New biography of Joseph Smith a worthy effort but lacks passion

John G. Turner, who wrote an excellent biography of Brigham Young a decade ago, has returned with “Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet.” It’s a worthy, above-average book.

 

The George Mason University professor of religious studies and history had access to historical documents that previous biographers of Smith, Richard Bushman and Fawn Brodie did not  enjoy. Nevertheless, I place those two previous biographies of Smith a little higher than Turner's good-faith effort.

 

Turner provides new nuggets of information. However it seems an economical effort despite its 400-plus page length. It’s a fair account, but with little passion. Turner makes a deliberate attempt early to assure readers the Golden Plates, of which the church founder Joseph Smith translated The Book of Mormon, was a fantasy of Smith’s, a fabrication.

 

No one wants Turner, who is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to tub-thump The Book of Mormon, or the LDS church, or even Smith. But a sheer declaration that claims are flat-out wrong non-plused me. Why not a disinterested, neutral stance where the author simply states what Smith presented during his lifetime, recording acceptance of, and opposition to; and consequences thereof?

 

I do not believe that Turner carries a grudge against Smith. I think he’s presented a generally balanced, fair account of Smith’s life. He regards Smith as a charismatic, persuasive man prone to risks that led to setbacks largely caused by his inability to foresee adverse, destructive consequences to rash decisions. Events in early church history, through Ohio, Missouri and the years in Nauvoo, are effectively presented by the author.

 

Turner appropriately notes the many mistakes made by the rash young prophet, who frequently admitted to misinterpreting situations and often behaving in a less-than prophetic manner. Turner covers his subject's polygamy life in great detail. Some was new information to me. This should put to rest current attempts to deny the practice occurred. In fact, reading the books I was amazed that Community of Christ Church members in the 19th century could deny Smith’s involvement in polygamy without laughing.

 

I enjoyed Turner’s accounts of Smith and others journeying to our nation’s Capitol to lobby on behalf the young church, unsuccessfully. Another strong history nugget was an account of a trip to Massachusetts to find some alleged treasure – unsuccessful. 

 

Turner does an effective job of detailing the tightly knit Smith family, and their mostly successful attempts to maintain solidarity despite conflict, particularly between Joseph and his brother William.

 

The final days prior to the murders of Smith and his brother Hyrum in Carthage are related in detail by Turner. The barbarity of the acts underscore how savage life was in 1844 central United States. I appreciated reading Turner’s account of murderers, such as newspaperman Thomas Sharpe, excusing his blood lust with a lame claim that he prevented more deaths. Turner’s account also reveals Illinois Gov. Thomas Ford’s behavior before and after the martyrdom as both feckless and weak.

 

A final note: A reason I think Turner lacks passion in his biography is that he never effectively shows how Joseph Smith, despite all the setbacks, managed to draw tens of thousands of followers to believe his message, follow The Book of Mormon, stay in the church, and embrace the idea of eternal life as family units. This strong faith and devotion endured many setbacks – culminating in Smith’s death – that threatened the embryonic faith's existence.

 

Some insight into Smith’s appeal comes from Bushman’s “Rough Stone Rolling,” which notes reasons why Smith’s message was so appealing to religious seekers. One, Smith didn’t allow himself to be the subject of his message. And Smith's doctrine of temples and eternal marriages and gathering of families appealed to people’s desire of a life -- and purpose -- after death beyond a stereotypical heaven or hell.

 

In fairness, perhaps no scholarly book can explain Mormonism and its followers devotion. 

You can buy Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet, Yale University Press, 2025 here on its Amazon page. Searching online, I could not find this worthy biography at Deseret Book. That’s a shame.

 

– Doug Gibson

Doctrine on children who die fulfills a primal desire for Latter-day Saint parents

The second-hardest thing I have ever done is hold my infant son in my arms and watch Ray die. The hardest task for my wife and me were allowing Ray to die without a fight. He was born in 2000 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which meant that his heart wouldn’t function on its own. After reviewing the doctors’ options, which involved a high expectation of pain for Ray and a survival chance that a dispassionate observer would rate as virtually nil, we allowed our son to die.


A key advantage of grief is that it allows sorrow to be put into perspective. The months before Ray’s birth, when he was diagnosed, and several months to years after his short life, were very difficult. Moments intended for matrimonial passion become a time for tears when you look into your spouse’s eyes and know what both of you are thinking of. You look at children born at the same time as Ray and resist an impulse of bitter envy. You mentally plug your ears to condolences that your child “was too pure for the world” or vain exclamations from the pulpit of how prayer saved so and so’s child.

But grief is a positive. With time, it allows comprehension to sink in that what happened to your child happens to many, many others every year. You realize that 24 hours with a healthy baby makes you very lucky compared to the countless others left to die too early in terrifying circumstances, with no one to comfort them. If you don’t understand that life’s not fair, that our Creator doesn’t play favorites, then grief can turn you into a selfish, self-pitying person — and that’s a bigger shame than the loss of an innocent.

My wife and I do cling to a faith-based belief that others may call fantasy. We’re LDS, and we regard Joseph Smith as a prophet. When Smith was alive, he taught this, according to a 1918 edition of The Improvement Era: 

President Joseph F. Smith, the sixth President of the Church, reported: ‘Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: ‘You will have the joy, the pleasure and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after its resurrection, until it reaches the full stature of its spirit.’ …

"In 1854, I met with my aunt [Agnes Smith], the wife of my uncle, Don Carlos Smith, who was the mother of that little girl [Sophronia] that Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was speaking about, when he told the mother that she should have the joy, the pleasure, and the satisfaction of rearing that child, after the resurrection, until it reached the full stature of its spirit; and that it would be a far greater joy than she could possibly have in mortality, because she would be free from the sorrow and fear and disabilities of mortal life, and she would know more than she could know in this life. I met that widow, the mother of that child, and she told me this circumstance and bore testimony to me that this was what the Prophet Joseph Smith said when he was speaking at the funeral of her little daughter."

