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It has oft been pointed out that Joseph Smith did not have sex with all the women he married, so how can that have been his motivation? Perhaps it was celestial sex he was after. On one occasion he said,

if you have power to seal on earth & in
heaven then we should be Crafty, the first thing you do go & seal on
earth your sons & daughters unto yourself, & yourself unto your fathers
in eternal glory, & go ahead and not go back, but use a little Craftiness
& seal all you can; & when you get to heaven tell your father that what
you seal on earth should be sealed in heaven I will walk through the
gate of heaven and Claim what I seal [Journal of Wilford Woodruff,
March 10, 1844, Archives]

Maybe Joseph's "crafty" plan was to seal himself to as many beautiful women as possible, even if they were a little past their prime, so that when he got to heaven and they had their renewed and perfected bodies he could claim them as his own. I can hear the conversation now:

God: Joseph, I told you in the book of Jacob that polygamy is a sin.
Joseph: Ah, but you also said that whatever I bind on earth will be bound in heaven. You're in a bit of a "bind" now, aren't you? Hahaha, get it? In a "Bind"? I crack myself up! I'll be taking my wives now, thanks.

I have often wondered when the scholars are looking for DNA evidence to see if Smith had children to these other wives. Did he use birth control? Was it coitus interruptus? "The very first modern day contraceptive developed was the male condom. It was developed in 1562 to stop the spread of venereal disease. It was originally called the male sheath and was made of a lubricated linen cloth. Some later sheaths were made of goat bladders, animal intestines, or blowfish intestines. Since condoms were expensive and hard to get men would wash them and use them over" Birth control history.In folklore, “Dr. Condon” invented the first condom for King Charles II in the 17th century. In reality, the name derives from the Latin "condus", meaning receptacle. If Smith was making nocturnal visits to be with these wives, maybe he missed having relationships with them during their time of ovulation.

aussieguy55 wrote:I have often wondered when the scholars are looking for DNA evidence to see if Smith had children to these other wives. Did he use birth control? Was it coitus interruptus? "The very first modern day contraceptive developed was the male condom. It was developed in 1562 to stop the spread of venereal disease. It was originally called the male sheath and was made of a lubricated linen cloth. Some later sheaths were made of goat bladders, animal intestines, or blowfish intestines. Since condoms were expensive and hard to get men would wash them and use them over" Birth control history.In folklore, “Dr. Condon” invented the first condom for King Charles II in the 17th century. In reality, the name derives from the Latin "condus", meaning receptacle. If Smith was making nocturnal visits to be with these wives, maybe he missed having relationships with them during their time of ovulation.

"Nocturnal visits" sounds like owl sex. Or should that be "[h]owl sex"?

He did it all for the nookie, the nookie, so he can take his cookie and stick it up his....

KA

CK -

Joseph Smith aside, my understanding of the early theology of the church is that by having many wives sealed to you, and in addition, sometimes, other people sealed to you as some sort of extended family, men were enhancing their status in the next life. In either Mormon Polygamy or Compton's book, the author mentioned that when a bunch of Joseph Smith' wives went to the Utah temple to be formally sealed to him, a temple worker made a comment something like "there goes Joseph Smith' train and glory".

I tend to believe Joseph Smith actually believed in his own explanations about his behavior. I think that the desire for sex with women other than Emma was the impetus for his searching and "discovering" this alternative lifestyle, but that it expanded into a larger theology that he also likely believed.

It was the trifecta:

MONEY, SEX and POWER, all shades of the same thing.

I think Joseph believed that what he wanted was what God wanted. Like he was channeling God or something. And he wanted power, to be revered, money, and lastly, women. He was a big fish in a small pond, who desperately wanted to expand his pond. He fooled some of the people all of the time, but he overreached himself, and the people who were not fooled were not amused.

He had a gift, given to him under specific circumstances, for a specific period of time. Like Cinderella, he overstayed the terms of his gift, only in his story, he bastardized his gift and tried to turn himself into the prince.

In the end, it was the sex, but in the beginning, it was the power.

Mercury wrote:It was the trifecta:

MONEY, SEX and POWER, all shades of the same thing.

Projecting?

Mercury wrote:It was the trifecta:

MONEY, SEX and POWER, all shades of the same thing.

If this were so, it would have already been a mini-series.

The Nehor wrote:

Mercury wrote:It was the trifecta:

MONEY, SEX and POWER, all shades of the same thing.

Projecting?

How am I projecting? Please explain that.