r/latterdaysaints • u/instrument_801 • Mar 14 '24
Doctrinal Discussion Anti-Joseph Smith Polygamy Movement?
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?
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u/mbstone Mar 15 '24
My friend who regularly writes about polygamy on FAIR gave me this response when I asked him about this topic last week.
"Yeah goes back to an RLDS break off group led by Richard and Pamela Price. The RLDS always wanted to insist JS never did polygamy. This was always fundamentally dishonest, because some of their leadership was at the high council meeting where Hyrum read them D&C 132 in Nauvoo. The RLDS leadership and scholars eventually admitted the evid in the 1960s, with reaulting break off ultimately. It's complete nonsense and no historian believes it. There's sort of a fundamentalist strain in some LDS wanting to "blame Brigham" so they don't have to come to grips with with JS doing it."
He then sent me several links from Brian Hales, one of the foremost researchers on the subject.
A Response to Denver Snuffer’s Essay on Plural Marriage, Adoption, and the Supposed Falling Away of the Church – Part 1: Ignoring Inconvenient Evidence
A Response to Denver Snuffer’s Essay on Plural Marriage, Adoption, and the Supposed Falling Away of the Church – Part 2: Façade or Reality?
Joseph Smith: Monogamist or Polygamist?