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Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./Early years: Difference between revisions

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== Life ==
=== Early years ===
{{BeginWikipediaTable|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.|section=Early years|article=Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
=====1A=====
||
Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith, a poor farm family. In Joseph's early teen years, they moved to western New York—a region of intense religious activity during the Second Great Awakening—where they continued to farm just outside the town of Palmyra.  Although Smith never joined a church during his youth, he did read the Bible and was also influenced by the folk religion of that time and place.
||
*http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/5 Joseph Smith—History 1
||
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=COGDEN|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=136146859&oldid=136138266}}The statement that Joseph was "influenced by the folk religion of that time and place" is not supported by the citation given.
{{EndTable}}


====First Vision====
{{Epigraph|The article has remarkable balance right now. Any attempts to deliberately add Mormon POV will both spark an edit war and in the end degrade the literary quality of the current article because of the difficulty of clearing the corpses from the battlefield when it concludes. Improvements in this article are more likely to come from deletions than additions.<br>
{{BeginWikipediaTable|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.|section=First Vision|article=Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
&mdash;Editor "John Foxe," 13 January 2009 {{link|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Joseph_Smith,_Jr./Archive_12#Article_out_of_balance.3F}} }}
=====2A=====
{{parabreak}}
||
{{Epigraph|I think Smith is handled with kid gloves in this article. There needs to be more emphasis on the fraudulent means that he used to start his religion and also the emphasis on sex at the end of his life.<br>
As he later recorded the experience, Smith said that as a fourteen-year-old in 1820 he had received a theophany, an appearance of God to man, an event that Latter Day Saints commonly call the First Vision.
&mdash;Editor "John Foxe," posting using his banned sockpuppet "Hi540," 13 January 2009 {{link|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Joseph_Smith,_Jr./Archive_12#Article_out_of_balance.3F}} }}
{{parabreak}}
 
==Reviews of previous revisions of this section==
{{SummaryItem
|link=/051909
|subject=19 May 2009
|summary=A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia on 19 May 2009.
}}
 
==Section review==
===Early years (1805–1827) {{WikipediaUpdate|9/3/2011}}===
{{Main_old|Early life of Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805, in [[Sharon, Vermont]] to [[Lucy Mack Smith]] and her husband [[Joseph Smith, Sr.|Joseph]], a merchant and farmer.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=9, 30}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1832|p=1}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
After a crippling bone infection at age eight, the younger Smith hobbled on crutches as a child.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=21}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
In 1816–17, the family moved to the western [[New York]] [[Palmyra (village), New York|village of Palmyra]]
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=30}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and eventually took a mortgage on a 100 acre [[Smith Family Farm|farm]] in nearby [[Manchester (town), New York|Manchester town]].
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=32–33}}. From about 1818 until after the July 1820 purchase, the Smiths [[squatting|squatted]] in a [[log home]] adjacent to the property. ''Id.''
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Smith family place of residence in 1820}}
 
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
During the [[Second Great Awakening]], the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Shipps|1985|p=7}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Religious revivals in 1820|First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't mention a revival}}
 
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Although the Smith family was caught up in this excitement,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brooke|1994|p=129}} ("Long before the 1820s, the Smiths were caught up in the dialectic of spiritual mystery and secular fraud framed in the hostile symbiosis of divining and counterfeiting and in the diffusion of Masonic culture in an era of sectarian fervor and profound millenarian expectation.").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=COgden|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith&diff=341396046&oldid=341391231}}The citation used to support this assertion doesn't support the claim that the Smith family was caught up in "this excitement" of "religious enthusiasm," instead implying that the Smith family was associated with "divining and counterfeiting." The citation is mismatched to the assertion in the main body text.
 
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
they disagreed about religion.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Vogel|2004|p=xx}} (Smith family was "marked by religious conflict".); {{Harvtxt|Hill|1989|pp=10–11}} (noting "tension between [Smith's] mother and his father regarding religion").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


Smith said that he had been concerned about what religious denomination to join and prayed in a nearby woods (now called the Sacred Grove). There he had a vision in which he saw God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, as two separate, glorious, resurrected beings of flesh and bone.  They told him that no contemporary church was correct in its teachings and that he should join none of them.


