Posted on 11/11/2014 6:50:40 PM PST by Colofornian
On October 22...LDS.ORG posted three essays dealing with the practice of plural marriage by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between the 1830s and 1904...
Several major controversies have been generated in conjunction with the introduction of plural marriage in Nauvoo in the early 1840s. All of these are briefly discussed in the introductory essay,
Polyandry (paragraphs 20–23, endnotes 29–30). The essay acknowledges that “Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married,” estimating the number of these sealings at 12–14 (endnote 29)...
Fanny Alger...
Sexuality...
Children with plural wives...
Number of plural wives...“Careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40.”
Emma Smith’s involvement (paragraphs 25–28). The essay explains that plural marriage was “an excruciating ordeal” for Emma...
Young wives (paragraph 19). Exposing itself to criticism, the essay euphemistically refers to Helen Mar Kimball’s sealing as occurring “several months before her 15th birthday” rather than at age 14...
In lauding the Church’s effort to explain this difficult topic, some may assume that in defending the essay we are in fact defending polygamy. We are not. On earth, polygamy expands a man’s sexual and emotional opportunities as a husband as it simultaneously fragments a woman’s sexual and emotional opportunities as a wife. The practice is difficult to defend as anything but unfair and at times emotionally cruel.
...Joseph Smith taught that couples who are sealed in eternal marriage..."shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths…and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be gods”(D&C 132:19–20)...
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.fairmormon.org ...
So, let's follow the apologist trail, prompted by what the Lds Church itself has (finally) conceded in these essays:
Here, I've summarized them within a chart...
I'll comment on each of these 10 'concessions' in a separate post.
TEN CONCESSIONS |
SUMMARY OF POLYGAMY'S REALITY |
OTHER NOTES |
| 1. | Lds Church concedes plural unions still sanctioned in church one to 14 years beyond its 'manifesto' supposedly putting the brakes on it in 1890 | One book documents 260 sanctioned post-manifesto plural unons 1890-->1910 |
| 2. | Smith converted 12-14 women into polyandrous wives – women with multiple (two) husbands | Smith could have added more such wives...but was spurned by some of them |
| 3. | Fanny Alger, Smith household housekeeper; the first 'plural wife' at about age 16 | Chauncey Webb recounts Emma’s later discovery of the relationship: “Emma was furious, and drove the girl, who was unable to conceal the consequences of her celestial relation with the prophet, out of her house”. Ann Eliza again recalls: “...it was felt that [Emma] certainly must have had some very good reason for her action. By degrees it became whispered about that Joseph’s love for his adopted daughter was by no means a paternal affection, and his wife, discovering the fact, at once took measures to place the girl beyond his reach...Since Emma refused decidedly to allow her to remain in her house...my mother offered to take her until she could be sent to her relatives...” Secondary source: Remembering the Wives of Joseph Smith: FANNY ALGER ( Joseph Smith Does a Woody Allen? ) |
| 4. | Smith plural wife (& later Mormon hymn-writer) on Joseph's sexual prowess: 'I thought you knew Joseph Smith better than that.' | (Second-hand quote from Eliza Snow) |
| 5. | OK, which is it? Did Smith engage in polygamy to 'raise up seed' – or other reasons? Smith, 1833: 'Let your families be small...' yet Smith's great-nephew, a later Mormon 'prophet,' claimed 'seed-raising' was purpose for early Mormon polygamy...even when the average child per mom in these relationships was greatly lower than monogamous unions! | Interesting factoids: Smith advocated 'small...families' in Lds “scriptures” he created + 19th century lds polygamy actually REDUCED the number of children per mom by one in their lifetime! |
| 6. | Lds Church concedes Smith had 30-40 wives...by age 38...yet ignores them – other than original wife Emma – in most bios of Smith! | (The very fact that the Lds Church has hidden this reality from both its own members & the public-at-large shows it isn't very forthcoming on its history & has been an untrustworthy source for generations!) |
| 7. | Lds church confesses polygamy was "an excruciating ordeal" for Joseph Smith's wife, Emma | (Imagine your husband sleeping with 30-40 women...and him telling you, 'God told me to') |
