mormons

Joseph
Smith taught that all existence was material,^[333] including a world of "spirit matter" so fine that it was invisible to all but the purest mortal eyes.^[334] Matter, in Smith's view, could neither be created nor destroyed;^[335] the creation involved only the reorganization of existing matter.^[336] Like matter, "intelligence" was co-eternal with God, and human spirits had been drawn from a pre-existent pool of eternal intelligences.^[337] Nevertheless, spirits were incapable of experiencing a "fullness of joy" unless joined with corporeal bodies.^[338] The work and glory of God was to create worlds across the cosmos where inferior intelligences could be embodied.^[339]
Though Smith initially viewed God the Father as a spirit,^[340] he eventually began teaching that God was an advanced and glorified man,^[341] embodied within time and space.^[342] Both God the Father and Jesus were distinct beings with physical bodies, but the Holy Spirit was a "personage of Spirit".^[343] Through the gradual acquisition of knowledge,^[344] those who received exaltation could eventually become like God.^[345] The ability of humans to progress to godhood implied a vast hierarchy of gods,^[346] with God himself having a father.^[347] Those who became gods would reign, unified in purpose and will, leading inferior intelligences to share immortality and eternal life.^[348]
The opportunity to achieve exaltation extended to all humanity; those who died with no opportunity to accept saving ordinances could achieve exaltation by accepting them vicariously in the afterlife through ordinances such as baptism for the dead.^[349] Children who died in their innocence were guaranteed to rise at the resurrection and receive exaltation.^[350] Apart from those who committed the eternal sin, Smith taught that even the wicked and disbelieving would achieve a degree of glory in the afterlife.^[351]

Smith had by some accounts been teaching a polygamy doctrine as early as 1831,^[383] and there is evidence that Smith was a polygamist by 1835.^[384] Although the church had publicly repudiated polygamy,^[385] in 1837 there was a rift between Smith and Oliver Cowdery over the issue.^[386] Cowdery suspected that Smith had engaged in a relationship with his serving girl Fanny Alger.^[387] Smith never denied a relationship, but insisted it was not adulterous, presumably because he had taken Alger as a plural wife.^[388]
In April 1841, Smith wed Louisa Beaman, and during the next two and a half years he may have married or been sealed to 30 additional women,^[389] ten of them already married to other men, though this was generally done with the knowledge and consent of their husbands.^[390] Ten of Smith's wives were under the age of twenty, while others were widows over fifty.^[391] The practice of plural marriage was kept a secret.^[392][393]
Polygamy (or plural marriage) caused a breach between Smith and his first wife, Emma.^[394] Although Emma knew of some of her husband's marriages, she almost certainly did not know the extent of his polygamous activities.^[395] In 1843, Emma temporarily accepted Smith's marriage to four women boarded in the Smith household,^[396] but she soon regretted her decision and demanded that the other wives leave.^[397] In July, Smith dictated a revelation pressuring Emma to accept plural marriage,^[398] but the two were not reconciled until September, after Emma began participating in temple ordinances and received an "endowment".^{[399][400]
source: wikipedia}