Lightning Survey: Before the 2014 Plural Marriage Essay, did you know that Joseph Smith practiced it HIMSELF?

[Thoughtful]

[quote=Anon70 post_id=14585 time=1493887100 where he supported them

[/quote]


He didn't even support himself, Emma, or their children. Ever really.

[2bizE]

No

[alas]

Before the essays, yes, but at about 40 years old, I had an argument with a friend. I just couldn't stomach BY, and said as much. Somewhere in church literature, I read something about BY and his wives, and filling in what they carefully did not say, I had figured out that he was cruel to some of his wives, and didn't support them, but they had to support themselves and his children. I said to my friend that his wives were not as well off as single mothers, and if God is so against single mothers, how could he possibly approve polygamy. My friend pointed out the Joseph didn't support his extra wives either. At that point, I had never even heard that Joseph had more than one wife. My friend was trying to make BY sound *not so bad* by saying he was no worse than the prophet Joseph. But the prophet being just as bad as BY didn't help me restore my testimony any.

My son went to Brazil on his mission and there he tried to help a man who was angry as h***. The man was in his late 50s, and converted to the church in is 20s. He was currently a very disillusioned bishop because he had never heard that the church ever practiced polygamy until about a month before my son tried to patch his testimony back together. He spoke no English, and apparently the church never bothered to translate anything about poligamy into Portugese. So, he had no idea that any Mormon ever had practiced poligamy and was horrified, angry, sick.

What can a 20 year old kid who had grown up with a mother who was disgusted with the whole polygamy thing say to someone who had been in the church over 30 years and never heard one word that anyone Mormon ever practiced polygamy

[deacon blues]

Yes. I started uncorrelated study about 4 years before the essays came out. If only they had been sooner.

[Can of Worms]

Yes and no. I knew he was sealed to multiple women but I didn't know all the greasy details. And the devil is in the details as the saying goes...,,

[MalcolmVillager]

Yes, read Rough Stone Rolling in 2007ish. I am not sure how much I really knew about JS polygamy before that. Of course I was aware of the dire need to marry all the widows on the trek west and subsequent Utah polygamy.

I was in a bishopric at the time of reading and my shelf was strong.

Now my full apostate knowledge is sickening.

I am trying to get my wife and 5 daughters to crack their shelves over that sickening practice.

[Nonny]

Yes, but I learned it so far back I don't know how it came to be. Just part of my culture I guess. My mother knew her grandfather's polygamist wives when she was a child, so the situation of polygamy was well known in our family. I also knew a rumor of Eliza Snow being married to JS. Probably picked that up in Seminary. Teenage wives and polyandrous relationships were add-ons in the 80's when I became fascinated by the subject while living in Southern Utah. Seeing 20th century polygamists was eye opening.

[oliblish]

Never heard it from church, but my mother mentioned it after we saw "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" at the Joseph Smith Building in Salt Lake. She questioned the accuracy of the film because it never mentioned all of his other wives. I had never heard that before in 40 years in the church. I think she was NOMish but I never discussed it with her before she died. It was another 9 years before I started figuring things out.

[NOWmormon]

Thank you EVERYONE for your comments.
I helps give all of us more context and community as we create our own path.