I choose to believe that I, with many other happy parents, will raise children who died too soon. I’m not convinced of that because a group of retired businessmen say it. I base it on my faith in a loving God and a primal desire to have that privilege. 

But if I’m wrong, I refuse to be disappointed. The 24 hours my wife and I had with Ray was another blessing we will always thank God for.


-- Doug Gibson

Originally published at StandardNET in 2010

John Corrill was an older Christian convert to the early Mormon church

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The early years of the Mormon Church are distinct for its young converts, with 20-something apostles embracing the progressive, radical-for-its-time distinctions between Joseph Smith’s Mormonism and the traditional Protestant Christianity. However, there was another type of early LDS convert; an older generation who embraced Christian primitivism, which encompassed a desire to return to strict Biblical principles, disdained “priestcraft,” and had a libertarian streak, mixed with republican ideals, that opposed a centralized church leadership dictating to local church groups. Most importantly, this type of convert would never place a prophet’s opinion over his own personal beliefs.

Given the direction the Mormon Church took over its 14-plus years with Smith solely at its helm, it’s not surprising that a substantial number of the older-generation converts did not stick with Mormonism. Perhaps the best example of this type of early Mormon convert who enjoyed prominence in the young church but later abandoned it is John Corrill, who is mentioned a couple of times in the Doctrine of Covenants. In the book “Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History,” University of Illinois Press, 1994, historian Kenneth H. Winn provides an interesting recap of Corrill’s life and tenure in Mormonism. A Christian primitivist, Corrill, who turned 36 in 1831, initially investigated Mormonism with a determination to expose its follies. However, Corrill, who admired the primitivist teachings of Alexander Campbell, was shocked when he heard Sidney Rigdon, a former Campbell advocate he admired, pitching Mormonism enthusiastically.

As Winn notes, Corrill, a Massachusetts native, read The Book of Mormon and decided he could not declare it a fraud. Also, Mormonism appealed to specific primitivists such as Corrill in that it contained a certainty of belief that they sought, whether with the Book of Mormon or a yearning for “a prophet who could speak for God.” He, as well as his wife and family, joined the church in 1831 in Ohio.

Soon after his baptism, Corrill, after serving a mission, was sent to Missouri to help develop the church’s growth there. He served under Bishop Edward Partridge. It was here that Corrill first clashed with Smith’s leadership. Both he and Partridge favored a more local control than Smith wanted, and both were criticized by the Mormon prophet. Also, Corrill foresaw the problems that would develop with mass migration of poor Mormon converts to land long dominated by non-Mormon Missourians. The combination of religious bigotry among Missourians as well as unwise boasting by saints of establishing a religious and political kingdom led to violence and conflicts that the Mormons would always lose over the years.

Despite the conflict with church leadership, Corrill mended his problems with Smith and according to Winn, had a very strong ecclesiastical relationship with the young prophet through the mid-1830s. In 1836, Winn notes, Corrill was appointed by Joseph Smith to head the completion of the Kirtland Temple. Corrill also developed a reputation of being the Mormon leader who was best able to negotiate with anti-Mormon elements in Missouri. By 1837, Corrill was a leading Mormon settler in Far West, Missouri, ”selected ... as the church’s agent and as the ‘Keeper of the Lord’s Storehouse,’” writes Winn.

But that was the peak that preceded the fall of Corrill’s tenure in the church. As tranquil as events in Far West were, an ill-fated banking endeavor in Kirtland by Smith and other church leaders was leading to apostasy and tense disputes between church leaders and native Missourians. Corrill, Winn writes, regarded the Kirtland monetary failure with “revulsion.” He saw the lust for wealth, and the subsequent fall, as evidence of “suffered pride.” Yet he was as critical of Smith’s dissenters as he was of the banking effort. Also, Corrill still believed that the overall church, with auxiliaries serving as checks and balances, could reform itself and maintain the better relations between Mormons and non-Mormons that still existed in Far West.

That was not to be. The turmoil of Kirtland followed the church to Far West. To cut to the chase, a speech by Rigdon, called the “Salt Sermon,” appalled Corrill. In it, Ridgon, comparing apostates to salt having lost its savor, argued that they could be “trodden under the foot of men.” In short, Rigdon said that the dissenters “deserved ill treatment.”

Corrill warned the dissenters that their safety was in danger. Later, the Danites, a Mormon vigilante group, was organized. The militant group frightened Corrill, who began to work against it in secret. As Winn explains, “The crisis that began in Kirtland and eventually swept Corrill up in Missouri marked a major turning point in early Mormon history, pitting the theocratically minded devotees of the prophet, who regarded opposition to the church leadership as opposition to God, against more libertarian minded dissenters, who rejected the First Presidency’s claim over their temporal affairs and the authoritarian demand for blind obedience.”

Corrill saw the Danites and Ridgon’s call for conflict in direct opposition to the Biblical belief that God is responsible for divine retribution. From this point on, 1838, Corrill was basically in wait to be excommunicated, no longer trusted by the Smith/Ridgon leadership of the church. Nevertheless, church leaders acknowledged Corrill’s reputation for honesty by electing him — with the Danites’ support — to the Missouri legislature. The final break between Smith and Corrill was over the church leadership’s call for a communal structure, which included church leaders being paid for work other than preaching. The communal structure was, Winn notes, allegedly voluntary, although pressure was exercised on members to contribute. “In any event,” Winn writes, “Corrill deeply disapproved of the revelation and readily shared his opinion with others.”

Despite his church status, Corrill worked without success in the Missouri legislature to push Mormon interests and even donated $2,000 of his own money to help the beleaguered saints. By the time his term ended, most of his constituency had fled the area. Ridgon’s rhetoric, and the Danites’ actions, had led to militias overwhelming the church and Smith, Rigdon and others being jailed. Corrill, now without a church and due to be excommunicated in early 1839, left his religion. He wrote a book, “A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” in late 1839. It is an interesting read for its historical value. At the time though, it sold poorly and Corrill spent the last few years of his life in poverty. He died in 1842, leaving an estate of only $265.86. As Winn writes, “His integrity and basic decency were overshadowed by charges that he had betrayed the prophet and the church.” 

Corrill did offer testimony against Smith to Missouri court hostile to the Mormons. Richard Lyman Bushman, in his 2005 biography of Joseph Smith,also describes Corrill as a “the steady, clear-headed Missouri leader” who conflicted over how much free will he had to surrender to stay a faithful Mormon, and witnessing defeat after defeat, finally decided he had been deceived..

-- Doug Gibson

Originally published at StandardNet

Nauvoo City Council’s minutes of 1840s provide chaos, contention and lies

 

Originally published, in slightly different form, in January 2012 in StandardBlogs

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The Nauvoo City Council and High Council minutes from 1839 to 1845, when accessible, were recorded. Signature Books, with the assistance of historian John Dinger, published almost a decade ago the minutes, along with notes, and they’re just plain fascinating for enthusiasts of history. Without spin, they lay out the controversy that swirled in Nauvoo prior to Joseph Smith’s murder and the LDS exodus west.

The documents lend credence to the belief that the then-secret doctrine of polygamy sparked much of the contention that roiled Nauvoo. Many of those associated with the anti-Smith publication, the Nauvoo Expositor, were accused of using polygamy as an excuse to commit adultery. In the city council meeting of June 8, 1844, Hyrum Smith is cited as claiming that Joseph Smith’s revelation on polygamy, read to the Nauvoo High Council on Aug. 12, 1843, “was in answer to a question concerning things which transpired in former days & had no reference to the present time.” 

As curiously noted, “Hyrum Smith married four plural wives in 1843.” It’s clear that Hyrum Smith had rationalized that it was OK to mislead. Also, on page 255 of the Nauvoo City Council minutes, the LDS prophet, and Nauvoo mayor, Joseph Smith, supports Hyrum’s incorrect words, saying that he had not preached the doctrine in public or private.

From reading the various minutes and notes commentary, polygamy was used as a cudgel in a conflict between the Smiths and their enemies, such as William Law, Wilson Law, Robert and Charles Foster, Chauncey and Francis Higbee, Sylvester Emmons, and others. These accusations were often judged in the non-secular, but equally powerful, Nauvoo High Council meetings. On May 24, 1842, “Chancy” Higbee was excommunicated by the high council after being judged guilty of adultery and for teaching “the doctrine that it was right to have free intercourse with women if it was kept secret …” Higbee, the minutes report, claimed “that Joseph Smith autherised (sic) him to practice these things.”

Other accusations used to discredit critics included counterfeiting, stinginess, and plots to kill Joseph Smith. The final accusation was probably closest to the truth, as the violence that was commonplace in that era made lynching and murder a real possibility. The City Council minutes note how the Smiths used Nauvoo civil law to construct a habeus corpus statute so far-reaching that it could blunt any attempt to have Smith or others extradited to Missouri or anywhere outside of Nauvoo. In fact, Smith used habeus corpus to initially avoid arrest for trashing the Nauvoo Expositor press.

The city council debate that preceded the Nauvoo police’s destruction of the Expositor press as a “nuisance” is very interesting. Anger from past atrocities against Mormons, notably the Haun’s Mill massacre, were used as rationales to destroy the Expositor’s press. Interestingly, one Nauvoo councilman, Benjamin Warrington, opposed destroying the press. He wanted to give the editors time to stop publishing and assess them a $3,000 fine.

Both Smiths spoke in opposition to Warrington’s proposal, Hyrum adding that he doubted the publishers had the money to pay the fine. Those in favor of the press’ destruction cited ” Blackwater’s Commentaries on the Laws of England,” a reference book widely used in that era. Nauvoo city attorney and councilman George P. Stiles used “Blackwater” as evidence, “{saying a} Nuisance is any thing {that} disturbs the peace of {the} community.”

The destruction of the Expositor began before the city council meeting authorizing the act had finished. As are most decisions made in haste and with excessive emotion, it backfired, increasing the danger to Joseph Smith and others. An attempt to use Nauvoo’s liberal habeus corpus law to escape legal heat failed, and to protect Nauvoo from armed mobs, Joseph and Hyrum agreed to be jailed in Carthage, Ill. Assurances of safety from a feckless governor, Thomas Ford, failed, and history records that both Smiths were murdered by a mob.

The Nauvoo City Council minutes after the Smiths’ murders are interesting. There is little of the anger or bluster that was part of the meeting that sanctioned the press’ destruction. It’s muted, and frankly reflects the shock and despair that must have surrounded Nauvoo and church members at the loss of their prophet. Much of the minutes cover discussion on how much the city must renumerate the Nauvoo Expositor for the destruction of its property. Hiram Kimball was assigned the task of dealing with the renumeration.

Also, it’s clear that city leaders were concerned that the mobs that had killed the Smiths were still eager to attack Nauvoo. The council endorsed pleas by Governor Ford and others to avoid violent reprisals.

“The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes” is a massive, indispensable treasure trove of Mormon history in Illinois. Some accounts were amusing; one recounts a man brought for church discipline because he sold his wife for her weight in catfish!

-- Doug Gibson

Joseph Smith for President book details Mormonism founder's frustration with states rights

 

Review by Doug Gibson

The ill-fated decision by LDS Church prophet and founder Joseph Smith, Jr., to seek the U.S. presidency in 1844 is mostly regarded as a footnote in U.S. history. Smith was martyred in late June of the presidential season, before he was formally nominated by supporters. 

Nevertheless, it retains strong interest within Mormon history, and most older active Mormons were taught of and retain a knowledge of Smith's campaign. I recall a church-sponsored book being published to some fanfare nearly 50 years ago. 

One hundred and seventy-seven years later, a scholarly book on Smith's campaign is published. It's "Joseph Smith for President -- The Prophet, the Assassin, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom, Oxford University Press. (Amazon link is here) The author is Spencer W. McBride, and he's written a concise, informative account of a campaign largely derided by the elite media of 1844, but was an extremely serious effort from Mormon missionaries and adherents who tub-thumped Smith's candidacy intensely in 1844. 

Readers may be surprised at the progressivism of Smith's campaign. Its platform included closing prisons, the mass freeing of convicts, an end to slavery and having a national bank to prevent currency instability. But, as McBride points out, the genesis of Smith's campaign was to diminish states rights as a chief political belief and policy. Latter-day Saints of that time had already suffered greatly in various states, most notably Missouri. In fact, as McBride notes, legal and political forces were still actively trying to extradite Smith and other Mormons back to Missouri. A chief reason for Nauvoo's charter of government, including having essentially an army, was to stop outside efforts to arrest Smith.

Long before modern efforts using the federal government to correct regional and state prejudices and inequities, Mormons actively sought from the federal government restitution -- for both physical persecutions and financial losses -- for what they had endured in Missouri. McBride's book shows how easy it was in that era to contact and lobby the president of the United States. Knock on the White House door and request the president's ear.

Access was easier then, but getting results was perhaps as frustrating as today. President Martin Van Buren made it clear he would not help the Mormons, candidly admitting of future political liabilities. Undaunted, Mormon representatives took their requests to the U.S. Congress. They eagerly responded to sympathetic voices from members of Congress, but fell prey to the usual political games of Congress. They achieved progress in committee, but never got close to achieving majority support in Congress. 

A constant argument against Smith's and the Mormon's request for restitution was that the state, rather than the federal government, needed to correct its injustices. Petitions to presidential candidates of that era, including Lewis Cass and Henry Clay, also proved fruitless. Obviously, any chance of restitution, or even mercy, from Missouri was an impossibility. 

Hence the presidential campaign of Joseph Smith, nominated by the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Whether General Smith -- of Nauvoo's militia -- actually believed he could win, or was using his candidacy to enhance political status for Mormonism, is still open to debate. The campaign effort was serious, with missionaries called to preach his candidacy, a pamphlet of campaign positions published, newspapers and presidential candidates lobbied, a nominating convention planned, and a nationwide search for a vice presidential candidate.

As McBride notes, easterner James Arlington Bennet, a famous author and newspaper publisher, was asked to be vice president to Smith. A bit of an opportunist, Bennet had been baptized but was not active in the church. His chief goal, explains McBride, was to become governor of Illinois. He had previously accepted an honorary position in the Nauvoo militia. Prominent Mormon Willard Richards, a friend of Bennet's, presented him with an invitation to join the ticket. As McBride notes, Bennet was blunt with his refusal, believing there was no chance Smith could win the office.

More efforts to get a vice presidential candidate -- outside of the inner circle of the church -- were unsuccessful. Even an obscure Southern states politician turned a deaf ear to a request. Eventually, longtime Mormon leader Sidney Rigdon was nominated. It was a safe but still curious choice, as the pair's relationship was strained, primarily due to polygamy.

On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed in a jail in Carthage, Ill. Polygamy, fears of Mormonism's political strength, unpopular political chicanery and backstabbing, bigotry, a prejudiced interpretation of "Christianity," and outrage over a bad decision by Smith to destroy a newspaper opposed to his leadership; all contributed to a mob killing the brothers. In today's world of immediate news, it's hard to comprehend that weeks after the murders, the news hadn't spread far. Missionaries were still campaigning for Smith after his death, unaware of the slaughter. 

The Mormons proved themselves far less bloodthirsty than the mob that killed the Smiths. The killers' leaders and eggers-on escaped consequences. Mormons wanted out of the United States, a sentiment that made Utah a more desirable exodus location than say, Texas, which was in the process of U.S. assimilation. The Mormons would, however, eventually learn that moving to Utah would not free them from national oversight.

"Joseph Smith for President" provides a fair, detailed look at the Quixotic presidential campaign/ McBride compares the Mormons' experience of oppression with similar occurrences suffered by Jews and Catholics in the 19th century United States. He draws states rights as a tool oppressors have used to maintain discrimination, whether against religions or ethnicities. He also points to an ugly consequence of such discrimination justified for religious purposes: the oppressors claim divine approval for their bigotry. 

With states unable to police against bigotry, it becomes imperative for the federal government to correct injustice, something Joseph Smith realized 180 years ago. His platform did not just to protect Mormonism, but other religious alternatives to the prevailing Christianity of the time.

