
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
mNo edit summary |
mNo edit summary |
||
Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
|notes={{AuthorsDisclaimer}} | |notes={{AuthorsDisclaimer}} | ||
}} | }} | ||
===Claims made in Chapter 1=== | ===Claims made in Chapter 1=== | ||
{{BeginClaimsTable}} | {{BeginClaimsTable}} | ||
Line 31: | Line 31: | ||
*{{HistoricalError}} | *{{HistoricalError}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
|1|| | | | ||
====1==== | |||
||"Had romance blossomed between her and the charismatic...prophet"? | |||
|| | || | ||
* Smith implies that romance was a commonly expressed reason for women practicing plural marriage with Joseph. | * Smith implies that romance was a commonly expressed reason for women practicing plural marriage with Joseph. | ||
Line 40: | Line 42: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|1||Joseph 35 versus Louisa 26 | | | ||
====1==== | |||
||Joseph age 35, versus Louisa 26 | |||
|| | || | ||
*Smith commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages. | *Smith commonly exploits the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis) presentist fallacy] in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages. | ||
Line 48: | Line 52: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|2||Nauvoo "a bustling Mississippi River town with several thousand inhabitants." | | | ||
====2==== | |||
||Nauvoo "a bustling Mississippi River town with several thousand inhabitants." | |||
|| | || | ||
*{{InternalContradiction|p. xv: Nauvoo was "a more or less insignificant river town". Yet, Nauvoo was ultimately largest city in the entire state except for Chicago.{{ref|p2fn2}}}} | *{{InternalContradiction|p. xv: Nauvoo was "a more or less insignificant river town". Yet, Nauvoo was ultimately largest city in the entire state except for Chicago.{{ref|p2fn2}}}} | ||
Line 55: | Line 61: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|2||The Mormons' Prophet had told them about the kingdom they would be called to adminster when Jesus returned to rule." | | | ||
====2==== | |||
||The Mormons' Prophet had told them about the kingdom they would be called to adminster when Jesus returned to rule." | |||
|| | || | ||
NOTE | NOTE | ||
Line 61: | Line 69: | ||
*Dan Erickson, ''"As a Thief in the Night": The Mormon Quest for Millennial Deliverance'' (SLC: Signature Books, 1998)< 6, 46, 59, 121, 123-48. | *Dan Erickson, ''"As a Thief in the Night": The Mormon Quest for Millennial Deliverance'' (SLC: Signature Books, 1998)< 6, 46, 59, 121, 123-48. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|2|| | | | ||
====2==== | |||
||"No one knew precisely when the final end would come, but they knew it was imminent." | |||
|| | || | ||
* G.D. Smith leaves unmentioned that many/most Christians have always seen the end as imminent. | * G.D. Smith leaves unmentioned that many/most Christians have always seen the end as imminent. | ||
Line 67: | Line 77: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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==== | |||
||"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." | |||
|| | || | ||
* [[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]] | * [[../../Loaded and prejudicial language]] | ||
Line 73: | Line 85: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|2||"A few years earlier, the people in Missouri had gone to war to expel Mormons from their state." | | | ||
====2==== | |||
||"A few years earlier, the people in Missouri had gone to war to expel Mormons from their state." | |||
|| | || | ||
NOTE | NOTE | ||
Line 79: | Line 93: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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." | | | ||
====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." | |||
|| | || | ||
* Smith fails to tell us that | * Smith fails to tell us that | ||
Line 91: | Line 107: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|2||"Mormons had left their New York homes under uneasy circumstances." | | | ||
====2==== | |||
||"Mormons had left their New York homes under uneasy circumstances." | |||
|| | || | ||
* It is not clear what "uneasy circumstances" Smith refers to. The Mormons were not driven from New York, but immigrated to Kirtland, Ohio at Joseph's direction. | * It is not clear what "uneasy circumstances" Smith refers to. The Mormons were not driven from New York, but immigrated to Kirtland, Ohio at Joseph's direction. | ||
Line 99: | Line 117: | ||
*{{HistoricalError}} | *{{HistoricalError}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
|3||"So plural marriage was central to the broad sweep of LDS experience..." | | | ||
====3==== | |||
||"So plural marriage was central to the broad sweep of LDS experience..." | |||
|| | || | ||
*Polygamy was unpracticed by anyone but Joseph Smith prior to Nauvoo. Polygamy had nothing to do with Mormons moving from New York. The need to flee Missouri likewise had little to do with plural marriage. Joseph's marriage to Fanny Alger was one factor among many causing problems in Ohio (though the financial problems and collapse of the [[Kirtland Safety Society]] were probably more significant). | *Polygamy was unpracticed by anyone but Joseph Smith prior to Nauvoo. Polygamy had nothing to do with Mormons moving from New York. The need to flee Missouri likewise had little to do with plural marriage. Joseph's marriage to Fanny Alger was one factor among many causing problems in Ohio (though the financial problems and collapse of the [[Kirtland Safety Society]] were probably more significant). | ||
Line 107: | Line 127: | ||
*{{HistoricalError}} | *{{HistoricalError}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
|3||Plural marriage "was illegal on that afternoon in 1841 when the Mormon prophet married Louisa Beaman." | | | ||
====3==== | |||
