My sisters asked me to provide them a safe version of this history for their children, one that would skip all the distressing anatomical details. While a reasonable person can evaluate the facts and not find the LDS faith to be “true,” my sisters wished to help their children understand this history in the context of the gospel they are learning at Church in Primary.
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The Gospel teaches that families are meant to be together forever. After Jesus died, this truth was lost. Later, kings and queens changed marriage because they did not understand that families are supposed to be forever.
When Joseph Smith was born, churches taught marriage ended with death and did not last forever. They taught that it was wicked to have more than one spouse. When Joseph read the Old Testament, he asked God how Abraham could have two wives and still be a righteous prophet.
God told Joseph marriages and families last forever, and that it was important for children to have both their parents sealed to them in eternity. God wants all His children to be with their mothers and fathers in heaven. But if Abraham could only be married to one person, then one of his sons would not be able to be in his family forever.
Joseph knew some men who had married again after their first wife had died. He knew these men loved their new wives and children as much as the first. In the resurrection, both wives would be alive. If marriage did not end with death, then the man would have two wives.
God gave Joseph a commandment to marry another wife. Joseph did not want to have more than one wife. He had been taught it was wrong. He felt it would be mean to his wife Emma. He loved her so much. But God insisted. He wanted people to know a man could have more than one wife.
A young woman named Fanny worked for Joseph and Emma in their home. Emma was good friends with Fanny. Joseph married Fanny, like how Abraham married the woman who worked for his wife. But Joseph did not have a baby with Fanny. Fanny was not happy, so she left. Emma was very unhappy Fanny left, and she complained to Joseph’s friend.
Joseph’s friend thought Joseph had committed adultery. Fanny’s friends said Fanny was married to Joseph. Fanny’s family trusted Joseph, and believed him for the rest of their lives.
In those days, Joseph was running a bank for the Church. All over the country everyone’s money lost value. Some members of the Church were angry at Joseph when their money lost value. They betrayed Joseph to Missouri soldiers. The soldiers locked Joseph in jail for many months. The people in Missouri burned the Mormons’ homes. They bragged about killing Mormon men and boys and hurting women and girls.
Those who believed in Joseph fled Missouri and took refuge in a swamp. Many got sick because swamps are not healthy places to live. Joseph was allowed to escape from the jail. He blessed the sick and healed them. The people worked together to change the swamp into a beautiful city, named Nauvoo. It was a great time of learning and teaching about how God intends to save all those who repent, even those who died before getting baptized.
But the people in Missouri attacked Nauvoo and killed a woman and burned her home. A politician named Dr. Bennett promised to get the government to protect Nauvoo. When he did this, everyone was happy. They elected Dr. Bennett to be mayor and made him a general.
Dr. Bennett wanted to marry one of the Mormon women. But Joseph was told Dr. Bennett was a bad man who had abandoned his wife and children. Joseph sent a missionary to learn more. The missionary discovered the story was true. Dr. Bennett was still married and had lied and had done other wicked things. Joseph made Dr. Bennett stop talking about getting married. Joseph hoped Dr. Bennett would repent.
Joseph was ignoring the commandment about marriage, like how Jonah ignored the commandment to preach to Nineveh. Finally Joseph obeyed, marrying a woman named Louisa. It was very secret, and Louisa never got pregnant. So maybe Joseph was planning on Louisa just being his wife in eternity without having a family with her on earth.
Dr. Bennett was frustrated. He wanted to be able to be with a woman. When a man and woman are married, they take care of each other. If they have children together, they take care of their children. When a man and a woman make a baby together, it feels good, like eating something yummy. But Dr. Bennett did not want to take care of a wife and children. He just wanted to feel good.
Dr. Bennett convinced a married woman to commit adultery with him so he could feel good. Then he convinced a widow to do the same. When friends discovered what Bennett was doing, he told them that this was a new teaching. Dr. Bennett said it was OK to have a good time with any woman, as long as it was kept hidden. Dr. Bennett gave the men medicine so the women would not get pregnant. Lots of men and women became involved in this secret sin.
