The Mormon church has acknowledged that its founding prophet, Joseph Smith, wed as many as 40 wives, including one as young as 14 years old.
After painstaking efforts to present Smith as happily married to one woman, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now says, “careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40,” CNN reported.
The news that Smith had taken so many wives shocked some members of the faith, CNN reported. The church had disavowed polygamy in 1890 under pressure from the U.S. government.
The church said in an essay that Smith did not want to take multiple wives, but had to after receiving a commandment from God. The church said that Smith did not necessarily consummate every marriage, as some might have been “eternity-only sealings,” CNN reported.
Most of the women Smith married were between 20 and 40, but one was as young as 14. Some of the women were already married to other men, the church said.
“Marriage at such an age, inappropriate by today’s standards, was legal in that era, and some women married in their mid-teens,” the church said, CNN reported.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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