Smith recorded several different accounts of this experience,
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
*Richard L. Bushman, ''Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism'' (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984), 39-40. Early accounts of the First Vision, including one handwritten by Joseph Smith himself, do not mention the appearance of the Father and the Son but refer to an angel, a spirit, many angels, or the Son.  The account identifying the angelic visitors as the Father and the Son did not appear until 1838.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*See: [[First Vision]]
Joseph Smith may not have joined a church in his youth,
|-
|authorsources=<br>
|
#Smith said that he decided in 1820, based on his [[Joseph Smith's First Vision|First Vision]], not to join any churches {{Harv|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|p=4}}. However, {{Harv|Lapham|1870}} said that Smith's father told him his son had once become a [[Baptist]]).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*From Lapham's 1870 account (47 years after the events described) we seem some interesting oddities. Lapham is paraphrasing an interview with Joseph Smith, Sr. Note that this account is being given almost 30 years ''after'' Joseph Smith, Jr. published the story of the First Vision and visit by Moroni.
<blockquote>
After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone, telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden treasure. About this time he became concerned as to his future state of existence, and was baptized, becoming thus a member of the Baptist Church. Soon after joining the Church, he had a very singular dream; but he did not tell his father of his dream, until about a year afterwards. He then told his father that, in his dream, a very large and tall man appeared to him, dressed in an ancient suit of clothes, and the clothes were bloody.
</blockquote>
*See the primary source online here: [http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Historical_Magazine_(second_series)/Volume_7/May_1870/Interview_with_the_Father_of_Joseph_Smith&oldid=314358 "Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, Forty Years Ago. His Account of the Finding of the Sacred Plates", Historical Magazine [second series] 7 (May 1870): 305–09.]
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't forbid joining a church}}


=====2B=====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
and the version of the First Vision later canonized by the LDS Church was not publicly revealed until 1842.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*March 1, 1842, Times and Seasons, in the Wentworth Letter. The story of the vision was incorporated with some changes into Joseph Smith's History of the Church, 1:15-20 [http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1 Joseph Smith—History]
but he participated in church classes
*According to Smith he reported his vision to a local minister, who he said pronounced it "of the devil" because "there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and there would never be any more of them." Joseph Smith - History 1:20-25.
|authorsources=<br>
*Although Smith said he was persecuted by his neighbors for claiming that he had had this vision, there is no surviving documentation of the persecution. Fawn Brodie scoffed that "the Palmyra newspapers, which in later years gave him plenty of unpleasant publicity, took no notice of Joseph's vision at the time it was supposed to have occurred." Brodie, 23.  
#Smith is known to have attended Sunday school at the Western Presbyterian Church in Palmyra {{Harv|Matzko|2007}}. Smith also attended and spoke at a Methodist probationary class in the early 1820s, but never officially joined ({{Harvnb|Turner|1852|p=214}}; {{harvnb|Tucker|1876|p=18}}).
*Richard Bushman says that Smith "probably exaggerated the reaction." {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=43}}.
|authorsources=<br>
*David Persuitte noted that, though Smith said later that he had told his family of the vision shortly after it occurred, there is evidence that the family was not told about the vision until much later. He also noted that there was no published evidence nor "mention of it in any of the writings of any of the church members of the time." David Persuitte, ''Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon '', 2nd ed. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000), 20-32.
#
*Even Richard Bushman says that "most early converts probably never heard about the 1820 vision." Bushman, ''Rough Stone Rolling'', 39.
}}
||
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*The wiki editors are trying to include much of the "First Vision" article in the footnotes of this article.
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Joseph became "partial to the Methodist sect" in 1820}}
*See: [[First Vision]]
 
{{EndTable}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and read the Bible. With his family, he took part in [[folk religion|religious folk magic]],
|authorsources=<br>
#{{harvtxt|Quinn|1998|p=30}}("Joseph Smith's family was typical of many early Americans who practiced various forms of Christian folk magic."); {{harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=51}} ("Magic and religion melded in the Smith family culture."); {{Harvtxt|Shipps|1985|pp=7–8}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|pp=16, 33}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}


