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{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 1a
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 1" (pp. 26-51)
|T=[[../../|Nauvoo Polygamy: "... but we called it celestial marriage"]]
|A=George D. Smith
|<=[[../Chapter 1|Chapter 1 (pp. 1-25)]]
|>=[[../Chapter 2|Chapter 2 (pp. 52-107)]]
}}
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<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 1a
|H=Response to claims made in Nauvoo Polygamy, "Chapter 1" (pp. 26-51)
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 27 - Isaac Hale not being allowed to look at the plates was a "clumsy subterfuge"
|L2=Response to claim: 28 - "Joseph's personal charisma was working its effect where he needed to rely on others for help"
|L3=Response to claim: 28 - The author refers to a talisman that Joseph "is said to have worn while digging"
|L4=Response to claim: 28 - The author notes that Emma "was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself"
|L5=Response to claim: 28 - For Joseph and Emma, "Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start"
|L6=Response to claim: 28 - Joseph was haunted by the suspicion, which followed him from place to place, that he crossed moral boundaries in his friendship with other women"
|L7=Response to claim: 28-29 - The author claims that Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828
|L8=Response to claim: 29 - When Emma's mother, Elizabeth Hale, was asked about the purported seduction of Eliza Winters "in an interview forty-six years later, she declined to comment"
|L9=Response to claim: 29 - The author claims that in the revelation that became D&C 132, that Emma was promised "annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment'"
|L10=Response to claim: 29 - The author notes that D&C 132 "did not invoke the Book of Mormon's justification for taking more wives—the call to raise a righteous seed"
|L11=Response to claim: 29 - "The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old"
|L12=Response to claim: 29 - The author speculates that Joseph's relationships in Ohio "with various families and their daughters...allowed him to invite the young women into his further confidence when they were older"
|L13=Response to claim: 30 - The author notes that "In most cases, the women were adolescents or in their twenties when he met them.  About ten were pre-teens, others already thirty or above"
|L14=Response to claim: 30 - "Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann would become one of Joseph Smith's wives, although at the time she was only five years old"
|L15=Response to claim: 31 - Mary Elizabeth Rollings is described as "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…."
|L16=Response to claim: 31 - "It was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well"
|L17=Response to claim: 31 - "Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio"
|L18=Response to claim: 32 - "The seven-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball was still another future wife"
|L19=Response to claim: 32–33 - "How relevant is it that in many instances he had lived under the same roof as his future wife prior to marrying her?"
|L20=Response to claim: 33 - "probably by 1842," Lucinda Harris "became one more of the prophet's plural wives"
|L21=Response to claim: 34 - The author claims that in Illinois Joseph "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses"
|L22=Response to claim: 35 - Smith's unchartered bank, called the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-banking Company, collapsed
|L23=Response to claim: 37 - "Missourians were alarmed by the influx of Mormons"
|L24=Response to claim: 38 - Joseph and the other prisoners "escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society"
|L25=Response to claim: 38n81 - "I hesitate to concur with Compton's interpretation of their relationship as a marriage"
|L26=Response to claim: 39 - "Joseph had been 'found' in the hay with his housekeeper"
|L27=Response to claim: 39 - Warren Parrish said that Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife"
|L28=Response to claim: 39 - Oliver Cowdery referred to Joseph's relationship with Fanny Alger as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair"
|L29=Response to claim: 39–41 - The William McLellin claims
|L30=Response to claim: 40–41 - William McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill" involved with Joseph
|L31=Response to claim: 41–42 - "'Fanny Alger as a wife' employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph"
|L32=Response to claim: 42 - "There is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant"
|L33=Response to claim: 42–43 - Five "primary accounts" of the Fanny Alger relationship
|L34=Response to claim: 44 - "Rumors may have been circulating already as early as 1832 that Smith had been familiar with fifteen-year-old Marinda Johnson"
|L35=Response to claim: 44 - Lucinda Harris is said to have claimed that she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt
|L36=Response to claim: 45 - "Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)"
|L37=Response to claim: 44–45 - ""Civil marriage" was claimed to be "an outdated marriage contract"
|L38=Response to claim: 48 - "an otherworldly being Smith called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…."
|L39=Response to claim: 48-49 - D&C 132 "contravenes the Book of Mormon passage where polygamy is said to be allowed under certain conditions but is likely an indication of wickedness"
|L40=Response to claim: 49 - The author speculates that a revelation received by Joseph seemed "to recall Smith's teenage concerns about sinful thoughts and behavior, reiterated this standard: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery….'"
|L41=Response to claim: 50 - "…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling"
|L42=Response to claim: 50 - The author suggest that Joseph engaged in "perilous anti-social behavior by indulging in sexual relations with the daughters and wives of close friends"
|L43=Response to claim: 51 - The author states that "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…."
|L44=Response to claim: 51 - Although polygamy has been repeatedly condemned by the modern Church, "the Nauvoo beginnings of the practice remain in LDS scripture as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the church's temple sealings"
}}
</onlyinclude>