LDS Church has a test to discern good, and bad spirits

Mormonism, even in its more modern version today, does firmly believe in the visitations of spirits, good and bad, as well as resurrected beings. After all, the church’s genesis involved the presence of an evil spirit, followed by the appearance of two resurrected divine beings, to its founder, Joseph Smith. In fact, in Mormon scripture, there are specific instructions on how to discern good spirits from bad. It’s found in Doctrine & Covenants, Section 129:

1 There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones—

2 For instance, Jesus said: Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

3 Secondly: the spirits of just men made perfect, they who are not resurrected, but inherit the same glory.

4 When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God, offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you.

5 If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand.

6 If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear—

7 Ask him to shake hands with you, but he will not move, because it is contrary to the order of heaven for a just man to deceive; but he will still deliver his message.

8 If it be the devil as an angel of light, when you ask him to shake hands he will offer you his hand, and you will not feel anything; you may therefore detect him.

9 These are three grand keys whereby you may know whether any administration is from God.

I’m sure there are other churches that have specific instructions on how to discern a supernatural visitor. It’d be interesting to compare notes. (It’s a Mormon thing to be sure but there are likely tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints, the majority probably missionaries, who are confident enough in their faith to want to put the “handshake” test on a spirit.) In one of my favorite Mormon-themed novels, “Brother Brigham,” by D. Michael Martindale,” the protagonist, C.H., visited by a spirit claiming to be Brigham Young, applies the handshake test. The spirit rather coyly avoids the test, by both asking C.H. if he wants to shake hands and saying he’d rather refuse. The “ruse” works on the human.

Spiritual manifestations were ubiquitous in the LDS Church in the 19th century. I’m reading Todd Compton’s new biography of Jacob Hamlin and his visits with spirits included his late father. The early Parley P. Pratt (seen above and read his autobiography) had so many communications with spirits, good and bad, that the young prophet, Joseph Smith assigned Pratt and others to go through the branches of the Mormons in May 1831, specifically to discern which spiritual manifestations were legitimate, or of the devil. You can read Smith’s charge to Pratt and others in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 50.

Members of the church are encouraged when they relate tales of being privileged to have a connection to positive vibes from the spirit world, or if they overcome the presence of an evil spirit, trying to add to their stress, depression, or tempt them to do wrong. However, it’s considered more appropriate to share such experience with intimates, such as family or close friends, or in a setting such as the LDS Fast and Testimony meeting. Occasionally, I hear a spirit anecdote in a class such as Sunday School, but not as often as I imagine such were related 150 years ago in Mormon wards and branches.

There is a strict rule, though, to the Mormon encouragement of communication with spirits. It must be a spiritual manifestation that reinforces the faith. In my job as a journalist, I have infrequent communications with persons who — as Mormons — claim heavenly visitations that told them that the church was not being directed as God wanted. These persons have either left the church or been excommunicated. One of the more poignant, and sad cases of this was my short correspondence with a woman, soft-spoken who sincerely told me that she had received revelation from spiritual sources that told her to tell the faithful to stop using sanitized versions of cuss words, such as “heck,” “darn,” “shoot,” and so on. She took this message from ward to ward, refusing entreaties to stop, until she was excommunicated.

For those who want to learn more about how angels and spirits fit into Mormon culture, there’s a fascinating article in a 2010 issue of the “Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies.” (here).  In the piece, Benjamin E. Park, University of Edinburgh, School of Divinity, provides an overview of the early Mormon embrace of communications with spirits, which included a belief in guardian angels. Park notes that the LDS belief in communion with the other world was often a point of contention with other ministers. In debates, primarily with Parley P. Pratt, ministers would argue that while divine communication is possible, it’s not probable given Christ’s message and the Bible, and certainly would never be wasted on Joseph Smith’s Mormons! Park’s article also provides more early Mormon viewpoints on what angels are, even classifying them by degrees! It reads:

Apostle Orson Pratt argued that there were “four grand divisions,” including spirits or angels not yet embodied, spirits or angels currently embodied, spirits or angels disembodied yet waiting to be resurrected, and spirits or angels embodied in an immortal tabernacle.

An editorial in the Mormon newspaper, likely penned by William Phelps, divided angels into three categories: archangels, resurrected personages and the angels which are ministering spirits. 

This latter editorial goes into the most detail as to the nature and function of angels, making the revealing statement that “it is evident that the angels who minister to men in the flesh, are resurrected beings, so that flesh administers to flesh; and spirits to spirits…”

What’s fascinating about these old, arcane references from the 19th century is that they are doctrine very similar to what I was told, usually in conversation, sometimes in church classes, as a youngster growing up in the faith. Despite there being less emphasis on visits from spirits in the temple or elsewhere, it remains a strong tenant of Mormonism and one component that builds a testimony among many members.

--- Doug Gibson

--- Originally published at StandardNET

176 years ago, preacher convinced many Christ was about to return

I read “America 1844: Religious Fervor, Westward Expansion, and the Presidential Election that Transformed the Nation.”

The book, by political writer John Bicknell, is published by Chicago Review Press. Not surprisingly, the Mormon leader/prophet/politician Joseph Smith’s run for the presidency is recounted by Bicknell. Smith died in June, long before James K. Polk was elected president.

Another preacher in 1844, William Miller,  (seen above) thought that most of the world would shut down on March 21 of that year. While Miller is little more than an obscure footnote today, he nevertheless managed to convince at least 25,000 hard-core believers, known as “Millerites” (they preferred the term Adventists), that the world would end, and had perhaps 20 times as many sympathizers.

