married 14How do Mormons reconcile the fact that Joseph Smith married a 14 year old?

According to LDS historian Todd Compton, Smith married at least 33 women in addition to his first wife Emma. (In Sacred Loneliness, Compton) Of those women, eleven were already married and remained married at the same time to their legal, still living husbands. Eleven were teenagers, including his first polygamous ‘wife’ 16 year old Fanny Alger. The youngest was Helen Mar Kimball who was 14 when Smith promised to guarantee her salvation and the salvation of her family if she would acquiesce to his demands.
you should actually do some research on things before making too many assumptions.......Compton did NOT hold the view that there was any sexual relationships (if she would acquiesce to his demands) and he criticized the anti-Mormons Jerald and Sandra Tanner for using his book to argue for sexual relations, and wrote:

"The Tanners made great mileage out of Joseph Smith's marriage to his youngest wife, Helen Mar Kimball. However, they failed to mention that I wrote that there is absolutely no evidence that there was any sexuality in the marriage, and I suggest that, following later practice in Utah, there may have been no sexuality. (p. 638) All the evidence points to this marriage as a primarily dynastic marriage."

translation: evidence indicates that these were familial sealings - not marriages as we know marriage to be.......
Whether or not we feel it's appropriate to marry a 14 year old, the law of the time didn't forbid it so there really isn't anything to reconcile other than the fact that she's a plural wife and anyone who reads the Old Testament would have heard of that concept long before Joseph Smith.

First of all, Joseph never committed adultery. Second of all he was sealed to some women for "eternity" but not for "time". That means a connection in the here-after, but not in the here and now. Today we can be connected for time and eternity, or just time. Also, people who are already married together often get sealed to each other later. In some countries who don't have legal divorce, a person can still be sealed to someone who is not their legal spouse, if they make a covenant of fidelity and have been separated from their legal spouse for an extended period. Joseph never married anyone without their consent, and in the case of young women, he also needed the consent of their parents. Some of the young ladies were actually adamant about not being his wife but later had a dream, or vision or some other spiritual experience that changed their mind. Joseph Smith, far from being lecherous, was loved and respected by those who knew him.
Well no one knows if he really had other wives since there is no historical evidence to prove he did. That is why secular scholars never suggest he practiced polygamy. It is only some Mormon writers and anti Mormon writers who say Joseph Smith practiced polygamy.

If he really did marry a 14 year old, it wouldnt be a big deal since marriages of that age were pretty common, including my Unitarian great great great grandmother who was 15 when she got married to my 37 year old great great great grandfather.

Even today in many states a 14 year old can still get married with parents permission.
For the mormons claiming otherwise...

It *did* happen (and twice -- Helen Mar Kimball was 14 when she was sealed to Smith, and Nancy Winchester was also 14).

And the fact is *it it not known* if they had sex or not. That doesn't mean they didn't as you claim, and it doesn't mean they did. It means it's not known.



By the way, for "you wish you knew," there were NOT more women than men in the church at the time, there were in fact many more men than women, as LDS authorities themselves have said:

"The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church...The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utah...This theory is not defensible since there was no surplus of women."
- LDS Apostle John A. Widstoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, pages 390-392

Peace.
The LDS church believes that in order to make it to the highest part of Heaven, one must be married and cealed in the temple. Since there were a lot more women than men in the LDS church during Joseph Smith's time, he needed to help those young women who believed in the church. So he married them, this doesn't mean that he "did the dirty" (lol) with them, he just married them. :)
Maybe you should ask LDS historian Todd Compton.

I see no need to reconcile the behavior of a man who died in the 1800's to know that "To believe in Christ is the right way" and to act accordingly.

I do however find it interesting that antagonists of Joseph Smith feel they need to justify his illegal execution by an angry mob while he was in prison. What country is this!? I don't care if he was the devil himself his death was cold blooded murder.
Biblical polygamy was derived from middle eastern tribal customs that pre-date any of the Abrahamic religions on which Chrmarried 14istianity is based.

Mormons were reenacting the oldest (and in their minds, purest) traditions of the Old Testament that came straight out of pre-history and can be seen even today in the hinterlands of Pakistan. This included child marriage, female circumcision, stoning, racial genocide, and many other horrific activities.
I don't give away what I know for things I don't. You may be right, I don't know. I'm better at going to the source than books (i.e.God).

Well first of all i think it can be said that your angle of vision is probably not in favor of the church.

Secondly, even then experts who study the journals, and letters of the early church can only get the angle of vision used by those who wrote these documents. It's like looking through a hall of mirrors. We only get to see the the object of our vision from the way the mirrors are placed, and not in a omniscient view.

Therefore am I going to try to discount what you are saying, no. Do I need to find someway to fit my head around it, no. But I will trust in the only person who was present for all these events, God. If God does truly exists, then he would help a seeker of truth, such as myself (a former agnostic), to know of where I can find truth.
Helen was 16, I believe. Her father was a close friend of Joseph Smith and himself was sealed to more than one wife.
Joseph was SEALED to Helen, but according to her journal, she never really saw him again. He never slept with her at all.
It was a "dynastic sealing".
For someone who apparently likes facts, you're omitting several important ones. You're no scholar.

Many of those marriages provided no intimacy. Once you're willing to be honest in your communications, ask your question again.
Emma was mad at H$%@ the whole time! She knew what was going on and JS excuse was "An angel came ot me with a sword! It has to be so suck it up and drive on Emma!"
Oh yea and men were sealed to men at one time as well.
Most of them don't talk about such things. They were never taught the truth about what kind of Prophet they have!
This never happened. She was 16 and they never slept together.
The same way that Christians reconcile the polygamy in the Bible.
This is the thing, Muslims are completely honest about this, even incestious marriages that occur, I don;t know why the Mormon church cannot be just as honest.

As a Christian Gitnzer, i say that David was wrong and so was his son, so was Abraham who did not wait for the promiced child the right way(WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE CURRENTLY FIGHTING RIGHT NOW, THE OFFSPRING OF HAGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!… and the way God set it up in the Garden was the way it was suppose to be, one man< one women!but see since God allows gays to sin, so will he allow men to marry more then one wife and not stop it. God set it up so Adam and Eve were the first church, so they could become one, you cannot become one with three wives...the Mormons have never gotten this and never will.
THNAKS TO OLD ABRAHAM AND HAGAR AND 911 AND OIL, WE ARE NOW AT WAR WITH HAGAR'S OFFSPRING!!! THATS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT OBEY GOD'S COMMANDS!!! GITNZER! WE PAY FOR EONS LATER!
It is "manipulation" all in the name of God and the religion that he claimed was from God.

I was a mormon MANY years and never even KNEW Joseph Smith practiced polygamy, let alone with young teenagers. But when I found out about it, I studied all I could.

What kind of man (prophet even!) would ask for the hand of his friends wife or young daughter?

Farms admitted that smith had sexual relations with at least 9 of the wives.
*13 of the wives testified in court to sexual relations with Smith. A third of his total wives, while alive were teenagers. He was around 37. While alive he had 2 sister duos and a mother/ daughter duo.

11 of his 34 total wives were already married to living men?
Many More women were sealed to him after his death. The belief is that they all will be together forever in Heaven, procreating and doing all God is with his wife(s).
Yuk.

The first half of 1843 Smith took 14 more wives.
Smith was "persecuted" because he taught and practiced bigamy, and polyandry, secretly, while denying it publicly. 300 and some were sealed to him after his death.
After Smith's death, his successor as church president, Brigham Young, married between seven and nine of Smith's widows. Young's counselor, Heber C. Kimball, married 11 more.
WHAT the heck is with these men?? (or women)
REAL LDS history is suppressed and twisted to make it seem better. THE FLDS were the ones following the teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and others.

