In a new essay, historians revealed that Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith had a teenage bride during the early days of faith when polygamy was practiced. It also revealed that Smith was also married to other men's wives.
The latest published essay revealed what the historians have chronicled for years. The revelation that Mormon Church founder had a teen bride showed the unappealing part of the church's origins. According to ABC News, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has officially acknowledged the facts stated on the essay.
The essay posted on the church's website pronounced the first time the Salt Lake City-based religion has officially admitted the revelations, though it also has not denied them. The church also said that most of Smith's wives were between 20 and 40 years old. However, one of them was a 14-year-old girl who was the daughter of Smith's close friends.
The article, which revealed the Mormon founder's teenage bride, is part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' recent effort to open up about sensitive issues within the faith that many are not comfortable to discuss. The Huffington Post reported that in the past couple of years, other published writings have tackled other issues like the sacred undergarments worn by pious members.
Aside from the controversies during the polygamy days, other articles by the church also revealed a past ban on black men in the lay clergy and the misconception that Mormons were taught they'll have their own planet in the afterlife.
The recent article about the Mormon founder's wives that included a teen bride during the 1830s and 1840s in Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois, comes after 10 months that the church has admitted that polygamy was commonly practiced among its members in the late nineteenth century.
Washington State University's retired sociology and religious studies professor Armand Mauss said the recent details will be appalling to many Latter-Day Saints believers and followers, who either did not know or encouraged to dismiss the speculations as anti-Mormon propaganda.
"As a collection, these are remarkably revealing articles, continuing the new open and transparent philosophy of historical writing," Mauss said.
According to the historians that chronicled the data, Latter-Day Saints started practicing polygamy after Mormon Founder Joseph Smith received revelation from God. In 1830, he took his first plural wife in Ohio, three years after he married his first wife, Emma. Star Tribune said the essay revealed that he and his first plural wife separated but later renewed the practice after a decade in Illinois, where he married his teen bride.
The research has pointed out that the Mormon founder's marriage to the teenage girl might not have involved sex. It also showed that as Mormons believed, some plural marriages were designed to seal the man to the woman for "eternity only" and "not life and eternity." And these types of marriages didn't seem to involve sex.
For Emma Smith, the plural marriage was an "excruciating ordeal" and for some men, it was "confounding" too. According to the essay, some people left the faith while others stayed but refused the practice of having multiple wives.
"Difficult as it was, the introduction of plural marriage in Nauvoo did indeed 'rise up seed' unto God," the essay stated. "A substantial number of today's members descend through faithful Latter-day Saints who practiced plural marriage."
While inappropriate and unacceptable by today's morals, marriage among teenage girls was legal and somewhat common during that time. The article also showed that in early Mormonism, several facts about polygamy are unclear because members were taught to keep their actions discreet and private.
Though the Mormon founder practiced polygamy and married a teenage bride in the early days, however, polygamy is not practiced or encouraged by the church and its members today. On the other hand, Canada Journal stated that Splinter groups, who call themselves "fundamentalist Mormons" still practice plural marriage, including Warren Jeff's faction on the Utah-Arizona border.
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