Joseph Smith as a Sexual Predator

Sandra Tanner describes it as an inescapable conclusion.

High quality, freely redistributable video file available for download here:

http://www.archive.org/download/Manti2009/SandraTanner-JosephSmithAndLucyWalk...

Sandra's ministry, Utah Lighthouse Ministry:

http://utlm.org/

Transcription of the video:

How can you avoid the conclusion that Joseph Smith was a sexual predator? ... for instance in the newsletter "Sacred Marriage or Secret Affair" I tell about the case of Lucy Walker. Now here is a young girl where she is in a family of ten children, the family converts to Mormonism, they end up moving to Nauvoo. But the mother gets malaria in Nauvoo and dies and then one of the children dies. ... and Joseph Smith's solution to this family's situation is to send the father on a two year mission to the east coast, divide up the children into different homes, and take the teenagers into his home. So now he [Smith] has this sixteen year old girl living in the home with her brother that's a year or so older than her. He [Smith] starts privately going to the sister to try to convince her to become his plural wife. She's praying about the whole thing, she doesn't no what to make out of it.

Then it turns out that Joseph's wife Emma and the brother go on a shopping trip to St. Luis and while they're gone Joseph gets the girl to marry him. And she just that day, the day before, turned seventeen when she marries him in polygamy behind Emma's back. She later wrote in her own story of her life what a devastating thing, and how hard this was for her to do. She says here I was without mother or father to consult, no one around to go to too talk to, and yet being presented with this great issue. Of course she prays and finally feels God spoke to her and told her to do this and she goes into plural marriage. ...

This shows a deliberate effort of isolating this girl from her family, from everyone around her, from any support system, in a time of grief and loneliness; to put that kind of pressure on her is signs of a spiritual predator. I don't see how we can excuse this kind of behavior and say 'well he was sincere.' You wouldn't give that kind of leeway to someone who approached your sixteen year old daughter. ...

Why does Joseph [Smith] get a pass on these things? I don't understand how they [Mormon apologists and liberal Mormons] keep saying 'it's OK.' And if you read the [stories] of the different wives [of Smith] they all are horrible; going to teenage girls and saying God sent an angel with a drawn sword that was going to kill Joseph Smith if he didn't go into polygamy; if she didn't marry him God was going to kill him. ... The weight of responsibility this would put on a teenage girl, 'I'm gonna be responsible for the prophets death!' Then he would also put the responsibility on these young girls: that if you consent to this it will insure your parent's eternal salvation. ... How can a girl say, 'no, I'm not gonna help my parents have eternal life,' and so she finally submits to this. ... to me [this] clearly is the pattern of a sexual predator. ...

... the lies of Joseph Smith do affect people, they aren't just innocent things that don't touch other people; because of Joseph Smith's polygamy we have all the polygamists today. Mormons will say to me, 'but look at the fruits of Mormonism,' yea the fruits of Mormonism is sixty thousand people living in polygamy today, that's the fruit of Joseph Smith. Those people wouldn't be in those situations had it not been for him [Smith] privately going to teenage girls and coercing them into plural marriage.

See also: Grant Palmer's "Sexual Allegations Against Joseph Smith":

http://mormonthink.com/sexualallegations.htm

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• joseph
• smith
• polygamy
• polyandry
• polygyny
• flaming
• sword
• lucy
• walker
• lds
• mormon
• mormonism
• sandra
• tanner

[scottwins2]

Most polygamy accounts were 2nd and 3rd hand she makes it 3rd and 4th hand.

Joseph Smith was a great man so loved he was called "Brother Joseph".

[MrMFHORN]

There is real divine power associated with the LDS Church. Tryng to build a case against JS with second and third hand accounts doesn't proove a thing. JS had many enemys and , no doubt ,many gave false accounts of him. Christ was also wrongly accused of many things.

[thelordmemnoch]

Easy, they could always say, "So what that she was sixteen, it beats the Islamic prophet Mohammed, who married Aisha when she was six."

Either way both those prophets were clowns, but Joseph Smith and his followers are something else. At least Mohammed is relatively shrouded in *some* mystery, Joseph was a known charlatan in this day and age and people STILL follow him.

[ImLDSRU2]

@Nepthu You are surely lying. Anti-Christs do not have the truth in them and you are lying. You do intend to hurt me. You have no ability to do any good thing.. only harm.

You need to repent and come to Christ.

[Nepthu]

@ImLDSRU2 I do not mean to hurt you, but I sincerely believe that you are deceived. Please pray for help and stick to your Bible rather than the man made temple worship that Joseph Smith crafted from the Masons!

You cannot fully know Jesus when you are following a false prophet like Joseph Smith.

It is easy to dismiss others as "anti-Christs" but you must hear the message: Jesus is the way. It's not Jesus plus Joseph's teachings. It's Jesus ALONE.

[Nepthu]

@ImLDSRU2 come to the real, true and living Christ of the Bible. Joseph Smith said: I have more to boast of than any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor JESUS NEVER DID IT. I boast that NO MAN ever did such work as I (History of the Church, Vol.6, pp. 408-09).

A true servant of Christ does not claim to have accomplished more than the Christ.

[ImLDSRU2]

@Nepthu It is impossible to accept Jesus while fighting against Him. That is what you are pretending to do. It is fake.

you are anti-Christ. I urge you to repent. Come to Christ. He will heal you.

[Nepthu]

I accept Christ as my Savior, and I know He is my Lord. I believe in following his commandments and that he foretold the coming of false prophets. One of those false prophets is Joseph Smith.

[ImLDSRU2]

@Nepthu As anti-Christ your pretension at rebuking in the name of whatever Lord you pretend to, is ineffective.

Jesus is the Savior and the only Lord. You need to repent and come to Christ. He will help you.