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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 1: Difference between revisions
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*She explained this didn't trouble her—see last interview, her witness, etc. Emma insists that she was ''not'' forbidden to see them, but that she was convinced that it was the work of God, and that this sufficed for her. G.D. Smith also does not report Emma's witness about the tangible reality of the physical plates. | *She explained this didn't trouble her—see last interview, her witness, etc. Emma insists that she was ''not'' forbidden to see them, but that she was convinced that it was the work of God, and that this sufficed for her. G.D. Smith also does not report Emma's witness about the tangible reality of the physical plates. | ||
* [[Other_Book_of_Mormon_witnesses#Emma_Smith |Emma Smith not forbidden to see plates]] | * [[Book_of_Mormon_witnesses/Other_Book_of_Mormon_witnesses#Emma_Smith|Emma Smith not forbidden to see plates]] | ||
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*Van Wagoner & Walker, "Joseph Smith Gift," 50. | *Van Wagoner & Walker, "Joseph Smith Gift," 50. | ||
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This hostile report is belied by other primary documents. | This hostile report is belied by other primary documents. | ||
*[[Eliza Winters]] | *[[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Early womanizer?#Eliza Winters|Eliza Winters]] | ||
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*No source provided | *No source provided | ||
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*G.D. Smith does not tell us that the same author interviewed Eliza (see above), she likewise said nothing about Joseph's attempted seduction. This is even stranger when we know that Eliza sued Martin Harris for slander because he accused her of loose morals; she lost the suit. She had no reason, then, to favor the Mormons—yet she never complained of Joseph's attempted seduction. | *G.D. Smith does not tell us that the same author interviewed Eliza (see above), she likewise said nothing about Joseph's attempted seduction. This is even stranger when we know that Eliza sued Martin Harris for slander because he accused her of loose morals; she lost the suit. She had no reason, then, to favor the Mormons—yet she never complained of Joseph's attempted seduction. | ||
*G.D. Smith even makes the absence of evidence from Mrs. Hale sound suspicious. | *G.D. Smith even makes the absence of evidence from Mrs. Hale sound suspicious. | ||
*[[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Early womanizer?#Eliza Winters|Eliza Winters]] | |||
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*Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'' 4:296–97, 346–60; see also Frederick G. Mather, "The Early Mormons: Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna," ''Binghamton Republican'' (29 July 188). | *Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'' 4:296–97, 346–60; see also Frederick G. Mather, "The Early Mormons: Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna," ''Binghamton Republican'' (29 July 188). | ||
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|31||"Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio. She said when he looked into her eyes, she felt ashamed. At the time, the Smiths were living with Marinda's family…." | |31||"Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio. She said when he looked into her eyes, she felt ashamed. At the time, the Smiths were living with Marinda's family…." | ||
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What is he trying to imply? Joseph made her ashamed? This is false—she felt ashamed for doubting Joseph's prophetic call once she'd met him. Note that Smith also does not tell story of Marinda's mother being healed of a palsied arm by Joseph (See Compton, ''In Sacred Loneliness'', 230). | *What is he trying to imply? Joseph made her ashamed? This is false—she felt ashamed for doubting Joseph's prophetic call once she'd met him. Note also that Smith also does not tell story of Marinda's mother being healed of a palsied arm by Joseph (See Compton, ''In Sacred Loneliness'', 230). | ||
*[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#"she felt ashamed..."|"she felt ashamed..."]] | *[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#"she felt ashamed..."|"she felt ashamed..."]] | ||
*[[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Early womanizer?#Marinda Nancy Johnson|Marinda Nancy Johnson]] | |||
*Smith commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his. | *Smith commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his. | ||
*[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]] | *[[Polygamy book/Age of wives|Age of wives]] | ||
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|33||Lucinda and George [Harris] lived across the street from the Smiths. At an unspecified time, but probably by 1842, Lucinda became one more of the prophet's plural wives. | |33||Lucinda and George [Harris] lived across the street from the Smiths. At an unspecified time, but probably by 1842, Lucinda became one more of the prophet's plural wives. | ||
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*Compton dates the marriage to 1838. | *Compton dates the marriage to 1838 (''In Sacred Loneliness'', 4). G.D. Smith addresses none of the issues around the date's uncertainty. | ||
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*No source given. | *No source given. | ||