Miller was born in rural New York in 1782. In many ways, he followed the religious trends of his generation, Bicknell recounts.

Born a Baptist, early in his adulthood he became a deist, divorced from the emotionalism of evangelical behavior. Then, after witnessing violence and bloodshed in the War of 1812, the husband and father made a significant switch, becoming a convert of the Second Great Awakening, a movement that Bicknell explains was directly opposed to deism.

Bicknell accurately describes the temperament in early America that inspired men such as Miller, Smith and Alexander Campbell. He writes: “Religious life and religious practice had become democratized by state disestablishment -- the states’ withdrawing of government support for churches -- and new practitioners were flooding into the market, hawking new wares, selling a new brand of Christianity to a new nation. It was a very American idea; the individual, freed from the constraints of hierarchical tyranny, would discover and interpret the Word for himself.”

Despite Miller’s ultimate poor prediction, he immersed himself into Biblical study. Strictly conventional on many aspects, Miller was obsessed with finding the date of Christ’s second coming in Biblical passages, particularly the Book of Daniel, recounts Bicknell.

Miller believed that Daniel 8:14, which includes, “... Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” as meaning years. By factoring in some other considerations, he deduced that 2,300 years after 457 BC -- the Babylonian captivity -- meant that Christ would come to the earth in 1844. Although he initially kept his beliefs secret, eventually Miller began preaching his second-coming theory.

The first half of the 19th century was a time when disasters, economic or mechanical, were defined as godly warnings by many. Miller’s public profile prospered by the long economic distress which began in 1837 and, as Bicknell recounts in detail, a military arms explosion in February aboard the U.S. Princeton that killed several, including Secretary of State Abel Upshur.

By the time of the explosion, Miller was preaching across most of the civilized nation, including Boston, “where crowds were so thick that people stood for hours to hear him speak, and ’multitudes’ were turned away,” to Washington D.C.’s Apollo Hall, within shouting distance of the White House.

As Bicknell notes, much of the credit for Miller’s success -- besides his stamina -- was the entry into his inner circle of a convert named Joshua Himes, an abolitionist who was particularly skilled at public relations. Himes understood and exploited the power of the moving press, via newspapers and pamphlets, to move Miller’s messages into scores of thousands and more. As Bicknell writes, Himes started “the movement’s first newspaper, Signs of the Times, in 1840 ... and he was the driving force behind a vast array of tracts, pamphlets and books.”

Despite his popularity, Miller was mostly derided by prominent contemporaries. The Mormon leader Smith mentions him by name in a March 10 sermon, excerpted by Bicknell, when he told listeners “I take the responsibility upon myself to prophesy in the name of the Lord, that Christ will not come this year as Miller has prophesied.” Ironically, in the same discourse, Smith seems to indicate that Christ would come 40 years later.

A week before the date predicted, Miller retired to his village home by the New York, Vermont border to await Christ’s return. Many of his national followers, Bicknell writes, “quit their jobs or closed their businesses in anticipation of the end. Others gave away their earthly possessions.” Bicknell adds that one boy, 12, refused to chop wood, telling his father that winter would not arrive.

When Christ failed to appear, Miller’s credibility suffered generally the same fate as the late Harold Camping’s suffered when his claim in 2011 that Christ would return failed to occur. Most of his followers gradually deserted him and those who never believed him enjoyed a good post-humiliation chuckle at his expense.

As Bicknell notes, Miller had always given himself a little bit of leeway in his prediction and he never stopped believing that the return of Christ was coming at any time. He died in Hampton, N.Y., in 1849 at age 67. He does have a legacy. The church he inspired, Advent Christian, has 61,000 members today and the church owns his New York home, and maintains it as an historical site. His papers were donated to Aurora University.

-- Doug Gibson

Originally published in 2014 at StandardNET.

LDS doctrine on children who die fulfills a primal desire

The second-hardest thing I have ever done is hold my infant son in my arms and watch Ray die. The hardest task for my wife and me were allowing Ray to die without a fight. He was born in 2000 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which meant that his heart wouldn’t function on its own. After reviewing the doctors’ options, which involved a high expectation of pain for Ray and a survival chance that a dispassionate observer would rate as virtually nil, we allowed our son to die.


A key advantage of grief is that it allows sorrow to be put into perspective. The months before Ray’s birth, when he was diagnosed, and several months to years after his short life, were very difficult. Moments intended for matrimonial passion become a time for tears when you look into your spouse’s eyes and know what both of you are thinking of. You look at children born at the same time as Ray and resist an impulse of bitter envy. You mentally plug your ears to condolences that your child “was too pure for the world” or vain exclamations from the pulpit of how prayer saved so and so’s child.

But grief is a positive. With time, it allows comprehension to sink in that what happened to your child happens to many, many others every year. You realize that 24 hours with a healthy baby makes you very lucky compared to the countless others left to die too early in terrifying circumstances, with no one to comfort them. If you don’t understand that life’s not fair, that our Creator doesn’t play favorites, then grief can turn you into a selfish, self-pitying person — and that’s a bigger shame than the loss of an innocent.

My wife and I do cling to a faith-based belief that others may call fantasy. We’re LDS, and we regard Joseph Smith as a prophet. When Smith was alive, he taught this, according to a 1918 edition of The Improvement Era: 

President Joseph F. Smith, the sixth President of the Church, reported: ‘Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: ‘You will have the joy, the pleasure and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after its resurrection, until it reaches the full stature of its spirit.’ …

"In 1854, I met with my aunt [Agnes Smith], the wife of my uncle, Don Carlos Smith, who was the mother of that little girl [Sophronia] that Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was speaking about, when he told the mother that she should have the joy, the pleasure, and the satisfaction of rearing that child, after the resurrection, until it reached the full stature of its spirit; and that it would be a far greater joy than she could possibly have in mortality, because she would be free from the sorrow and fear and disabilities of mortal life, and she would know more than she could know in this life. I met that widow, the mother of that child, and she told me this circumstance and bore testimony to me that this was what the Prophet Joseph Smith said when he was speaking at the funeral of her little daughter."

