As Joseph Smith quietly practiced plural marriage in Nauvoo in 1842 and 43, all was not well. Three people in particular complicated things for Joseph. The first was John C. Bennett, a highly gifted convert who’s meteoric rise to civic and church leadership in Nauvoo abruptly ended when he was exposed for his secret practice of “spiritual wifery,” which was nothing more or less than illicit serial adultery. Bennett’s defamatory opposition to Joseph after his excommunication was fierce and directly impacted Joseph’s own private practice of plural marriage.

Surprisingly, Joseph’s own brother and member of the First Presidency, Hyrum Smith, was openly opposed to polygamy during this time and sought to use his influence to put down any hint of it in Nauvoo, all the while suspecting that his own brother and others of the apostles may be living it. Yet amidst his opposition, in one key moment, everything changed for Hyrum.

Joseph’s wife Emma Smith was the third and most important person in his life to complicate his practice of plural marriage. Although she sought for a time to embrace it, Emma struggled mightily with this practice on many levels—to the point that it almost ended their marriage. 

In this episode of Church History Matters we discuss each of these three individuals—John C. Bennett, Hyrum, and Emma Smith—and how each factored in to the complexities and troubles of living plural marriage in Nauvoo.

For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/