| 8. | Lds church stutters and shutters to utter 'age 14' – can't bring itself to do it...uses euphemism | (And not just 14 yo Helen Mar Kimball as a 'wife' to predator Joseph Smith, but live-in 'adopted daughter'/housekeeper Fanny Alger, age 16; Sarah Ann Whitney, age 17; Lucy Walker, age 17 (a sickening account on this one as Smith sent Lucy's only remaining parent abroad on a mission to get access to her); Flora Ann Woodworth, age 16; Emily Dow Partridge, age 19; Sarah Lawrence, age 17; Maria Lawrence, age 19; Melissa Lott, age 19; and unsure of Nancy M. Winchester's age...some historians say age 14 |
| 9. | Smith taught celestial marriage participants they would pass by...the gods [plural], thereby teaching polyTHEISM in the same breath as polyGAMY | See Lds “scriptures” Doctrine & Covenants 132:19-20 |
| 10. | Smith took at least 29 wives within 23 months! | Smith's pace alone for accumulating partners shows abuse of power, not concern for these women. Not concern for their future motherhood; just how they could serve his "bedhoood." |
a. Joseph's wife, Emma, never even knew about his "sealings" to 9-11 already-married women 1841-1843 (their ages were 20, 23, 23, 27, 29, 31, 35 or 36, 47, etc...hmmm...for some reason he wasn't picking more married women his own age)
b. According to LDS historian Todd Compton, "Eighteen of Joseph's wives (55 percent) were single when he married them and had never been married previously. Another four (12 percent) were widows…However, the remaining eleven women (33 percent) were married to other husbands and cohabitating with them when Smith married them…If one superimposes a chronological perspective, one sees that of Smith's first twelve wives, nine were polyandrous" (In Sacred Loneliness, p.15).
Secondary digital source: The Polygamy Dilemma - Is Plural Marriage a Dead Issue in Mormonism?
My commentary: Well, this is sure an interesting admission by the Mormon Church.
How would ANY of you like it a "prophet" approached your wife and offered to take her off your hands? And, btw, what the essay doesn't mention is how many of these wives spurned Joseph Smith's "offers." But let's just look at two of those "already married" wives -- the wives Lds "apostles" who were both named "Orson"...
One (Orson Hyde's wife) accepted Smith's advancements; the other (Orson Pratt, ancestor of Mitt Romney), rejected them:
"A postscript to the Joseph and Nancy allegations: In 1834 Nancy married LDS Church member Orson Hyde. Six years later, in the spring of 1840, Church authorities sent Orson on a three-year mission to Jerusalem. Two years into the mission, while he was away, Joseph Smith was sealed to Orson Hyde’s wife, Nancy Marinda. Nancy thus became Joseph’s 10th plural wife, though she remained married to Orson as well. In 1870 Nancy divorced Orson after 34 years of marriage, leaving him to his five remaining plural wives. [Source: Tarred & Feathered [Real Mormon Founder Expose']
Orson Pratt's Wife, Sarah:
"Sometime in late 1840 or early 1841, Joseph Smith confided to his friend that he was smitten by the "amiable and accomplished" Sarah Pratt and wanted her for "one of his spiritual wives, for the Lord had given her to him as a special favor for his faithfulness" (emphasis in original). Shortly afterward, the two men took some of Bennett's sewing to Sarah's house. During the visit, as Bennett describes it, Joseph said, "Sister Pratt, the Lord has given you to me as one of my spiritual wives. I have the blessings of Jacob granted me, as God granted holy men of old, and as I have long looked upon you with favor, and an earnest desire of connubial bliss, I hope you will not repulse or deny me." "And is that the great secret that I am not to utter," Sarah replied. "Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant, and prove recreant to my lawful husband! I never will." She added, "I care not for the blessings of Jacob. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me." But according to Bennett, the Prophet was persistent. Finally Sarah angrily told him on a subsequent visit, "Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will make a full disclosure to Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it." "Sister Pratt," the Prophet responded, "I hope you will not expose me, for if I suffer, all must suffer; so do not expose me. Will you promise me that you will not do it?" "If you will never insult me again," Sarah replied, "I will not expose you unless strong circumstances should require it." "If you should tell," the Prophet added, "I will ruin your reputation, remember that." (Article "Sarah M. Pratt" by Richard A. Van Wagoner, Dialogue, Vol.19, No.2, p.72. Also see: http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/spratt.htm)
[Digital Source: Would you share your spouse with the Prophet?]
