A friend of mine sent me an as-yet unposted two hour documentary she made presenting evidence she believes shows that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist. Her earnestness in making and sharing the film with me was enough to motivate me to watch it. My rule of thumb is that if someone is sincere enough in their belief to invest a great deal of effort in sharing it, I ought to take it seriously enough to consider it open-mindedly. I watched the video and responded with this email:
The position you’ve posited and approach you’ve taken here is certainly not new. Like others, you’ve listed out some evidence and surrounded it with abundant speculation to support the possibility that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist. But this really isn’t a fruitful tack, as should have already been obvious from the lack of effect from the similar work of so many others. It sidesteps the real question—the real problem you are addressing—which is whether your faith in God requires Joseph to be a monogamist.
While the question of Joseph Smith’s polygamy will forever be mysterious to those who refuse to accept anything short of DNA evidence (and even that I doubt would be sufficient), we can actually address the real question in a much more direct and indisputable way.
Did Joseph Smith teach one thing in public, and do another thing in private? Yes. Did Joseph Smith participate in secret societies? Yes. Did Joseph Smith practice different religious ideas with a subset of trusted people than he did with the church as a whole? Yes. These answers are apparent from his masonry, the temple penalties, and, most importantly, the Council of Fifty. The overlap here should be obvious, as should the arguments that fall apart. Additionally, and in the same approach, one could ask whether we have reason to believe that Hyrum’s religious beliefs might have severely shifted around 1844. We know they did, as he was a founding member of the Council of Fifty. From there, any problems that are unique to polygamy come down to whether we are the judges of what benefits or whether God is.
I believe in a God who subjected Job to horrific undeserved affliction, who commanded Abraham to kill his cherished son, who commanded Moses and Joshua to slaughter untold numbers of Canaanite women and children, and who sent his Only Begotten down from his glorious presence to innocently suffer the fullness of what can be suffered by a mortal man. I believe he knows better than us what leads to our greatest joy, and I trust him to lead me to better outcomes than I would devise for myself. It seems that you, on the other hand, do not.
People are not kept out of heaven for what they don't have sufficient reasons to believe, but for what they have sufficient reasons to believe yet do not do. A disciple of Christ doesn’t just obey God in the things they would do anyway. God’s goodness, intelligence, and love is sufficient reason for us to obey him in all things. Our purpose here is to learn a more accurate understanding of what is good, which is whatever God would do in our place.
I support any effort to dispel the myth that polygamy is required for exaltation or that any woman should be compelled to live it. However, I do not see a large group of people struggling with this, nor do the efforts of you and others like you seem to be aimed at addressing the few who do. Compulsory polygamy is not the only type, and none of the attempts I've seen to persuade that JS was not a polygamist make the distinction. Of all religious sects who accept polygamy as moral, I'm only aware of one (the FLDS) who do so the way you are describing. Rather, these efforts seem to be a poorly-disguised proxy war for the conscience of people who place limits on their trust in and obedience to God.
My trust in God doesn’t rely on whether or not Joseph Smith practiced polygamy, and anyone who can’t say the same has more important things to worry about than whether or not he did. Until they can, they will have a very difficult time making a dispassionate rational analysis of the evidence, and will not qualify for (nor listen to) revelation from God on the matter.
You obviously have admirable production skills and are willing to sacrifice the time to use your talent to help others. In the future, I hope you consider using your time and talent on things that matter the most. If you need ideas, perhaps listening to the “
Weightier matters” talk I gave might help. Presentations aimed as following the example of Jesus, repenting of sin, living the principle of faith, and the many practical ways we can better live the gospel in our day-to-day lives would be better received and lead to a lot greater good than this will.