Joseph Smith Monogamy Affirmer - Michelle Stone | Ep. 1996

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2025

⏱️ 349 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For nearly two centuries, Joseph Smith’s involvement in polygamy has been a point of controversy. Historians and more recently, LDS leaders, have affirmed that the Mormon prophet took dozens of wives. But a growing movement within the Church is challenging that narrative, arguing that Smith was a monogamist—and that polygamy was a later invention used to justify the actions of Brigham Young and other church leaders.One of the most vocal advocates of this perspective is Michelle Stone, creator of 132 Problems: Revisiting Mormon Polygamy, a YouTube channel with nearly 120,000 subscribers. A lifelong member of the LDS Church, Michelle once had a strong testimony of polygamy, believing it was divinely inspired. But everything changed ten years ago when her husband questioned whether polygamy was ever truly of God. Determined to prove him wrong, Michelle embarked on a deep dive into historical records—only to find herself questioning whether Joseph Smith practiced polygamy at all.Now, she joins Mormon Stories to share her research, her faith journey, and why she believes the Church has it wrong on one of the most controversial chapters in its history.

Show Notes

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mormon stories podcast.
0:04.0	I'm your host, Sean DeLinn.
0:05.0	It's February 25th, 2025.
0:07.6	And today we are going to be talking about, well, we're going to be interviewing Michelle Stone.
0:14.2	And Michelle Stone has gained quite a bit of notoriety and attention and interest and fandom because she has a YouTube
0:26.5	channel called 132 problems where she is exploring whether or not Joseph Smith practice polygamy.
0:37.3	And so she takes deep, deep, deep, deep dives into all the
0:42.0	different evidences and claims made about whether or not Joseph Smith practiced polygamy.
0:49.5	And I think it's fair to say that as of now, as of your review of the evidence today, you lean towards the camp that Joseph Smith did not practice polygamy. Is that true?
1:00.2	Yes, yes, that is fair to say.
1:03.0	So, and it's not just her. This is a strain of thought or perspective that has its origins at the very beginning of Mormonism,
1:16.5	including during the time Joseph Smith was alive.
1:19.1	There were questions about whether or not he was practicing polygamy as early as, I don't know, the 1830s,
1:24.3	1830, yeah, mid-1830s.
1:27.5	But then, of course, after he died, the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
1:32.7	Saints for, I don't know, a century and a half, which was at some point led by Joseph
1:40.9	Smith III, Joseph's son, and Emma Smith, Joseph's wife, they maintained for 150 years
1:48.3	that Joseph Smith did not practice polygamy until they sort of turned and changed their view on
1:56.0	that. I don't know if it's in the 1960s or 1960s, or 1970s. But there's a long tradition of people holding this position that Joseph Smith didn't
2:05.6	practice polygamy long before Michelle Stone or 132 Problems YouTube channel.
2:10.3	But I would say that this perspective has gained quite a lot of momentum over the past several years, in no small part to Michelle Stone,
2:23.9	your work. Michelle's YouTube channel, you know, many of her videos get 50,000, 60,000 views.
	...

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