Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 10


Claims made in "Chapter 9: March to Martyrdom"
A FAIR Analysis of:
Criticism of Mormonism/Books
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 Claims made in "Chapter 11: Bloody Brigham"

Claims made in "Chapter 10: A New Beginning"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

205 (HB,PB)

 "Unrepentant abandonment to the 'lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life' (1 John 2:16) had caused Joseph's ruin; nothing more, nothing less."

207, 548n12 (PB)

 "[Willard] Richards may have gone so far as to have Samuel [Smith] murdered to prevent any succession. Samuel's wife believed this to be the case, naming as her husband's murderer, the Chief of Police—Hosea Stout..."
  • The following is hidden on page 548 in the endnote: "Although Quinn explains in great depth the various reasons why it is probable that Stout killed Samuel, he adds a word of caution: 'This troubling allegation should not be ignored but cannot be verified.'"
  • The author does not make clear how Samuel's wife's suspicion that Hosea Stout killed her husband relates to Willard Richards possibly having "gone so far as to have Samuel murdered."

207, 548n13 (PB)

 "But even more imperative to top LDS leaders was finding a person, or persons, willing to continue Smith's propagation of polygamy, which by 1844 was being enjoyed by select members of the Twelve Apostles..."
  • Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 78.

208, 548n17 (PB)

 William Marks "was almost installed as church president by several high-ranking leaders, who happened to be in Nauvoo."

211, 549n27 (PB)

 "Mormon thieves, who regularly stole from non-Mormons. This had been a long-standing complain about Saints in the area....eight out of fourteen issues of the Warsaw Signal published between September 18, 1844, and January 1, 1845, included articles titled "Mormon Thieves."...for several weeks beginning on Christmas Day, 1844, the publication ran stories about "Mormon Stealing."
  • There is no mention at all of well-known anti-Mormon Thomas Sharp, owner of the Warsaw Signal, and how the paper played a major role leading up to Joseph's death. The author simply mentions Sharp's articles. Sharp wrote the following on 11 June 1844:

War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens ARISE, ONE and ALL!!!—Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! to ROB men of their property and RIGHTS, without avenging them. We have no time for comment, every man will make his own. LET IT BE MADE WITH POWDER AND BALL!!!

On July 10, Sharp wrote:

Joe and Hiram [sic] Smith, at the time their lives were taken, were in the custody of the officers of the law; and it is asked by those who condemn the act, why the law was not first allowed to take its course before violence was resorted to? We answer that the course of law in the case of these wretches would have been a mere mockery; and such was the conviction of every sensible man.

  • Sharp would also say that the murder of the Smiths was "a summary execution," and that "the anti-Mormons had agreed in early June to exterminate the Mormon leaders."[2]
  • Marshall Hamilton, "From Assassination to Expulsion: Two Years of Distrust, Hostility, and Violence," in Launius and Hallwas, 216.

211, 549n28 (PB)

 "...stealing from the Gentiles apparently had been approved by Smith, who told Porter Rockwell that 'it was right to steal.'"

Joseph Smith taught 'it was right to steal'

211, 549n29 (PB)

 Orson Hyde said that it was OK to "steal & be influenced by the spirit of the Lord to do it" as long as it was against non-Mormons.

Orson Hyde says spirit of Lord may influence to steal

  • Orson Hyde. Quoted in John Bennion, "John Bennion Journal," under October 13, 1860; cf. Brigham Young Office Journal, April 3, 1860.

211, 549n31-34 (PB)

 The Nauvoo police committed "many murders, vicious beatings, and intimidating assults" against "perceived enemies of the church."

212, 549n35-37 (PB)

 "Although the exact number of murders committed by Mormons between 1844 and 1846 remains unknown, it is certain that a majority of them were handled by Danites Porter Rockwell, Hosea Stout, and Allen Stout.

213, 549n38 (PB)

 Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde "actually ordered Nauvoo's police force to kill apostate Lambert Symes, who subsequently disappeared without a trace."

 Misrepresentation of source


213, 550n41-43

 "Mormon dissenter" Irvine Hodge was "presumably" murdered by Nauvoo policemen because he threatened to "expose every Mormon who had been involved in stealing from non-Mormons" and threatened to harm Brigham Young and Nauvoo policeman.
  • William Hall, The Abominations of Mormonism Exposed, 31-34.
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 217, 651.
  • Brigham Young. Quoted on an undated page of statements by Jehiel Savage, Charles B. Thompson, George J. Adams, and Joseph Younger.

