Most stories, especially the kind we tell in church and on television, have morals. They’re like horses that carry us to known destinations. But a few stories have the power to launch us toward the divine by invoking sheer horror: psychological, emotional, and cognitive. Joseph Smith’s polygamy is one of those storiesÑespecially for Mormons. But in order to ride this story, which will threaten at any second to buck us into a sand pit of denial or off the cliff of apostasy, we need to dismantle everything we think we know about how we can know anything.

Stephen Carter, D. Michael Quinn