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Date Posted: 09:31:38 08/25/12 Sat
Author: SWC
Subject: The Mormons: Part 2

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith Jr. was born in 1805 in Vermont. At age 11, his family moved to Palmyra, New York, about 20 miles southeast of Rochester. Smith’s family was not a member of a formal church but read the bible and, like many people of the time, developed a sort of folk religion, believing in magic and seeing visions to lead them to various revelations.

Smith wrote years later of his “first vision” of 1820 in which he went into the woods to pray for guidance as to which formal church to join, felt himself “in the grip of an evil power” and was then rescued by two “shining personages”, which he later interpreted to be Jesus and God the Father, who forgave him his sins and told him not to join any established church because all of their teachings were wrong. Smith reported the experience to a Methodist minister who “responded with great contempt”, telling him that the apostles had had visions but that there had been none since

The Smiths believed in something called “Seer Stones“, which when put in a stovepipe hat supposedly could be read to determine the location of lost objects or precious metals in the earth. Smith made a living in the 1820’s traveling through western New York being paid to search for lost objects and buried treasure with his seer stones. He even established a company with partners, advertising their ability to find treasures. He was once put on trial in Canandaigua New York for pretending to search for precious metals.

Smith said that in 1823, he was visited by the angel Moroni, who revealed to him the location of a buried book of golden plates and a pair of silver spectacles with seer stones where the glass should be. The plates were engraved with writing in a “reformed Egyptian” language no one could translate but by using the seer stone spectacles, Smith was able to translate them into the Book of Mormon. The location of this buried “treasure” was a hill he called Cumorah. (When I was a child, my parents took me to see the annual pagent that is put on at Hill Cumorah because they thought it would be a good educational experience. The actors portraying the Jaredites, Mulekites, Nephites and Lamanites were all running around in lose-fitting sheets and robes appropriate for the Middle East. I recall Mom wondering how they ever survived a New York winter).

Moroni refused to give Smith the golden plates until he brought “the right person”. Smith, continuing his travels as a fortune finder, fell in love with the Emma Hale, the daughter of one of his customers. He eloped with her due to her parent’s disapproval and then took her to Cumorah, where she proved to be the “right person”. Smith got the plates from Moroni so he could translate them, although Emma said all she ever saw was something covered with a cloth.

A neighbor, Martin Harris had mortaged his farm to underwright the publishing but he demanded Smith give him each page as it was translated. Smith objected to this and later claimed that Harris’ wife Lucy had stolen the first 116 pages and that the angel Moroni had taken the plates back until they repented. He was given the plates back and started over again, eventually getting the book published with the help of an early convert named Oliver Cowdery, a professional dowser, (someone who used a divining rod to find water, various metals or oil).

Knowing that some would find his story of the plates hard to believe, he had eleven people sign statements in a book saying that they had seen them. All of the witnesses were family or close friends of Smith and early believers. Several later had disagreements with Smith and were excommunicated. They never specifically recanted their statements but Martin Harris, who was one of them, said that they had never seen anything and were persuaded by Smith to sign. Smith said that the angel Moroni had taken back the plates after he finished his translation, which was finally published in 1830. Smith said that John the Baptist had appeared to he and Cowdery and ordained them as priests of the new religion, after which Smith and Cowdery baptized each other.

Subsequent critics have claimed the book was fabricated from the King James Bible and other works such as The Wonders of Nature by Josiah Priest, which was was published in 1826, View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith, published in 1823 and an unpublished novel by Solomon Spaulding. The first two books speculated that that American Indians were descended from ancient Hebrews. The Spaulding novel was a romance that took place in a lost civilization in America. Certain concepts, such as the three heavens, were similar to a book called Heaven and Hell, written by Emanuel Swedeborg in 1758. Others speculated that Oliver Cowdrey or Sidney Rigdon, another early convert, wrote part of the Book of Mormon.

Smith closed down his business as a treasure-finder. “His former associates believed he had double-crossed them by taking for himself what they considered joint property. They ransacked places where a competing treasure-seer said the plates were hidden.” Soon thereafter Smith and his first followers organized the Church of Christ. It was an era of high religious fervor, with many people searching for something. I suspect there was also a feeling that America should have it’s own religion and not simply adopt the ones inherited from Europe. Smith quickly gained supporters but he also had many detractors who regarded him as a charlatan. He was tried as a “disorderly person”. Smith and his associate, Oliver Cowdery, had to escape an angry mob. Smith left the state, not for the last time.