====Golden plates====
===== =====
{{BeginWikipediaTable|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.|section=Golden plates|article=Joseph Smith, Jr.}}
{{IndexClaimItemShort
=====3A=====
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
Meanwhile Smith participated in a "craze for treasure hunting."
a common practice at the time.
||
|authorsources=<br>
*The treasure-seeking culture in early 19th century [[New England]] is described in {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=25–26}}.
#{{harvtxt|Quinn|1998|p=31}}; {{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|p=53}} ("Even the more vivid manifestations of religious experience, such as dreams, visions and revelations, were not uncommon in Joseph's day, neither were they generally viewed with scorn.").
*As Richard Bushman writes, "The Smiths were as susceptible as their neighbors to treasure-seeking folklore.  In addition to rod and stone divining, the Smiths probably believed in the rudimentary astrology found in the ubiquitous almanacs. Magical parchments handed down in the Hyrum Smith family may have originally belonged to Joseph Sr. The visit of the angel and the discovery of the gold plates would have confirmed the belief in supernatural power.  For people in a magical frame of mind, Moroni sounded like one of the the spirits who stood guard over treasure in the tales of treasure-seeking." Bushman, ''Rough Stone Rolling'', 50.  
|authorsources=<br>
||
#
*See: [[Joseph Smith and money digging]]
}}
|-
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
|
*From the cited source,
<blockquote>
At this time the revivals of western New York's so-called "Burned-over District" were bringing thousands out of private folk religion and into organized churches, whose clergy opposed folk magic.
</blockquote>
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}


=====3B=====
||
Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was paid to act as a "seer," using seer stones in mostly unsuccessful attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure.
||
*For a detailed look at Smith's money digging activities, see Persuitte: 33-53. In May 1838, Smith admitted that he was what was called a "money digger", but said that it "was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it". Joseph Smith, "Answers to Questions," ''Elders Journal'' (Kirtland, Ohio) 1 (July 1838): 42-43 in ''EMD'', 1: 52-53. 
*Erie Canal workers made  eight to twelve dollars a month. ''EMD'', 1: 53, n. 2. 
*The use of such stones for treasure hunting was common in Joseph Smith's New York.  In 1825, the Palmyra newspaper reprinted a story about the discovery of a treasure in Orleans County "by the help of a ''mineral stone'', which becomes transparent when placed in a hat and the light excluded by the face of him who looks into it." "Wonderful Discovery," ''Wayne Sentinel'', December 27, 1825, in Quinn, 173
||
*See: [[Joseph Smith and seer stones]]
|-
|


=====3C=====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Smith's contemporaries describe Smith's procedure for using seer stones to hunt for treasure as placing the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*{{Harvtxt|Harris|1833|pp=253-54}};
Like many people of that era,
*{{Harvtxt|Hale|1834|p=265}};
|authorsources=<br>
*{{Harvtxt|Clark|1842|p=225}};
#{{harvtxt|Quinn|1988|pp=14–16, 137}}.
*{{Harvtxt|Turner|1851|p=216}};
|authorsources=<br>
*{{Harvtxt|Harris|1859|p=164}};
#
*{{Harvtxt|Tucker|1867|pp=20–21}};
}}
*{{Harvtxt|Lapham|1870|p=305}};
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Harvtxt|Lewis|Lewis|1879|p=1}};
*Quinn quotes Bushman on page 137:
*{{Harvtxt|Mather|1880|p=199}}.
<blockquote>
*Martin Harris said that Smith had found a lost pin by putting his seer stone in his hat, "the old white hat—and placed his face in his hat....I know he did not look out of the hat until after he had picked up the pin." Harris interview with Joel Tiffany, 1859 in ''EMD'', 2:303.
Standing on the margins of instituted churches, they [the Smiths] were as susceptible to the neighbors' belief in magic as they were to the teachings of orthodox ministers.
*A skeptical contemporary, Pomeroy Tucker, recalled Smith searching for gold and silver buried in the earth: "These discoveries finally became too dazzling for his eyes in daylight, and he had to shade his vision by looking at the stone in his hat!" Pomeroy Tucker, ''Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism'' (New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1867), 19-20, in ''EMD'', 3:96. 
</blockquote>
*Michael Morse, Smith's brother-in-law, stated that he had watched Smith translate the Book of Mormon on several occasions: "The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face." Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, "Joseph Smith: 'The Gift of Seeing,'" ''Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought'' 15 (Summer 1982): 50-53.
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic}}
*Smith's wife Emma stated that she took dictation from her husband as she sat next to him, and that he would put his face into a hat with the stone in it, dictating for hours at a time.{{Harv|Smith|1879|pp=536-40}}. 
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}
*Peterson (2005, ''FARMS review'', 17:2, accessed online Feb 21, 2009, [http://mi.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=17&num=2&id=582]) argues that having his face buried in a hat, as witnesses attest, "would also have made it effectively impossible for him to read from a manuscript placed somehow at the bottom of the darkened hat."
||
*See: [[Joseph Smith and seer stones]]
*See: [[Book of Mormon translation method]]
|-
|


