I am Ryan McKnight.

I'm Kara Santa Maria.

I am Christopher Smith.

Hi, I'm Andrew Torres.

This is Naked Mormonism.

The Serial Mormon History Podcast.

Now that we have reviewed the actual text of Doctrine Convinants 132, that's the polygamy revelation, let's discuss the context.

Now, a lot can be said and much more has been written about Navu polygamy.

Some historians have made it their sole purpose to document and understand everything that happened when

it came to Mormon elites practicing polygamy throughout the first half of the 1840s.

It's a controversial subject. A few historians have tried to make the case that Joseph Smith

never practiced polygamy and that it was just his Mormon elite cohorts who were practicing spiritual wifery.

But that's nonsense, which requires ignoring dozens of firsthand contemporary sources, which corroborate polygamy by Joseph Smith and his closest acolytes.

As far as historians can tell, it happened. So the question is, what did it look like? How was it practiced? What was the text that it was based on, which we read last week? What were the reactions of people when the doctrine was revealed to them? We've explored some of these questions as the topic of polygamy has come up in our timeline from time to time. You know, it's just not a simple subject. And the idea of sharing spouses was so incredibly

contrary to the Victorian Protestant ideals of, you know, the kind of standard model of a nuclear

family, one husband, one wife. Um, you know, because of that, polygamy required persuasion, coercion, and upon

acceptance, the utmost secrecy, which was repeatedly built into the text of 132 itself.

The practice of polygamy had commenced years before the actual text of DNC 132 was dictated.

It required verbal communication of the idea and the scriptural

justification of it to those who would be initiated, but having an actual paper revelation,

which could be presented, certainly helped to elevate the practice, thus legitimizing any

proposal that Mormon elite men would propose. The trade-off, however, was that there

...