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|38||"The Mormon leaders were apprehended and jailed by state and local militia, and their followers were expelled in November 1838." | |38||"The Mormon leaders were apprehended and jailed by state and local militia, and their followers were expelled in November 1838." | ||
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* No source provided. | |||
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|38||"…Smith and fellow prisoners escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society." | |38||"…Smith and fellow prisoners escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society." | ||
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*This distorts the facts. Mormons were in the majority, but others lived there. Joseph did not rule by fiat, but government was conducted democratically under a charter granted by the Illinois legislature. | *This distorts the facts. Mormons were in the majority, but others lived there. Joseph did not rule by fiat, but government was conducted democratically under a charter granted by the Illinois legislature. | ||
*[[Nauvoo city charter]] | |||
*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]] | |||
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*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
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*Note that GD Smith does not engage or do more than mention Compton's strongest evidence: the Hancock autobiography. (He says only "Compton…draws from a late reminiscence by Mosiah Hancock to suggest that Smith married Alger in early 1833."[41 n. 90] But, we are nowhere told that this witness claimed to have performed the marriage ceremony. | *Note that GD Smith does not engage or do more than mention Compton's strongest evidence: the Hancock autobiography. (He says only "Compton…draws from a late reminiscence by Mosiah Hancock to suggest that Smith married Alger in early 1833."[41 n. 90] But, we are nowhere told that this witness claimed to have performed the marriage ceremony. | ||
*[[Polygamy book/Initiation of the practice|Initiation of the practice]] | *[[Polygamy book/Initiation of the practice|Initiation of the practice]] | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*{{CriticalWork:Compton:Sacred Loneliness|pages=25–42}} | *{{CriticalWork:Compton:Sacred Loneliness|pages=25–42}} | ||
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*Neither Parrish nor Cowdery said anything about them being found in the hay together. That relies entirely on William McLellin's second and third hand reports—see above. | *Neither Parrish nor Cowdery said anything about them being found in the hay together. That relies entirely on William McLellin's second and third hand reports—see above. | ||
*See the Jessee version of the diary—Joseph seems to have been troubled by McLellin's excommunication the day prior to writing this. (In Notes file) | *See the Jessee version of the diary—Joseph seems to have been troubled by McLellin's excommunication the day prior to writing this. (In Notes file) | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
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*The Parrish report is from Benjamin F. Johnson, who Smith fails to tell us went on to say, "without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife." | *The Parrish report is from Benjamin F. Johnson, who Smith fails to tell us went on to say, "without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife." | ||
*FANNY ALGER stuff and McLellin docs from GLSFARMS article | *FANNY ALGER stuff and McLellin docs from GLSFARMS article | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
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*FANNY ALGER stuff and McLellin docs from GLSFARMS article | *FANNY ALGER stuff and McLellin docs from GLSFARMS article | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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**Fanny's parents | **Fanny's parents | ||
**Hancock autobiography | **Hancock autobiography | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*FANNY ALGER stuff and McLellin docs from GLSFARMS article | *FANNY ALGER stuff and McLellin docs from GLSFARMS article | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*Mormon Enigma, 66. | *Newell and Avery, ''Mormon Enigma'', 66. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|41–42||"It might be important to mention that the testimony here and elsewhere regarding "[having] Fanny Alger as a wife" employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph." | |41–42||"It might be important to mention that the testimony here and elsewhere regarding "[having] Fanny Alger as a wife" employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph." | ||
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*Yet it is not clear why we should not so construe it. G. D. Smith does not tell us that Johnson (the same person who reported the term 'had…as a wife') then insisted in the same document that “without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife.” | *Yet it is not clear why we should not so construe it. G. D. Smith does not tell us that Johnson (the same person who reported the term 'had…as a wife') then insisted in the same document that “without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife.” | ||
*G. D. Smith provides no evidence or citation to enforce his reading over Johnson’s clear view of the relationship. | *G. D. Smith provides no evidence or citation to enforce his reading over Johnson’s clear view of the relationship. | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