=====3D=====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
His preferred stone, which some said he also used later to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg, found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*{{Harvtxt|Harris|1859|p=163}};  
both his parents and his maternal grandfather had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God.
*{{Harvtxt|Lapham|1870|pp=305–306}}.
|authorsources=<br>
*The stone was found in either 1819 ({{Harvnb|Tucker|1867|pp=19–20}} {{Harvnb|Bennett|1893}}) or 1822 {{Harv|Chase|1833|p=240}}.  
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=26, 36}}; {{Harvtxt|Brooke|p=1994|pp=150–51}}; {{Harv|Mack|1811|p=25}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1853|pp=54–59, 70–74}}.
*Assistant church historian B. H. Roberts referred to this stone as "a chocolate-colored, somewhat egg-shaped stone which the Prophet found while digging a well in company with his brother Hyrum, for a Mr. Clark Chase, near Palmyra, N. Y.  It possessed the qualities of Urim and Thummim, since by means of it—as described above,—as well as by means of the Interpreters found with the Nephite record, Joseph was able to translate the characters engraven on the plates." B. H. Roberts, ''A Comprehensive History of the Church'' (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1930), 1:129.
|authorsources=<br>
|-
#
|
}}
=====3E=====
||
During this period Smith said he experienced a visitation from an angel named Moroni
||
*Joseph Smith - History 1:50
||
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
|-
*{{Detail_old|Book of Mormon/Plagiarism accusations/Joseph Smith, Sr.'s dream and Lehi's vision}}
|


=====3F=====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
who directed him to a long-buried book, inscribed on golden plates, which contained a record of God's dealings with ancient Israelite inhabitants of the Americas. This record, along with other artifacts (including a breastplate and what Smith referred to as the Urim and Thummim), was buried in a hill near his home. On September 22, 1827, Smith said that after four years of waiting and preparation, the angel allowed him to take possession of the plates and other artifacts. Almost immediately thereafter local people tried to discover where the plates were hidden.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*Joseph Smith - History 1:59-60
Smith later said that he had his own [[Joseph Smith's First Vision|first vision]] in 1820, in which God told him his sins were forgiven
||
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|1832}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=39}} (When Smith first described the vision twelve years after the event, "[h]e explained the vision as he must have first understood it, as a personal conversion".)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
|-
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/1832/Motivation is different}}
|


=====3G=====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Smith left his family farm in October 1825 and was hired by Josiah Stowel, of nearby Chenango county, to search for a Spanish silver mine by gazing at his seer stone.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*[http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/56 Joseph Smith—History 1]; Bushman, 48. According to Lucy Mack Smith, Stowel enlisted Joseph "on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye."
and that all the current churches were false.
||
|authorsources=<br>
*See: [[Joseph Smith and seer stones]]
#No source provided
|-
|authorsources=<br>
|
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't forbid joining a church}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/No reference to First Vision in 1830s publications|First Vision/No mention in non-LDS literature before 1843}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Seldom mentioned in LDS publications before 1877}}


