Joseph Smith invited Nancy Rigdon, nineteen-year-old daughter of his close friend and counselor, Sidney Rigdon, to meet him at the home of Orson Hyde. Upon her arrival Smith greeted her, ushered her into a private room, then locked the door. After swearing her to secrecy, wrote George W. Robinson, Smith announced his "affection for her for several years, and wished that she should be his...the Lord was well pleased with this matter...here was no sin in it whatever...but, if she had any scruples of conscience about the matter, he would marry her privately." Incredulous, Nancy countered that "if she ever got married she would marry a single man or none at all." Grabbing her bonnet, she ordered the door opened or she would "raise the neighbors." She then stormed out of the Hyde-Richards residence. Smith proposes secret plural marriage to 19 year-old Nancy Rigdon. The next day, Smith wrote Nancy a letter, where he justified his advances, saying " That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another. ... Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire. ... even things which might be considered abominable to all who understand the order of heaven only in part, but which in reality were right because God gave and sanctioned by special revelation." This is his first written statement of theocratic ethics.
[History of the Church, Vol. 5, p.134-136; Sidney Rigdon Biography by Richard S. Van Wagoner, p.295;Joseph Smith Polygamy Timeline, http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/JS_Polygamy_Timeline.htm]
No comments:
Post a Comment