Sealings, Evidence & Moral Questions
Plural Marriage
A careful account of Nauvoo plural marriage that distinguishes kinds of sealings, weighs testimony, and faces age, consent, secrecy, and sexuality directly.
Completed responses
11 claims
Open the claim as it is normally framed, use the short answer when time is tight, and move into the full case when the conversation deserves it.
Why did Joseph Smith practice plural marriage?
Joseph Smith said God commanded plural marriage as part of restoring ancient practices and sealing families. The historical record establishes that he practiced it and dictated a revelation about it in 1843. Estimates put his sealings at 30 to 40. Helen Mar Kimball was fourteen, some women already had husbands, and Emma opposed the practice at important points. What each sealing involved depends on its own evidence.
What does Doctrine and Covenants 132 teach about plural marriage and consent?
Doctrine and Covenants 132 teaches eternal marriage, sealing authority, and plural marriage in the same revelation. The new and everlasting covenant is broader than polygamy, and the Church does not teach that plural marriage is presently required. The hard language to Emma and the rules for plural unions still deserve direct, verse-by-verse treatment.
What do we know about Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger?
The evidence for Joseph Smith's relationship with Fanny Alger is late, fragmentary, and uncomfortable. Faithful sources identify it as an early plural marriage, while critics call it an affair. The record does not let us reconstruct every conversation with Fanny, her parents, or Emma, so a responsible defense should state what is known and leave disputed details disputed.
Did Joseph Smith marry fourteen-year-old Helen Mar Kimball?
Helen was fourteen and Joseph was thirty-seven. In 1881 she recalled expecting a sealing for eternity alone and agreeing because Joseph promised exaltation for her and her family. She describes social costs she had not expected. The surviving accounts do not establish sexual relations.
Did Joseph Smith marry women who already had husbands?
Yes. Joseph Smith was sealed to women who already had civil husbands. Zina Huntington’s own 1869 affidavit dates her sealing to Joseph to October 1841, after she married Henry Jacobs. Several women later described their sealings as for eternity only. In other cases, the terms and intentions are unclear.
Did Joseph Smith publicly deny plural marriage?
Yes. The paper Joseph edited reaffirmed monogamy in 1842 after his private sealing to Sarah Ann Whitney. A later report of his May 1844 sermon quotes him saying he could find only one wife while answering adultery charges. Early participants distinguished religious sealings from Bennett’s “spiritual wifery.” The public words could still leave a misleading impression.
What is the Happiness Letter, and which leaders quoted it?
Monson and Cook quoted the opening of the Happiness Letter, through the list of virtues. Holland quoted the opening in 2014 and a separate passage about God’s mercy in 2003. Benson and Christofferson quoted “Whatever God requires is right.” These quotations trace how the 1842 text was used. The Church’s style guide asks writers to omit the opening quotation because historians cannot verify its authenticity.
Do temple sealing rules imply plural marriage in heaven?
The Church sets different sealing requirements for living widows and widowers. It also allows some sealings to multiple spouses by proxy. Church sources say no one will be forced into an eternal marriage and plural marriage is unnecessary for exaltation. They leave individual family arrangements to God and the people involved.
Does D&C 132 contradict Jacob 2 on plural marriage?
Jacob commands monogamy and condemns David and Solomon for having many wives and concubines. Section 132 distinguishes marriages God gave from those he did not. The Latter-day Saint reading uses that distinction, with a real question about how broadly Jacob’s condemnation applies.
Did Joseph Smith practice plural marriage during his lifetime?
The evidence favors Joseph Smith having entered plural sealings in Nauvoo. Read the denials alongside the Whitney records and affidavits published in 1844, then distinguish what later testimony adds.
Why did the Church end plural marriage?
Wilford Woodruff’s 1890 Manifesto pledged compliance with U.S. law. Some new plural marriages continued, including ones approved by individual Church leaders. In 1904 Joseph F. Smith explicitly forbade new plural marriages worldwide under Church discipline. Existing families often stayed together. Woodruff’s journal records both the threat to the Church and the inspiration he felt after praying.