=====3H=====
||
In March 1826, as a result of his using his seer stone to search for the silver mine, Smith was charged with being a "disorderly person and an impostor" by a court in nearby Bainbridge.
||
*{{Harvtxt|Hitchens|2007|pp=161}}; Morgan, D: "Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: Correspondence and a New History", Appendix A. Signature Books, 1986; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=70}};
*{{Harvtxt|Hill|1976|pp=223-233}}; Roberts, A. ''Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'', Vol. 1, 211. 
*The following writers cited differing charges against Smith in Bainbridge: Benton (1831): 'a disorderly person'; Cowdery (1835): 'a disorderly person'; Noble (1842): 'under the Vagrant act'; Marshall (1873): 'a disorderly person and an imposter'; Purple (1877): 'a vagrant, without visible means of livelihood'; Tuttle (1882): 'a disorderly person and an imposter'; Judge Neely: 'a misdemeanor'. 2. list of writers' citing differing verdict against Smith in Bainbridge: Benton: 'tried and condemned'...'designedly allowed to escape'; Cowdery: 'honorably acquitted'; Noble: 'was condemned, took leg bail'; Marshall: 'guilty?'; Tuttle: 'guilty?'; Purple: 'discharged'; Constable De Zeng: 'not a trial'.
*Persuitte, 40-53, provides a detailed look at the court proceedings and provides evidence that it was actually "a pre-trial "examination" to determine if a trial should take place. He also concludes that Smith was "designedly allowed to escape," with the understanding that he leave the county and not come back.
||
*See: [[Joseph Smith's 1826 glasslooking trial]]
|-
|


=====3I=====
===== =====
||
{{IndexClaimItemShort
Smith also met Emma Hale during this period and married her on January 18, 1827. Emma eventually gave birth to seven children, three of whom died shortly after birth. The Smiths also adopted twins.
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
||
|claim=
*The children who died were Alvin, who lived only a few hours (June 15, 1828), and twins, Thaddeus and Louisa,(April 30, 1831).  The Smiths adopted twins, Joseph and Julia, the children of Julia Clapp Murdock and John Murdock after Julia Clapp Murdock died in childbirth shortly after Emma lost her own twins. Joseph and Emma Smith had four sons who lived to maturity: Joseph Smith III (November 6, 1832), Frederick Granger Williams Smith (June 29, 1836), Alexander Hale Smith (June 2, 1838), and David Hyrum Smith November 17, 1844, born after Joseph's death.
The Smith family supplemented its meager farm income by treasure-digging,
*Although it seems unlikely that Joseph Smith would not have any children by his polygamous wives, DNA testing has so far not proved a relationship to likely candidates. {{ cite article | title = Research focuses on Smith family | date = 2005-05-28 | work = Deseret News | url = http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600137517,00.html }};  
|authorsources=<br>
*{{ cite article | title = DNA tests rule out 2 as Smith descendants: Scientific advances prove no genetic link | date = 2007-11-10 | work = Deseret News | url = http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695226318,00.html }};
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|p=136}}.
*{{cite journal
|authorsources=<br>
| last = Perego
#
| first = Ugo A.
}}
| last2 = Myers
*From the cited source,
| first2 = Natalie M.
<blockquote>
| last3 = Woodward
Some neighbors also said that in "1819 or '20, they [the Smith family] commenced digging for money for a subsistence." Other neighbors specified that during "the spring of 1820" Joseph Jr. was extremely active in the treasure-quest.
| first3 = Scott R.
</blockquote>
| title = Reconstructing the Y-Chromosome of Joseph Smith, Jr.: Genealogical Applications
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
| journal = Journal of Mormon History
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}
| volume = 32
 
