the Mormon religion.
ReplyDeleteThis does show where the idea of polygamy was attached to the religion. Now that it's affirmed that he had many wives, there is no question about how it began.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very informational article, and it gives one more background knowledge on such an influential man. It is interesting how this idea was just recently made important, and it makes me wonder more about Smith's personal life.
ReplyDeleteThis answers some questions about the religion and allows us to see past the stereotypes often inflicted upon mormonism, especially ones like polygamy which are seen in a bad light.
ReplyDeleteWow this did clear up allot of questions i had, but I still feel polygamy isn't right in any way. I understand that's a way of life for some people but it's just an open affair to me.
ReplyDeleteThat's odd that this information has just now been discovered considering the amount of time that has passed. I agree that it'll be interesting to see how members of the church will respond to this.
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