Did Joseph Smith Practice or Authorize a “Plurality of Husbands” (Polyandry)?
Some critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have accused Joseph Smith of practicing “polyandry,” which means one wife having multiple husbands. This is because Joseph was sealed in holy Mormon eternal covenants to women who were already married. Looking back through a glass darkly, and especially if one doesn’t understand what eternal marriage is, the view can be startling from here. So did Joseph Smith practice polyandry, and if so, why?
Short Answer:
Yes and no. Yes spiritually, and no temporally (during mortality). Because there are three basic kinds of marriage — marriage during mortality (“until death do you part”); marriage in the afterlife (“eternal, or celestial marriage”); and marriage for “time and all eternity” (marriage that lasts through all of mortality and forever in the afterlife). Marriages performed in Mormon temples are for time and all eternity. Civil marriages and marriage in other churches are for mortality only.
Joseph Smith’s marriages to women already married consisted of the following: Most of them, probably eleven of the fourteen, were “eternity only” sealings, meaning only for the next life. The women were married for “time” to their civil husbands and for “eternity” to Joseph Smith. They did not represent simultaneous marriages, but rather consecutive marriages. The remaining three of the fourteen sealings were for “time and eternity,” meaning they could have included sexual relations. However, they too were not simultaneous marriages. It appears these women were already physically separated from their legal spouses and had the equivalent of a Church divorce.
Long Answer:
The answer to why these sealings occurred is simply because the women chose to be sealed to Joseph Smith rather than their legal husbands. [It was a great honor to be sealed to the Prophet.] Lucy Walker, one of Joseph’s plural wives, recalled his counsel regarding eternal sealings: “A woman would have her choice, this was a privilege that could not be denied her.”
It seems strange to us today, especially considering that these types of sealings are no longer performed. Nevertheless, none of the plural wives or their legal husbands ever complained about the unique marital dynamic.
The answer to the question of whether Joseph Smith practiced sexual polyandry is “no.” There is no reliable evidence to support it, and his documented teachings and practices confirm that he would have considered it to be sexually immoral. For example, all known references to sexual polyandry by Church leaders (including three by Joseph Smith) condemn it as adultery. In addition, he taught that a “time and eternity” sealing would supersede a legal matrimony (causing it to be “done away”), so at no time could a woman have two husbands because the legal marriage would be dissolved in God’s eyes.
Admittedly, unanswered questions still exist, but nothing in the historical record supports that it would be acceptable for a woman to have two husbands at the same time. Despite multiple authors who have portrayed the situation differently, there is no evidence to support that Joseph Smith experienced conjugal visits with a woman who was also having sexual relations with her legal husband.
For more information see JosephSmithsPolygamy.org.
Further reading: