The CES Letter states:

Out of the 34 women, 7 of them were teenage girls as young as 14-years-old. Joseph was 37-years-old when he married 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball, twenty-three years his junior. Even by 19th century standards, this is pedophilia.

Some folks have taken offense or raised objections to my use of the term "pedophilia" in describing Joseph's marriages to 14-year-old girls.

Why I use the term "pedophilia":

Pedophilia is defined as a "sexual attraction to prepubescent children".

The dictionary defines "prepubescent" as:

"Relating to or in the period of preceding puberty".

So, it's before or while in the period of puberty.

Wikipedia states the following:

"In the 21st century, the average age at which children, especially girls, reach puberty is lower compared to the 19th century, when it was 15 for girls and 16 for boys."

As an adult man in his late 30s, Joseph married at least two 14-year old girls, which is within the age bracket of when 19th century girls entered or were about to enter puberty.

As defined by revelation, the only justifiable purpose for Joseph marrying 14-year-old girls was to "multiply and replenish the earth", " raise seed", and "bear the souls of men" (sex).

It is pedophilic to seek out and marry 14-year-old girls who have yet to enter puberty or are in puberty to have sex with them.

The following is FAIR's objection to the use of the term "pedophilia" and my other perspective on it:

Joseph was 37-years-old when he married 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball

Let’s pull out the rulebook – and revelation – from the Mormon god Himself to Joseph Smith – on polygamy and how it is to be practiced:

…for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth and to bear the souls of men. – Doctrine and Covenants 132:63

Let’s see what the Book of Mormon says the purpose of polygamy is:

For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people [polygamy]; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things [monogamy]. – Jacob 2:30

Let’s see what latter-day prophet, seer, and revelator Brigham Young says the purpose of polygamy is:

This is the reason why the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, so that the noble spirits which are waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth. – Discourses of Brigham Young, p.305

The only justification for polygamy is to “multiply and replenish the earth,” “bear the souls of men,” and “raise seed.” In other words? Have sex with and children with your polygamous wives. Otherwise, you’re doing it wrong.

In the case of 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball? If Joseph wasn’t marrying Helen for the express purpose to have sex with her and have children with her, he was directly disobeying and violating God’s command in both D&C 132 and the Book of Mormon of “multiplying and replenishing the earth”, “bearing the souls of men”, and “raising seed”.

Moreover, as discussed above, there must be a presumption that Joseph Smith had sexual relations with his polygamous wives. This is based upon the historical record (at least a dozen affidavits and testimonies from Joseph's plural wives themselves) of Joseph Smith having sexual relations with his polygamous wives, upon the purported purpose of polygamy, the evidence that Josephine Lyon Fisher is Joseph’s biological daughter, and upon the fact that these women were Joseph Smith’s wives. Given this presumption, the burden of proof rests on FAIR to show evidence of a lack of sexual relations in Joseph’s plural marriages.

Ironically, even FAIR concedes elsewhere on their website the presumption of sexual relations in Joseph’s marriage to Helen Mar Kimball: “Consummation would not have been inappropriate, since this was a marriage…” Indeed, what’s inappropriate is marrying an underage girl under the divine command and rules given in D&C 132 to “multiply and replenish the earth” and “bear the souls of men” only to do the complete opposite by not consummating.

As FAIR defined above: “Pedophila describes a sexual attraction to children.“ It is pedophilic to directly seek out sex with a child. Joseph was pedophilic in seeking out a child, twenty-three years his junior, specifically for the purpose of having sex with and children with her, as per revelation from his god. Joseph had absolutely no business whatsoever marrying a child such as Helen for any other reason than to have sex with her as there is no other legitimate or justifiable reason, based on the revealed rulebook on polygamy in D&C 132 and Jacob 2:30 given to Joseph by his god, for the polygamous marriage to 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball.

Further, Joseph married his own teenage foster daughters. In FAIR universe, it’s legit for God to be okay with His 37-year-old Prophet marrying his teen foster daughters and their friends – with or without sex. In FAIR universe, a foster father marrying his adolescent foster daughters is not pedophilia.

Here’s what Helen Mar Kimball confided to a close friend in Nauvoo about her marriage to Joseph Smith:

I would never have been sealed to Joseph had I known it was anything more than ceremony. I was young, and they deceived me, by saying the salvation of our whole family depended on it.
– Mormon Polygamy: A History by LDS historian Richard S. Van Wagoner, p.53

What could Helen Mar Kimball have possibly meant that her marriage was something “more than ceremony” if not sexual relations?

In addition, how is it okay to pressure a 14-year-old adolescent girl by telling her that her entire family’s salvation and exaltation depends on her decision on marrying a man twenty-three years older than her and that she must make the decision within 24 hours? I personally question the morality and sense of empathy and dignity of anyone who believes this is acceptable and that it was okay for their god and prophet to condone such pedophilic behavior.

