"They or most of them considered his admiration an insult, and treated him with scorn. In return for this scorn, he generally managed to blacken their reputations" This turns out to be a bit of a pattern with Joseph.
Keep in mind that at the time of JS, there were anti-bigamy laws in every state. So polygamy was illegal, and JS was breaking the law. It was considered a serious offense, as was adultery (also illegal). Hence JS trying to keep polygamy under wraps.
Every state? I have only found specific bigamy laws predating 1840 in about half the states Joseph lived in. Now Illinois was one of them, but Missouri, for instance, did not pass an explicit anti-bigamy law until 1845. None of the federal territories would have explicit anti-bigamy laws for decades.
@@ChristianRescue Personally I think there is a big difference between a claim that the practice was not socially acceptable, which I agree was the case, and a claim of explicit illegality. Often time there is a difference between how a law is interpreted and the explicit text.
Thank you for the truth!! It is amazing that this man and all of his evil doings established a church with millions of deceived members and many people think this is OK, the doctrine is not Christian, and this church was founded on a lie!!