Women walk by a statue of Joseph and Emma Smith outside the church office building during the 182nd Semiannual General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Mormon church founder Joseph Smith had an underage bride and was married to other men’s wives during the early days of the faith when polygamy was practiced, a new church essay reveals. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says most of Smith’s wives were between 20 and 40 years old but that one was just 14. While part of the church’s early days, polygamy has been banned in the faith since 1890.SALT LAKE CITY – The Mormon church acknowledges in a new essay that founder Joseph Smith had a teenage bride and was married to other men’s wives during the faith’s early polygamous days, a recognition of an unflattering part of its roots that historians have chronicled for years.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says most of Smith’s wives were between 20 and 40 years old. One of them, however, was a 14-year-old girl who was the daughter of Smith’s close friends.
The essay posted this week on the church’s website marked the first time the Salt Lake City-based religion has officially acknowledged those facts, though it also has not denied them.
The article is part of a recent push by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to open up about sensitive issues within the faith, many of which are uncomfortable to discuss.
Other writings posted in the past couple of years have addressed sacred undergarments worn by devout members; a past ban on black men in the lay clergy; and the misconception that Mormons are taught they’ll get their own planet in the afterlife.