A local news story here in the Seattle area got me to thinking about Joseph Smith the other day. In short, a 39 yr old man was arrested a few days ago for a handful of disgusting deeds, one of which is suspicion of kidnapping. (Keep in mind this suspect is also a convicted child molester.)
It’s no coincidence that a young girl from the Puget Sound is missing right now, and the last time she was seen is from a video surveillance tape where she’s seen with him. She’s a runaway, and sadly, she’s only 15 yrs old. To read more of the story, see KOMOTV.com.
While this ne-er-do-well guy here in Seattle isn’t the polygamist Joe Smith was, his age and the age of the girl he was grooming, have remarkable similarities.
That story, and an e-mail I received from Today in Mormon History, got me to thinking about Mr. Smith’s nefarious deeds.
On May 28, 1843, Joe and Emma Smith were the first couple to be sealed for eternity in the Mormon heavens.
While that sounds romantic if you’re LDS, there’s always the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to say…
Not long before that, ol’ Joe married himself to three very young girls, from the ages of 14-17. Keep in mind, Smith was 38 years old at the time, already married to Emma, and had 25+ other wives as well.
TodayinMormonHistory.com “– 175 years ago today – May 28, 1843 — Joseph and Emma Smith are the first couple “sealed” in marriage for eternity. During the previous month, he had married as polygamous wives seventeen-year-old Lucy Walker, sixteen-year-old Flora Ann Woodworth, and fourteen-year-old Helen Mar Kimball who later testified that he had sexual relations with them.”
Deuteronomy 17:17 “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”
Now clearly, Smith was a 19th century pedophile, just as they are in the 21st century. There’s no other way to excuse this deviant behavior, or call it ‘holy’ just because you claim God told you to do this. It is what it is. Sin.
If Smith were alive today, he’d be facing a judge in a court room just as this guy has, or Warren Jeffs has done.
If you’re LDS, what are your thoughts on this? How was this okay for Smith, but not anyone else? Is it okay with you that Smith did this to a 14 yr old little girl?
Not only is it against the laws of this land, it’s also against God’s laws. We pray that Mormons will reevaluate what Smith proclaimed is righteous, and see that Jesus doesn’t operate this way!
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
Dear Michelle – I little honest research and all the information is right before our eyes. We recently spent time with an lds member of our family who has young daughters. I caught myself on several occasions looking at them and asking, “What if the Prophet wanted to marry these girls?”
It’s disturbing isn’t it?
I disagree — Smith was not a pedophile. The young woman (not a child) was 14 years old. Pedophiles are after pre-pubescent children.
First, young men and women 14 and 15 historically married, and you will find the running kingdoms. Our culture ended up keeping our children AS children, even into their 20s!
It really depends on the individual person; How mature are they when they’ve reached puberty (when their body, as designed, is ready for reproduction)? Some young women haven’t reached puberty yet at 14, but most have. If they’ve been raised to be adults then they will be mature enough for marriage.
So the age of the young lady isn’t a problem. The age of the man is certainly a problem, since no 38-yr-old should be marrying that young of a woman, but the Mormon leadership didn’t want the young men to have them.
And, as you pointed out, a huge problem is the fact that Smith was already married, so he shouldn’t even have been looking at ANY woman, regardless of age.
Hi Glenn!
First off, I want to thank you for writing in and all the work you do to expose Mormonism as well on your site @ http://watchmanvlds.blogspot.com/ You’ve got an incredibly cool site and I’ve enjoyed using it as a resource for great references. 🙂
That said dear friend, I have to humbly disagree with your assessment, albeit, I do appreciate your insight.
After studying this topic for awhile I wrote an article about this See 19th Century Marriage Customs https://lifeafterministry.com/2014/05/02/19th-century-marriage-customs/
The median age of female marriage was 22 yrs.
The bottom line and I’m sure you’ll agree, Smith was not a true prophet, and had trouble keeping his trousers on. Ugh…
Hi Michelle,
I understand the median age, but my point was only that it wasn’t unusual for men to be marrying at 16-17 and women 14-15 throughout history, and that is because when properly raised to be adults they can indeed be ready for marriage at that time. In some cultures around the world they still marry at that age. So the issue for me isn’t that the young lady was 14 (which is not pedophilia), rather if she was his first wife the age difference is really not right. But the fact that Smith was married already made the other issues moot because it wouldn’t matter if the lady was 14 or 84, a second wife is adultery.