Chauncey Webb recounts Emma’s later discovery of the relationship: “Emma was furious, and drove the girl, who was unable to conceal the consequences of her celestial relation with the prophet, out of her house”. Ann Eliza again recalls: “...it was felt that [Emma] certainly must have had some very good reason for her action. By degrees it became whispered about that Joseph’s love for his adopted daughter was by no means a paternal affection, and his wife, discovering the fact, at once took measures to place the girl beyond his reach...Since Emma refused decidedly to allow her to remain in her house...my mother offered to take her until she could be sent to her relatives...” Secondary source: Remembering the Wives of Joseph Smith: FANNY ALGER ( Joseph Smith Does a Woody Allen? )
President Angus Cannon also told Joseph Smith's son: 'Brother Heber C. Kimball, I am informed, asked [Eliza R. Snow] the question if she was not a virgin although married to Joseph Smith and afterwards to Brigham Young, when she replied in a private gathering, "I thought you knew Joseph Smith better than that."' (Stake President Angus M. Cannon, statement of interview with Joseph III, 23, LDS archives.)
Secondary digital source: polygamy
Ya know, the fact that Smith had very few children from his plural wives seems to be some "feather" in the Mormon cap...as the Mormon Church seems to want to imply that few children = little sexual activity with them.
However...
a. Joseph Smith, based upon a "revelation" Joseph Smith said he rec'd in 1833, actually touted "small" families (in sharp contrast to today's Mormon families)...and there's no reason why the noted fertility cycles of his various wives would not have been intergrated into that "revelation" he received: "Let your families be small..." (D&C 90:25)
b. The low # of children then actually works against the very reason why Smith accumulated wives, per Smith's great nephew, Joseph Fielding Smith, who became the 10th "prophet" of the church.
Now ya gotta follow the "details" on this one:
Joseph Fielding Smith was a "prophet" of the Mormon Church...in the late 1950s into the early 60s, he wrote a 5-volume question-and-answer style series entitled Answers to Gospel Questions.
I've read all 5 volumes. In Volume 4, it went thru its 7th printing in 1979...and was originally published by the Deseret Book Co. in 1963 -- a company DIRECTLY owned by THE Official Mormon Church.
In chapter 42, Joseph Fielding Smith takes on THIS question related to the earliest polygamy practiced by Joseph Smith and the earliest Mormons:
Representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses called at my home and endeavored to disprove statements in the Book of Mormon. Among other things they claimed there was a discrepancy between Jacob 2:24-27 and Doctrine and Covenants 132:39. It was also their contention that the doctrine of plural marriage was condemned in the Book of Jacob and that the practice of this principle IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH was not only a contradiction of Bible doctrine of also of the Book of Mormon. Will you please give answer to this problem? (p. 212)
At the bottom of the next page (p. 213), Joseph Fielding Smith has a heading, "There is No Contradiction" -- and on p. 214, Joseph Fielding Smith cites Jacob 2:30 from the Book of Mormon as "proof" of "no contradiction":
For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up SEED unto me, I will command my people...
So...claims this Mormon "prophet"...This -- seed-raising -- was THE so-called "purpose" for these (mainly) EARLY Mormon LEADERS practicing polygamy from...
...the early 1830s...when Joseph Smith started fooling around with young teen Fanny Alger...
...to the early 1840s when a few OTHER Mormon leaders began following Joseph Smith's plural-wife taking lead...
...[And I note: Based upon Joseph Fielding Smith's response, the Utah polygamy years -- 1846 thru the rest of the 19th century -- would be quite "debateable" to toss in here as "relevant" to the question the Mormon "prophet" was answering...see more on this below]
So. Since Joseph Smith was told to be practically THE ONLY Mormon to practice polygamy for that first decade (1831-1841 or so)...here's the $Million question behind this post:
It's likely at least one Smith child was miscarried when first-wife Emma Smith booted a pregnant plural wife down some stairs...beyond that...
"Though there were allegations of paternity in some of these polygamous marriages, no children have ever been proven to be Smith's. There is ongoing genetic research to determine if any descendants of alleged children have Smith's genetic markers, and so far all tests have been negative." [Source: Children of Joseph Smith]
WELL, a Mormon might counter...perhaps the Mormon god was talking more about the seed to be raised by Mormons over a 40-year period (roughly 1850s to early 1890s)?
