One of the issues that has plagued LDS for many years is the issue of polygamy, and the promotion of polygamy was not a peripheral issue at all in the writings of Joseph Smith and subsequent LDS leaders. Lynn Wilder's husband had to grapple with this issue. She explains this in the following excerpt.
***Please note that I have obtained written permission from the author to quote her work. (Any emphasis in bold in the quoted text has been added.)
The following excerpt is from Chapter 18 of Unveiling Grace: the Story of How We Found Our Way out of the Mormon Church by Dr. Lynn Wilder:
Did God Ordain Polygamy?
Mike [author’s husband] was confused about polygamy. Did God command Joseph Smith to practice it, as Mike had been taught all these years? He was also taught that God commanded Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon to practice it. Well, this was pretty good company to be associated with. Mike hated the idea of polygamy, but it must be okay with God if he asked these men to do it. Who was he to tell God what to do?
Through his Bible reading, Mike was learning to trust God’s Word. He thought, I will just reread the Bible and get proof that polygamy is justified. This seemed a simple task. He was positive that an angel had told Sarah to give Hagar to Abraham as a second wife, or at least an angel had told Abraham. He would just read this story and find it. After an intense study of Genesis chapters 11 through 25, he found no commandment given to Abraham to practice polygamy. This must not be translated correctly, he thought, still caught in Mormon anti-biblical thought. Mike read about Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon. Nowhere did God tell these men to practice polygamy. It was not in the Word of God.
Where did I read about God giving Abraham the authority to practice polygamy? I know I read it somewhere . . . Then he found it, but not in the Bible. It’s in Mormon scripture D&C 132:1: “I, the Lord [Mormon Jesus], justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, Jacob . . . as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines.” And D&C 132:37: “Abraham received concubines and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.” D&C 132:65: “I [Mormon Jesus] commanded Abraham to take Hagar to wife.”
The Bible gives no divine authorization for the practice of polygamy. In contrast, the Mormon scriptures do. Joseph Smith supposedly received direct revelation from Jesus Christ himself that polygamy is an eternal doctrine of the Mormon Church commanded by God. Which is right, the Bible or Mormon scripture? They can’t both be correct. They’re polar opposites.
Wilder, Lynn K.. Unveiling Grace (pp. 280-281). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.