“Of course Smith practiced polygamy. That’s beyond doubt.
“What is unsubstantiated is the assumption that he engaged in physical relations with all of them.
What people will do is most often what their history shows
they did.
He bonked them all, if history is any guide. As did his
successor.
~”He bonked them all, if history is any guide.”~
For that, AMPU, you’d better provide evidence, rather than baseless accusation. Right alongside all the documentation dredged up by our detractors to show that Smith had X number of wives is evidence that many of those wives were merely dynastic.
Here’s the crux of the matter: I think Joseph Smith was a prophet who followed the commands of the Lord. Therefore, I think that he was commanded to marry and care for those women. You do not agree on either point. Neither of us is going to convince the other. And I will certainly not condemn Smith for taking actions that I believe were commanded him of the Lord. Some will, no doubt, call this blindness. Fine, they can think that. I an anchored to the testimony to my soul by the Holy Spirit that he was Christ’s servant and the Lord’s prophet. It is folly for anyone to think that mere words can sway me from that bedrock.