all right so I'm back here with Sidney
and Kaitlyn and we're going for part two
of our series on Mormon polygamy and we
have a lot more questions to answer so
why don't we just go back and just get
back right into it? all right here's the
first question
why did Joseph Smith have so many wives?
I mean we hear all about Brigham Young
having a massive amount of wives but we
never talked about the fact that Joseph
had a lot too - and some of them were
teenagers. Critics love to point out that
one of his wives was only 14. of course.
and actually there's another question
that kind of goes along with that it
says I read that most members who
practice polygamy only had two wives so
why did the church leaders in general
have so many more than that? so one thing
that is different about the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is
that we believe we can be married in
this life and in the next life right so
the temple sealing marriage in the
temple opens the door to exaltation
which me which means that our deepest
relationships can last beyond death
so Sidney let's first tackle the the
question that you picked about why the
church leaders had so many wives so
nowadays we get sealed not only to our
spouses but to our ancestors so that we
can create links that bind us to those
who made our lives possible but that
understanding was revealed little by
little in the 1840s when sealing started
Saints weren't sealed to their ancestors
who were already dead or those who
weren't already members of the church in
fact many of the members were
first-generation converts and it was
thought that they should be sealed or
adopted into the families of church
leaders so plural marriage not only
sealed spouses together but it bound
extended families together then in 1894
Wilford Woodruff received a revelation
to steel family as genealogically the
way we do it today that was one of the
great things about continuing revelation
it's that we can get things clarified and
corrected when the Lord sees that we're
ready for it so when the ceilings were
established and the temple work started
people were excited to get sealed to
their spouses but there was also a big
desire for many people to get sealed to
someone that they knew would take them
to the celestial kingdom which is the
greatest blessing we can take we can
attain after this life so it was a very
attractive prospect to be married to the
prophet or one of the apostles or just
someone in general who you knew would
was going to be righteous and
covenant-keeping and be able to take
care of you both in this life and the
next. now as far as Joseph's wives goes
though it's important to point out that
there were two different kinds of
marriages some of his wives were sealed
to him for eternity only in order to
receive the spiritual blessings without
a sexual relationship which was the case
with the fourteen-year-old among others
and in many ways they were still
figuring out the logistics of how
ceilings worked at that point but even
though the LORD commanded Joseph to have
multiple wives it wasn't something that
Joseph wanted for himself originally it
took him years to fully live the law of
polygamy he tried it once in 1835 ish
with the lady named Fanny Alger but it
didn't work out well. yeah I've done some
research on Fanny Alger she was hired to
help Emma around the house and Fanny
Alger is actually someone that the
critics love to point out because she
was Joseph's first plural wife and when
it came out that they were married many
people around them like Oliver Cowdery
struggled to believe that Joseph wasn't
committing adultery but others like
Fanny's family believed that the
marriage was real and was a restoration
of the Old Testament polygamy however
the sources critics usually point out
were written decades after Joseph's
death by people who had left the church
for one reason or another nobody knows
the details of this marriage but the
little evidence we do have suggests that
Emma may have become opposed to the
marriage and sent Fanny away so Joseph
didn't try again for years after that
and even when he did he entered into
non-sexual eternity only ceilings with
women who were already married and
continued living with their husbands and
there may be many reasons for this he
could have been trying to make it easier
for Emma
or he could have been obeying parts of
Doctrine and Covenants 132 that talks
about how a woman who was
married to a non-believer can access
celestial blessings. okay so let's move
on to the next question it says is it
true that Emma didn't know about all of
Joseph's plural wives? honestly we don't
know what she knew or didn't know or
when she learned about these things we
do know the Emma chose four of the wives
for Joseph
she quite possibly knew about more and
she was aware of the fact of the
eternity only ceilings and she actually
stood as a witness to the ceiling of
Joseph and Ruth Ruth Sayers Vose whose husband
wasn't a member and actually consented
and urged her to be sealed to Joseph for
eternity and so there's really just no
way to know all of the details
we do know that Emma had a hard time
with polygamy and so Joseph was caught
