For more than 140 years, leaders and representatives of the RLDS/CoC church have tried to convince their followers that it was Brigham Young, and not Joseph Smith, who introduced the polygamist system practiced in Mormonism. Although polygamy was a topic of conversation in Kirtland, Ohio, the undeniable evidence reveals that it was Joseph Smith who actually instituted the system while living in Nauvoo. And it was in Nauvoo, before Joseph’s death, that the issue of polygamy came to a head.

As early as 1841, in Nauvoo, rumors had begun to circulate that Joseph was not only teaching a “spiritual wife” doctrine (polygamy), but was also taking spiritual wives for himself. At first this teaching was kept secret, only to be known in the upper levels of the church. However, by 1843, rumors of the practice were so widespread among the leadership and laity that they couldn’t be quieted. Joseph was forced to bring forth a “revelation” legitimizing the practice and on July 12, 1843, he dictated the revelation to his personal secretary William Clayton. Joseph’s diary for that day reads, “I received the following revelation in the presence of my brother Hyrum and Elder William Clayton.” Statements from Joseph’s lengthy revelation read:

“…Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph… I reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant [polygamy] and if ye abide not in that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory…If ye abide in my covenant…then shall…[ye] be gods…. And again as pertaining to the law of the priesthood…if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him…”

In the spring of  1844, Hyrum Smith read the revelation to the High Counsel in Nauvoo. Some members of the counsel accepted the revelation as “divine” while others renounced it.

Among those who rejected the revelation was William Law who had been a close and loyal friend of Joseph Smith and a member of the first presidency. On April 18,1844, Law was excommunicated from the church without a hearing for rejecting polygamy. On June 7, 1844, Law and six others, published the first and only issue of the Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper disclosing Joseph’s illicit activities and false teachings. An excerpt from the paper reads:

“Inasmuch as the they, [Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and others] have introduced false and damnable doctrines into the church, such as a plurality of Gods…[and] the plurality of wives, for time and eternity…we [the editors] therefore are constrained to denounce them as apostates from the pure and holy doctrines of Jesus Christ.”

In response to these accusations, Joseph Smith called a City Council meeting on June 10, 1844, in which he declared the newspaper a “public nuisance” and ordered the printing press destroyed. Minutes of the meeting produced incriminating evidence that Joseph had indeed given a revelation on polygamy. Richard Howard, former RLDS Historian, made the following comments on this subject:

“These minutes, published in the church press while Joseph Smith, Jr. was yet alive and in Nauvoo, show him affirming the fact of a revelation dealing with both ancient marriage and present-day marriage for eternity…. This shows Joseph’s full endorsement of his revelation for celestial marriage for eternity, tying it to priesthood authority and revealing its direct implications for celestial polygamy…”

Fawn Brodie, Mormon historian notes:

“When Joseph Smith read the expose of his polygamy in the pages of the Nauvoo Expositor, published by a man whom he had respected and revered, he must have felt a shattering of his own grandiose and wholly unrealistic image of himself and his role in history…. A man called Law had called him to account, as his parents never had, and he reacted with lawlessness…. A sense of depression, foreboding, and doom dogged the prophet thereafter, contributing inexorably to his destruction.”

Although the RLDS Church has vigorously opposed the idea that Joseph Smith introduced polygamy into his church, the sworn testimony below tell a different story. These testimonies are from men who lived in Nauvoo at the time Joseph’s revelation was made public and they verify the fact that he not only gave a revelation, he also practiced polygamy himself.

Jason Briggs one of the founders of the “New Organization” (later know as the RLDS Church), said, “I was at Nauvoo in 1843, the year it was found necessary to legalize polygamy by a revelation…. I have no doubt as to the authorship of the revelation of July 12, 1843. It has all the earmarks to identify it as the production of the mouthpiece of those days [Joseph Smith].

William Clayton, Joseph Smith’s personal secretary testified, “Now I say to you, as I am ready to testify to all the world…that the revelation on polygamy was given through the prophet Joseph Smith on the 12th July, 1843 and that the prophet Joseph Smith both taught and practiced polygamy.”

William Marks, president of the Nauvoo Stake: “During my administration in the Church [at Nauvoo] I saw and heard of many things that were practiced and taught that I did not believe to be of God…. Therefore when the doctrine of polygamy was introduced into the church…I took a decided stand against it.”

Added to these testimonies implicating Joseph Smith as the author of polygamy, was the following statement printed in the first edition of the True Latter Day Saint Herald, the official publication of the RLDS Church, “Joseph Smith repented of his connection with this doctrine [polygamy] and said that it was of the devil. He caused the revelation on that subject to the burned…by his conduct at that time he proved the sincerity of his repentance…”

In his role as Prophet, Seer and Revelator in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith committed many acts that directly contradicted Biblical truth. He suppressed freedom of speech by destroying the printing press. He violated marriage laws by introducing polygamy. He taught blasphemy by declaring that God was once a man who progressed to Godhood, that there were many Gods, that mortal men could become Gods, and that polygamy was an essential step to becoming a God. Despite these unconscionable acts, Joseph’s self-image was such that he could make the following claim just one month before his death:

“I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him, but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.”

In the foreword of his book, The True Origin of Mormon Polygamy, Charles Shook makes these insightful observations linking Joseph Smith with polygamy:

“In putting this book out, our intention is not simply to expose the foibles of Joseph Smith as a mere man. If he had made no extraordinary claims, his mistakes would have been buried long ago, as the mistakes of thousands of men have been. But when his followers present him to the world as a prophet and religious teacher, so immaculate in life that even God could use him as his mouthpiece, it is quite another thing, and they must answer for his misdeeds before an intelligent and virtuous public…. The stain of sin is upon the garments of Mormonism and the world at large believes that the hand of Joseph Smith placed it there…
Therefore, the duty that plainly confronts the Reorganized Church is to meet the claims presented and overthrown them, if they can.”

A mountain of evidence points to Joseph Smith as the originator of Mormon polygamy. Therefore, the RLDS/Community of Christ Church has the moral obligation to inform their people of the truth and put the blame where it belongs—squarely on the shoulders of Joseph Smith, the author of the evil system that ultimately cost him his life.