==Response to claim: 27 - Isaac Hale not being allowed to look at the plates was a "clumsy subterfuge"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author suggests that Isaac Hale not being allowed to look at the plates was a "clumsy subterfuge."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|This, of course, is based upon the assumption that Joseph was performing a deception.
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
}}

==Response to claim: 28 - "Joseph's personal charisma was working its effect where he needed to rely on others for help"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim=
*{{AuthorQuote|"Joseph's personal charisma was working its effect where he needed to rely on others for help. He elicited sympathy and created a sense of urgency; his enterprises bore a strange significance."}}
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided.		
}}
{{propaganda|The author assumes that only charisma could get others to help Joseph.  Those involved bore witness that they were convinced by God of the importance of Joseph's work.  "Strange significance" is loaded and prejudicial.
* [[../../Assumptions and presumptions]]
* [[../../Mind reading]]
* [[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
}}

==Response to claim: 28 - The author refers to a talisman that Joseph "is said to have worn while digging"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author refers to a talisman that Joseph "is said to have worn while digging."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Magic World View|pages=68}}
#Van Wagoner and Walker, "Joseph Smith Gift of Seeing," 2.
}}
{{misinformation|The talisman Joseph was "said to have worn"—was only said by someone selling it after his death. The author again ignores all the problems with Quinn's thesis, and acts as if it is proven.  He ignores all the difficulties with the so-called "Jupiter talisman."
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic/Jupiter talisman]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic|Joseph Smith and "magick"]]
*[[../../"Magick"]]

==Response to claim: 28 - The author notes that Emma "was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author notes that Emma "was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself."
|authorsources=<br>
#Van Wagoner & Walker, "Joseph Smith Gift," 50.
}}
{{information|She explained this didn't trouble her.  Emma insisted that she was ''not'' forbidden to see them, but that she was convinced that it was the work of God, and that this sufficed for her.  The author also does not report Emma's witness about the tangible reality of the physical plates.
}}
* [[Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Other Book of Mormon witnesses#Emma Smith|Emma Smith not forbidden to see plates]]

==Response to claim: 28 - For Joseph and Emma, "Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start."}}
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided.	
}}
*{{propaganda|This claim is the author's supposition.  He provides no citations.  Emma was faithful to Joseph through much&mdash;this is difficult to explain if she did not share his religious convictions, and if their relationship was constantly plagued by doubt and deception from the beginning.
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Emma Smith#Conclusion|Emma on Joseph's prophetic role]]
* [[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
* [[../../Mind reading]]
*[[../../Historical errors]]	
}}