||Plural marriage "was illegal on that afternoon in 1841 when the Mormon prophet married Louisa Beaman." | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[Joseph Smith and polygamy#Illegal?|Joseph Smith and polygamy—Illegal?]] | *[[Joseph Smith and polygamy#Illegal?|Joseph Smith and polygamy—Illegal?]] | ||
Line 113: | Line 135: | ||
*''Revised Laws of Illinois, 1833; Revised States of the State of Illinois, 1845,'' secs 121, 122. | *''Revised Laws of Illinois, 1833; Revised States of the State of Illinois, 1845,'' secs 121, 122. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|3-4||Joseph "chose some thirty three men...who would join him in denying its practice." | | | ||
====3-4==== | |||
||Joseph "chose some thirty three men...who would join him in denying its practice." | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[Joseph Smith and polygamy#Hiding the Truth?|Joseph Smith and polygamy—Hiding the truth?]] | *[[Joseph Smith and polygamy#Hiding the Truth?|Joseph Smith and polygamy—Hiding the truth?]] | ||
Line 119: | Line 143: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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." | | | ||
====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." | |||
|| | || | ||
*There is no evidence that Bennett was ever sanctioned to practice plural marriage. He was never part of the Quorum of the Anointed who received the full temple endowment. | *There is no evidence that Bennett was ever sanctioned to practice plural marriage. He was never part of the Quorum of the Anointed who received the full temple endowment. | ||
Line 126: | Line 152: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|5||"Remarkably, Smith's role in introducing polygamy in Nauvoo has been largely excised from the official telling of LDS history." | | | ||
====5==== | |||
||"Remarkably, Smith's role in introducing polygamy in Nauvoo has been largely excised from the official telling of LDS history." | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[Censorship and revision of LDS history]] | *[[Censorship and revision of LDS history]] | ||
Line 133: | Line 161: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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==== | |||
||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 | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#Items "briefly" and "obliquely" mentioned?|Items "briefly" and "obliquely" mentioned?]] | *[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#Items "briefly" and "obliquely" mentioned?|Items "briefly" and "obliquely" mentioned?]] | ||
Line 140: | Line 170: | ||
*Text: "Rumors of plural marriage among the members of the Church in the 1830's and 1840's led to persecution, and the public announcement of the practice after August 29, 1852, in Utah gave enemies a potent weapon to fan public hostility against the Church. | *Text: "Rumors of plural marriage among the members of the Church in the 1830's and 1840's led to persecution, and the public announcement of the practice after August 29, 1852, in Utah gave enemies a potent weapon to fan public hostility against the Church. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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." | | | ||
====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." | |||
|| | || | ||
*G.D. Smith does not explain why what President Hinckley would "not welcome" has any influence on a non-LDS journalist. Does Smith think that such an interview is the time for an accurate, in-depth discussion of a subject as complex as LDS plural marriage? | *G.D. Smith does not explain why what President Hinckley would "not welcome" has any influence on a non-LDS journalist. Does Smith think that such an interview is the time for an accurate, in-depth discussion of a subject as complex as LDS plural marriage? | ||
Line 149: | Line 181: | ||
*Gordon B. Hinckley, interviewed by Larry King, CNN broadcast, Sept 8, 1998. [Cited from secondary sources] | *Gordon B. Hinckley, interviewed by Larry King, CNN broadcast, Sept 8, 1998. [Cited from secondary sources] | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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).|| | | | ||
====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).|| | |||
*The actual text reads: "I reveal unto you a '''new and an everlasting covenant'''; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory." Plural marriage was at times a manifestation of the new and everlasting covenant, but even during the polygamous era leaders were clear that one did not necessarily have to practice polygamy to be saved. | *The actual text reads: "I reveal unto you a '''new and an everlasting covenant'''; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory." Plural marriage was at times a manifestation of the new and everlasting covenant, but even during the polygamous era leaders were clear that one did not necessarily have to practice polygamy to be saved. | ||
* [[Polygamy a requirement for exaltation]] | * [[Polygamy a requirement for exaltation]] | ||
Line 156: | Line 190: | ||
*{{s||DC|132|52-53,54}} | *{{s||DC|132|52-53,54}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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. | | | ||
====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. | |||
|| | || | ||
* G.D. Smith does not provide Joseph's careful caveats about his prediction, and his admitted uncertainties surrounding this issue. | * G.D. Smith does not provide Joseph's careful caveats about his prediction, and his admitted uncertainties surrounding this issue. | ||
Line 166: | Line 202: | ||
*No source provided | *No source provided | ||
|- | |- | ||
|7||"Smith was familiar with nineteenth century writer Thomas Dick..." | | | ||
====7==== | |||
||"Smith was familiar with nineteenth century writer Thomas Dick..." | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[Was Joseph Smith's theology influenced by the writings of Thomas Dick?]] | *[[Was Joseph Smith's theology influenced by the writings of Thomas Dick?]] | ||
Line 173: | Line 211: | ||
