Mormon Church Admits For First Time That Founder Joseph Smith Had A 14-Year-Old Bride

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Mormon church acknowledges in a new essay that founder Joseph Smith had a teenage bride and was married to other men's wives during the faith's early polygamous days, a recognition of an unflattering part of its roots that historians have chronicled for years.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says most of Smith's wives were between 20 and 40 years old. One of them, however, was a 14-year-old girl who was the daughter of Smith's close friends.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The essay posted this week on the church's website marked the first time the Salt Lake City-based religion has officially acknowledged those facts, though it also has not denied them.</span></div> <div class="ad_spot" id="modulous_mid_article" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The article is part of a recent push by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to open up about sensitive issues within the faith, many of which are uncomfortable to discuss.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img alt="JOSEPH SMITH MORMON" src="http://i0.huffpost.com/gen/2211292/thumbs/n-JOSEPH-SMITH-MORMON-large570.jpg"></div> </div>

Mormon Church Admits For First Time That Founder Joseph Smith Had A 14-Year-Old Bride

 The Mormon church acknowledges in a new essay that founder Joseph Smith had a teenage bride and was married to other men's wives duri...

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