==Response to claim: 28 - Joseph was haunted by the suspicion, which followed him from place to place, that he crossed moral boundaries in his friendship with other women"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"…Joseph was haunted by the suspicion, which followed him from place to place, that he crossed moral boundaries in his friendship with other women."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|How does the author know that Joseph was "haunted by the suspicion"? He is attempting to read Joseph's mind.  The only evidence he has provided are late, hostile attacks from the Hurlbut-Howe affidavits.  The specific claims do not hold up to scrutiny (see below).
}}
*[[Joseph Smith and plural marriage/Polygamists are to go beyond normal "bounds"|Did Joseph say polygamists_are_to_go_beyond_normal_"bounds"?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Psychobiographical analysis of|Psychobiographical analysis of Joseph Smith]]
*[[../../Assumptions and presumptions]]
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
*[[../../Mind reading]]


==Response to claim: 28-29 - The author claims that Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author claims that Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828.
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided
}}
{{misinformation|This hostile report is belied by other primary documents.
*[[Polygamy book/Early womanizer#Eliza Winters|Eliza Winters]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Eliza Winters}}
}}

==Response to claim: 29 - When Emma's mother, Elizabeth Hale, was asked about the purported seduction of Eliza Winters "in an interview forty-six years later, she declined to comment"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"When Emma's mother, Elizabeth Hale, was asked about this [the purported seduction of Eliza Winters] in an interview forty-six years later, she declined to comment.  Whatever she might have known went with her to the grave in February 1842…."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'' 4:296–97, 346–60; see also Frederick G. Mather, "The Early Mormons: Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna," ''Binghamton Republican'' (29 July 188).
}}
{{propaganda|The author does not tell us that the same author interviewed Eliza (see above), she likewise said nothing about Joseph's attempted seduction.  This is even stranger when we know that Eliza sued Martin Harris for slander because he accused her of loose morals; she lost the suit.  She had no reason, then, to favor the Mormons&mdash;yet she never complained of Joseph's attempted seduction.
*The author even makes the absence of evidence from Mrs. Hale sound suspicious.
*[[Polygamy book/Early womanizer#Eliza Winters|Eliza Winters]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Eliza Winters}} 
}}

==Response to claim: 29 - The author claims that in the revelation that became D&C 132, that Emma was promised "annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment'"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author claims that in the revelation that became D&C 132, that Emma was promised "annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment.'" 
|authorsources=<br>
#	
* {{s||D&C|132||}} (no verses provided).
}}
{{disinformation|The term "annihilation" is nowhere used in D&C 132 or any LDS scripture.
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Emma Smith/Emma to be annihilated]]

==Response to claim: 29 - The author notes that D&C 132 "did not invoke the Book of Mormon's justification for taking more wives—the call to raise a righteous seed"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author notes that D&C 132 "did not invoke the Book of Mormon's justification for taking more wives—the call to raise a righteous seed."
|authorsources=<br>
#	
* {{s||D&C|132||}} (no verses provided).
}}
{{misinformation|This calls into question, then, the author's theory that Joseph wrote the Book of Mormon and had been concocting the whole polygamy idea since his teen years.  If the Book of Mormon is Joseph's initial rationale for polygamy, why not use its best argument?
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Early knowledge}}
}}

==Response to claim: 29 - "The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Age_wives}}
}}

==Response to claim: 29 - The author speculates that Joseph's relationships in Ohio "with various families and their daughters...allowed him to invite the young women into his further confidence when they were older"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author speculates that Joseph's relationships in Ohio "with various families and their daughters...allowed him to invite the young women into his further confidence when they were older."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Age_wives}}	
}}

==Response to claim: 30 - The author notes that "In most cases, the women were adolescents or in their twenties when he met them.  About ten were pre-teens, others already thirty or above"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim=
*The author notes that "In most cases, the women were adolescents or in their twenties when he met them.  About ten were pre-teens, others already thirty or above."
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided
{{propaganda|The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Age_wives}}
}}

==Response to claim: 30 - "Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann would become one of Joseph Smith's wives, although at the time she was only five years old"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann would become one of Joseph Smith's wives, although at the time [1831] she was only five years old."}}
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided
}}
{{propaganda|The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Age_wives}}
}}