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*There is reason to doubt this claim, not merely to regard it as unconfirmed. | *There is reason to doubt this claim, not merely to regard it as unconfirmed. | ||
* | *{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | ||
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*There is no Warren Parrish statement as suggested in #1; only Johnson's citation of him in 1905. | *There is no Warren Parrish statement as suggested in #1; only Johnson's citation of him in 1905. | ||
*GD Smith fails to mention: | *GD Smith fails to mention: | ||
6) Ann Eliza Webb x 2 (hostile, but thought was a marriage) | 6) Ann Eliza Webb x 2 (hostile, but thought was a marriage) | ||
7) Chauncery Webb | 7) Chauncery Webb | ||
*See TABLE 2 in | *See TABLE 2 in {{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | ||
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*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
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*Compton and Van Wagoner both reject this version of events. | *Compton and Van Wagoner both reject this version of events. | ||
* | *[[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Early womanizer?#Marinda Nancy Johnson|Marinda Nancy Johnson]] | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
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|44||"Lucinda Harris…[claimed] she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt…." | |44||"Lucinda Harris…[claimed] she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt…." | ||
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* | *{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | ||
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*{{CriticalWork:Wyl:Mormon Portraits Volume First|pages=60}} | *{{CriticalWork:Wyl:Mormon Portraits Volume First|pages=60}} | ||
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*G. D. Smith fails to mention the strongest arguments advanced by those who disagree with him. He provides no citation for the explanation that he adopts. | *G. D. Smith fails to mention the strongest arguments advanced by those who disagree with him. He provides no citation for the explanation that he adopts. | ||
* | *[[Joseph Smith and polygamy/Early womanizer?#Marinda Nancy Johnson|Marinda Nancy Johnson]] | ||
*{{GLS-Nauvoo Polygamy-FARMS}} | |||
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*Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, 4 n. 4; Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 220–222. | *Van Wagoner, ''Mormon Polygamy'', 4 n. 4; Compton, ''In Sacred Loneliness'', 220–222. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|45||"Gary James Bergera… | |45||"Gary James Bergera…[argued that] 'Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)…." | ||
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*{{HistoricalError}} | *{{HistoricalError}} | ||
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*Not true, since one could be in good Church standing if one was civilly married, but not if one was committing adultery. | *Not true, since one could be in good Church standing if one was civilly married, but not if one was committing adultery. | ||
*Beyond the grave, marriages were not binding. But this does not mean that they were "outdated," or that Church members did not continue to marry civilly. | *Beyond the grave, marriages were not binding. But this does not mean that they were "outdated," or that Church members did not continue to marry civilly. | ||
*Anderson and Faulring's review of Compton in the FARMS review talks about this too… | *'''Anderson and Faulring's review of Compton in the FARMS review talks about this too…''' | ||
|| | || | ||
*Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," Dialogue 35 (Fall 2002): 41–42, 45. (I've not read this – GLS) | *Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," ''Dialogue'' 35 (Fall 2002): 41–42, 45. (I've not read this – GLS) | ||
|- | |- | ||
|48||"In Smith's narrative, an otherworldly being Smtih called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…." | |48||"In Smith's narrative, an otherworldly being Smtih called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…." | ||
Revision as of 06:21, 22 December 2008
| Preface | A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: George D. Smith
|
Chapter 2 |
Claims made in Chapter 1
| Page | Claim | Response | Author's sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisa Beaman "was about to become the first plural wife of Joseph Smith." |
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| 1n1 | Note: "There is some evidence that Smith might have engaged in the practice prior to this, but this is the first documented marriage." |
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| 1 | Note: "Had romance blossomed between her and the charismatic...prophet." |
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| 1 | Joseph 35 versus Louisa 26 |
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| 2 | Nauvoo "a bustling Mississippi River town with several thousand inhabitants." |
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| 2 | The Mormons' Prophet had told them about the kingdom they would be called to adminster when Jesus returned to rule." |
NOTE |
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| 2 | Note: "No one knew precisely when the final end would come, but they knew it was imminent." |
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| 2 | "With an acquisitive eye on neighboring lands and the will to triumph over older settlers through political bloc voting, Joseph's behavior concerned some of the longtime Illinoisans who lived around the Saints." |
