A Mormon dissident in Nauvoo - The Writings of Oliver H. Olney

Review by Doug Gibson

Until recently, not many interested in Mormon history knew of Oliver H. Olney. Now, at least 170 years after his death, we can peruse the writings and life of a Nauvoo-era church member-turned-critic.

We are not even sure when this Mormon dissident in Nauvoo died. Probably about 1847 or 1848; and he'd left the city by then, says Dr. Richard G. Moore of BYU's Religious Studies Center. Moore merits respect for spending nearly a decade reading, deciphering, studying and editing Olney's writings, which are stored at Yale University. The result is "The Writings of Oliver H. Olney: April 1842 to February 1843 -- Nauvoo, Illinois," Greg Kofford Books, Salt Lake City, 2019. (Amazon link is here.)

It makes for interesting but very tough reading; Olney was mostly a poor writer. A few examples of his writings, which dominates the book, will be shared later. I have read the book once and watched a conversation with the author twice (link below in paragraph). Key historical nuggets are Olney's  knowledge and opinions of polygamy in Nauvoo, and plans of the church moving West. Olney was no major player in Nauvoo, and his ruminations on these issues, to me, indicate they were talked about in the city in greater detail earlier than history has assumed.

For me, Olney is the subject of Moore's book, more so than an account of life in 1842 Nauvoo. Other than one recollection that he was a strong man, picturing him is difficult. Trying to grasp his motivations, beliefs, his change, his candor, pride, and why he changed is the challenge. He seems a fascinating man with an impressive early LDS Church history. Yet he gradually became an obsessed, sometimes delusional Mormon apostate. Moore shares what we know of his life in a well-researched introduction. (I also urge readers to watch this interview with Moore at a Greg Kofford Books lecture series).

He married Alice Mary Johnson in 1820 and they were baptized about 11 years later. Alice was the sister of early LDS apostles Luke and Lyman Johnson. In the 1830s, Olney led the teacher's quorum in Kirtland, Ohio, and is listed as an elder and seventy in church records. His family moved to Missouri and later fled to Nauvoo. The Olney couple must have valued their dedication and sacrifices for the young church and its prophet, Joseph Smith.

The death of his wife, Alice, in the summer of 1841 must have broke Olney. As Moore notes, Olney was in Connecticut, likely on a mission. That's a harsh situation in which to learn your spouse has died. When he returned to Nauvoo, he changed from, by appearances, a devoted follower of the church hierarchy to harsh critic. Olney publicized his harsh revelations and criticisms, with a predictable result. He had his membership taken away in early-mid 1842, in a court led by the soon-to-be-discovered scoundrel John C. Bennett. Olney was slammed in the church newspaper Times and Seasons as one peddling revelations and preferring darkness and evil deeds, writes Moore.

But he was not the average, stereotypical dissident. His criticisms were of a populist nature. Olney was displeased by what he saw as an elite hierarchy of church leaders living off the hard work and sacrifice of poorer members. Furthermore, he charged these leaders with hypocrisy and sinful behavior, such as elitism, greed and polygamy. He believed that the interest in Masonry, and the new Relief Society, were also part of the elitism.

Moore adds Olney was later charged with stealing from Joseph Smith's store. According to Moore, he confessed, citing his poverty as an excuse. He escaped from incarceration, and as Moore adds, there's no record of the case resolution. It's a mystery that Olney continued to live close to a year longer in Nauvoo, attending Mormon meetings, and even marrying again, to a devout LDS woman named Phoebe Wheeler. Despite being out and about, Olney claimed his presence in Nauvoo was dangerous for him. Perhaps he lacked the means to leave. He was so poor that he wasn't always able to take care of his two daughters.

He also believed he would lead the church to repentance and restore its glory. He claimed heavenly visits with the Prophet Elijah and his wife, Jesus Christ, a group of heavenly beings, the "Ancients of Days," and even the slain early LDS apostle, David Patten. He must have known Patten in Missouri, talked with him and was likely impressed by him.

 Although he never collected any wealth, he claimed he would be led to riches to support his efforts. He also claimed God would rise him as a great leader after he reformed the church. Although he was a harsh critic of polygamy, Olney seems to contradict himself, claiming that God would provide him up to 60 women to be female companions and assist him. One of those women, Moore notes, was his future wife, Phoebe.

Here is a fragment of Olney's writing in April of 1842 indicating his disapproval of Joseph Smith: "... I see many by by Joseph directed he said by the Othoroty of the Father and son but I said in my hart he lied but we read that the sin of ignorance is to be winked at so it is not laid to his charge Altho I could a told him long since of his standing before God that had no more power with him than any other man ..."

From July, 1842, Olney describes his experience with the "Ancients of Days." "... They have put things in commotion that will cause a Revolution in this and foren lands Much is adoing that speaks of a savior That died that has taken a stand on the Earth A spirit of confusion discord disunion is the theme from this time forth But the time has ariven, That much is adoing to prepare for the coming of the son of man as he is soon a comming In power and Glory ... Dark shades must be removed in honour of the Savior ..."