==Response to claim: 31 - Mary Elizabeth Rollings is described as "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…."==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=Mary Elizabeth Rollings is described as "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…."
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided
}}
{{propaganda|The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Age_wives}}
}}

==Response to claim: 31 - "It was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author points out that "[i]t was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well."
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided
}}
{{propaganda|The author is again pushing his "romantic" version of the letter to the Whitneys. The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Whitney letter]]
*[[../../Use of sources#Sarah Ann Whitney and the letter to the Whitneys|Use of sources&mdash;Letter to Whitneys]]
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
*[[../../Mind reading]]
*[[../../Romance]]
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Love_letters_Whitney}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Womanizing and romance}}
}}

==Response to claim: 31 - "Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio.  She said when he looked into her eyes, she felt ashamed.  At the time, the Smiths were living with Marinda's family…."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.	
}}
{{propaganda|What is the author trying to imply?  Joseph made her ashamed?  This is false&mdash;she felt ashamed for doubting Joseph's prophetic call once she'd met him.  Note also that the author does not tell story of Marinda's mother being healed of a palsied arm by Joseph (See Compton, ''In Sacred Loneliness'', 230).
*[[../../Use of sources#"she felt ashamed..."|"she felt ashamed..."]]
*[[Polygamy book/Early womanizer#Marinda Nancy Johnson|Marinda Nancy Johnson]]
*The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
}}

==Response to claim: 32 - "The seven-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball was still another future wife"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"The seven-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball was still another future wife…When she married Smith a few years later in Nauvoo at the age of fourteen, it was with her father's encouragement."}}
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Helen Mar Kimball|Helen Mar Kimball]]
*The author commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]]
*[[../../Presentism]]
}}

==Response to claim: 32–33 - "How relevant is it that in many instances he had lived under the same roof as his future wife prior to marrying her?"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author speculates on the nature of Joseph Smith's relationships with these young women "from the time he first met them," and asks: "How relevant is it that in many instances he had lived under the same roof as his future wife prior to marrying her?"
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given.
}}
{{propaganda|Ah, now we see why it's brought up!  But, the author explores none of these matters in detail&mdash;he just leaves it up to the readers' imagination.  It does raise some questions, such as:
# wouldn't it be hard to hide anything inappropriate in the close quarters of 19th century home?
# doesn't this mean that these women and their families knew both the public and private Joseph very well—they were not merely 'seduced' by his public persona?
* [[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Womanizing and romance}}
}}

==Response to claim: 33 - "probably by 1842," Lucinda Harris "became one more of the prophet's plural wives"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim=
*It is noted that Lucinda and George Harris lived across the street from the Smith family, and that "at an unspecified time, but probably by 1842, Lucinda became one more of the prophet's plural wives."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given.
}}
{{misinformation|Compton dates the marriage to 1838 (''In Sacred Loneliness'', 4).  The author addresses none of the issues around the date's uncertainty.
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Lucinda Harris}} 
}}

==Response to claim: 34 - The author claims that in Illinois Joseph "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author claims that in Illinois Joseph "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|The language presumes Joseph was guilty, and that such tactics were not simply an excuse to seize him.  This point should be argued and supported with data, not asserted.
*[[../../Assumptions and presumptions]]
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
}}

==Response to claim: 35 - Smith's unchartered bank, called the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-banking Company, collapsed==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author notes that "[d]uring the 1837 recession, Smith's unchartered bank, called the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-banking Company, collapsed.  Angry Ohioans could not be repaid for loans they had made to Mormon merchants and some church members lost their savings."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{information|We are not told that loans were made because the Saints (including Joseph) were considered good credit risks.  The economic collapse caught everyone by surprise.
}}
*[[Mormonism and church finances/Kirtland Safety Society|Kirtland Safety Society]]