I choose to believe that I, with many other happy parents, will raise children who died too soon. I’m not convinced of that because a group of retired businessmen say it. I base it on my faith in a loving God and a primal desire to have that privilege. 

But if I’m wrong, I refuse to be disappointed. The 24 hours my wife and I had with Ray was another blessing we will always thank God for.


-- Doug Gibson

Originally published at StandardNET in 2010

Joseph Smith biography does not shy away from historical scrutiny

This review was originally published in 2005 at StandardNET.

Today is the bicentennial of Joseph Smith’s birth. Two hundred years later, his claims of divine guidance are debated with as much ferocity — if not violence — as when he was alive. Unquestioned is the success of the church he established. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims more than 12 million members. Its influence stretches beyond the ecclesiastical, reaching into political, judicial and financial chambers.

What made Joseph Smith’s church so far-reaching? Columbia Professor emeritus Richard Lyman Bushman’s “Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling,” offers clues. Bushman’s Joseph (he prefers the first name throughout the biography) is a prophet who slowly realized his calling. Sophistication as a religious leader and understanding of his religious calling took years. Smith was prone to anger and forgiveness, fear and courage, capable of finding talented people and seriously misjudging others.

Bushman’s catholic interpretation of Smith’s gradually adjusting to being a prophet is refreshing. As a believing Mormon, I am tired of watching films or reading books where, if you squint your eyes and look hard enough, you can either see or imagine the halo just above Joseph Smith’s head. Latter-day prophets and other church leaders are too often regarded as perfect individuals, rather than sinners, who like anyone else, make mistakes in their lives, seek forgiveness and continue to learn.

This fanciful view can extend to LDS Church history. Bushman, a Mormon, does not dismiss uncomfortable topics: Smith’s dabblings in money-digging; differing accounts of revelations; vigilante operations that exacerbated problems with frontier neighbors; a failed bank that seriously harmed the early church; political grandstanding that threatened longtime settlers; the secrecy of early plural marriage. All are discussed and, at least, placed in a context more even-handed than, say, an anti-Mormon website or ministry.

Bushman writes, “Joseph Smith did not offer himself as an examplar of virtue. He told his followers not to expect perfection. Smith called himself a rough stone, thinking of his own impetuosity and lack of polish.”

Readers may be surprised to discover that Smith visited President Martin Van Buren in an unsuccessful attempt to seek reparations from Missouri. Also, the prophet was involved in early preparations to move the church to the Rocky Mountains.

Prophets claiming revelations were common in Smith’s time. So why do his claims endure today? One reason from Bushman: The prophet did not make himself the center of early prostlyting efforts. Missionaries promised latter-day revelation, priesthood authority and a gathering of Israel. These three themes are prominent in an early newspaper article by Oliver Cowdery, reprinted in “Rough Stone Rolling.” It was these doctrines that gathered converts by the thousands.

To Bushman, the temple-endowment session is another reason Mormonism did not disappear. To many converts, it provided a path to deity. “This transition gave Mormonism’s search for direct access to God an enduring form. … The Mormon temple’s sacred story stabilized and perpetuated the original enthusiastic endowment,” writes Bushman.

Bushman describes the isolation of early frontier America. The reader understands the perils Mormons faced from larger mobs. Law and order was controlled by the largest bloc. Groups howling for murder, rape and pillaging were not necessarily stopped.

Early Mormons were responsible at times for inciting anger, but “Rough Stone Rolling” relates the fear of being surrounded by hostile forces with no protection.

Politicians in a position to help were either opportunists, such as Missouri Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs, or appeasers like Gov. Thomas Ford of Illinois, who talked blandly of a nonexistent rule of law.

Comprehending the obsessive hatred that drove the murder of Smith still remains a mystery, though Bushman tries to explain it. What caused ordinary men, such as newspaper editor Thomas Sharp — perhaps most responsible for Smith’s murder — to call for killing?

Bushman writes, “It was fear of the familiar gone awry. … Joseph was hated for twisting the common faith in biblical prophets into the visage of the arrogant fanatic, just as the abolitionists twisted the principle of equal rights into an attack on property in slaves. Both turned something powerful and valued into something dangerous. Frustrated and infuriated, ordinary people trampled down law and democratic order to destroy their imagined enemies.”

After the Mormons left Nauvoo, Sharp lived a nonviolent small-town life, serving as mayor, justice of the peace and judge.

“Rough Stone Rolling” will not satisfy those who hate Mormonism or those who wish to shield the faith from historical scrutiny. But Bushman’s superior biography of an interesting life will leave most wanting to learn more.

-- Doug Gibson

The Lost 116 Pages book explores Mormonism's great mystery

Review by Doug Gibson

Mormonism is a young religious movement. Perhaps our most prominent mystery is what's in the missing 116 pages of The Book of Mormon. The story, told so often: Transcriber Martin Harris pesters Joseph Smith to let him take a stack of translated pages to assuage his skeptical wife, Lucy. Once he has the pages, Harris loses them. The Lord rebukes Smith and Harris, and because of that, we have a shorter Book of Mormon.

