CHURCH ESSAY: “The exact number of women to whom he [Joseph Smith] was sealed [married] in his lifetime is unknown because the evidence is fragmentary [though best estimates place it between 30 and 40]. … The youngest was Helen Mar Kimball, daughter of Joseph’s close friends Heber C. and Vilate Murray Kimball, who was sealed to Joseph several months before her 15th birthday.” -from Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo, a church essay available at the Gospel Topics section of LDS.org. [source]
COMMENTARY: If Warren Jeffs marries a lot of women, some of them teenagers, you know instantly that he’s a false prophet. But when Joseph Smith does the same thing, you want us to believe he was commanded by God? I’ll let you in on a little secret. When you apply different rules to your religious leaders than to the religious leaders of other sects, you can be pretty sure that your religion is just as false as theirs. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.