==Response to claim: 37 - "Missourians were alarmed by the influx of Mormons"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"Missourians were alarmed by the influx of Mormons…and met to decide what to do about the intrusion.  Sidney Rigdon warned that if they lifted their hand against the church, they would be 'exterminated.'  In response to this incendiary speech, violence erupted on both sides, and Governor Lilburn Boggs soon declared in an echo of Rigdon's rhetoric that 'the Mormons…must be exterminated,' 'treated as enemies,' and 'driven from the State if necessary' to protect 'the public peace.'}}
|authorsources=<br>
#''History of the Church'' 3:42, 175.
}}
{{information|Note that the author tells us nothing of the 1833 violent dispossession of the members in Jackson County, Missouri.  The next paragraph says only that "Mormons found strife wherever they settled…this was true first in Jackson County….then to a succession of other counties." 	
}}

==Response to claim: 38 - Joseph and the other prisoners "escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author claims that Joseph and the other prisoners "escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{misinformation|This distorts the facts.  Mormons were in the majority, but others lived there.  Joseph did not rule by fiat, but government was conducted democratically under a charter granted by the Illinois legislature.
}}
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
*[[Nauvoo city charter]]

==Response to claim: 38n81 - "I hesitate to concur with Compton's interpretation of their relationship as a marriage"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=
The author notes that Todd Compton "has assembled the most complete documentation regarding Joseph and Fanny's relationship. However, I hesitate to concur with Compton's interpretation of their relationship as a marriage."
|authorsources=<br>
*{{CriticalWork:Compton:Sacred Loneliness|pages=25–42}}
*{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}
*{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Hancock_ignored}}
}}
{{propaganda|Note that the author does not engage or do more than mention Compton's strongest evidence: the Hancock autobiography. (He says only "Compton…draws from a late reminiscence by Mosiah Hancock to suggest that Smith married Alger in early 1833."[41 n. 90]  But, we are nowhere told that this witness claimed to have performed the marriage ceremony.
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Initiation of the practice|Initiation of the practice]]
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith marry Fanny Alger as his first plural wife in 1833?}}

==Response to claim: 39 - "Joseph had been 'found' in the hay with his housekeeper"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"Joseph wrote in his journal on December 4, 1832, 'Oh, Lord, deliver thy servant out of temtations [sic] and fill his heart with wisdom and understanding.'  If this was not in reference to Fanny Alger, it coincided with the report of two of Joseph's scribes, Warren Parrish and Oliver Cowdery, that Joseph had been 'found' in the hay with his housekeeper."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{misinformation|Neither Parrish nor Cowdery said anything about them being found in the hay together. That relies entirely on William McLellin's second and third hand reports.
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}
}}
*[[../../Use of sources#.22temtations.22 and Fanny Alger|"temptations" and Fanny Alger]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]

==Response to claim: 39 - Warren Parrish said that Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=Warren Parrish said that Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{information|The Parrish report is from Benjamin F. Johnson, who the author fails to tell us went on to say, "without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife." 
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]

==Response to claim: 39 - Oliver Cowdery referred to Joseph's relationship with Fanny Alger as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=Oliver Cowdery referred to Joseph's relationship with Fanny Alger as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair."
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided.
}}
{{information}}
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]

==Response to claim: 39–41 - The William McLellin claims==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The William McLellin claims are discussed.
}}
{{misinformation|Note that the author nowhere mentions some evidence which supports the marriage theory:
**the hostile Ann-Eliza Young
**the hostile Chauncey Webb
**Fanny's parents
**Hancock autobiography report of a marriage ceremony (see above)
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Hancock_ignored}}
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]

==Response to claim: 40–41 - William McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill" involved with Joseph==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=It is noted that William McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill" involved with Joseph.
|authorsources=<br>
#Newell and Avery, ''Mormon Enigma'', 66.
}}
{{propaganda|McLellin claims Emma Smith confirmed ''[[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin#McLellin: Letter No. 2.E2.80.94July 1872|both]]'' tales, yet later claims she confirmed only [[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin#McLellin: Newspaper.E2.80.94October 1875|one]].  There are other aspects of the supposed "confirmation" which likewise cast doubt on McLellin's tale.
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
}}

