full discussion here:
http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_illegal.htm
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IIRC Marriage was a legal contract designed to protect the financial status of mothers and their children in the event of widowhood. This was before modern multiple marriages & divorces which has all the ingredients of polygamy without a fathers’ commitment.
This polygamous relationship seems to have restored this man’s position as head of the house. His *wives* and their children seem to be well-adjusted. More so than having two same sex parents. (Although they do have three mommies;)
It’s sick:
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And why did Joseph Smith, on May 25, 1844, deny having any wives other than Emma Hale Smith?
Joseph Smith was indicted on charges of polygamy and adultery on May 23, 1844:
“The marriage to the Lawrence sisters became public knowledge when William Law, Joseph’s second counselor in the First Presidency, became alienated from the Prophet. Law, who had known the Lawrence family since their conversion in Canada, chose the marriage of Smith and Maria Lawrence as a test case with which to prosecute Smith for adultery. On May 23 he filed suit against the Mormon leader in Hancock Count Circuit Court, at Carthage, charging that Smith had been living with Maria Lawrence ‘in an open state of adultery’ from October 12, 1843, to the day of the suit.”
“In response, Smith flatly denied polygamy in a speech delivered on May 26: ‘What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can find only one.’ As polygamy was illegal under US law, Smith had little choice but to openly repudiate the practice. But as is often the case with secret policies that are denied publicly, Smith’s credibility would later suffer.”
“Realistically he must have understood that thirty-three or more marriages could not be kept a secret forever, and that when they became known the gulf between his public statements and private practice would come back to haunt him.”
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Yes, ole Smith LIED!
http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_illegal.htm
But each child’s perspective is one Mommy (who gave birth to them) and one Daddy, whom they share - thus almost as good as a married two parent family.