213, 550n44-45 (PB)

 "Other homicides were taken care of by members of the Council of Fifty."
  • Oliver B. Huntington, statement in "Seymour B. Young Diary," under May 23, 1903.
  • Clayton, under July 5, 1845.
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 179.

213, 550n44 (PB)

 "Lewis Dana...killed his supposed friend Jonathan Dunham, the man who had 'ignored the prophet's direct order to lead the Nauvoo Legion in a rescue at Carthage Jail'"

214, 550n46

 "Hosea Stout had three men flogged because they 'were not in good fellowship.'"
  • Hosea Stout, under September 14, 1845, in Brooks, vol. 1, 63.

214, 550n49-51

 "Those persons fortunate enough to not be either murdered or severely beaten were usually "whittled" out of town by Brigham's 'Whistling and Whittling Brigade.'" which was a "violent gang of Mormons" that were "in good standing with the church."
  • William B. Pace, William B. Pace Autobiography. Quoted in Dean Moody, "Nauvoo's Whistling and Whittling Brigade," BYU Studies (Summer 1975), vol. 15, 487.
  • Jehiel Savage statement in minutes of the high council of James Strang's followers at Voree, Wisconsin, April 6, 1846.
  • Hosea Stout, under April 27, 1845, in Brooks, vol. 1, 36.

216-217, n62-65

 Government records indicate that Brigham Young, Willard Richards, Parley Pratt, and Orson Hyde were involved in making counterfeit coins. This may have "started under Joseph's leadership."
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Mormon Kingdom, vol. 2, 51-64.
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127, 650-651.
  • Warsaw Signal, June 5, 1844.
  • St Louis American, December 2, 1845,

217

 Brigham decided to start the exodus early because he was "faced with the possibility of federal troops showing up." "He did not try to explain away the counterfeiting charges, nor declare that he would allow the courts to prove his innocence. Instead, Young simply stated that he would be taking his family westward as soon as possible."
  • No source provided.

220, 553n77 (HB)

 Brigham "proudly admitted" "'I have been your dictator for twenty-seven years--over a quarter of a century I have dictated this people.'"

221-222, 551n84-87

 Latter-day Saints believed that "they were the only ones with a legitimate right to be stewards of the Lord's property—i.e., all creation. Gentiles, on the other hand, because they had no claim to the earth, would have to give up to the Saints what they mistakenly viewed as their property."

222, 554n88 (HB)

 Brigham asserted that God's kingdom had already come. "[T]hat Kingdom is actually organized, and the inhabitants of earth do not [even] know it,"

222, 554n89 (HB)

 Brigham said: "[W]e will roll on the Kingdom of our God, gather out the seed of Abraham, build the cities and temples of Zion, and establish the Kingdom of God to bear rule over all the earth."

223, 552n94

 "[S]alvation for the Mormon rested on their obedience to Brigham..." When Mary Ettie V. Smith recalled asked Brigham, "are you my Saviour?" she claims that Brigham said, "Most assuredly I am....You cannot enter the Celestial kingdom, except by my consent. Do you doubt it?"
  • Quoted in Nelson Winch Green, Mormonism: its rise, progress, and present condition. Embracing the narrative of Mrs. Mary Ettie V. Smith, 201.

223, 552n95

 "[Brigham] also believed that one day soon he 'would himself become president of the United States, or dictate who should be president.'"
  • Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah, 1540-1886, 505.

223, 552n96

 John Taylor said "We used to have a difference between Church and State, but it is all one now..."

223, n97

 "Mormon leaders ruled via a ruthlessly oppressive theocracy wherein they kept followers in line through violence and intimidation."

224, 552n98

 The Mormon Reformation was "one of the most violent periods in LDS history" where the Church "resorted to censorship of church critics, harsh disciplinary actions, and numerous murders committed at the behest of Young and other high-ranking Mormon officials."
  • Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 19, or the Story of A Life In Bondage, Being A Complete Expose of Mormonism, and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Wome in Polygamy, Chapter 18.

224

 "Most of these homicides were directly related to the Latter-day Saint doctrine known as "Blood Atonement."
  • No source provided.

Endnotes

  1. [note]  George D. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy: "...but we called it celestial marriage" (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008), 310. ( Index of claims , (Detailed book review))
  2. [note]  Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, the Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1979), 22, citing Warsaw Signal (July 10 & July 31, 1844). ISBN 025200762X.

Further reading

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