By the way, I am not in any way defending any pediophiles, within or external to the Catholic church… As for documentation of Joseph Smith’s sexual exploitation, this is from Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.
Of all Joseph’s innovations during the years immediately preceding his death, Richard Bushman has called his practice of plural marriage “the most disturbing.”[103] In April 1841, Smith secretly wed Louisa Beaman as a plural wife, and during the next two and a half years, he may have married about thirty additional women, ten of them already married to other men.[104] About a third of Smith’s plural wives were teenagers, including two fourteen-year-old girls.[105] Joseph was “a charismatic, handsome man,” and in Remini’s words, he “seemed cheerful and gracious” to all.[106] Because many husbands and fathers knew about these plural marriages, Smith must have convinced them that “they and their families would benefit spiritually from a close tie to the Prophet.”[107] Smith told one prospective wife that her submission would insure the eternal salvation of her father’s household. Furthermore, once sealed for eternity by priesthood authority, Joseph revealed that such couples would continue to procreate in the next life, becoming “enlarged” and, in effect, gods.[108]
As Bushman has written, Joseph surely “must have realized that plural marriage would inflict terrible damage, that he ran the risk of wrecking his marriage and alienating his followers.” And for those in the larger world, plural marriage “would confirm all their worst fears” about Mormonism. “Sexual excess was considered that all too common fruit of pretended revelation.”
And this is from the lds website:
lds-mormon.com/jsmith.shtml
There is evidence that Joseph started to think about making plural marriage a moral practice within his church as early as 1831, one year after the church was founded. He knew, however, how shocking such a practice would be not only to many Mormons, but to the gentiles also. He intended to postpone the announcement of the new practice until people were more ready to accept it. Meanwhile, he let a few trusted colleagues know that plural marriage had been sanctioned by God in a special revelation to Joseph. God, said Joseph, was no more opposed to polygamy in 1831 than He had been in the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who all had large harems.
Meanwhile, although Joseph had not announced God’s sanction of plural marriage to the entire church, Joseph himself was practising it. He proposed what he called “celestial” marriage to a number of women, some of whom were already legally married to other men. Joseph considered celestial marriages to be on a higher plane than earthly marriages, lasting forever, and taking precedence over mundane marriages.
Only polygamy - the custom of one man taking multiple wives was sanctioned. Women were not allowed to have more than one husband. Joseph taught that a woman’s possibility of entering heaven depended largely on the worthiness of her husband, rather than on her own worthiness.
How much more documentation would you like?
And by the way, I’m just trying to get to the truth. You are on a Catholic website for a reason. Its either to learn about our religion or to teach us about yours. Well, I’m trying to learn why you think there was an Apostacy and what exactly it was. I’m not gettting anywhere, which makes me question your motives.
