Editing Mormonism and polygamy (section)

===A means for immoral sexual gratification===
Critics of polygamy in the early LDS Church claim that church leaders established the practice of polygamy in order to further their immoral desires for sexual gratification with multiple sexual partners.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanner|1979|pp=204–290}}</ref> Critics point to the fact that church leaders practiced polygamy in secret from 1833 to 1852, despite a written church doctrine (Doctrine and Covenants 101, 1835 edition) renouncing polygamy and stating that only monogamous marriages were permitted.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanner|1987|p=202}}</ref>[[File:Teenage Brides of Early Mormon Leaders.png|thumb|Bar chart showing age differences at the time of polygamous marriage between teenage brides and early Latter Day Saint church leaders.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goodstein |first=Laurie |date=10 November 2014 |title=It's Official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/its-official-mormon-founder-had-up-to-40-wives.html |access-date=2 June 2017 |quote=[Joseph Smith Jr.] married Helen Mar Kimball, a daughter of two close friends, 'several months before her 15th birthday'.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Turner |first=John G. |date=27 October 2012 |title=Polygamy, Brigham Young and His 55 Wives |work=The Huffington Post |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-g-turner/brigham-young-and-polygamy_b_1792555.html |access-date=2 June 2017 |quote=The sheer variety of Brigham Young's marriages makes it difficult to make sense of them. He married – was sealed to, in Mormon parlance – young (Clarissa Decker, 15) and old (Hannah Tapfield King, 65).}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Snodgrass |first=Mary Ellen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mGrxBwAAQBAJ&q=sarah%20minnie%20jensen%20lorenzo%20snow&pg=PA220 |title=Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States |date= 2009 |publisher=Rootledge |isbn=978-0765681270 |edition=1st |page=220 |quote=The name of each wife is followed by her age at marriage, the place of marriage, and the year the couple married. ... Lorenzo Snow ... Sarah Minnie Jensen, 16, Salt Lake City, 1871 |access-date=2 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ulrich |first=Laurel Thatcher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fmxDQAAQBAJ&q=Wilford+Woodruff+%26+(Emma+Smith+born+March+1st+1838+At+Diahman+Davis+County+Missouri)+was+sealed+for+time+%26+Eternity+by+President+Brigham+Young+at&pg=PA274 |title=A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870 |date=2017 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-0307594907 |page=274 |quote=Wilford Woodfruff & (Emma Smith born March 1st 1838 at Diahman Davis County Missouri) was Sealed for time & Eternity by President Brigham Young at 7 o'clock p.m. March 13, 1853. |access-date=3 June 2017}}</ref> The average age of first marriage for white US women from 1850 to 1880 was 23.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hacker |first1=J. David |last2=Hilde |first2=Libra |last3=Jones |first3=James Holland |year=2010 |title=Nuptiality Measures for the White Population of the United States, 1850–1880 |journal=The Journal of Southern History |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=39–70 |pmc=3002115 |pmid=21170276}}</ref>]]