Episode 48: Let’s Talk About Emma
(Pictured: Emma Smith, by Leslie Olpin Peterson. Used with permission.)
Historian Shantel Gardner joins us for a conversation about the legendary Emma Smith. When Moroni prophesied that Joseph’s name “should be both good and evil spoken of among all people,” the angel may as well have been talking about Joseph’s wife. Why have Latter-day Saints had a conflicted relationship with Emma through the years? Could that be changing? In this episode, we dig a little deeper into the real and complex woman whose life continues to inspire a diversity of opinions in members of the church she helped create.
Notes & Quotes:
First: the Life and Faith of Emma Smith, by Jennifer Reeder
Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippets Avery
Jacob 2 condemned the Nephites for justifying polygamy because of David and Solomon. But 132 starts out by doing just that.
I would not be at all surprised if polygamy was a temptation to Joseph and early church leaders that came out of trauma and hardship. That God allowed to happen but did not command.