[Colofornian]

From the column: ...The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...has had a particularly hard time reconciling its radical founding principles with its white-bread contemporary image. Imagine Mitt Romney with a harem, and you have some idea of the kind of men who planted a new church in the West. So, it’s been fascinating to watch the reaction to the acknowledgment last month by Mormon leaders that Joseph Smith...took as many as 40 wives. Some...women were also married to other men. One of his brides was a 14-year-old girl, or as church officials put it in an essay, she was “sealed” to Smith “several months before her 15th birthday.” Well, that changes everything. Smith...came to his decision only under duress, the church explained: A sword-wielding angel forced him to take up a life of sanctioned promiscuity...And there was a creepy grooming aspect in how the Mormon founder picked his brides. Mary Elizabeth Rollins was 12 years old when Smith told her...God had commanded him to take her as a plural wife, according to the author Linda King Newell. She later married him at 23, wife No. 9... Remember when Mitt Romney tried to explain how his ancestors came from Mexico?...In fact, they were sexual fugitives...

* Smith marrying women -- as in the double digits -- who were ALREADY married (& remained married to these other men)
* Smith marrying a 14 year old
* Smith "grooming" a 12 year old to become his wife #9.

[Sherman Logan]

Smith "grooming" a 12 year old to become his wife #9.

A bit misleading. She was 23 when he "married" her.

It is probable some of the women Smith, and particularly Young, married were wives "in name only."

It is also possible some of those already-married women Smith married were "for eternity," to take effect only in the afterlife.

This story is complex and really rather appalling. I think it's bad enough without misrepresenting any of it.

I am really unclear why the article claims the LDS just fessed up. This has all been public knowledge for decades or perhaps a century.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Free love before free love was cool. :-)

[Elsie]

Decisions decisions!

Emma Hale only!!

Fanny Alger Lucinda Morgan Harris Louisa Beaman Zina Huntington Jacobs Presendia Huntington Buell Agnes Coolbrith Sylvia Sessions Lyon Mary Rollins Lightner Patty Bartlett Sessions Marinda Johnson Hyde Elizabeth Davis Durfee Sarah Kingsley Cleveland Delcena Johnson Eliza R. Snow Sarah Ann Whitney Martha McBride Knight Ruth Vose Sayers Flora Ann Woodworth Emily Dow Partridge Eliza Maria Partridge Almera Johnson Lucy Walker Sarah Lawrence Maria Lawrence Helen Mar Kimball Hanna Ells Elvira Cowles Holmes Rhoda Richards Desdemona Fullmer Olive Frost Melissa Lott Nancy Winchester Fanny Young