Joseph did not know about the sins of Dr. Bennett and his friends. But God knew that Dr. Bennett’s lies and secret adultery would destroy the Church. God sent an angel with a sword to Joseph. If Joseph did not obey the commandment to marry more women, the people would be destroyed. Joseph was confused about what to do. He talked with some women he felt inspired to marry years earlier. But they were married to other men now. They covenanted to be Joseph’s wives in eternity, but remained with the husbands they already had for their time on Earth. Joseph hoped this would fulfill the commandment.
But God wanted His people to understand that marriage was for creating loving families. Loving families take care of each other and make relationships that can last forever. This was opposite from the idea Dr. Bennett taught. Dr. Bennett said a man and a woman could be together like they were married just for a little while to feel good, but that they did not need to take care of each other or have a relationship that lasts forever.
Then Joseph found out some people were teaching that adultery was okay. Joseph had his brother ask the priesthood holders to visit every home and teach the people their duty. But the men who were sinning were good at keeping secrets, like the Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon.
Sarah Kimball was a generous woman. She thought it would be a great idea to have the women sew shirts for the men building the temple. Joseph felt inspired that the women should do more than sew shirts. He made the women’s organization an important part of the Church. The women named the organization Relief Society. In Relief Society they learned the gospel, did good works, and learned that adultery is evil.
Emma became president of the Relief Society. Emma and Joseph both preached that woman should be virtuous, no matter who told them it was OK to sin. The Relief Society investigated rumors, asking young women if they knew anything about that “spiritual wifery” which was adultery.
Two months after Relief Society was formed, a few brave women came forward. They told the good leaders of the Church what had happened. They confessed and were forgiven. Some of the men confessed as well. Even Dr. Bennett confessed. But when Joseph learned all the facts, he figured out Dr. Bennett was the one who invented the lies. Joseph kicked Dr. Bennett out of the Church. He fired him from being mayor and general.
In the months that followed, more women came forward and confessed. Some of the women confessed to the city council. But Joseph mostly protected the women and men from public shame if they repented. In those days it was a terrible thing to commit adultery. Some people would never forgive if they knew. But Joseph knew that repentance means God will forgive. If you repent, God stops being upset with you for doing the sin.
Joseph and Emma taught righteousness. Joseph also told the women about God’s teachings that marriage can be eternal. To show that the women they were truly forgiven, Joseph let them be married for eternity. Some fathers who loved their daughters thought it would be best if their daughters married Joseph in eternity. Emma participated in some of the ceremonies where Joseph covenanted with other women.
Dr. Bennett was so angry about being publicly disgraced that he started telling lies about Joseph. He wrote in the newspaper, he wrote a book, and he spoke to crowds all over America. Most people thought Dr. Bennett’s stories were too crazy to be true. Others thought that if Joseph Smith taught and did the things Dr. Bennett said, Joseph Smith should be killed.
In Nauvoo, Emma and Joseph thought everything was fixed. To fulfill God’s commandment, Emma told Joseph he could covenant with two orphan women, Emily and Eliza Partridge. But Emily and Eliza did not know about the liars who taught adultery was okay. They thought the covenant with Joseph would be just like in the Old Testament, where all the wives had lots of children.
But Emma knew that Dr. Bennett’s lies about Joseph would make people think that he only cared about feeling good, not doing good. Emma did not want Emily and Eliza to have children at that time. Emma thought people would try to kill Joseph if he had children with his other wives. So Emma made Emily and Eliza stay away from Joseph. Emma told Joseph that she would divorce him if he had children with his other wives. Joseph loved Emma and they had many children together, so he agreed with her.
Joseph and Emma went away from Nauvoo to talk about what to do. While they were alone, sheriffs from Missouri found Joseph. They beat Joseph, hitting him again and again with a gun. When they took Joseph away, Emma was really scared. She thought Joseph would be killed. The people of Nauvoo rescued Joseph. Joseph was so happy to be free that he threw a big party. He invited the sheriffs who beat him up to be his special guests, and fed them the best food. Joseph always wanted to forgive.
Emma was mad. She did not want Joseph to forgive. She did not want to be part of a great big family that included the men that beat up her husband. She was angry about how dangerous it was for Joseph to be a husband to other women. She thought people would say Joseph was just trying to commit adultery.