*Thomas Dick, ''The Philosophy of a Future State'', 2d. American ed. (Brookfield, Mass: n.p., 1830); quoted in ''LDS Messenger and Advocate'' 3 (Dec 1836): 423-25. | *Thomas Dick, ''The Philosophy of a Future State'', 2d. American ed. (Brookfield, Mass: n.p., 1830); quoted in ''LDS Messenger and Advocate'' 3 (Dec 1836): 423-25. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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." | | | ||
====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." | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[Joseph Smith and seer stones]] | *[[Joseph Smith and seer stones]] | ||
Line 182: | Line 222: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|8||Joseph's dispensationalism had many past antecedants | | | ||
====8==== | |||
||Joseph's dispensationalism had many past antecedants | |||
|| | || | ||
*G.D. Smith here presumes that past dispensationalism had an influence on Joseph. This must be proved, not assumed. | *G.D. Smith here presumes that past dispensationalism had an influence on Joseph. This must be proved, not assumed. | ||
Line 189: | Line 231: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|9||"Joseph preached [apocalyptically] as regularly as any other apocalyptic preacher of his day…." | | | ||
====9==== | |||
||"Joseph preached [apocalyptically] as regularly as any other apocalyptic preacher of his day…." | |||
|| | || | ||
*How does G.D. Smith know this? How frequently did other preachers use apocalyptic imagery and themes? Was their percentage of such uses equal to or greater than Joseph's usage? | *How does G.D. Smith know this? How frequently did other preachers use apocalyptic imagery and themes? Was their percentage of such uses equal to or greater than Joseph's usage? | ||
Line 196: | Line 240: | ||
*No source provided. | *No source provided. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|9||"…understandably hesitant to specify a precise date for the end of the world, Smith knew that 'our redemption draweth near.'?"|| | | | ||
====9==== | |||
||"…understandably hesitant to specify a precise date for the end of the world, Smith knew that 'our redemption draweth near.'?"|| | |||
*The source is referring to the redemption of the Saints in Missouri and their deliverance from persecution. The quote has nothing to do with the "end of the world." | *The source is referring to the redemption of the Saints in Missouri and their deliverance from persecution. The quote has nothing to do with the "end of the world." | ||
*[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#Missouri Saints' "redemption draweth near" reinterpreted to refer to refer to the "end of the world?"|Missouri Saints' "redemption draweth near" reinterpreted to refer to refer to the "end of the world?"]] | *[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#Missouri Saints' "redemption draweth near" reinterpreted to refer to refer to the "end of the world?"|Missouri Saints' "redemption draweth near" reinterpreted to refer to refer to the "end of the world?"]] | ||
Line 202: | Line 248: | ||
*Jesse, 306 | *Jesse, 306 | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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…." | | | ||
====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…." | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#"Without objection from Smith...?|"Without objection from Smith...?]] | *[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#"Without objection from Smith...?|"Without objection from Smith...?]] | ||
Line 208: | Line 256: | ||
*Jesse, ''Papers of Joseph Smith'', 2:68–73, 568–69. | *Jesse, ''Papers of Joseph Smith'', 2:68–73, 568–69. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|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==== | |||
||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." | |||
|| | || | ||
*[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#Latter-day Saint plural wives were "communal property?"|Latter-day Saint plural wives were "communal property?"]] | *[[../../Misrepresentation of sources#Latter-day Saint plural wives were "communal property?"|Latter-day Saint plural wives were "communal property?"]] |
Preface | A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: George D. Smith
|
Chapter 2 |
Page | Claim | Response | Author's sources |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Louisa Beaman "was about to become the first plural wife of Joseph Smith." |
|
|
1n1 |
Note: "There is some evidence that Smith might have engaged in the practice prior to this, but this is the first documented marriage." |
|
|
1 |
"Had romance blossomed between her and the charismatic...prophet"? |
|
|
1 |
Joseph age 35, versus Louisa 26 |
|
|
2 |
Nauvoo "a bustling Mississippi River town with several thousand inhabitants." |
|
|
2 |
The Mormons' Prophet had told them about the kingdom they would be called to adminster when Jesus returned to rule." |
NOTE |
|
2 |
"No one knew precisely when the final end would come, but they knew it was imminent." |
|
|
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 |
|
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." |
|
|
2 |
"Mormons had left their New York homes under uneasy circumstances." |
|
|
3 |
"So plural marriage was central to the broad sweep of LDS experience..." |
|
|
3 |
Plural marriage "was illegal on that afternoon in 1841 when the Mormon prophet married Louisa Beaman." |
| |
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." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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). |
|
|
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. |
|
|
7 |
"Smith was familiar with nineteenth century writer Thomas Dick..." |
| |
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." |
| |
8 |
Joseph's dispensationalism had many past antecedants |
|
|
9 |
"Joseph preached [apocalyptically] as regularly as any other apocalyptic preacher of his day…." |
|
