'Mormon Land': Did Joseph Smith practice polygamy? What the evidence shows and why it matters.

07/03/2024 05:01 PM

In 2014, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published an official essay detailing Joseph Smith's marriages to multiple women. After decades of insisting otherwise, the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has since conceded that the faith founder did participate in polygamy. Highly regarded scholarly works have documented Smith had at least 33 wives, and most historians widely accept that the church leader preached — albeit privately — and practiced plural marriage.

So why is this issue gaining increased attention in various Mormon circles and why are so-called polygamy deniers arguing that Smith had but one wife, Emma, while pinning the practice instead on perhaps the Western world's most famous polygamist, Brigham Young, and his associates?

What does the evidence really show? Why is this debate springing up now? And what do the competing factions stand to win or lose?

Answering those questions and more on this week's show are Brooke LeFevre, a doctoral candidate at Baylor University who has written about the experiences of 19th-century Latter-day Saint women in plural marriages, and Matthew Bowman, chair of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University who penned a recent Salt Lake Tribune column on the topic.

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