| |
| 2 | "A few years earlier, the people in Missouri had gone to war to expel Mormons from their state." |
NOTE |
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| 2 | "Now fear of [the Mormons'] city-wide militia, use of local petitions of habeas corpus to dismiss state warrants, and rumors of a 'plurality of wives' had put citizens on edge." |
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| 2 | "Mormons had left their New York homes under uneasy circumstances." |
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| 3 | "So plural marriage was central to the broad sweep of LDS experience..." |
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| 3 | Plural marriage "was illegal on that afternoon in 1841 when the Mormon prophet married Louisa Beaman." |
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| 3-4 | Joseph "chose some thirty three men...who would join him in denying its practice." |
| |
| 4 | The inner circle of plural marriage "would lose one of its key members in 1842 when John C. Bennett quarreled with Smith and then left." |
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| 5 | "Remarkably, Smith's role in introducing polygamy in Nauvoo has been largely excised from the official telling of LDS history." |
| |
| 5 | that Danel Bachman and Ron Esplin's Encyclopedia of Mormonism entry on plural marriage briefly mention[s] the "rumors" of plural marriage in the 1830s and 1840s but only obliquely refer[s] to the teaching [of] new marriage and family arrangements |
| |
| 5 | Claim: "Such revisionism continues today. When asked about polygamy on national televsion in 1998 LDS President Gordon Bh. Hinckley dismissed its historical importance, positing that 'when our people came west [in 1846-47], they permitted [polygamy] on a restricted scale.' He failed to acknowledge how important the 'law of celestial marriage' had been for the church's founder and his followers. Particularly revealing was how the church president phrased his answer to exclude the entire pre-Utah period of church history. He made it clear he would not welcome any probing into the life of Joseph Smith and his wives or of Smith's requirement that others embrace the practice." |
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| 6 | Where there was resistance, the prophet inveighed against it revealing God's rule that 'no one can reject [polygamy] and enter into my glory' (D&C 132, 51, 52, 54). |
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| 6 | Joseph predicted second coming not before 40 years, and by 1890, and those of rising generation will not taste of death until Christ comes. |
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| 7 | "Smith was familiar with nineteenth century writer Thomas Dick..." |
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| 7 | Joseph "had already proven his own mettle among God's elect when he mastered the use of magic stones and 'translated' the Book of Mormon." |
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| 8 | Joseph's dispensationalism had many past antecedants |
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| 9 | "Joseph preached [apocalyptically] as regularly as any other apocalyptic preacher of his day…." |
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| 9 | "…understandably hesitant to specify a precise date for the end of the world, Smith knew that 'our redemption draweth near.'?" |
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| 10 | On Joshua the Jewish minister [Robert Matthews]: "Smith found him credible enough to converse with from 11:00 a.m. until evening when Smith invited him to stay for dinner." "Without objection from Smith, Matthias asserted: 'The silence spoken of by John the Revelator…is between 1830 & 1851…." |
| |
| 11 | Robert Matthews (see above) "advocated what he called a 'community of property and of wives,' in a more 'spiritual generation.' Mormons avoided the idiom but not the practice." "…Mormon communal practices extended to property as well as to marriage." |
| |
| 11 | "Across the Atlantic, the communal experiment advocated by Marx and Engels appeared in London only a few years later in 1848." |
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| 12 | Polygamy was evidently on Smith's mind even before founding the Mormon Church, if that can be deduced from the marriage formula inscribed in the Book of Mormon. |
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| 12 | Book of Mormon was "…begun shortly after he eloped with Emma Hale in January 1827." |
NOTE |
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| 12 | Joseph "completed a ritualized five-year search for the gold plates…" |
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| 12 | "Each year at the autumnal equinox, which according to rodsmen and seers was a favourable time to approach the spirits guarding buried treasures, Smith had gone to the hill where he sought after the plates. |
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| 12n29 | "As noted by Quinn, that day in September 1823 was ruled by Jupiter, Smith's ruling planet…" |
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| 13 | Oliver Cowdery said Joseph wanted to "commune with some kind of messenger." |
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| 13 | Oliver Cowdery said Joseph "had heard of the power of enchantment, and a thousand like stories, which held the hidden treasures of the earth." |