Joseph’s brother, Hyrum, thought if Joseph wrote the revelation down, Emma would be happy. But in the revelation, God told Emma to repent. This made Emma even more upset. Emma made Joseph burn the revelation. But someone had made a copy. The revelation that made Emma mad is now in the Doctrine & Covenants as Section 132.
Hyrum was really happy about the revelation. Hyrum’s first wife had died, and he had a new wife. Now he could be with both his wives in eternity. Hyrum taught lots of people how the New and Everlasting Covenant lets families to be together forever, even when a man has more than one wife. He also taught how people can repent and be sealed into the great family of mankind.
But some did not want to repent. Joseph would not let people be sealed together in families until they repented. William Law did not want to repent. He gathered hundreds of men and made they swear to kill Joseph and lie about it. Joseph found out they wanted to kill him. Joseph gathered the apostles and ordained them with the sealing power and all the keys of the restored gospel. This way the gospel would not be lost even if Joseph was killed.
William Law and his hundreds of men used a newspaper to accuse Joseph of horrible things. Joseph was attacked by men who wanted Joseph shot because of what they read in the newspaper. The Mormons were afraid of the new newspaper. They decided to destroy the printing press of William Law’s newspaper. This was against the law. The government said it was a terrible thing that Joseph destroyed a printing press, even though others had destroyed Mormon printing presses and burned cabins and even killed Mormons without being punished.
Joseph and Hyrum went to the county jail at Carthage. Before the trial, a mob attacked the jail and killed Joseph and Hyrum. The people who loved Joseph were shocked and afraid. They did not know who would lead them now that Joseph was dead. There was a special meeting to decide who would be their leader. The people agreed Brigham Young spoke like Joseph had spoken. Some wrote it was like Joseph was with them again.
Once Brigham Young and the apostles were in charge of the Church, Brigham was responsible for the women who were Joseph’s eternal wives. None of Joseph’s wives had gotten pregnant except Emma and the women who already had husbands. Brigham knew that it was a very sad thing for a woman to not have children. So he told the women it was time for them to have children.
Joseph’s widows married men like the apostles, who promised to be good and protect them. These women were good friends to each other and honored Emma. The women had lots of children. They taught the children the gospel and explained to them that Joseph Smith was a great prophet. They would have loved to have Emma follow Brigham Young to the west.
But Emma Smith decided to stay near Nauvoo, where Joseph’s body was buried. She paid the money Joseph owed for buying the swamp that became Nauvoo. Emma raised Joseph’s children to love their father and taught them he was a good man who never committed adultery. For many years Joseph’s sons told Brigham Young and the Mormons who left Nauvoo they were wrong to teach that a man could marry more than one woman. They said their father, Joseph Smith, would never have taught adultery.
Hyrum’s son believed families could be together forever. He wanted to prove his cousins were wrong. Hyrum’s son and others asked the women to write about being sealed to Joseph. The cousins fought in court about what Joseph taught. Many people told the judge that Joseph taught about how families can be together forever, even when a man had more than one wife.
But they did not talk about Dr. Bennett and the many people who had sinned. They did not want to remember the sins of anyone who had repented. The people who knew about the secret sins got old and died. The righteous leaders, like Joseph Smith, did not write about the secret adultery. So the children did not understand why men like Dr. Bennett and William Law would lie. When they grew up, they started to believe the lies about Joseph Smith.
People started publishing books that said that Joseph committed adultery like Dr. Bennett and other secret adulterers. Really Joseph taught repentance and tried to fix the problems caused by the adulterers. When people learn about the many women Joseph helped, they think it was adultery. They believe the writers who say Joseph was a secret adulterer.
But God loves all his children. He asks those who believe His prophets and pray for those children of God who do not believe. He asks those who believe to be baptized for those who die without baptism. He asks us to forgive, the way Christ forgave. And He asks us to be families and love one another. He asks us to care about our ancestors. He asks us to grow up to be good parents for our children.
Most of all, God wants His children to accept the salvation of Christ, so that we can return to God in Heaven. In heaven we can be with our mothers and our fathers and our sisters and our brothers. We can be together with the person we marry in the temple and our children. This way all the people of the earth can become one great big family, where everyone is loved and everyone belongs.