Belief After the CES Letter Pt 3 - Polygamy, Racism, LGBTQ, and Prophets - Mormon Stories 1379

Wrestling with the Tough Questions: How Believers Navigate Polygamy, Racism, and LGBTQ Issues After the CES Letter

When Jeremy Reynolds published his "Letter to a CES Director" several years ago, he articulated concerns that had been quietly accumulating in the minds of many members: difficult questions about Joseph Smith's polygamy, the Church's historical treatment of Black members, institutional responses to LGBTQ issues, and the nature of prophetic authority itself. These aren't abstract theological puzzles, they strike at the heart of what it means to sustain faith in the Latter-day Saint tradition. According to the Mormon Stories podcast episode "Belief After the CES Letter Pt. 3," which features an extended dialogue between host John Delin and Jim Bennett (author of A Faithful Response to the CES Letter), these thorny historical and doctrinal problems demand serious engagement, not dismissal.

The Polygamy Problem: Context Without Excuse

Let's establish the baseline truth: polygamy is messy. Both critics and faithful scholars acknowledge this. But the conversation about Joseph Smith's plural marriages hinges on a fundamental evidentiary challenge, the historical record from Nauvoo is surprisingly sparse. What we know about Smith's polygamy comes largely from later testimony, particularly from the Temple Lot case, when representatives from the Reorganized Church (now Community of Christ) interviewed women who claimed to have been married to Smith.

Bennett's position allows for uncomfortable ambiguity. He acknowledges that contemporary documentation is limited, that the Fanny Alger relationship appears to have begun as an affair and was only later reframed theologically, and that deceptive public statements were made to cover the practice. Yet he also argues that we lack "conclusive evidence one way or the other" regarding Smith's motivations or the precise timeline of revelatory claims.

The critical counterpoint is straightforward: power differentials matter. When a religious leader positions himself as God's spokesman and tells women they must marry him, whether framed as divine command or gentle persuasion, the voluntariness of consent becomes theoretically questionable. One woman described Smith approaching her with the claim that he had received revelation and that "you are to be my wife." The recoil was visible. The power dynamic was immovable