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| 13-14 | "Smith elaborated this idea to 'raise up seed' [in Jacob 2:30] with the signal might [sic] be given again and polygamy would be re-introduced…. |
NOTE |
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| 14 | [In 1831 Joseph] "sanctioned the first breach in marriage mores. It occurred in Smith's charge to missionaries to the Indians when he told single and married men alike that they should marry native women. Polygamy may have been on his mind…." |
| |
| 14 | …W.W.Phelps reported on the prophet's instructions in all their antebellum racism. Through intermarriage, Smith said, the Indians would become white, delightsome, and just" and fulfill the Book of Mormon prophecy that 'the scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white [pure] and delightsome people." |
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| 14n34 | The 1840 Book of Mormon substituted the word 'pure' for 'white,' although the wording reverted back to "white" again in the English 1841 and later foreign editions, then became 'pure' again in 1981. |
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| 14n34 | Even so, other passages in the Book of Mormon still refer to 'white' as 'delightsome' and a 'skin of blackness' as a 'curse' (2 Ne. 5; Jacob 3:5, 8-10; Alma 3-6-9; 3 Ne. 2:14-15; Morm. 5:15). |
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| 14n34 | Skin color was important in other LDS scriptures as well, and blacks of African ancestry were denied full participation in the church until 1978. |
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| 14n34 | "Interestingly, the rhetoric underlying the theology may have resulted from 1830s Mormons trying to convince their neighbors in the slave state of Missouri that they were not abolitionists." |
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| 15 | Ezra Booth…[claimed] the expressed goal of the mission as being to secure a "matrimonial alliance with the natives." However, the missionaries did not seem successful in this area. Booth is probably wrong; the accounts say Joseph didn't explain the plural marriage issue until 3 years later, so married men could hardly be out looking for Indian wives in 1831. | Native Americans to become "white and delightsome" through polygamous marriage? |
|
| 15 | "One wonders when Emma Smith might have first suspected that her husband was contemplating plural marriage…As Emma regarded her handsome spouse, what in Joseph's youthful experiences may have suggested the unusual family arrangements that were to follow?" |
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| 15 | "We know Joseph often stayed overnight on visits with other families. Was Emma aware that later marriages would develop out of these family visits among their close friends? Could she have seen this coming—the injunction to enter into 'celestial marriage'?" |
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| 15-16 | "An examination of Smith's adolescence from his personal writings reveals some patterns and events that might be significant in understanding what precipitated his polygamous inclination." |
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| 16-20 | "The vices and follies of youth…." |
| |
| 19-20 | William Stafford…remembered "Joseph…looking in his glass" and seeing "spirits…clothed in ancient dress" standing guard over treasures." |
| |
| 20 | "Joseph cut 'a sheep's throat [and] led [it] around a circle while bleeding," his former acquaintances remembered, to appease the evil spirit." |
| |
| 20 | Joseph 'professed to tell people's fortunes' by gazing at a 'stone which he used to put in his hat,'…." |
| |
| 21 | "In a March 1, 1842 letter to John Wentworth…he left out any reference to the sinful thoughts he had previously mentioned. He had come effectively to de-emphasize the feelings of sin and guilt he had once experienced." |
| |
| 21 | "Despite his ambiguity on these points, there is every indication that he took an interest in polygamy at an early period, beyond what we read in his autobiographies or in the Book of Mormon." |
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|
| 21 | "What was new about this [1838] account [of Moroni's visit] was that this time the 1823 angelic announcement was preceded by an 1820 'First Vision,' which included not just 'personages' or 'angels' but a visitation by the God of heaven—'The Father and The Son.'" |
| |
| 22 | Lucy said, "in the course of our evening conversation[,] Joseph would give us some of the most ammusing [sic in Smith] recitals…[and] describe the ancient inhabitants of this [American] continent their dress their manner of traveling the animals which they rode." |
| |
| 22 | "There is nothing in Lucy's account about women, wives, or early struggles with chastity…." |
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| 22 | "…that same year [1832], [Joseph] had famously become involved with a sixteen-year-old carptenter's daughter named Fanny Alger, who eventually moved into the Smith home in about 1835." |
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| 22 | "Emma never indicated that her husband had told her anything specifically about his experiences prior to their marriage or the details of his involvement with other women, although she did know about Fanny Alger." |
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| 22 | "…it must have been a fascinating courtship, conducted as it was among unseen spirits and Joseph's unsettling conversations with angels." |
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| 22 | "Joseph and Emma had been bound by treasure magic from their first meeting in 1825, because Joseph…[came] to help Josaih Stowell located buried treasure [and] boarded with Emma's father." |