==Response to claim: 41–42 - "'Fanny Alger as a wife' employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"It might be important to mention that the testimony here and elsewhere regarding "[having] Fanny Alger as a wife" employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|Yet it is not clear why we should not so construe it. G. D. Smith does not tell us that Johnson (the same person who reported the term 'had…as a wife') then insisted in the same document that “without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife.”  The author provides no evidence or citation to enforce his reading over Johnson’s clear view of the relationship. 
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]

==Response to claim: 42 - "There is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author states that "[t]here is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant."
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided.
}}
{{information|There is reason to [[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin#The Webbs|doubt]] this claim, not merely to regard it as unconfirmed.
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]

==Response to claim: 42–43 - Five "primary accounts" of the Fanny Alger relationship==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=Five "primary accounts" of the Fanny Alger relationship:
#Oliver Cowdery & Warren Parrish
#FG Williams via McLellin
#Emma Smith via McLellin
#Benjamin F. Johnson
#Fanny Brewer's affidavit
{{misinformation|There is no Warren Parrish statement as suggested in #1; only Johnson's citation of him in 1905.
The author fails to mention:<br>
#Ann Eliza Webb x 2 (hostile, but thought was a marriage)
#Chauncery Webb

These are "second hand," but so are Parrish, William, Emma, Johnson, and Fanny Brewer!
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Fanny Alger&mdash;affair or marriage?]]
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin|Fanny Alger&mdash;William McLellin account]]
*See TABLE 2 in {{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Fanny Alger}}

==Response to claim: 44 - "Rumors may have been circulating already as early as 1832 that Smith had been familiar with fifteen-year-old Marinda Johnson"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"Rumors may have been circulating already as early as 1832 that Smith had been familiar with fifteen-year-old Marinda Johnson, a member of the family with which Smith lived in Ohio."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{misinformation|Compton and Van Wagoner both reject this version of events.
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Womanizing and romance}}
}}
*[[Polygamy book/Early womanizer#Marinda Nancy Johnson|Marinda Nancy Johnson]]

==Response to claim: 44 - Lucinda Harris is said to have claimed that she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=Lucinda Harris is said to have claimed that she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Wyl:Mormon Portraits Volume First|pages=60}}
#{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Mormon Hierarchy|pages=618}}
}}
{{propaganda|Such a claim is inconsistent with the mores of the time.  The author does no source criticism on the problems with the Sarah Pratt statement from a virulently anti-Mormon work.
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Lucinda Harris}}
}}

<!-- ====44 n. 100====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author claims that Van Wagoner and Compton argue that "the mobsters...reacted to financial shenanigans, not to indiscretions with their sister. In defense of this position, Van Wagoner and Compton point to the fact that Sidney Rigdon was also tarred and feathered that night”
|authorsources=<br>
#Van Wagoner, ''Mormon Polygamy'', 4 n. 4; Compton, ''In Sacred Loneliness'', 220–222.
}}
The author fails to mention the strongest arguments advanced by those who disagree with him. He provides no citation for the explanation that he adopts.
*[[Polygamy book/Early womanizer#Marinda Nancy Johnson|Marinda Nancy Johnson]]
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Womanizing and romance}}
}} -->

==Response to claim: 45 - "Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author claims that Gary James Bergera argued that "Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)…."
|authorsources=<br>
#	
*Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," ''Dialogue'' 35 (Fall 2002): 41–42, 45.  
}}
{{misinformation|Joseph was teaching the doctrine of eternal marriage well before 1841.
}}
* [[Polygamy book/Introduction of the eternal marriage|Eternal marriage&mdash;introduction of the doctrine]]

