Problem #2 - The Cynical Interpretations Ignores Joseph Smith’s Theology

One common thread running through the publications from researchers who depict Joseph Smith a womanizer is a willingness to ignore his theology. Many authors may feel justified because they believe Joseph Smith was a deceiver. For example, Dan Vogel in his Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet, asserts: “One cannot ignore Smith’s capacity to deceive. One of the clearest evidence of this is his repeated public denial during the early 1840s of his own and other’s plural marriages.”[1]

Vogel is correct in observing that the Prophet publicly denied the practice of polygamy several times during his lifetime, even though privately, evidence shows he was involved. When asked in July 1838, “Do the Mormons believe in having more wives than one?” He replied: “No, not at the same time.”[2] Five months later, the Prophet wrote to the Saints saying: “Was it for committing adultery that we were assailed? We are aware that that false slander has gone abroad, for it has been reiterated in our ears. These are falsehoods also.”[3] In 1844, one month before the martyrdom, the Prophet stated: “What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one.”[4]

It should also be observed that Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders attempted to avoid bald prevarications. Danel Bachman observed: ‘Most of these denials stressed semantical and theological technicalities. That is, the language of the defense was carefully chosen to disavow practices that did not accurately represent Church doctrines.”[5] Todd Compton concurred: “Faced with the necessity of keeping polygamy secret, the Mormon authorities generally chose to disavow the practice, sometimes using language with coded double meanings.”[6] Lawrence Foster wrote: “Smith himself most characteristically made indirect denials of polygamy in which he said simply that such statements were too ridiculous to be believed. But he always carefully refrained from saying that such statements weren’t true.”[7] Fawn Brodie agreed: “The denials of polygamy uttered by the Mormon leaders between 1835 and 1852, when it was finally admitted, are a remarkable series of evasions and circumlocutions involving all sorts of verbal gymnastics.”[8]

Regardless, antagonists repeatedly reference this one observation in order to justify their sweeping disregard of his theological teachings. Dan Vogel and other writers seem willing to assume that since Joseph Smith was not strictly abiding his public declarations on polygamy, that none of his public statements and even private instructions need to be taken seriously. In other words, the Prophet’s theology can be essentially ignored under the assumption that he wasn’t living it. Their approach often reflects the idea that writers can compose their historical reconstructions of Joseph Smith’s actions and behaviors, largely independent of the doctrines he taught.

Several problems emerge with this methodology. First, according to Joseph Smith's teachings, he was confronted with three conflicting commandments. He was directed to not bear a false witness, but also to practice polygamy and to both send out missionaries and build temples. If he and the Latter-day Saints divulged their plural marriages, state laws would imprison them, thus preventing obedience to the other commandments. It appears the Prophet anticipated this criticism that God would never give a prophet conflicting commandments:

Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac; nevertheless, it was written: Thou shalt not kill. Abraham, however, did not refuse, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. (D&C 132:36.)

Second, Joseph Smith claimed to restore Old Testament practices and beliefs. Antagonistic authors seem willing to ignore the fact that the government's anti-polygamy laws contradicted plural marriage as practiced by ancient Biblical prophets. Many critics seem to support the idea the he would have been more righteous to have obeyed the laws of the land over a newly reiterated (as Joseph taught it) law of God as found in the Bible. State laws condemning bigamy would have sent Abraham and Jacob to prison had either patriarch lived in Illinois or Ohio in the 1830s and 1840s. Christian precedents justifying plural marriage motivated Joseph Smith to practice polygamy.

Third, while it appears that Joseph Smith did use careful language to secretly defy public laws that contradicted commandments he believe came from God, to conclude that similar tactics spread to other aspects of his life or to generalize them beyond this one issue requires specific evidence. Stated another way, in order to obey God, Joseph Smith may have publicly feigned obedience to the laws of the land while privately disobeying them. However, assuming that he also publicly feigned obedience to God’s laws while privately disobeying them is not warranted. The two processes are very dissimilar.

Antagonists struggle to find credible evidence that Joseph Smith did not live his religion. That is, reliable documentation supporting the view that the Prophet was a secret liar, a private hypocrite, who confidentially flaunted the moral standards he publicly taught, is lacking. As observed in the previous section, historical data can be found that support that Joseph Smith was a womanizer, including the 53 allegations I have identified. However, I contend that when the individual accounts are analyzed and critically examined, nothing credible has yet been located in anti-Mormon literature. Numerous tabloid level accusations are found, but those allegations cannot withstand even mild scholarly scrutiny without generating serious credibility questions.

A fourth concern involves the incompleteness of any historical treatise of Joseph Smith’s plural marriage doctrines that does not include a discussion of the theological teachings that accompanied its introduction. By selectively quoting published antagonistic accounts and ignoring theological tenets, authors writing about the establishment of polygamy by the Prophet essentially free themselves from important constraints provided by the historical record. They are subsequently liberated to proclaim a storyline that may have little genuine connection to a documentable reconstruction, instead producing historical fiction to present to their unsuspecting audiences.

[1] Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004, ix.

[2] Elders' Journal, Vol.1, No.3, p.43 (Kirtland, Ohio, July, 1838)

[3] Joseph Smith’s letter to the Church, December 16, 1838, as quoted in History of the Church, 3:230.

[4] Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, eds. The Words of Joseph Smith: Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourse of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1980, 26 May 1844 (Sunday Morning), p.377; History of the Church, 6:411. For other general denials of the practice of polygamy see: “Apostacy,” Millennial Star 3 (August 1, 1842) 4:74; Parley P. Pratt, “Fragment of an Address, by P. P. Pratt,” Millennial Star, 6 (July 1, 1845) 22-23; [anon] “Who is the Liar,” Millennial Star 12 (January 15, 1850) 29-30; [no title], Times and Seasons 3 (September 1, 1842) 909; “On Marriage,” Times and Seasons 3 (October 1, 1842) 939-40; [H.R. Letter from Boston, Massechusettes], Times and Seasons 4 (March 15, 1843) 143; “Notice,” Times and Seasons 5 (February 1, 1844) 423; [Letter from Hyrum Smith], Times and Seasons 5 (March 15, 1844) 474; [Letter from “An Old Man of Israel”], Times and Seasons 5 (November 15, 1844) 715; E. M. Webb, “Mormonism Unveiled,” Times and Seasons 6 (May 1, 1845) 893-94.

[5] Danel W. Bachman, "A Study of the Mormon Practice of Plural Marriage Before the Death of Joseph Smith." M.A. thesis, Purdue University, 1975, 197.

[6] Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997, 643.

[7] W. Lawrence Foster, “Between Two Worlds: The Origins of Shaker Celibacy, Onedia Community Complex Marriage, and Mormon Polygamy. Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1976, 208 fn1.

[8] Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, 2nd rev. ed. New York, 1971, 321.