On October 22, 2014 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released two essays dealing with polygamy in the early days of the Church: "Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo" and "The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage." On November 10, 2014, The New York Times' journalist Laurie Goodstein ran a piece online titled, "It's official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives." The following day, November 11, the article ran on the front page of their print edition, above the fold. Also on that day CNN ran a piece: "Mormon founder Joseph Smith wed 40 wives." AP, Reuters and international news agencies began running the story.
Newsroom: The official publication for news media, opinion leaders and the public, is the Church's official online news site. On November 11, 2014, the Church released on Newsroom an article to manage as well as they could the message coming from the major publications.
Through carefully chosen words nuances of meaning are created. A skilled writer can lead a reader to see what they want them to see. PR teams are very skilled in this area. Yet when a careful analysis of specific words and phrases is made, perceptions may shift and holes in the given information revealed.
MormonThink editors have reviewed the article as published on Newsroom, which we reproduce in its entirety below. Our analysis is found below the full article.
Salt Lake City — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has provided the following information in response to news media inquiries:
For many years the Church has had a reference section on its main website for various "gospel topics," listed in alphabetical order. Beginning in November of 2013 the Church began supplementing the material there by publishing in-depth essays on topics of special public interest, including accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision, the Book of Mormon translation process and many more (see complete list below). The Gospel Topics page on LDS.org was then redesigned to better serve as a personal study resource for Church members.
Three weeks ago, the Church completed a series on the topic of plural marriage (polygamy), which has recently been the subject of a large number of media stories. Below is additional context for those essays.
Much of what you'll find in the essays on polygamy has been published in diverse sources and known among long-term and well-read members, historians and Church leaders for many years. The Church has now gathered this information into a single location as a convenient means of placing these resources in the hands of all members.
The fact that Joseph Smith had plural marriage relationships is not new, of course. Indeed, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publicly asserted Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy-over a century and a half ago, especially in debate with other faith groups who traced their origin to Joseph Smith and who asserted that he did not practice plural marriage. But although polygamy was practiced among early Church leaders and members, its practice was officially discontinued more than 100 years ago.
The Church recognizes the wide interest in many of these topics. Recent research like the Joseph Smith Papers Project, has gathered more information than ever before about early Church doctrine and practice. The Gospel Topics pages are meant as a personal resource for members as they study and teach about the history and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We live in a world where there is so much information available on every topic. And particularly in the age of the Internet, there are both good and bad sources of information. As a Church, it's important for us to research and provide official, reputable, historically accurate information about our history and doctrine.
A complete list of the in-depth essays is listed below:
- Are Mormons Christian? November 20, 2013
- First Vision Accounts November 20, 2013
- Race and the Priesthood December 6, 2013
- Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah December 16, 2013
- Book of Mormon Translation December 30, 2013
- Book of Mormon and DNA Studies January 31, 2014
- Becoming Like God February 24, 2014
- Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints May 13, 2014
- Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham July 8, 2014
- Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo October 22, 2014
- The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage October 22, 2014
From the official LDS website - Link is here.
(The first three paragraphs explain the background for the essays and are not analyzed here.)
Much of what you'll find in the essays on polygamy has been published in diverse sources and known among long-term and well-read members, historians and Church leaders for many years. The Church has now gathered this information into a single location as a convenient means of placing these resources in the hands of all members.
"Much of what you'll find in the essays." The terminology used in the essay is vague, and "much," the word used to describe the quantity of information from the essays that can be found in other sources, leaves the reader unclear about the exact amount of information found elsewhere (particularly LDS sources). Regardless of how much, one can safely say that this is admitting that not all of the information in the essays has been known to the general Church membership. Maybe of greater concern is wondering if the essays have shared all that is known about polygamy in the early Church. From our research on polygamy that can be found elsewhere on MormonThink, we know they have not.
"Has been published in diverse sources." It's quite telling that the article does not say that any of these sources were Church sources, or official sources, only that they were "diverse sources." One would be hard-pressed to find a hint of some of the information contained in the new essays about Joseph Smith and plural marriages (let alone the depth of information acknowledged), anywhere on the Church's website or printed materials for the past 100 years. Unfortunately the "diverse sources" referred to are typically scholarly publications, the writings of Church apologists or the many books and websites labeled "anti" by the Church (even though these so-called anti-Mormons are sharing the accurate information). If the Church really wanted its general membership to know this information, they would have revealed it to them in their many official publications and talks. Likewise, they would promote the essays and the information found there more than they are currently doing.