in this impossible situation between
what his wife wanted and what the Lord
had commanded him to do. I always found
it interesting that Ruth sayer's husband
encouraged her to be sealed to Joseph
Smith the record shows that he actually
became good friends with Joseph and
insisted that his wife be sealed to the
Prophet you would think that as a
husband it would be a little weird to
insist that your wife be sealed to
someone else for the next life but since
he didn't really believe in the
afterlife and she did it kind of makes
sense because if Joseph Smith was a
fraud then any sealing he performed
wouldn't last til the next life anyway
and if her husband really didn't want to
join the church and it turned out that
Joseph was the real thing then at least
he knew that his wife would have access
to the celestial blessings that were so
important to her with someone that he
knew and trusted right and every
circumstance was different anyway too. and
there were a lot of reasons that we just
don't know and if the woman was already
married in this life their marriage that
Joseph was a sealing for eternity only
and the woman continued to live and be
married to an earthly husband it wasn't
like he was ever out to steal anybody's
wife or anything it was meant to be a
spiritual practice first more than
anything else. what about this concern
let me read this comment it's just that
we focus so much in church history on
Joseph and Emma on their relationship
and their marriage and their faith and
sacrifices together it's hard not to
feel sometimes like polygamy was a
betrayal of that. so it was actually an
extension of that not a betrayal right
because you mentioned their faith and
their sacrifice and honestly there's no
greater act of faith or sacrifice for
both of them than living the law of
polygamy and in Doctrine and Covenants
section 132 the Lord gives one reason
when he said I did it to prove you all
as I did Abraham that I might require
offering at your hand by covenant and
sacrifice so it was meant among other
things to be an Abrahamic trial which we
know are never easy Abrahamic trials are
the hardest most gut-wrenching things
that we can experience in this life that
are meant to cleanse us in a way that
nothing else can and bring us closer to
the Lord and so I know that I'll have
Abrahamic trials that will be different
from yours
and yours but that we'll all have them
Abraham 3:25 teaches us that it's one of
the purposes of this life to be tried
and proven to see if we will do all
things the Lord our God will command us.
Emma really did struggle with it though
I mean of course she did and even though
she fluctuated on it and even rejected
it at times she stayed incredibly
faithful and stuck with Joseph and kept
her covenants through everything and
Joseph loved her dearly and was
considerate of her feelings as well and
in July of 1843 after a particularly
hard time they apparently came to an
agreement that Joseph wouldn't enter
into any more plural marriages without
Emma's consent. right and she and she
gave it. yeah at least once
Melissa Lott two months later testified
that Emma had given her consent and
Joseph's last plural marriage was with
Brigham Young's sister Fanny young who is
56 years old it was a sealing for
blessings in the next life an eternity
only sealing and we don't know if we
had Emma's consent but it may not have
bothered her because it was just an
eternity only sealing and non-sexual it
was practically just a ceremony. what
about this one do we have anything at
all from Emma's point of view anything
that records her feelings about polygamy
honor or acceptance of it? so there's a
woman by the name of Maria Jane Woodward
who worked at the Nauvoo house she
recorded her own account of a
conversation that she had with Emma
about plural marriage this is what she
wrote she said Emma testified that the
principle of plural marriage is right
but I'm like other women I am naturally
jealous hearted but I want to say that
the principle is right it is from her it
is from our Father in Heaven.
unfortunately we don't have any
first-hand accounts from Emma so
everything that we do have comes from
secondhand sources but it is still
really interesting to learn about it
from the history that we do have also as
Joseph was flinging Nauvoo for the last
time Emma asked him for a
blessing and though he didn't have a lot
of time with all the chaos he told her
to write the blessing that she desired
and when he comes back he would sign it
and this is what she wrote she says I
desire with all my heart to honor and
respect my husband to ever live in his
confidence and by acting in unison with
him to retain the place which God has
given me by his side so even though all
the trials that came with polygamy even
at the very end of their marriage she
still stood united with him in faith
before God which I believe is very significant.
Ok so make sure you check
out part 1 if you haven't already and we
still have one more video coming up in
this series where we'll talk about
polygamy from a woman's perspective and
whether or not it was unfair.
Thank you for watching we'll see you
next time. Thanks guys!