The idea that a child can guarantee or influence the eternal salvation and exaltation of her entire family by marrying Joseph Smith contradicts the central Mormon tenet that every person must work out their own salvation. It’s absurd from every Mormon theological and doctrinal viewpoint.

Helen was not the only teen bride of Joseph’s. Joseph also married other teenage girls including another 14-year-old, Nancy Winchester, when Joseph was 37-years-old. Joseph’s other teen brides included several of his own foster daughters, whom Joseph had sex with:

Joseph’s other non-minor foster daughters who he also had sex with:

(Above bullet points link to Mormon/FAIR apologist Brian C. Hale's own website. Biographical information on the above girls can be found here.)

In fact, Joseph took the same approach with Lucy Walker as he did with Helen Mar Kimball, by telling his foster daughter that “I have been commanded of God to take another wife, and you are the woman” and “that it would prove an everlasting blessing to my father’s house.” Joseph told Lucy that the marriage would have to be secret and that “it is a command of God to you. I will give you until to-morrow to decide this matter. If you reject this message the gate will be closed forever against you.”

Joseph pulled yet again the same stunt on another girl as he did on Helen and Lucy; this time in 1831 with 12-year-old Mary Rollins Lightner. Twelve-year-old Mary remembers after receiving a blessing from Joseph in which he prepared Mary for their eventual marriage: “[He] told me about this great vision concerning me. He said I was the first woman God commanded him to take as a plural wife.”

Mary and her family left Kirtland for Missouri and she ended up marrying her husband, Adam Lightner, in 1835. By 1840 they had settled in Nauvoo and were raising two children. Early 1842, Joseph approached Mary about becoming his wife (polyandry). Mary states that Joseph said: “The angel came to me three times between the year of ’34 and ’42 and said I was to obey that principle or he would slay me.” Mary and Joseph were married “for time, and all Eternity” in February 1842.

As established above, the only doctrinal reason for Joseph to marry these teenage girls, including two 14-year-olds, was for the express purpose of having sex with them to obey the Mormon god’s command to “multiply and replenish the earth,” “bear the souls of men,” and “raise seed.”

Whether Helen Mar Kimball’s father introduced plural marriage to Helen or Joseph introduced it to her is irrelevant as Joseph still married 14-year-old Helen as one of his polygamous wives. A father who consents to, or even encourages, the abuse of his child does not make the abuse any less wrong or immoral.

The background story that FAIR doesn’t share with their readers is that, prior to this, Joseph tested Helen’s father, Heber C. Kimball, by asking Heber to give his wife, Vilate – Helen’s mother – to Joseph:

If “eternal marriages” and “dynastic sealings” are as innocent and “appear to have had little effect upon the lives“ and only take place in the “afterlife” as FAIR claims it to be and that Kimball wanted to “dynastically link” his family to Joseph, why was Apostle Heber C. Kimball so troubled by Joseph’s command for his wife that he “touched neither food nor water for three days and three nights”?

After testing Heber and deciding not to marry Heber’s wife, Joseph later asked for Heber’s 14-year-old daughter instead. The next day after the 24-hour clock was up, Joseph visited the Kimball home:

“[He explained] the principle of Celestial marrage...After which he said to me, ‘If you will take this step, it will ensure your eternal salvation & exaltation and that of your father’s household & all of your kindred.[‘] This promise was so great that I willingly gave myself to purchase so glorious a reward. None but God & his angels could see my mother’s [Vilate Kimball] bleeding heart-when Joseph asked her if she was willing...She had witnessed the sufferings of others, who were older & who better understood the step they were taking, & to see her child, who had scarcely seen her fifteenth summer, following in the same thorny path, in her mind she saw the misery which was as sure to come...; but it was all hidden from me.” Helen’s mother reluctantly agreed and in May of 1843, Helen married Joseph Smith. – Wives of Joseph Smith

Again, the idea that a child can guarantee or influence the eternal salvation and exaltation of her entire family by marrying Joseph Smith contradicts the central Mormon tenet that every person must work out their own salvation. It’s absurd from every Mormon theological and doctrinal viewpoint.

The fact that Helen continued living with her parents and the fact that she didn’t “cohabitate” with Joseph Smith is irrelevant. Aside from Joseph’s own foster daughters – who lived with Joseph and Emma, whom Joseph secretly married, and whom Joseph had sexual relations with (all of which also contradicts FAIR’s claim that Joseph was not a pedophile) – the majority of Joseph’s wives never lived with Joseph and Emma. Emma wouldn’t have it after catching Joseph and Eliza Partridge secluded in the upstairs bedroom of their home (William Clayton’s journal – May 23, 1843). These wives lived on their own, with their parents, or with their own husbands and yet the historical record clearly shows that this did not deter or stop Joseph from having sex with them.

What about the following "prophets, seers, and revelators" who followed Joseph's example? These middle-aged men who slept with and had children with teen girls young enough to be their own daughters:

Brigham Young was:

Wilford Woodruff was:

Lorenzo Snow was: