The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, has acknowledged that its founder, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), took as many as 40 wives.
An essay posted in the church's website entitled "Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo" states that although the exact number is unknown due to fragmented evidences, it is believed that Smith married a number of women from 20 to 40 years old. These women were "sealed" to him either for time and eternity (this life and the next life, possibly including consummating the marriage), while others were sealed to him for eternity alone (the next life only). Among those women he took as wives were Fanny Young, the oldest at 56, and Helen Mar Kimball, the youngest who was aged 14.
The essay says, "After receiving a revelation commanding him to practice plural marriage, Joseph Smith married multiple wives and introduced the practice to close associates."
Smith reportedly received the revelation in 1831, and was visited by an angel thrice from 1834 to 1842 with a commandment to proceed with plural marriage, and threatened him to destruction if he failed to obey fully.
The founder followed the practice and taught close associates to do likewise, but those who practiced were told to keep their activities hushed up — not to discuss them nor to put them in writing. Only in 1943 was the revelation on multiple marriages written down.
The New York Times reports that the essay is one of the 12 essays on the church's website posted over the past year addressing sensitive issues that the organization has been embroiled in throughout its relatively short yet secretive history. Recently, believers and followers have reportedly been searching the Internet for answers about their church, only to end up disillusioned after stumbling upon information they didn't expect to find.
"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," NY Times quotes church elder Steven Snow as saying. "We need to be truthful, and we need to understand our history."
Snow is a member of the church's leadership and is also its historian.
The essay explains, "Latter-day Saints believe that monogamy — the marriage of one man and one woman — is the Lord's standing law of marriage. In biblical times, the Lord commanded some of His people to practice plural marriage — the marriage of one man and more than one woman."
The conclusion says in part, "Church members no longer practice plural marriage."