The lost 116 pages is a sort of Holy Grail-mystery for many of the LDS faithful. What's in it, we wonder. Don Bradley, a prominent Latter-day Saint historian, has tackled the task of interpreting the timeline and what may indeed be in those lost pages. "The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories," Greg Kofford Books, Salt Lake City, 2019, is not an easy read. It's a scholarly work, and moves at a slow, deliberate, very detailed pace. It can be a slog at times, but it is ultimately rewarding.

I don't want this to be too much of a spoiler review, revealing to readers what is undoubtedly the most important part for many: what's in those lost pages, according to Bradley. A few tidbits of what is offered: The author's research leads him to opine that the Lost Pages are a narrative-heavy version of the time of Lehi and family in Jerusalem through the early chapters of Mosiah.

Bradley believes that the annual Passover observance coincides with the exodus from Jerusalem and the eventual possession by Nephi of the Brass Plates. Also, he believes that Lehi's followers constructed a movable temple during their journey. Readers may guess correctly that short accounts in the Book of Mormon, after the Book of Jacob, are opined to possess more detail in the Lost Pages. Topics include internal apostasy and more detail on a character named Aminadi, described as a forefather of Amulek, a missionary. In the Book of Mormon, Aminadi, an ancestor of Ishmael, is noted for interpreting writing on the wall of the temple, penned by the finger of God.

A LARGER 116 PAGES?

According to Bradley, the portion of the first 116 pages lost by Harris was much larger than what we would conceive as 116 pages today. The type of paper that was used to transcribe was roughly 13 by 17 inches. Also, through research of the various transcribers used by Smith and estimates of time spent and what could be accomplished, Bradley posits the possibility that the "116 pages" are at least 200 pages, and possibly as many as 300. The author devotes a section on potential thieves of the manuscript. He assigns a low possibility of guilt to Harris' wife, Lucy, who has often been blamed for the theft in Mormon lore.

Bradley's research is impressive. The book is heavy with footnotes, some dominating pages. Sources include Lucy Mack Smith's recollections, as well as a critical edition of same edited by historian Lavina Fielding Anderson. There arevarious 19th century published accounts of the translation from persons close to those involved. Also, the author draws parallels to events depicted or hinted at in the Book of Mormon to similar events or religious rituals depicted in The Bible.

A final note: I have noticed in conversations with friends about this book a distinction in reception. Some members seem interested, and even excited. Other members seem more reserved, even skeptical of the attempt. Granted I have only a few to several subjects, but I wonder if some members feel that the lost 116 pages should remain a great mystery, and not the subject of scholarly speculation. Is it a cultural issue?

As for me, I think it's a great, fascinating read. You can buy it from the publisher here, or via Amazon here.

Mormons don’t really believe in a rapture, but we also obsess about the end times

There’s an old Mormon joke: A cardinal says to the pope, “I have good news and bad news.” The pope replies, “Good news first.” The cardinal says, “Christ has returned.” The pope says, ‘What could be the bad news?” The cardinal replies,” He’s in Salt Lake City.”

Come on, it’s funny. I used to chuckle hearing it. I was thinking of that “joke” when reading a piece from Religious News Service on multimedia preacher Tim LaHaye, co-author of the wildly successful “Left Behind” series of books. The books are entertaining but violent religious “gorenography” that contain more violence than all the “Saw” movies combined and feature Jesus Christ as an “End Times” Godzilla who slaughters millions, creating rivers of blood. 

Afterwards, LaHaye’s prose lovingly focuses on the immersion of the Antichrist and his false prophet in a lake of molten fire that will eventually consume billions of others who fail to heed the lessons of “Left Behind.” The weirdest thing about this fairy tale — that would be too obscene for the Brothers Grimm — is that its most devoted readers are southern housewives with children.

Back to Latter-day Saints and the End Times. We’re not that grim, or eager for retribution, as LaHaye is. In fact, a little-known fact about Mormonism is that we teach near universal salvation. Our version of Hell, called Perdition, has no fire. From what I can garner from 50-plus years in the LDS Church, Perdition is perpetually overcast place where “Sons of Perdition” (apparently there’s no daughters) will be forced to listen to impotent debates between Cain and Judas, with Lucifer the moderator. In other words, boring.

Mormons throw a quantum twist to all this, though. We believe that God knows everything that we will do while we are alive, which presents the non-theological but still mulled-upon idea that perhaps everything has already happened and life as we know it is a re-run. (That is definitely not LDS Church doctrine)

But Mormons obsess about the End Times as much as anyone else, even if we don’t believe in a rapture. How else to explain the consistent popularity of Glenn Beck? The “Beck influence,” — and this used to be called the “Skousen influence,” is evident anytime I have a conversation with a member who refuses to believe that anything is going to get better in the next undetermined years or decades before the second coming of Christ. Pessimism is a requirement for a Beckian.

There’s also the dubious legend of the prophet Joseph Smith claiming that the Constitution will hang by a thread before the Second Coming. There’s also the prophecy of three missionaries who will be murdered in Israel and resurrect. This is a variation of the Left Behind Apostles of Christ who do the same during “the tribulation,” or apocalyse. And of course we fervently believe that the Three Nephite apostles, along with the Apostle John, are hanging around providing perfect directions to bewildered LDS travelers.

LaHaye and scores of millions of others believe that the rapture can occur at anytime. Mormons and scores of millions of others believe that Christ can return at any time. True or not, there’s a wonderful hook if all this is actually a con. 

Bad things always exist, and bad news can always be used as proof these are the End Times. In the meantime, we better all pay our tithing.

-- Doug Gibson

-- Originally published at StandardNet in 2010.