One of the prophecies of the Book of Mormon was that somewhere in America was located a “New Jerusalem”, where the Mormons could live . Smith and his followers felt the need to find it. They made several attempts, each time facing violent opposition. Part of it was just a negative reaction to a new religion. They were “strange” people with “weird” practices. But part of it was their tendency to descend on a community en mass, giving the locals a sense of being invaded. On a more practical basis, they became a solid voting bloc, raising the spector of the Mormons taking over local government and perhaps forcing their views on the people who had been there before them.

Another of Smith’s problems is that his followers decided that if the key to the truth in the new religion was revelations from visions, than they, too could have such visions. Smith, trying to retain control of things, announced that he was the supreme authority in the church and could expel people who had visions contrary to his teachings and appoint others priests of the new order with “an endowment of heavenly power“. This caused several splinter groups to form, each in search of their “New Jerusalem”. There is a tendency in movements for internal conflicts to become equal or even surpass external conflicts, because they threaten the power of the leadership of the movement.

Eventually, Smith placated some of the dissenters by allowing some of them to become priests, with an endowment of “heavenly power”, thus creating a church hierarchy of the sort that the Mormons had originally rebelled against. And endowment “consisted of symbolic acts and covenants designed to prepare participants to officiate in priesthood ordinances, and to give them the key words and tokens they need to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven.” Eventually 50 persons were endowed by Smith, the group calling themselves the “Anointed Quorum”.

Smith moved to Kirkland, Ohio, home of one of his most zealous converts, a former Baptist preacher named Sidney Rigdon, who became “second in command” of the church. Smith began a revision of the Bible, which he completed in 1833. He declared Kirkland to be the “eastern boundary” of the New Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon also described a “city of Enoch, which had such civic goodness that God had taken it to heaven.” Smith implemented a “United Order of Enoch” that organized his follows into something akin to a Christian form of Communism, in which people lived in egalitarian cooperative communities “designed to achieve income equality, eliminate poverty and increase group self-sufficiency”. Membership was voluntary. Members would deed their property to the United Order, which would give them a “stewardship” over the property and allow members to control it . At the end of each year anything the family produced more than what they needed was given back to the order. If a member left the church, the property was returned to the Order.

Cowdery reported that he had found the place for the New Jerusalem in Jackson County, Missouri Smith agreed and pronounced the outpost of Independence the “center place of Zion”, which means a “utopian association of the righteous”. Smith moved many of his followers there but Rigdon insisted it was Kirkland and became the leader of a group that remained in Ohio. Smith returned to Ohio but found the group in Missouri was upset that the “New Zion” seemed to be neglected. When Smith returned, he and Cowdery were confronted with an angry mob which tarred and feathered the both of them. “Bruised and scarred, Smith preached the following day as if nothing happened“. But something was about to happen.

The people of Jackson County resented what they saw as an invasion by the Mormons. The resentment boiled over into violence. Smith told his people to patiently bear the attacks until the fourth one. When that came, they began to defend themselves but were forced out of the county. Smith attempted to lead a paramilitary response to the expulsion he called Zion’s Camp “to redeem Zion by power and take vengance on God’s enemies” but when nearly surrounded, he retreated and told his followers that he’d had another vision that now was not the time and that they should return to Kirkland to “receive another endowment of heavenly power”. He also built a large temple there at great expense and with much controversy due to the strained state of the church‘s expenses. .

There the Mormons lived in spiritual and physical peace for a few years until internal disputes broke the community up. The largest of these was between Smith and Cowdery over the issue of polygamy. Cowdery’s version of events was that in 1831 Smith had developed a relationship with a serving girl in his household, Fanny Alger and eventually married her, even though he was already married to Emma, his wife from the Palmyra days. Cowdery called it a “dirty, nasty filthy affair”. Smith rejected his characterization of the relationship and privately began teaching polygamy as part of the religion, while publicly denying it.

An even more serious problem was that the building of the temple had put the church deeply in debt. Smith at first attempted to resolve the problem by searching for treasure. But he came up empty. He them established a bank that issued bank notes that, he told his followers, had to be bought as a religious duty. The bank failed and Smith lost many of his followers, who were being hounded by creditors. A warrant was issued for Smith’s arrest and he and Rigdon fled to Missouri.