In August of 1842, Olney expresses his frustration with a church he believes is corrupt. After citing examples such as The Danites and John C. Bennett and other, unnamed church leaders, he writes: "... I have looked for their good deeds but they keep out of my sight or they have known that comes to light ... (Moore adds in a note that Olney probably meant "none,' not "known".)

In January of 1843, his disillusionment is near completion: "I again feel it my duty to write of a party that Is highly exalted for Piety and fame They have much a going and saying that looks to me strange for people that profess to be men of God As I am daily with them I am inclined to say that if they ever had wisdom it is flead ..."

Olney wrote songs and poetry. Late in his life he published two small books, anti-Mormon tracts on the absurdity of Mormonism and evil of spiritual wifery. Letters are included, one of encouragement allegedly by William Smith, church patriarch at the time, and soon to be excommunicated. Both books are included in "The Writings of Oliver H. Olney." They seem to have been edited; there's far more coherence in these than in other, more spontaneous writings.

The secret, in my opinion, of discovering Olney's populism, and his apostasy, lie in his admiration of President Andrew Jackson, and his probable deep reliance on his wife, Alice. Moore comments on both Jackson and Alice in the book and the online lecture. Alice Olney received a very reverent obituary from Eliza R. Snow. It's highly likely that she was a source of strength to her husband, and a widely admired church sister. Oliver and Alice had survived a lot of persecution, and it's easy to see Olney reaching to his wife to strengthen his faith. Her death, coupled with poverty and perhaps internal anger at his current state and exclusion from higher levels of the faith, gradually exiled Olney from the church.

His Jacksonian political beliefs, placing the common man as an opponent of wealthy, elite interests, respecting the Constitution, living a good, honest life, and not exploiting others for greed, would provide him sustenance as he moved from a church that he believed was corrupted. As an American Jacksonian, Olney would resist any situation in which he believed he was being discriminated against. Here is a portion of a poem Olney wrote about Jackson that is published in the book:

"... He soon took an honourable station
To defend a free Constitution
With weapons of war He moved in array
Against those that did oppose
The American wrights
He honoured his station
At home and abroad
By being honest valient
Upwright and Prudent. ..."

During his above-mentioned lecture, Moore offers another motivation for Olney's apostasy. "Olney wants the Kirtland church," he said. He adds that wanting "the Kirtland church" was shared by many members who became disillusioned with the church's history in Missouri and Nauvoo. The idea that "Nauvoo was a bad place" was shared by Olney who likely idealized what he saw as an earlier, more pure, uncontaminated church.

It's likely that academics and Mormon history buffs (I am among the latter) are perhaps the only people who will read "The Writings of Oliver H. Olney." But I hope it sells well, and gets in many libraries. I recall scholar Maxine Hanks, in a recent Dialogue, urging people to respect everyone's faith journey. It's possible that Olney's faith journey was not inappropriate given his life history, sacrifices and trials. I hope we can learn more about him. That's unlikely; but I can hope that he's at peace and loved by a deity who understands why he felt it important to take a shift away from the norm in 1842.

The Thieves of Summer captures life in long ago Salt Lake City

Review by Doug Gibson

In 2014, Signature Books is released a novel, “The Thieves of Summer,” drafted by Linda Sillitoe just before her death in 2010. Sillitoe is best known for co-authoring the non-fiction crime book “Salamander: The Mormon Forgery Murders,” but also wrote novels, short stories, essays and poetry. In “Thieves of Summer,” Sillitoe combines several of her passions -- crime reporting, elephants, family, Mormonism and the culture of old Salt Lake City -- to craft a cluttered, but nevertheless entertaining summer story.

It’s 1938, and in Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park area the Flynn family is surviving the Depression as best it can. Dad Evan is a police detective, consumed with a case of missing children. His wife, Rose, stays at home and with dad raises Glenn, a new adult, troubled teen Joyce and three 11-year-old triplets, Annabelle, Bethany and Carolee. Nearby lives Princess Alice, a very independent elephant that is the main attraction at the Liberty Park zoo. 

Sillitoe has tossed a lot of ingredients into her novel’s conflict broth, and at times the reader will wonder what exactly is the main plot of “Thieves of Summer.” It probably fits into the genre of crime fiction, but there are long interludes in which the case of the missing children, and the thoroughly evil pedophile antagonist, disappear from the novel. Also, the elephant Princess Alice, tagged pretty early as a major character in the novel, makes cameo appearances until the novel approaches its climax. 