| number = 2
===== =====
| date = Summer 2005
{{IndexClaimItemShort
| url = http://mha.wservers.com/pubs/TOC/05_July_Journal_TOC.pdf
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|format=PDF}} (See Children of Joseph Smith, Jr.)
|claim=
||
likewise relatively common in contemporary [[New England]]
*{{WikipediaCITE}}The weasel phrase "DNA testing so far has not proven" leads the reader to believe that nothing has yet been proven. In fact, reading just the ''titles'' of the cited sources shows that research has ''disproven'' some of the likely candidates.
|authorsources=<br>
*See: [[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Children of polygamous marriages]]
#{{Harvtxt|Newell|Avery|1994|pp=16}}("Money digging, or treasure hunting, was widespread among the rural areas of New York and New England as well as the area of Pennsylvania near the Hales'.")
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
though the practice was frequently condemned by clergymen and rationalists and was often illegal.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=25–26, 30}}. "Despite the fact that folk magic had widespread manifestations in early America, the biases of the Protestant Reformation and Age of Reason dominated the society's responses to folk magic.  The most obvious effect was that every American colony (and later U.S. state) had laws against various forms of divination." (30)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Joseph claimed an ability to use [[Seer stones (Latter Day Saints)|seer stones]] for locating lost items and buried treasure.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1987|p=173}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=49–51}}; {{Harvtxt|Persuitte|2000|pp=33–53}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Seer stones}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
To do so, Smith would put a stone in a white [[stovepipe hat]] and would then see the required information in reflections given off by the stone.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brooke|1994|pp=152–53}}; {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=43–44}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=45–52}}. ''See also'' the following primary sources: {{Harvtxt|Harris|1833|pp=253–54}}; {{Harvtxt|Hale|1834|p=265}}; {{Harvtxt|Clark|1842|p=225}}; {{Harvtxt|Turner|1851|p=216}}; {{Harvtxt|Harris|1859|p=164}}; {{Harvtxt|Tucker|1867|pp=20–21}}; {{Harvtxt|Lapham|1870|p=305}}; {{Harvtxt|Lewis|Lewis|1879|p=1}}; {{Harvtxt|Mather|1880|p=199}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Seer stones}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
In 1823, while praying for forgiveness from his "gratification of many appetites,"
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|p=5}} (writing that he "displayed the weakness of youth and the <del>corruption</del> <ins>foibles</ins> of human nature, which I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations <del>to the gratification of many appetites</del> offensive in the sight of God," deletions and interlineations in original); {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=136–38}} (arguing that Smith was praying for forgiveness for a sexual sin to maintain his power as a seer); {{Harvtxt|Smith|1994|pp=17–18}} (arguing that his prayer related to a sexual sin). ''But see'' {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=43}} (noting that Smith did not specify which "appetites" he had gratified, and suggesting that one of them was that he "drank too much").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*Note that D. Michael Quinn postulates that Joseph "once made an extraordinarily candid reference to his sexual struggle from 1820 to 1823" based upon the "gratification of many appetites" quote in Joseph's 1838 account, but the account itself says nothing about a "sexual struggle."
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith said he was visited at night by an angel named [[Angel Moroni|Moroni]], who revealed the location of a buried book of [[golden plates]] as well as other artifacts, including a [[breastplate]] and a set of [[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|silver spectacles]] with lenses composed of [[seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stones]], which had been hidden in a hill near his home.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|p=4}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*It should be noted that the hill near Joseph Smith's home was not named "Cumorah" at this point in time. The name was only applied later after the publication of the Book of Mormon.
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him.
|authorsources=<br>
#Mormon historian Richard Bushman argues that "the visit of the angel and the discovery of the gold plates would have confirmed the belief in supernatural powers. For people in a magical frame of mind, Moroni sounded like one of the spirits who stood guard over treasure in the tales of treasure-seeking." {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=50}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
During the next four years, Smith made annual visits to the hill, only to return without the plates because he claimed that he had not brought with him the right person required by the angel.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=163–64}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=54}} (noting accounts stating that the "right person" was originally Smith's brother Alvin, then when he died, someone else, and finally his wife Emma).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*From the cited source Bushman:
<blockquote>
Stories circulated of a requirement to bring Alvin to the hill to get the plates; and when he died, someone else. Emma, it was said, was designated as a key. The stories have a magical flavor, but other stories have the angel warning Joseph about greed and the evildoings of the money-diggers, as if the messenger was moving him away from his treasure-hunting ways.
</blockquote>
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Meanwhile, Smith continued traveling western New York and Pennsylvania as a treasure seeker and also as a farmhand.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=47–53}}; {{Harvtxt|Newell|Avery|1994|pp=17}}; {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=54–57}}
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Early Smith family history/Early work as a farmhand}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
In 1826, he was tried in [[Chenango County, New York|Chenango County]], New York, for "glass-looking," the crime of pretending to find lost treasure.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|pp=1–2}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=51–52}}; {{Citation|title=Revised Statutes of the State of New York|volume=1|year=1829|publication-place=Albany, NY|publisher=Packard and Van Benthuysen|page=638: part I, title 5, § 1|url=http://books.google.com/?id=RX84AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA638|author1=(state), New York|author2=Butler, Benjamin Franklin|author3=Spencer, John Canfield}} ("[A]ll persons pretending to tell fortunes, or where lost or stolen goods may be found,...shall be deemed [[vagrancy (people)|disorderly persons]].")
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}}Joseph never claimed to have ''found'' lost treasure. He was tried for ''attempting'' to find lost treasure using a stone.
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Legal trials/1826 glasslooking trial}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
While boarding at the Hale house in Harmony, he met [[Emma Hale Smith|Emma Hale]] and, on January 18, 1827, eloped with her because her parents disapproved of his treasure hunting.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=53}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*Joseph and Emma eloped because her father would not allow them to be married due to his disapproval of Joseph's treasure seeking activities.
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Claiming his stone told him that Emma was the key to obtaining the plates,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=163–64}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=54}} (noting accounts stating that Emma was the key).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}}Joseph never claimed that his stone "told" him anything. He used to stone to obtain information.
*Bushman, p. 54:
<blockquote>
Emma, it was said, was designated as a key.
</blockquote>
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith went with her to the hill on September 22, 1827. This time, he said, he retrieved the plates and placed them in a locked chest.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=60}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
He said the angel commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else but to publish their translation, reputed to be the religious record of [[indigenous Americans]].
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|pp=5–6}}
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail_old|Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Relationship to Amerindians}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Joseph later promised Emma's parents that his treasure-seeking days were behind him.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=54}}
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Although Smith had left his treasure hunting company, his former associates believed he had double-crossed them by taking for himself what they considered joint property.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Harris|1859|p=167}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=61}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
They ransacked places where a competing treasure-seer said the plates were hidden,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=54}} (treasure seer Sally Chase attempted to find the plates using her seer stone).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and Smith soon realized that he could not accomplish the translation in Palmyra.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=60–61}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|p=55}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Book of Mormon/Translation}}
 
