Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 12

FAIR Answers—back to home page

Response to claims made in "Chapter 12: Wars and Rumors of Wars"

Claims made in "Chapter 11: Bloody Brigham"

A FAIR Analysis of: One Nation Under Gods A work by author: Richard Abanes

Claims made in "Chapter 13: Unholy Matrimony"

Because the Saints saw the Civil War as a fulfillment of prophecy, its horrors actually brought them some degree of emotional satisfaction and comfort.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 270

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256

Claim

• Was Brigham considered a "king" over the territory?

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• It is for the author to demonstrate this assertion. He provides no source. The burden of proof is on him.

257

Claim
 Author's quote: "At the outset of their confrontation with America, the Mormons clearly had an advantage."

Author's source(s)

• Author's opinion.

Response

• The cited quotes say nothing about this at all.
•  Misrepresentation of source: It is for the author to demonstrate this assertion. He provides no source. The burden of proof is on him.
• The Saints, however, had been driven repeatedly from different states. They faced several lean years with poor harvests. They were threatened during the Utah War by 1/6 of the US army.
• It is not clear in what way the "Mormons clearly had an advantage."

260, 569 (HB) 567n16 (PB)

Claim

• Did Brigham Young call for blood atonement in order to punish Washington politicians?

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 2:179.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:331.

Response

• Use of sources: Blood atone Washington politicians
• Church doctrine/Repudiated/Blood atonement

266, 570n39 (HB) 568n38 (PB)

Claim

• Did Heber C. Kimball promise that after the Civil War ended, that Latter-day Saints would become the "sole rulers over every other government?"

Author's source(s)

• Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 9:7.

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source: Use of sources: Saints sole rulers over every government?

267, 570-1n39-47 (HB) 568-9n39-47 (PB)

Claim

• Was Joseph Smith's "Civil War prophecy" a false prophecy since "in 1832 a civil war beginning with South Carolina would have surprised no one?"

Author's source(s)

• Paul H. Peterson, "Civil War Prophecy," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 1:288. direct off-site
• DC 130꞉12-13
• The Seer, 1854 (cited in main body text)
• The Pearl of Great Price, 1851 (cited in main body text)
• "South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification," November 24, 1832, in Paul Leicester Ford, The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United Sates by Alexander Manilton, James Madison and John Jay.
• "President Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification," December 10, 1832, in Ford,.
• Carol Bleser, ed Secret and Sacred: The Diaries of James Hummond, A Southern Slaveholder. Cited in James David, "Response to K.."
• John Farkas, "False Prophecies Of Joseph Smith."
• The Evening and Morning Star cited or quoted from the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer in June, July, August, December 1832; January, February, March, May, June (1833) and April 1834. The author notes that Jerald and Sandra Tanner propose a theory by which Joseph Smith formulated the "Civil War prophecy."

Response

• Joseph reiterated aspects of the prophecy and added new detail in 1842. The Church published the prophecy in 1851, well after any events of 1832.
• Only four years before the Civil War, the Mormons were mocked for believing Joseph's prophecy about a war between the states.
• Civil War Prophecy

269, 571n48-49 (HB) 569n48-49 (PB)

Claim

• If the Civil War prophecy is true, then why is it that war was not brought to "all nations" as Joseph said it would be?
• Marvin Cowan said that "[T]here is no more relationship between the Civil War and World Wars I and II than there is between the Spanish-American War and the Vietnam War!"

Author's source(s)

• Jeff Lindsay, web site.
• Marvin Cowan, Mormon Claims Answered. (no page provided)

Response

• The prophecy says that war coming to all nations will come after the events of the civil war. See: Civil War Prophecy

269, 571n50 (HB) 569n50 (PB)

Claim

• The Civil War did not result in slaves rising up against their masters as the prophecy predicts. The author notes that "Some slaves actually fought for the Confederacy." The endnote qualifies the statement made in the main text: "It must be noted that there is some degree of controversy surrounding the assertion that Blacks fought for the Confederacy. Much of the disagreement may be semantic in nature—e.g., What exactly do the terms 'slave,' 'Black,' or 'fight' mean?"

Author's source(s)

• Walter Williams, "Blacks Who Fought For the South," Washington Times.
• Edward Spencer, "Annals of the War".
• Kristen Peterson, "Black Confederates: Slaves or Soldiers?"Las Vegas Sun, August 19, 2000. (opposing view)

Response

• Over 200,000 blacks fought for the North. Most were escaped slaves.
• The prophecy does not, however, link the slave revolt directly to the Civil War. See: Civil War Prophecy

270, 571n51 (HB) 569n51 (PB)

Claim

• Sandra Tanner said that the prophecy "was probably inspired by the fact that South Carolina had already rebelled before the revelation was given."

