From Joseph F. Smith's Testimony to the Senate Committee

[Tex]

Originally Posted by pelagius

Maybe one just needs to construct a favorable denominator? The 15-30% is the percentage of church members living in plural households. If you do something like married polygamous mormon men divided by adult mormon men, the fraction will be smaller I think.

Isn't this supported by the way he phrased his comments?

... no more than perhaps 3 or 4 per cent of the membership ... ever entered into that principle. All the rest of the members of the church abstained from that principle ...

This would seem to suggest we're talking about polygamous men (and perhaps women), but not households. If I were I child of a polygamous family, I don't think it could be said that by definition I had "entered into that principle" nor could I be old enough to be fairly said that I had "abstained."

Also, of those 3-4% or 15-30%, how many had more than 2 wives?

That said, I agree that downplaying its influence is not really fair. Polygamy had a profound effect on the lives of the members, and on the future of the church.