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.
Spiritual manifestations at the dedication of the Kirtland temple
This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.
Question
Was there really spiritual manifestations attending the dedication of the Kirtland temple? I have heard allegations that it was in fact a drunken orgy.
Answer
The earliest account we have is from apostate Benjamin F. Winchester, who was a friend of Joseph Smith’s, an LDS leader in the early 1840s. He wrote that the Kirtland temple dedication “ended in a drunken frolic.” Benjamin Winchester left the Church during the Nauvoo era in the 1840s, the temple dedication occurred in March of 1836, so, he was a member even AFTER the supposed events in Kirtland that he later condemned. Why? Why didn’t he leave earlier if he knew that such things were serving as the surrogate for spirituality 5 years earlier?
Such an accusation conflicts with many other contemporary accounts and is inconsistent with the Latter-day Saint attitude toward intemperance. If such behavior had been manifest, individuals would have undoubtedly recorded the information in their diaries or letters in 1836, but the negative reports emerged long after the events had transpired and among vindictive critics who had become enemies of the Church.[1]
In 1886 an antimormon named Wilhelm Wyle published a book called MORMON PORTRAITS; JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET, HIS FAMILY & FRIENDS, in it he published the most lurid tales he could gather about the early leaders of the Church
He quotes from William McLellin and other early Church apostates to demonstrate that the Prophet and his family and friends were drunkards and fakes. Among his tales is this one regarding the Kirtland Temple dedication. Very likely his source was Mr. Winchester, but I haven't been able to review his book to ascertain that for sure. Assuming of course that there are source notes in the book.
In 1890 one A. Theodore Schroeder went to Salt Lake City and stayed for ten years digging through libraries and collections again looking for ammunition with which to attack the Church. He returned to Wisconsin in 1900 and donated all his books and papers to the Wisconsin State Historical Society Library, in Madison Wisconsin. He also wrote several anti-mormon articles in journals of the time. He quotes W. Wyle in many of his articles. One in particular was published in the American Historical Journal v.3 1908. In it he quotes Wyle in an article called "Mormonism and Intoxicants" (pp 238-249).
Other, more modern authors, like Richard Abanes, have quoted W. Wyle and Theodore Schroeder to substantiate their claims against the Church. Ultimately all their "proofs" fall upon the word of apostates.
It is ironic that critics refer to the Kirtland Temple dedication as some form of "pentecost" for the early Church, when, at the first pentecost, the Apostles were also accused of being drunken. (Acts 2:13-15)
In November 2002, an early account of the dedication of the Kirtland temple surfaced. It was written up in BYU studies 42, no 2 (2003). The BYU Studies article, titled "Pentecost Continued" confirms the spiritual outpouring and is an excellent contemporary window into the event. Quoting from account "Sunday evening after joseph spoke opened & told them the day of penticost was ccoonntitniuneude33d55 the the [sic] brethren began to to prophesy many prophesied in the name of the lord then began speaking in tongues and it filled as it were the whole house perhaps there were forty speaking at once cloven tongues of fire was seen to sit on many of them an hand was seen laid upon one when he spake in tongues to the llaammaanniitteess many visions seen one saw a pillow or cloud rest down upon the house bright as when the sun shines on a cloud like as gold two others saw three personages hovering in the room with bright keys in their hands and also a bright chain in their hands tehhheee I1 did not intend this for a letter but this morning while writing brother bovee concluded to start for home"
Endnotes
- [note] [Milton V. Backman, Jr., The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-Day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1983), 309n377]