|
9 |
"…understandably hesitant to specify a precise date for the end of the world, Smith knew that 'our redemption draweth near.'?" |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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. |
|
|
12 | Book of Mormon was "…begun shortly after he eloped with Emma Hale in January 1827." |
NOTE |
|
12 | Joseph "completed a ritualized five-year search for the gold plates…" |
|
|
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. |
|
|
12n29 | "As noted by Quinn, that day in September 1823 was ruled by Jupiter, Smith's ruling planet…" |
|
|
13 | Oliver Cowdery said Joseph wanted to "commune with some kind of messenger." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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 |
|
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." |
|
|
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. |
|
|
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). |
|
|
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. |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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. |
| |
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?" |
|
|
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'?" |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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." |
G.D. Smith is here using the Hurlbut-Howe affidavits uncritically, without addressing their numerous problems.
|
|
20 | "Joseph cut 'a sheep's throat [and] led [it] around a circle while bleeding," his former acquaintances remembered, to appease the evil spirit." |
G.D. Smith is here using the Hurlbut-Howe affidavits uncritically, without addressing their numerous problems. |
|
20 | Joseph 'professed to tell people's fortunes' by gazing at a 'stone which he used to put in his hat,'…." |
G.D. Smith is here using the Hurlbut-Howe affidavits uncritically, without addressing their numerous problems. |
|
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." |
G.D. Smith again presumes that Joseph's works referred to "sinful thoughts," which he has tried to tie to chastity.
|
|
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." |
|
|
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…." |
|
|
22 | "…that same year [1832], [Joseph] had famously become involved with a sixteen-year-old carpenter's daughter named Fanny Alger, who eventually moved into the Smith home in about 1835." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
22 | "…it must have been a fascinating courtship, conducted as it was among unseen spirits and Joseph's unsettling conversations with angels." |
Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language |
|
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." |
|
|
22 | "It was in a mysterious atmosphere of imaginative lore and a mix of theology and magic that Joseph and Emma eloped." |
|
|
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…" |
|
|
25 | "It is also true that Joseph's career in money digging was much more extensive than he intimated in his 1838 narrative." |
|
|
25 | Bainbridge "glass-looking" is called "a trial" |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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.'" |
|
|
28 | "If his wife shared in his sense of triumph [for getting the plates], she was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself." |
|
|
28 | "Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
28-29 | Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828 |
This hostile report is belied by other primary documents. |
|
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…." |
|
|
29 | "In the revelation [D&C 132] Emma was promised annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment.'" |
|
|
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." |
|
|
29 | "The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
31 | Mary Elizabeth Rollings was "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…." |
|
|
31 | "It was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well." |
|
|
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…." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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? |
|
|
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. |
|
|
34 | [In Illinois Joseph] "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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.' |
|
|
38 | "The Mormon leaders were apprehended and jailed by state and local militia, and their followers were expelled in November 1838." |
NOTE |
|
38 | "…Smith and fellow prisoners escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
39 | Parrish said Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife"… |
|
|
39 | Cowdery called it a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair." |
|
|
39–41 | William McLellin claims |
|
|
40–41 | McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
42 | "There is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant." |
|
|
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
|
|
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." |
|
|
44 | "Lucinda Harris…[claimed] she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt…." |
|
|
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” |
|
|
45 | "Gary James Bergera…[argued that] 'Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)…." |
|
|
44–45 | "Civil marriage" was "an outdated marriage contract which, church members came to understand, was an inefficacious as an improper baptism." |
|
|
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….'" |
|
|
50 | "…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling." |
|
|
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." |
|
|
51 | "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…." |
|
|
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. |
|
|
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.
Donate Now