Well, for those who might contemplate that, there's two HUGE problems to that "theory"...
The direct response Joseph Fielding Smith gave thru the OFFICIAL Mormon Church publishing house in 1963 related to a specific Jehovah's Witness challenge re: "the practice of this principle IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH..."
Those "early days" in the church were the upstate NY, the Kirtland, Ohio, the Missouri, and the Nauvoo, IL years -- when polygamy was being introduced ...[NOT the Utah years]
And besides, even for those who would like to include the first, say couple dozen Utah years into this "early mix" of the POLY Church of Mormon...those controversial Brigham Young-led years...please note this 2011 Indiana University article.
While I disagree with this study's evolutionary crap injected by this university that "sainted" pedophile champ Kinsey, indeed the simple math involved from this study is born out:
Polygamy practiced by some 19th century Mormon men had the curious effect of suppressing the overall offspring numbers of Mormon women in plural marriages, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions...Simply put, the more sister-wives a Mormon woman had, the fewer children she was likely to produce...."the number each wife produced goes down by one child or so..."
What's so curious about that? Brigham Young had 55 wives & 57 children...figure the averages...Joseph Smith, Jr. had children in single-figures -- perhaps ALL from his FIRST wife...30-40 wives...12-14 of them he stole from other men by marrying them when they were already married! (Not only was he a counterfeit "prophet," but a counterfeit husband and counterfeit "seed-raiser" as well!)
How interesting.
What's quite interesting is how many publications and articles written by the Ldschurch that includes a bio about Joseph Smith yet ALWAYS seem to somehow forget all those wives...as if they were mere "sex toys" to be hidden in the secret Mormon closet.
Yup. And keep in mind "excruciating" is no average word...linked to the word "crucifix!" As the descendant of a Mormon polygamists -- with a relative who wrote about Lds polygamy -- I can attest to that! This Mormon blogger-apologist concedes within the article: "Polygamy...is difficult to defend as anything but unfair and at times emotionally cruel." Amen!
Boy, just look at how the Lds stutters and shutters having to concede that Joey went after a 14-year-old. Allow me to explain what transpired...citing an excerpt relayed by FReeper Tennessee Nana:
In his book Mormon Portraits (pp.70-72), Dr. Wyl presents some revealing information: Joseph Smith finally demanded the wives of all the twelve Apostles that were at home then in Nauvoo....Vilate Kimball, the first wife of Heber C. Kimball, ...loved her husband, and he, ... loved her, hence a reluctance to comply with the Lord’s demand that Vilate should be consecrated...They thought the command of the Lord must be obeyed in some way, and a “proxy” way suggested itself to their minds. They had a young daughter only getting out of girlhood; and the father apologizing to the prophet for his wife’s reluctance to comply with his desires, stating, however, that the act must be right or it would not be counselled ... asked Joe if his daughter wouldn’t do as well as his wife. Joe replied that she would do just as well, and the Lord would accept her instead. The half-ripe bud of womanhood was delivered over to the Prophet. The fact that Joseph Smith asked for Heber C. Kimball’s wife but actually married his daughter is verified in the book The Life of Heber C. Kimball, written by Apostle Orson F. Whitney: Before he would trust even Heber with the full secret, however, he put him to a test which few men would have been able to bear. It was no less than a requirement for him to surrender his wife, his beloved Vilate, and give her to Joseph in marriage! The astounding revelation well-nigh paraly[z]ed him. He could hardly believe he had heard aright. Yet Joseph was solemnly in earnest.... He knew Joseph too well ... to doubt his truth or the divine origin of the behest he had made...Three days he fasted and wept and prayed. Then, with a broken and a bleeding heart, but with soul self-mastered for the sacrifice, he led his darling wife to the Prophet’s house and presented her to Joseph. It was enough—the heavens accepted the sacrifice. The will for the deed was taken, and ‘accounted unto him for righteousness.’ Joseph wept at this proof of devotion, and embracing Heber told him that was all the Lord required...The Prophet joined the hands of the heroic and devoted pair, and then and there, ... Heber and Vilate Kimball were made husband and wife for all eternity (Life of Heber C. Kimball, pp.333-35).