"Known among long-term and well-read members." It says "and" not "or": according to this statement, for a member to have known this information, they had to be both a long-term and well-read member. Why wasn't/isn't this information shared with potential converts? To be "well-read" concerning this information on polygamy is not as easy as one would think. Because of the Church's penchant for marginalizing scholars and blackballing "anti" material, and reinforcing the notion that only Church-published material should be used in classes and personal studying, it is no wonder that not all of the members are well aware of the information contained in the new essays since the Church itself does not widely disseminate it.
For example, less than three weeks before the publication of the final two polygamy essays, in a General Conference talk, Elder Neil L. Andersen said the following in his talk titled "Joseph Smith":
We might remind the sincere inquirer that Internet information does not have a "truth" filter. Some information, no matter how convincing, is simply not true.
...We might remind the inquirer that some information about Joseph, while true, may be presented completely out of context to his own day and situation.
...The negative commentary about the prophet Joseph Smith will increase as we move toward the second coming of the savior. The half-truths and subtle deceptions will not diminish.
Joseph Smith, Elder Neil L. Andersen, General Conference, October 2014. Link is here.
It is language like this that stops the inquirer from seeking out information other than what the Church officially publishes. And since they haven't widely published it previously, the general membership is not well-read about it. MormonThink provides additional analysis on why members may not have known much about Joseph Smith's polygamy before the release of the essays.
"Historians." This is correct: historians interested in LDS issues knew of the things published in the essays. And some of those historians even shared it in the books they published. Historians like Fawn Brodie and her seminal biography about Joseph Smith titled, No Man Knows My History. No matter how accurate historians like Brodie were, they were not "faith-promoting" enough in the eyes of the Church. This excerpt from Wikipedia nicely summarizes how the Church, its apologists and because of that example, many of its members, treat those who accurately portray Church history:
Although No Man Knows My History criticized many foundational Mormon beliefs about Joseph Smith, the LDS Church was slow to condemn the work, even as the book went into a second printing. In 1946, The Improvement Era, an official periodical of the Church, said that many of the book's citations arose from doubtful sources and that the biography was "of no interest to Latter-day Saints who have correct knowledge of the history of Joseph Smith." The "Church News" section of the Deseret News had a lengthy critique: it praised the biography's "fine literary style" and denounced it as "a composite of all anti-Mormon books that have gone before."
Fawn M. Brodie, Reaction of the LDS Church, Wikipedia entry (accessed 11 November 2014).
"Church leaders." This is an interesting phrase. Considering that probably 50% or more of the active members of the Church are in leadership positions, exactly which leaders are they referring to? In the many conversations I have had, and that I am aware of, the vast majority of local leaders were not aware of many details found in the new essays. Many were aware that Joseph Smith instituted and even practiced polygamy, but they were unaware of the extent, young ages or polyandry that Joseph Smith was involved with. If the "leaders" actually refer to those who make curricular decisions within the Church, then why weren't they more forthcoming previously?
"For many years." In fact, for all of the years since the first stirrings of "plural marriage," in whatever facet or form it took, people have known and tried to make the public aware of Joseph Smith's illegal and interesting relationships with women other than his lawful wife. The most famous example being William Law and the Nauvoo Expositor. Joseph Smith had the press destroyed because it was printing information about his intimate connections to women other than his legal wife, Emma Smith. (Others before William Law also spoke of Joseph's relations with other women.) However, ever since that time, those who have spoken of Joseph's relationships have been censored or labeled "anti-Mormon" unless they were apologists for the Church.
"The Church has now gathered this information into a single location as a convenient means of placing these resources in the hands of all members." Although earlier in the paragraph they try to make it seem as if the information was fairly common knowledge, they here tacitly admit that previously, the information was neither "convenient" nor available to "all members." What took so long?
From our limited research at MormonThink, we have not seen that these important essays have been translated into languages other than English. Considering the fastest growing segment of the LDS Church appears to be Spanish-speaking, one would think that the Church would be getting these translated into as many languages as they can if they truly are getting this information into the hands of all members.
The fact that Joseph Smith had plural marriage relationships is not new, of course. Indeed, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publicly asserted Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy—over a century and a half ago, especially in debate with other faith groups who traced their origin to Joseph Smith and who asserted that he did not practice plural marriage. But although polygamy was practiced among early Church leaders and members, its practice was officially discontinued more than 100 years ago.