LDS men of today can be sealed to more than one wife for Heaven, if the first wife dies first the man can be re-sealed and the first sealing is not canceled. He is sealed for eternity to both.
Many LDS men (and leaders) have done this. See..
The notion that polygamy happened because of an excess of women has been DEBUNKED by LDS leaders themselves --

LDS apostle John Widtsoe de-bunked the common explanation that polygamy was practiced in order to provide homes to a surplus of women in the church:

“Plural marriage has been a subject of wide and frequent comment. Members of the Church unfamiliar with its history, and many nonmembers, have set up fallaciomarried 14us reasons for the origin of this system of marriage among the Latter-day Saints. “The most common of these conjectures is that the Church, through plural marriage, sought to provide husbands for its large surplus of female members. The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is *NOT SUPPORTED* BY existing EVIDENCE.

On the contrary, there seem always to have been more males than females in the Church. Families -- father, mother, and children -- have most commonly joined the Church. Of course, many single women have become converts, but also many single men.

The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utah, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United States, as would be expected in a pioneer state. The births within the Church obey the usual population law -- a slight excess of males.

Orson Pratt, writing in 1853 from direct knowledge of Utah conditions, when the excess of females was supposedly the highest, declares against the opinion that females outnumbered the males in Utah. (The Seer, p. 110) The theory that plural marriage was a consequence of a surplus of female Church members fails from lack of evidence.

(John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations [Salt Lake City: Improvement Era], 390.)


And from LDS publication "The Juvenile INstructor":

“But then the proportion of the sexes in Utah would not, at present, admit of an extensive practice of plural marriage. When the census was taken five years ago, there were 143,963 souls in Utah Territory, not counting untaxed Indians. In this number there was an excess of 5,055 MALES over females. This does not have the appearance of permitting an extensive practice of plural marriage,...”
(Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 20, page 133)



THERE WAS AV儿劣NOAV儿劣 "EXCESS OF WOMEN (or shortage of men)".
Most Mormons rationalize the ages of these girls with the belief that women married young during those times. Actually, they didn't. It was unusual then and raised eyebrows just as it does now.

The creepiest part that Mormons struggle with is the fact that he married 11 women who were married. You can use any Mormon theology to wrap your head around that other than to see Smith using polyandry (polygamy with other married people) to justify adultry.
They claim that it was common practice for girls to get married at such a young age back then, and they also believe the God actually told Joseph Smith to do it. If you can get people to believe that everything you do is commanded by God, you can get away with anything.
Joseph Smith had married quite a few women, some very young and some already married. He was eventually murdered by a mod of angry men.

Wives and young girls. ANGRY men.

See the connexion?
.
"How do Mormons reconcile the fact that Joseph Smith married a 14 year old?"

Well, you see, Joesph was under a lot of pressure covering his lies, so the congregation felt sorry for him and give him a break.
Most pretend that it didn't actually happen or they claim (without evidence) that Joseph married women and never consummated the union (which is ridiculous).
I suspect the same way Muslims justify Mohammed's paedophilia.
If you haven't taken the Holy Spirit as your guide
you can expect to be led in strange paths?
By making 12 the age of consent.
they can't
They make up stuff, like how it was common back then. It wasn't. The average age of marriage was well over 20. When young girls did marry, it wasn't to men in their mid 30s with 20 other wives. Not in America.

Then they claim he didn't consummate the marriages, even though we have affidavits and journals from many of the women saying he did. What, he married a bunch of liars?

Then they say he didn't have kids with them - that we know about. But the next 2 LDS Presidents, Young and Taylor, both had kids in polygamy in Nauvoo. And the polygamy revelation says that it is to be done to 'raise up seed'.

There has never been a single written word about 'dynastic sealings' as an ordinance. That's a concept invented by apologists recently because the whole thing is so embarrassing.

Girls back in the mid 1800s didn't start having periods until an average age of about 15. They didn't mature nearly as fast as girls do today.

Some of his 14 year olds likely were still children physically.

Next they'll go on about how it was done to care for the widows and orphans, although I don't think Smith married many of those. There wasn't a problem in Nauvoo when polygamy started, and there were more men than women in early Utah according to the first census in 1850, right through the end of polygamy.