Secondary Digital Source: Nov. 17, 2010 post #20 (Tennessee Nana)
Let it also be known that Joseph Smith's preying upon 16-year-old Fanny Alger from the get-go only emboldened Smith's predator role upon other teens (note...not necessarily a comprehensive listing):
Fanny Alger 16
Sarah Ann Whitney 17
Lucy Walker 17
Flora Ann Woodworth 16
Emily Dow Partridge 19
Sarah Lawrence 17
Maria Lawrence 19
Helen Mar Kimball 14
Melissa Lott 19
Nancy M. Winchester [14?]
The whole Lucy Walker episode was especially appalling:
See Joseph Smith as sexual predator and Sacred Marriage or Secret Affair? Joseph Smith and the Beginning of Mormon Polygamy
In the first link above I cite also the second link as the source for the following:
Over 5:00 clip of Sandra Tanner describing how Joseph Smith was an obvious sexual predator.
She particularly focuses on how Joseph Smith seduced 16 yo Lucy Walker to become his plural "wife."
Lucy Walker's mother had died and left 10 children, Lucy Walker being one of them. (One of the 10 children also died). So what did Joseph Smith do? He promptly sent this father of 9 on a mission to the East Coast, and split up the 9 children...conveniently arranging for 16 yo Lucy Walker to come to his house. Smith waited til Lucy Walker's brother accompanied Emma Smith on a trip to St. Louis, and approached her, per Sandra Tanner:
Joseph now approached young Lucy Walker, who would become his twenty-second plural wife. Todd Compton relates: Lucy was another young wife of Smith—he proposed to her when she was fifteen or sixteen. In her story we find the familiar pattern of the teenage girl living in the Mormon leader's house, whom Joseph then approaches and marries.5858 Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, p. 458.
The Walker family had converted to Mormonism several years before moving to Nauvoo. In the summer of 1841 the mother, Lydia, contracted malaria due to the swampy conditions in Nauvoo and finally died on January 18, 1842. Lucy recalled, "When at length we were forced to believe she would not speak to us again we were in the depths of despair. Ten motherless children!"5959 Ibid., p. 461. Joseph soon came up with a solution. The father was sent on a mission to the east, the younger children were sent to other families and at least two of the older siblings, Lorin and Lucy, were taken in by the Smith's. Shortly after this division of the family one of the younger children died.
In the midst of all this sorrow and loneliness, Joseph approached sixteen-year-old Lucy Walker in late 1842 about plural marriage. Todd Compton outlines Lucy's resistance: When Smith sensed resistance, as has been seen, he generally continued teaching—asking the prospective wife to pray about the principle, . . . So it happened here. "He said, 'If you will pray sincerely for light and understanding in relation thereto, you Shall receive a testimony of the correctness of this principle.' " Lucy was horrified by polygamy and by his proposal and did not quickly gain the promised testimony. She prayed, she wrote, but not with faith. She was nearly suicidal: "tempted and tortured beyond endureance until life was not desirable. Oh that the grave would kindly receive me that I might find rest on the bosom of my dear mother." Lucy now felt intensely the absence of her parents: "Why—Why Should I be chosen from among thy daughters, Father, I am only a child in years and experience. No mother to council; no father near to tell me what to do, in this trying hour. Oh let this bitter cup pass. And thus I prayed in the agony of my soul."6060 Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, p. 464. Then in the spring of 1843, while Lucy's brother and Emma were in St. Louis, Joseph pressed the issue again.61 61 Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, p. 132; Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy, p. 193. 62 Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, p. 465.
Lucy took the matter to God in prayer and finally felt she had received divine approval. Todd Compton relates: On May 1 [1843] Lucy, who had turned seventeen the day before, married Smith at his home, with William Clayton officiating and Eliza Partridge standing witness.62
Source: Sacred Marriage or Secret Affair? Joseph Smith and the Beginning of Mormon Polygamy
Then there were the Partridge girls:
Emma’s suspicions were confirmed when she caught Joseph and 19-year-old Eliza Partridge locked in a room upstairs together. Emma had hired Eliza to take care of their newborn. 2 Joseph admitted to his personal secretary, William Clayton, that if he took Eliza and Emily Partridge (twin sisters) as wives, he knew that Emma “would pitch on him and obtain a divorce and leave him.”3 But, Joseph added that “he would not relinquish anything.”4 And he didn’t. He would eventually marry the sisters in March, 1843 (without Emma’s knowledge). In the meantime, Smith shared to his friend John Bennett his dilemma and the trouble he was having with Emma. He wondered what he should do, and Bennett replied, “This is very simple. Get a revelation that polygamy is right, and all your troubles will be at an end.”
