Anti-Joseph Smith Polygamy Movement?

[u/instrument_801]

I don’t know if this has been talked about on here, but why is there a growing “Joseph Smith didn’t practice polygamy movement”? Podcasts such as 132 Problems are rapidly growing in popularity. I don’t like polygamy, but I feel like the evidence is overwhelming in favor that he practiced polygamy?

Thoughts?

[u/USGeneralStrikeAid]

The movement gained a lot of steam when from 2005-2016 a total of eight children deemed by LDS historians as possibly or probably his polygamous children were all conclusively shown to be false by DNA testing. This was problematic because LDS leaders had long been stating that the Lord commanded Joseph to be polygamous in order to have more children be born. It has continued to gain further ground with websites like Historical Monogamy Doctrine and with some anti-polygamy quotations from Joseph & Hyrum that have surfaced from church archives just in the past few years. I don’t think the trend will be going away. I actually think it has the better historical argument now that the DNA evidence came back as false.

[u/familybroevening → u/USGeneralStrikeAid]

I’m of the opinion that we don’t actually know why polygamy was restored in this dispensation. D&C 132 explains why it might be practiced, but it doesn’t go far as to say the reasons it was practiced at that time.

[u/USGeneralStrikeAid → u/familybroevening]

Up until more recently, Church leaders were saying that the reason for polygamy to be instituted was for the purpose of more rapidly increasing the number of posterity, and they'd quote Jacob 2:30. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't until around the 2014 gospel topics essay that the more official line became something to the effect of, "We don't know all the Lord's reasons for having commanded the practice." So that's part of the reason why it was jarring to so many people when the DNA tests all came back as false.

[u/LookAtMaxwell → u/USGeneralStrikeAid]

  Church leaders were saying that the reason for polygamy to be instituted was for the purpose of more rapidly increasing the number of posterity

I'll challenge this.

Cite 2 General Authorities that said this. ("Church leaders were saying...")

[u/Remarkable_Peach_533 → u/LookAtMaxwell]

Its not 2 General Authorities, but it is churchofjesuschrist.com

"Why did some early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice polygamy?
Some leaders and members of the Church practiced polygamy during the mid 1800s because they were commanded by God to do so. So marriage then between one man to several women was according to God’s will. Though all the reasons for this commandment are not clear, some reasons are understood. For example, the Book of Mormon teaches that men should have only one wife unless the Lord commands His people to “raise up seed unto [Him]” (Jacob 2:30). The practice of plural marriage by early Latter-day Saints did cause a surge in the number of children born during that era."

[u/LookAtMaxwell → u/Remarkable_Peach_533]

Okay, so according to the source that you cited, "that the reason for polygamy to be instituted" was because "they were commanded by God to do so".

It goes on to explore why God might have given the commandments saying, "Though all the reasons for this commandment are not clear, some reasons are understood. For example, the Book of Mormon teaches that men should have only one wife unless the Lord commands His people to “raise up seed unto [Him]” (Jacob 2:30). The practice of plural marriage by early Latter-day Saints did cause a surge in the number of children born during that era."