"The fact that Joseph Smith had plural marriage relationships is not new, of course." What an odd statement. The second Joseph Smith had a plural marriage relationship, it became a fact that he had that relationship. If that relationship was in 1831, then in 1831 it was a fact that he had it—so of course that fact is "not new" today. The purpose of this sentence is to lull the reader into thinking that since it was a fact, it was known to all, even though they admitted in the previous paragraph that the information certainly wasn't known to all. The purpose of this paragraph is to pin the lack of knowing this information on the member: since it has been a fact for 150 years, everyone for the last 150 years should have known that. This is a classic case of blaming the victim.
"Indeed, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publicly asserted Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy—over a century and a half ago." Information publicly asserted 150 years ago is of no use to the members of today unless that information is publicly shared and asserted today. Which, as has already been mentioned, it wasn't. Again, the reason for the information is to pin the fault on the unknowing.
The use of the word "practice" is important to note. The majority of Church members knew that Joseph Smith taught polygamy, but many of them had no idea of the depth/nature of his actual practice of it. They may have known he practiced polygamy with Eliza R. Snow, for example, but not the nine teenagers, or the 11 women who were already married to other men.
"Other faith groups who traced their origin to Joseph Smith and who asserted that he did not practice plural marriage." And why wouldn't those other groups assert that Joseph did not practice polygamy when he himself publicly declared that he did not practice it, as found in this quote:
What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers. I labored with these apostates myself until I was out of all manner of patience...
"Address of the Prophet-His Testimony Against the Dissenters at Nauvoo." History of the Church, vol. 6, 411. Link is here.
Isn't it natural to assume that the man who God supposedly declared as His mouthpiece (D&C 1:38, 21:1-5) would speak truth and not blatantly lie?
"But although polygamy was practiced among early Church leaders and members, its practice was officially discontinued more than 100 years ago." Apparently this makes it okay that they haven't shared information about Joseph Smith's early, mostly unknown, behavior related to polygamy and polyandry.
The Church recognizes the wide interest in many of these topics. Recent research like the Joseph Smith Papers Project, has gathered more information than ever before about early Church doctrine and practice. The Gospel Topics pages are meant as a personal resource for members as they study and teach about the history and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We live in a world where there is so much information available on every topic. And particularly in the age of the Internet, there are both good and bad sources of information. As a Church, it's important for us to research and provide official, reputable, historically accurate information about our history and doctrine.
"Has gathered more information than ever before about early Church doctrine and practice." The Church has archives and repositories with information they choose not to share. They always have. But this sentence makes it sound like they have suddenly come across information they didn't have before. Although the previous paragraph tried to show the opposite, that the information has been known for a century and a half. They are trying to have it both ways.
"There are both good and bad sources of information." In response to the polygamy essays, The New York Times ran an article on 10 November 2014 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/its-official-mormon-founder-had-up-to-40-wives.html?_r=0) in which Elder Steven E. Snow, a former Church historian, was quoted as saying: "There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we owed our members a safe place where they could go to get reliable, faith-promoting information that was true about some of these more difficult aspects of our history."
What did Snow mean by "a safe place"? Safe from who or what? For a church that values truth, shouldn't they be more worried about truthful information instead of safe places? A glimpse of their concern is found in the words "faith-promoting information"—they want to control the message in such a way that all information is viewed through their lenses and paints their Church in the best light, regardless of the truth.
If the Church owes their members reliable, true information, why now? They have owned printing presses for 180 years and could have ensured their members were getting accurate information during that time.
Notice that Snow says "some of these more difficult aspects," which is another admission that not all the difficulties of the church are covered. The Church knows that "difficult aspects of [their] history" are often seen by outsiders as outdated, weird, misogynistic, racist, narcissistic, etc. These difficult issues can turn devout members of the Church away (which is apparently happening at a record pace).
The unflattering truth is that the Church has known all of the details of Joseph Smith's polygamy for 180 years and they have tried to suppress that information as much as possible. With information now readily available on the Internet, they are caught behind the eight-ball. They are playing catch-up, and trying to appear transparent, which is admirable, but they have a long way to go. Their essays still do not cover everything they know nor are they disseminated to the faithful as well as they should be.
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