Secondary digital source: Was Polygamy, in the Nineteenth Century, Started by the FLDS Church, or the LDS Church?
Well, there it is. Joseph Smith's primary "revelation" on polygamy -- D&C 132 -- written primarily for his first wife's Emma Smith is finally accept all of these additional wives...is not only polygamous but polytheistic! Gods plural??? (No wonder this "revelation" was tucked away until a book published in the 1850s exposed the Utah-based practice, forcing Brigham Young to dust off this "revelation" from Smith and finally publish it!)
Actually, Smith was into accumulating bed partners. This reality stares the careful historian right in the face: Imagine you want to take on almost 30 wives in 23 months. What kind of time do you need to exhibit with each one to develop a proper approach to even asking them to marry? What kind of honeymoon time do you need? What kind of first-year commitment time do you need to develop that relationship? Smith's pace was 29 additional partners between Dec. 1841 and Nov. 1843. And just because things were less "culturally so" than what is now, doesn't mean romance or marital focus was totally AWOL in the 1840s.
Smith's pace alone for accumulating partners shows abuse of power, not concern for these women. Not concern for their future motherhood; just how they could serve his "bedhoood."
“Smithmas time will soon be here,
“And mishies will too be full of cheer,
“Molly Mormon & Peter Priesthoods all,
“Bringing their Temple Recommends to the Hall,
“Worshipful of those whose holy tread the pushcarts brought,
“Filled with Cumorah’s Nephite relics richly fraught!
Mormons believe they will become a god, occupy their own planet and populate it with spirit-children. This blasphemy pales in comparison with having a few extra wives for cooking, ironing and such.
Nothing can make this look good for Mormons or excuse it.
It is disgusting.
Well, we know today where Smith is not.... 1 Corinthians 6:9 "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,"
Just think what their wife swapping parties were like.
90 percent of healthy men Christian or non Christian would probably do the same as the Mormons did if they had the chance.
No apology needed,
Well at age 37, Heber C. Kimball -- one of the top three ranking Mormons behind Brigham Young & the other counselor, l traded still childless Nancy Winchester to yet another arranged marriage with Amos Arnold -- so that she could indeed have a child...
The separation with Kimball occurred in 1865.
See the chart, wife #8 from Kimball's 45 wives: Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders
Kimball once said:
“I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow, and if you want to build up the kingdom you must take more wives.” (Lds “apostle”/then first President Heber C. Kimball, quoted in Jennie Anderson Froiseth, ed., The Women of Mormonism: or the Story of Polygamy As Told by the Victims Themselves, 1886; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 295)
And hey...these women were traded because some were bought (like cattle) by the Mormons in Scandinavia (Denmark):
In Scandinavia,[279] in ca. 1850s–1870s,[280] where there were many critics of the Mormon religion, "ballad mongers hawked 'the latest new verse about the Copenhagen apprentice masons' who sold their wives to the Mormons for two thousand kroner and riotously drowned their sorrows in the taverns".[281][ax]{{Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark}}{{Kroner, Danish currency}}
Wife selling
These women were largely reduced by these Mormon leaders to breeding purposes:
At a stake conference, LDS leader George Q. Cannon of the First Presidency [Mormonism's HIGHEST hiearchy] said:
"The people of the world do not believe in breeding, but we do. So the people of the world will die out and we will fill the whole earth. I admit those raising children by plural wives are not complying with man-made laws, but in the sight of God they are not sinning, as there is no sin in it. (George Q. Cannon, Sanpete Stake conference, Sept., 1899. Smoot Investigation, Vol. 1, p. 9.) [BTW, the fundamentalist (fLDS) still cite this LDS source]
So...reducing wives to breeding cattle is, unfortunately, a long-term Mormon male tradition!
Those Mormon girls in their prairie dresses & upswept hairdos & eerily similar looks are such a turn-on for the General Authorities & reigning Apostles in SLC.
Wonder what a COJCOLDS pinup calendar would look like.
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