Despite his promise to take vengence on Jackson County, Smith avoided that area and instead went to a Daviess County, where in 1838 Smith decided he had located “Adam-ondi-Ahman, a place where Adam and Eve lived after being expelled from the Garden of Eden. The Mormons believe that this is the place where Adam will convene a meeting of “the priesthood leadership and prophets of all ages … before turning over the government of the human family to Jesus Christ.” To this day, they have plans to build a temple there, as did Joseph Smith. But his plans were halted by what became known as the first “Mormon War”.

Smith and his followers poured into Daviess County, including many who had abandoned the settlement in Ohio but who had been involved in dispute with Smith’s faction. They built a new town called Far West. At this point, Smith, who claimed to hate violence, developed extreme views toward both external non-believers and internal dissenters. He declared himself “a second Mohammed” and vowed that if their religion was attacked, Mormons would defend it “by the sword“. Rigdon preached sermons vowing a “war of extermination” against any attackers and Smith appointed recent convert Sampson Avard to create a covert organization called the Danites to intimidate both non-Mormons perceived as threats and also Mormon dissenters. Smith said “If thy life is endangered and thine enemy is in thine hands, thy is justified.”

He also said “concerning the laws of the land…my people should observe all things whatsoever I command them.” The Mormons thus be came the most solid of voting blocks, causing the people of Daviss County to fear their county would be taken over by the Mormons. On election day a “battle” ensured when non-Mormans tried to stop Mormans from voting, stating they had “no more right to vote than negroes”. The Danietes showed up in force and, though outnumbered, drove away their attackers.

This led to more violence and soon vigilante groups were destroying Mormon farms to force them out. The Dainites responded in kind. Finally the Governor called out the militia, appointing Mexican War hero Alexander Doniphan to “exterminate” or drive the Mormons out of Missouri. A compromise plan to limit the Mormons to Caldwell County, where they had built another community called “Far West” failed.

In the “Battle of Crooked River, the Mormons routed a militia unit despite heavy losses simply because of their willingness to continue to advance under heavy fire. A band of 250 non-Mormon vigilantes destroyed the Mormon town of Haun’s Mill, killing 18 men and boys who tried to defend the town. As Doniphan closed in, the Mormons were besieged in Far West, where they asked for terms. The terms were that they sell their property to pay for the damages they had inflicted and leave the state. Smith agreed, saying he “did not care” and wanted to “leave this damnable state.” He and the other Mormon leaders were arrested and kept under guard “exposed to the elements”. Doniphan refused an order to execute them. They were given over to the civil courts and detained without trial for several months until they were allowed to escape from custody after bribing a sheriff. Sampson Avard had turned against Smith and was going to testify against him, causing Smith to denounce the Danietes as “frauds and secret abominations“. No non-Mormons were ever brought to trial for their actions.

Smith has also begun falling out with Rigdon, who, like Cowdrey, was opposed to polygamy. He began to rely more and more on another early convert, Brigham Young. It was Young that Smith sent into Illinois to find a new location for the young church. Illinois actually welcomed the Mormons at first and granted them a marshy woodland along the Mississippi that Smith christened “Nauvoo”, “to be beautiful” in Hebrew. He built a new Temple there “as a place for recovering lost ancient knowledge”. He also softened his views, allowing a certain amount of religious freedom in Nauvoo and creating a “Relief Society”, a sorority from which women could receive “the Keys of the Kingdom”. He also declared that “Zion” included all of North and South America. He established a missionary program, even sending Young to Europe where he found many converts among the working classes. Meanwhile he created a strong militia called the Nauvoo Legion to defend the new Zion in case of trouble, which eventually came.

“In April 1841, Smith secretly wed Louisa Beaman as a plural wife, and during the next two and a half years he may have married thirty additional women, ten of whom were already married to other men. and about a third of them teenagers, including two fourteen-year-old girls. Meanwhile he publicly and repeatedly denied that he advocated polygamy. Smith told at least some of his potential wives that marriage to him would ensure their spiritual exaltation. Although Smith's first wife Emma may have known about some of these marriages, she almost certainly did not know the extent of Smith's polygamous activities. Smith kept the doctrine of plural marriage secret except for potential wives and a few of his closest male associates.”