==Response to claim: 44–45 - ""Civil marriage" was claimed to be "an outdated marriage contract"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim="Civil marriage" was claimed to be "an outdated marriage contract which, church members came to understand, was an inefficacious as an improper baptism."
|authorsources=<br>
#Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," ''Dialogue'' 35 (Fall 2002): 41–42, 45. 
}}
{{disinformation|Not true, since one could be in good Church standing if one was civilly married, but not if one was committing adultery. Beyond the grave, marriages were not binding.  But this does not mean that they were "outdated," or that Church members did not continue to marry civilly.
*{{FR-10-2-6}}<!--Anderson and Faulring-->
}}

==Response to claim: 48 - "an otherworldly being Smith called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…."==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"In Smith's narrative, an otherworldly being Smith called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#{{s||D&C|132||}}
}}
{{propaganda|An "otherworldly being" called "the Lord?"
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
}}

==Response to claim: 48-49 - D&C 132 "contravenes the Book of Mormon passage where polygamy is said to be allowed under certain conditions but is likely an indication of wickedness"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author claims that D&C 132 "contravenes the Book of Mormon passage where polygamy is said to be allowed under certain conditions but is likely an indication of wickedness…." "However, Smith's 1843 revelation changes all this.  Section 132 establishes polygamy as a virtuous higher law that is forever 'true'—no longer a time-sensitive practice."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{s||Jacob|2||}}
#{{s||D&C|132||}}
}}
*[[Contradiction between D&C 132 and Jacob 2]]

==Response to claim: 49 - The author speculates that a revelation received by Joseph seemed "to recall Smith's teenage concerns about sinful thoughts and behavior, reiterated this standard: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery….'"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author speculates that a revelation received by Joseph seemed "to recall Smith's teenage concerns about sinful thoughts and behavior, reiterated this standard: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery….'"
|authorsources=<br>
#{{s||D&C|42|24}}
}}
{{propaganda|Again presuming what he has failed to prove—that Joseph was challenged by sexual sin from early adolescence.
*[[../../Mind reading]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Womanizing and romance}}
}}

==Response to claim: 50 - "…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim={{AuthorQuote|"…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling."}}
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given.
}}
{{misinformation|Again ignores the Hancock autobiography, Ann Eliza Webb, Chauncery Webb, and Benjamin F. Johnson.
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Hancock_ignored}}
}}

==Response to claim: 50 - The author suggest that Joseph engaged in "perilous anti-social behavior by indulging in sexual relations with the daughters and wives of close friends"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author suggest that Joseph engaged in "perilous anti-social behavior by indulging in sexual relations with the daughters and wives of close friends, albeit mostly in marital and religious contexts."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given.
}}
{{propaganda|Sexual relations in a marital context is not an "anti-social" act.  If all the data are taken into account (i.e., the Hancock autobiography) all were sanctioned in this way (see above).
*There is scant evidence that [[Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Polyandry|Joseph had sexual relations with any polyandrous wife]].
* {{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}}
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Hancock_ignored}}
}}

==Response to claim: 51 - The author states that "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…."==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author states that "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source given.
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Polygamy#Hiding the Truth?|Joseph Smith and polygamy&mdash;Hiding the truth?]]
{{CriticalWorks:Smith:Nauvoo_Polygamy:See_also:Lying}}
}}

==Response to claim: 51 - Although polygamy has been repeatedly condemned by the modern Church, "the Nauvoo beginnings of the practice remain in LDS scripture as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the church's temple sealings"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Nauvoo Polygamy
|claim=The author suggests that today there is "the continued abusive coercion of underage girls in polygamous communities," and that although polygamy has been repeatedly condemned by the modern Church, "the Nauvoo beginnings of the practice remain in LDS scripture as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the church's temple sealings."
|authorsources=<br>
#Newspaper articles on "fundamentalist" plural marriage
}}
{{propaganda|The implication is that the Church sanctions "abusive coercion of underage girls in polygamous communities." Doctrine and Covenants 132 provides no support for such a practice.}}
*[[Logical fallacies#Guilt by association|Logical fallacy&mdash;Guilt by association]]
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]]

{{endnotes sources}}