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| 22 | "It was in a mysterious atmosphere of imaginative lore and a mix of theology and magic that Joseph and Emma eloped." |
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| 23 | "The treasure seeker presented himself as someone who had special knowledge that was beyond the woman's ken." |
| |
| 25 | "What Joseph failed to explain in this [1838] version [of his history of money digging] was the apparent continuum from treasure seeking to finding gold plates or the similar modus operandi in placing a 'seer stone' in a hat…" |
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| 25 | "It is also true that Joseph's career in money digging was much more extensive than he intimated in his 1838 narrative." |
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| 25 | Bainbridge "glass-looking" is called "a trial" |
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| 27 | Isaac Hale not being allowed to look at the plates was a "clumsy subterfuge." |
| |
| 28 | "Joseph's personal charisma was working its effect where he needed to rely on others for help. He elicited sympathy and created a sense of urgency; his enterprises bore a strange significance." |
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| 28 | "A talisman he is said to have worn while digging carried this inscription: 'Confirm O god thy strength in us so that neither the adversary nor any Evil thing may cause us to fail.'" |
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| 28 | "If his wife shared in his sense of triumph [for getting the plates], she was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself." |
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| 28 | "Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start." |
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| 28 | "…Joseph was haunted by the suspicion, which followed him from place to place, that he crossed moral boundaries in his friendship with other women." |
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| 28-29 | Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828 |
This hostile report is belied by other primary documents. |
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| 29 | "When Emma's mother, Elizabeth Hale, was asked about this [the purported seduction of Eliza Winters] in an interview forty-six years later, she declined to comment. Whatever she might have known went with her to the grave in February 1842…." |
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| 29 | "In the revelation [D&C 132] Emma was promised annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment.'" |
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| 29 | "Curiously enough, the revelation [D&C 132] did not invoke the Book of Mormon's justification for taking more wives—the call to raise a righteous seed." |
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| 29 | "The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old." |
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| 29 | [Joseph's] "relationships in Ohio with various families and their daughters—some quite youthful at the time—allowed him to invite the young women into his further confidence when they were older." |
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| 30 | "In most cases, the women were adolescents or in their twenties when he met the. About ten were pre-teens, others already thirty or above." |
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| 30 | "Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann would become one of Joseph Smith's wives, although at the time [1831] she was only five years old." |
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| 31 | Mary Elizabeth Rollings was "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…." |
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| 31 | "It was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well." |
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| 31 | "Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio. She said when he looked into her eyes, she felt ashamed. At the time, the Smiths were living with Marinda's family…." |
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| 32 | "The seven-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball was still another future wife…When she married Smith a few years later in Nauvoo at the age of fourteen, it was with her father's encouragement." |
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| 32–33 | This series of events raises a few questions. What was the nature of Smith's relationships with these young women form the time he first met them? How relevant is it that in many instances he had lived under the same roof as his future wife prior to marrying her? |
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| 33 | Lucinda and George [Harris] lived across the street from the Smiths. At an unspecified time, but probably by 1842, Lucinda became one more of the prophet's plural wives. |
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| 34 | [In Illinois Joseph] "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses." |
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| 35 | "During the 1837 recession, Smith's unchartered bank, called the Kirland Safety Society Anti-banking Company, collapsed. Angry Ohioans could not be repaid for loans they had made to Mormon merchants and some church members lost their savings." |
