More evidence of Joseph Smith's sexual predation is the heart-wrenching story of Lucy Walker. The Walker family arrived in Nauvoo in the spring of 1841 and by January 1842, Lucy’s mother had contracted and died of malaria, leaving her husband, John, with 10 children to care for. In the family’s time of grief and need for each other, what did JS do? He broke up the Walker family by sending John away on a two-year mission to the eastern states and Lucy’s siblings to live in different members’ homes. He saved 15-year-old Lucy for his house and subsequently informed the lonely and vulnerable girl, “I have a message for you, I have been commanded of God to take another wife, and you are the woman.” Lucy recorded, “My astonishment knew no bounds. This announcement was indeed a thunderbolt to me.” (ref. http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/23-...).
To coax Lucy to agree to become his plural wife, he told her that doing so “would prove an everlasting blessing to my father’s house.” (Ibid.) What Mormon girl grieving for her deceased mother, longing for her father, and separated from her siblings would deny “an everlasting blessing” to her father and his family?
The psychological trauma that JS put Lucy through was made clear by her words of prayer: “Oh that the grave would kindly receive me that I might find rest on the bosom of my dear mother...Why – Why Should I be chosen from among thy daughters, Father I am only a child in years and experience. No mother to council; no father near to tell me what to do, in this trying hour. Oh let this bitter cup pass. And thus I prayed in the agony of my soul.” (Ibid.)
JS told Lucy that the marriage would have to be secret. He then intensified the psychological pressure by giving her an ultimatum: “It is a command of God to you. I will give you untill to-morrow to decide this matter. If you reject this message the gate will be closed forever against you.” (Ibid.)
Lonely and wounded psychologically and emotionally, Lucy agreed to marry JS. She recalled, “Emma Smith was not present and she did not consent to the marriage; she did not know anything about it at all.” (Ibid.) Lucy did not know that JS was violating a direct commandment from the Lord – “and the first give her consent” – by secretly marrying her.
Of all the females in Nauvoo that JS could have approached about becoming his latest plural wife, he targeted, isolated and manipulated an inexperienced and highly vulnerable teenage girl young enough to be his daughter.
What kind of church leader would treat girls and women in such a manipulative and abusive manner? One drunk on his own ecclesiastical power.