{{To_learn_more_box:anti-Mormon_literature_and_Wikipedia}}


{{EndTable}}


==References==
{{Endnotes sources}}
{{WikipediaRefList:Joseph Smith, Jr.}}

Latest revision as of 07:08, 31 May 2024

An analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith"



A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: "Joseph Smith"
 A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here) 		Founding a church (1827–30)
The name Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. Wikipedia content is copied and made available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
The article has remarkable balance right now. Any attempts to deliberately add Mormon POV will both spark an edit war and in the end degrade the literary quality of the current article because of the difficulty of clearing the corpses from the battlefield when it concludes. Improvements in this article are more likely to come from deletions than additions.
—Editor "John Foxe," 13 January 2009 off-site
∗       ∗       ∗
I think Smith is handled with kid gloves in this article. There needs to be more emphasis on the fraudulent means that he used to start his religion and also the emphasis on sex at the end of his life.
—Editor "John Foxe," posting using his banned sockpuppet "Hi540," 13 January 2009 off-site
∗       ∗       ∗

Reviews of previous revisions of this section

19 May 2009

Summary: A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia on 19 May 2009.

Section review

Early years (1805–1827)  Updated 9/3/2011

Main article: Early life of Joseph Smith, Jr.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph, a merchant and farmer.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

After a crippling bone infection at age eight, the younger Smith hobbled on crutches as a child.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

In 1816–17, the family moved to the western New York village of Palmyra

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and eventually took a mortgage on a 100 acre farm in nearby Manchester town.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Although the Smith family was caught up in this excitement,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
    Violated by COgden —Diff: off-site
    The citation used to support this assertion doesn't support the claim that the Smith family was caught up in "this excitement" of "religious enthusiasm," instead implying that the Smith family was associated with "divining and counterfeiting." The citation is mismatched to the assertion in the main body text.


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

they disagreed about religion.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Joseph Smith may not have joined a church in his youth,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • From Lapham's 1870 account (47 years after the events described) we seem some interesting oddities. Lapham is paraphrasing an interview with Joseph Smith, Sr. Note that this account is being given almost 30 years after Joseph Smith, Jr. published the story of the First Vision and visit by Moroni.