Author's source(s)

• Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?, 5th edition, (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), 190.

Response

• There were troubles in South Carolina, but a rebellion was averted.
• The Church and its members continued to publicize the prophecy well after things calmed down.
• Civil War Prophecy

270

Claim

•  Author's quote: "Because the Saints saw the Civil War as a fulfillment of prophecy, its horrors actually brought them some degree of emotional satisfaction and comfort."

Author's source(s)

• Author's opinion.

Response

• The Saints saw the Civil War as:
  • prophesied by Joseph Smith
  • God's just punishment for the nation who had allowed them to be repeatedly driven and dispossessed without protecting their freedom of religion or property
  • poetic justice for those who had appealed to states' rights to allow the persecution of the Saints to go unredressed.
  • a consequence of wickedness among the American nation, and the spirit of the Lord being withdrawn from striving with them.
  • a sad and tragic event which they had sought to change, but which could not be averted because of a refusal for the nation to heed ample prophetic warnings given over an extended period.
  • Use of sources: Attitude of Saints to Civil War prophecy

270, 571n52 (HB) 569n52 (PB)

Claim

• Why did Orson Hyde say: "Do I believe that the United States will be divided? yes, I do; and the prayers of all the Saints throughout the world should be to that effect?"

Author's source(s)

• Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses 6:13.

Response

• Orson Hyde said this in the midst of the Utah War, when the United States was sending an army against the Saints.
• Use of sources: Hyde on US to be divided

271

Claim

• Was the death of "Col. Johnston," in the Civil War (of "Johnston's army" in Utah) on April 6 interpreted by Latter-day Saints as a sign of divine judgment?

Author's source(s)

• No citation is provided.

Response

• It is for the author to demonstrate this assertion. He provides no source. The burden of proof is on him.

271, 572n54 (HB) 570n54 (PB)

Claim

• Was Utah's second governor, John W. Dawson, who replaced Governor Cummings in 1861 beaten by Latter-day Saints "so severely that he never fully recovered from his injuries?"

Author's source(s)

• No citation is provided for the claim regarding the beating.
• Alfred Cumming, letter dated March 1, 1860, Alfred Cumming Papers.

Response

• Dawson had attempted to seduce a Mormon woman. It was not unusual for nineteenth-century citizens to deal out punishment, especially for sexual crimes.
• Those responsible were guilty of previous crimes, and were pursued by the law.
• Use of sources: Beating John W. Dawson
• Utah/Crime and violence

271, 572n55 (HB) 570n55 (PB)

Claim

• Did Brigham Young state that too much education would be damaging to children? Young had stated:

We should never crowd and force the minds of our children beyond what they are able to bear. If we do we ruin them for life."

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young. Quoted in Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 1833-1898, under January 1, 1861, vol. 5, 536.

Response

• Too much education damaging?

273, 572n59 (HB) 570n59 (PB)

Claim

• Did Heber C. Kimball say that the United States government was "dead, thank God, dead."

Author's source(s)

• Harding. Quoted in Eugene E. Campbell, Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869, 292.

Response

• The claim comes from territorial governor Stephen E. Harding. There is no other source, though since the Saints saw the Civil War as a tragic but inevitable result of the nation's wickedness and refusal to grant freedom of religion and redress to the Saints, it is certainly possible that Kimball said this or something like it.
• Civil War Prophecy
• Attitude_of_Saints_to_Civil_War_prophecy

276

Claim

• The author states that when the Civil War ended, "the Mormons...had not sent a single soldier into the conflict, but instead had prayed for Christ's return and the establishment of Zion."

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• It worth remembering that the author earlier made a very notable omission regarding the Saints trek westward: He makes no mention of the Mormon Battalion, who were conscripted during the harshest time during the exodus west from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War.

278

Claim

•  Author's quote: "Blacks were emancipated (1860s), which in less than a hundred years would result in a backlash against Mormonism's racist spirituality."

Author's source(s)

• Author's opinion.

Response

• Does the book mean to imply that the rest of the country was not racist in the late 1860s? The Civil Rights Movement didn't occur until the 1960s—about 100 years later.
• The author makes no mention of the fact that the "Curse of Ham" was a Protestant invention that was used to justify the practice of slavery. Instead, he portrays "the Mormons" as being behind the times for the next hundred years.
• This section fails to mention that most Protestant denominations did not have integrated congregations for the next hundred years at least.
• ONUG's double standard on race issues
• Loaded and prejudicial language

Notes