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| 37 | "Missourians were alarmed by the influx of Mormons…and met to decide what to do about the intrusion. Sidney Rigdon warned that if they lifted their hand against the church, they would be 'exterminated.' In response to this incendiary speech, violence erupted on both sides, and Governor Lilburn Boggs soon declared in an echo of Rigdon's rhetoric that 'the Mormons…must be exterminated,' 'treated as enemies,' and 'driven from the State if necessary' to protect 'the public peace.' |
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| 38 | "The Mormon leaders were apprehended and jailed by state and local militia, and their followers were expelled in November 1838." |
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| 38 | "…Smith and fellow prisoners escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society." |
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| 38n81 | "Todd Compton has assembled the most complete documentation regarding Joseph and Fanny's relationship. However, I hesitate to concur with Compton's interpretation of their relationship as a marriage." |
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| 39 | "Joseph wrote in his journal on December 4, 1832, 'Oh, Lord, deliver thy servant out of temtations [sic] and fill his heart with wisdom and understanding.' If this was not in reference to Fanny Alger, it coincided with the report of two of Joseph's scribes, Warren Parrish and Oliver Cowdery, that Joseph had been 'found' in the hay with his housekeeper." |
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| 39 | Parrish said Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife"… |
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| 39 | Cowdery called it a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair." |
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| 39–41 | William McLellin claims |
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| 40–41 | McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill." |
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| 41–42 | "It might be important to mention that the testimony here and elsewhere regarding "[having] Fanny Alger as a wife" employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph." |
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| 42 | "There is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant." |
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| 42–43 | Five "primary accounts" of the Fanny relationship:
1) Oliver Cowdery & Warren Parrish 2) FG Williams via McLellin 3) Emma Smith via McLellin 4) Benjamin F. Johnson 5) Fanny Brewer's affidavit |
6) Ann Eliza Webb x 2 (hostile, but thought was a marriage) 7) Chauncery Webb
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| 44 | "Rumors may have been circulating already as early as 1832 that Smith had been familiar with fifteen-year-old Marinda Johnson, a member of the family with which Smith lived in Ohio." |
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| 44 | "Lucinda Harris…[claimed] she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt…." |
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| 44 n. 100 | “Van Wagoner...and Compton...argue that the mobsters...reacted to financial shenanigans, not to indiscretions with their sister. In defense of this position, Van Wagoner and Compton point to the fact that Sidney Rigdon was also tarred and feathered that night” |
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| 45 | "Gary James Bergera…[argued that] 'Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)…." |
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| 44–45 | "Civil marriage" was "an outdated marriage contract which, church members came to understand, was an inefficacious as an improper baptism." |
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| 48 | "In Smith's narrative, an otherworldly being Smtih called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…." | ||
| 48-49 | "The revelation [D&C 132] contravenes the Book of Mormon passage where polygamy is said to be allowed under certain conditions but is likely an indication of wickedness…." "However, Smith's 1843 revelation changes all this. Section 132 establishes polygamy as a virtuous higher law that is forever 'true'—no longer a time-sensitive practice." | ||
| 49 | "Another revelation, almost seeming to recall Smith's teenage concerns about sinful thoughts and behavior, reiterated this standard: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery….'" |
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| 50 | "…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling." |
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| 50 | "…Smith engaged in even more perilous anti-social behavior by indulging in sexual relations with the daughters and wives of close friends, albeit mostly in marital and religious contexts." |
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| 51 | "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…." |
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| 51 | [Today there is] "the continued abusive coercion of underage girls in polygamous communities. Although polygamy has been repeatedly condemned by the contemporary LDS Church, the Nauvoo beginnings of the practice remain in LDS scripture as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the church's temple sealings. |
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Endnotes
- [note] William J. Hamblin, "That Old Black Magic (Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 12/2 (2000): 225–394. [{{{url}}} off-site]
- [note] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 99.