The standard Latter-day Saint narrative is the Joseph
Smith introduced polygamy, had many wives and lied
about it. Joseph spoke out strongly against polygamy
many times. Is it possible that we incorrectly cast him as
a polygamist?
Joseph Smith's grandson RLDS Patriarch Elbert A. Smith
said it best:
"There is no halfway ground. Either Joseph Smith
was true and clean, open and above board ... or else
he was a hypocrite and a fraud through and through, as
his enemies claim."
Most of the evidence implicating Joseph came during
the 1880s when the church was trying to prove that
Joseph originated an essential doctrine of the church.
DNA tests have
revealed that all possible biological descendants only
come from Emma.
The "marriage" to
Fanny Alger in 1835 was brought up in the High
Council court in Far West where Oliver admitted that
Joseph didn't do anything wrong: Sealing not Marriage
Living husbands of wives that were sealed to Joseph
never complained in the slightest: Sealings not
Marriages.
The story
of an angel with a sword telling Joseph that he
must start the practice was also a late source and
doesn't agree with the ways of God.
Jacob 2:30
can't be used to support plural marriage.
A STRONG PROOF that Joseph didn't approve of plural
marriage is the fact that after Joseph died Brigham
added TEN wives that same year and Heber C. Kimble added
NINE. Heber only had one plural marriage before that
date. Why the sudden surge after Joseph died?
It is also interesting to see
what Brigham did to the organization of the church
to seize control.