After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone, telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden treasure. About this time he became concerned as to his future state of existence, and was baptized, becoming thus a member of the Baptist Church. Soon after joining the Church, he had a very singular dream; but he did not tell his father of his dream, until about a year afterwards. He then told his father that, in his dream, a very large and tall man appeared to him, dressed in an ancient suit of clothes, and the clothes were bloody.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

but he participated in church classes

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and read the Bible. With his family, he took part in religious folk magic,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

a common practice at the time.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • From the cited source,

At this time the revivals of western New York's so-called "Burned-over District" were bringing thousands out of private folk religion and into organized churches, whose clergy opposed folk magic.


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Like many people of that era,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • Quinn quotes Bushman on page 137:

Standing on the margins of instituted churches, they [the Smiths] were as susceptible to the neighbors' belief in magic as they were to the teachings of orthodox ministers.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

both his parents and his maternal grandfather had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith later said that he had his own first vision in 1820, in which God told him his sins were forgiven

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and that all the current churches were false.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

The Smith family supplemented its meager farm income by treasure-digging,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • From the cited source,

Some neighbors also said that in "1819 or '20, they [the Smith family] commenced digging for money for a subsistence." Other neighbors specified that during "the spring of 1820" Joseph Jr. was extremely active in the treasure-quest.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

likewise relatively common in contemporary New England

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

though the practice was frequently condemned by clergymen and rationalists and was often illegal.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Joseph claimed an ability to use seer stones for locating lost items and buried treasure.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

To do so, Smith would put a stone in a white stovepipe hat and would then see the required information in reflections given off by the stone.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

In 1823, while praying for forgiveness from his "gratification of many appetites,"

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • Note that D. Michael Quinn postulates that Joseph "once made an extraordinarily candid reference to his sexual struggle from 1820 to 1823" based upon the "gratification of many appetites" quote in Joseph's 1838 account, but the account itself says nothing about a "sexual struggle."
  • For an analysis of D. Michael Quinn's critical work, see A FAIR Analysis of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith said he was visited at night by an angel named Moroni, who revealed the location of a buried book of golden plates as well as other artifacts, including a breastplate and a set of silver spectacles with lenses composed of seer stones, which had been hidden in a hill near his home.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • It should be noted that the hill near Joseph Smith's home was not named "Cumorah" at this point in time. The name was only applied later after the publication of the Book of Mormon.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

During the next four years, Smith made annual visits to the hill, only to return without the plates because he claimed that he had not brought with him the right person required by the angel.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • From the cited source Bushman:

Stories circulated of a requirement to bring Alvin to the hill to get the plates; and when he died, someone else. Emma, it was said, was designated as a key. The stories have a magical flavor, but other stories have the angel warning Joseph about greed and the evildoings of the money-diggers, as if the messenger was moving him away from his treasure-hunting ways.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Meanwhile, Smith continued traveling western New York and Pennsylvania as a treasure seeker and also as a farmhand.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

In 1826, he was tried in Chenango County, New York, for "glass-looking," the crime of pretending to find lost treasure.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.

    Joseph never claimed to have found lost treasure. He was tried for attempting to find lost treasure using a stone.
  • For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Legal trials/1826 glasslooking trial

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

While boarding at the Hale house in Harmony, he met Emma Hale and, on January 18, 1827, eloped with her because her parents disapproved of his treasure hunting.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • Joseph and Emma eloped because her father would not allow them to be married due to his disapproval of Joseph's treasure seeking activities.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Claiming his stone told him that Emma was the key to obtaining the plates,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.

    Joseph never claimed that his stone "told" him anything. He used to stone to obtain information.
  • Bushman, p. 54:

Emma, it was said, was designated as a key.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith went with her to the hill on September 22, 1827. This time, he said, he retrieved the plates and placed them in a locked chest.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

He said the angel commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else but to publish their translation, reputed to be the religious record of indigenous Americans.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Joseph later promised Emma's parents that his treasure-seeking days were behind him.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Although Smith had left his treasure hunting company, his former associates believed he had double-crossed them by taking for himself what they considered joint property.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

They ransacked places where a competing treasure-seer said the plates were hidden,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and Smith soon realized that he could not accomplish the translation in Palmyra.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

Wikipedia and anti-Mormon literature
Key sources
  • Roger Nicholson, "Mormonism and Wikipedia: The Church History That 'Anyone Can Edit'," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 1/8 (14 September 2012). [151–190] link
Wiki links
Online
Navigators


Notes

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.
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