One wife later reported that she had been promised that marriage to Smith would “ensure their spiritual exaltation“. Smith believed these to be “Priesthood marriages” and this non-adulterous and legitimate. In 1843, he announced a revelation “commanding the practice of plural marriage. This revelation stated that once a man and a woman enter the "New and Everlasting Covenant" (a celestial marriage), and it is "sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise" (which Smith later taught was accomplished through the second anointing ritual), that they are guaranteed to become gods in the afterlife no matter what sins or blasphemies they commit, so long as they "commit no murder whereby to shed innocent blood," and they do not commit the unpardonable sin of "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost."

Things really boiled up in 1842 when Liburn Boggs, the Governor of Missouri was shot. The rumors were that Smith had predicted his assassination, (incorrect: Boggs survived), and that Smith’s bodyguard, Porter Rockwell, had pulled the trigger. Smith went into hiding and Rockwell was tried and acquitted. Smith emerged from this crisis just like the others. He looked to the federal government for help. Smith petitioned Congress to make Nauvoo an independent territory with the right to call out federal troops in its defense. In 1844 he actually ran as a third party candidate for President, sending out “missionaries” to campaign for him. (He didn’t win).

He then turned against the US Government and called a “Council of 50” to determine which nation they would follow the laws of and where they should go to establish a “theodemocracy” where they could live beyond governmental control. Texas, California and Oregon were considered. Smith was elected Monarch of this new Kingdom. “In effect, the Council was a shadow world government, a first step toward creating a global theodemocracy”, which Smith considered necessary preparation for the Second Coming.

Meanwhile Smith’s first wife Emma, who had not been fully aware of her husband’s polygamous activities, reluctantly agreed to let Smith formally marry four other women who were living in their household. She came to regret that and eventually forced them out of the house. Smith declared a revelation, saying that if Emma didn’t accept his other wives, she would be “destroyed”. Emma published a letter saying “we raise our voices and hands against the 'spiritual wife system', as a scheme of profligates to seduce women; and they that harp upon it, wish to make it popular for the convenience of their own cupidity; wherefore, while the marriage bed, undefiled is honorable, let polygamy, bigamy, fornication, adultery, and prostitution, be frowned out of the hearts of honest men to drop in the gulf of fallen nature.” An Illinois convert, John Bennett, who had risen to Mayor of Nauvoo, fell out with Smith and wrote a lurid expose of his martial activities that began the troubles all over again.

Smith’s theocratic and political ambitions and his polygamy created a new group of dissidents, including a couple of his most trusted associates who believed that Smith wanted to marry their wives. The created a competing church and published a newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor. They even procured legal indictments against Smith for polygamy and other crime at the county seat. The Nauvoo Legion was ordered to close down the newspaper as “a public nuisance”.

This produced riots to which Smith responded by declaring martial law. The Governor of Illinois called out the state militia. Smith tried to escape across the Mississippi but eventually surrendered. He and his brother Hyrum were charged with inciting to riot and then with treason against the state of Illinois, (which was crime in those pre-Civil War days) and held in the Carthage Illinois jail. A small “pepper-box” pistol was smuggled into him while he smuggled out orders for the Nauvoo legion to attack the jail. But their commander refused and later the same day, a mob attacked the jail and killed Hyrum with a single shot. Smith shot back with his pistol but was shot trying to crawl out of a window. Lying on the ground, he was shot again, this time fatally.

Reading about Smith, I am reminded of things I’ve read about L. Ron Hubbard, another founder of a religion that has been controversial and suspicious of outsiders. Hubbard was a science fiction writer and was thought by many to be a “scam artist” when he created “Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health”, which he claimed could also cure physical illnesses and increase intelligence. He went on to found the Church of Scientology.

I think that’s the kind of person it takes to found a religion. He’s got to be a dreamer, a con man or at least a salesman. He’s got to be in search of answers for things. When it all makes sense for him, he “sells” his theories to others who are searching for something that makes sense to them and a church is founded. The founder then grows into the role of prophet and leader and, even if he may not have completely believed what he preached to begin with, he comes to believe in it because it solidifies his position, which he then defends against all threats, external and internal.

Dreaming and defense against threats was what the early history of the Church of Later-Day Saints was all about.

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