Perhaps a better title would have been “The Family Flynn” because they are the real focus of the novel, particularly the parents and the two oldest siblings. The family’s challenges, which include Glenn getting his girlfriend, Margie, in a family way, as well as emotionally maladjusted Joyce being caught stealing at work and trying to harm her new sister in law, are detailed from both secular and religious consequences. Sillitoe makes it clear that for an active Mormon family in 1938 Salt Lake City, every crisis includes a reaction from the dominant church. In one episode, in which an aunt dies of complications from mumps and pertussis, Sillitoe captures the culture well in the manner the family hustles away Glenn from the quarantined home due to the potential threat to his child-bearing future. The not-always-subtle discrimination against woman is captured in how some ecclesiastical leaders handle Glenn and Margie’s pregnancy.

The author captures the period piece of Depression-era Utah well, particularly in a family outing to Saltair, trips on the old public transportation system, horse-riding in the city, and an era of medicine that relied as much on hope as medical expertise. I particularly enjoyed the innocence of the conversations of the triplets regarding the crisis of Glenn, Margie, Joyce and even the stolen children. They are in that small pocket of life where they know something is amiss but are not actually sure what is amiss. Their ruminations comprise excellent writing.

The climax of the novel, which is the resolution of the criminal case, is easy to predict but nevertheless clever and the writing is very strong. As mentioned, the pedophile criminal is extremely evil and sociopathic. Spending several pages in his head leaves readers wondering if they need to take a shower. Sillitoe has the talent to effectively convey the emotions and thoughts of children and adults. The Flynn father, Evan, is an extremely fair-minded, patient man, and Cynthia Sillitoe, Linda Sillitoe’s daughter and an Ogden resident, notes in the novel’s forward how easy it is to see Evan in her grandfather.

After the novel’s conclusion, there are several actual newspaper articles, as well as a photo of the real Princess Alice elephant, which lived in Salt Lake City and was an attraction at the Liberty Park zoo between 1916 and 1918.

“The Thieves of Summer” is a quirky mix of family tension, crime drama and an homage to an elephant, but the writing is superb and Sillitoe has produced a tale that captures interest and provides entertainment.

-- Originally published at StandardNET

Uncle Will and the Fitzgerald Curse, a review

Review and musings by Doug Gibson

The late Utah-born author John D. Fitzgerald is certainly not a household name, but many of his books, primarily the youth fiction "The Great Brain" series, are both recalled and loved by I'd wager millions. In the 1950's, long before he started "The Great Brain" books, he wrote "Papa Married a Mormon," a major best seller. (Our review is here). That novel had several printings. A sequel, "Mamma's Boarding House," also sold well. Both are easily accessible today, "Papa Married a Mormon" can be bought for within $20, "Mama's Boarding House" is a bit more expensive, usually. Fitzgerald wrote a third novel, "Uncle Will and the Fitzgerald Curse," and I promise to get to that as soon as I've finished my beginning musings.

The above-mentioned series and novels relate the lives of the Fitzgerald family in a fictional Utah town named Adenville. The time period runs from the late 19th century into the first dozen or so years of the 20th century. Close to Adenville, in southern Utah, is a mining town later turned ghost town named Silverlode. Tom D. Fitzgerald is Papa and the Mormon he married is Tena Nielsen Fitzgerald. Children of the Fitzgeralds who are prominent in the books include John D., (the author of the novels) and his older brothers Tom D. and Sweyn D.

Fitzgerald is a marvelous storyteller. The books are mostly arranged in chapters that tell a distinct tale from beginning to end. The author manages to do this while keeping the flow of the novel. There are minor inconsistencies of time frame and character events but they are subtle and do not distract from an enjoyable reading experience.

Fitzgerald's writing style has been compared to Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Steinbeck and Harper Lee. He vividly describes the regional western era of the state he grew up in, with idealized, often-moralistic depictions of sheriffs, newspapermen, gamblers, saloon keepers, Latter-day Saint bishops, Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, teachers, mothers, dads, children, merchants, gunslingers, con men, miners, team of horses drivers, bigots, dance hall girls, Native Americans and even town drunks. Often in the chapters a negative influence in the moral tale will reform and become a positive influence within both diverse communities, Mormon, straight-laced Adenville, and the more "back-street, hell-raising" Silverlode, later represented as East Adenville. In other chapters the negative influence either dies at the hand of justice, or suffers appropriate monetary loss/comeuppance, or is sent off to jail.

While I may make no claim that Fitzgerald is the equal of Charles Dickens (there are probably only 8 or 9 writers in history his equal) I see a type of Western America "Dickensian-like" talent in Fitzgerald as he describes both the personal appearance, speech, and colorful personalities and antics of his many characters.

UNCLE WILL AND THE FITZGERALD CURSE

Time to get to the review of the above-mentioned book. It involves the life of a prominent character, Will D. Fitzgerald, Tom's brother and uncle to the children. In "Papa Married a Mormon," we meet this very rich owner of the White Horse Saloon and gambling hall in Silverlode. He is an agnostic and skeptic, but extremely fair and pragmatic. A longtime gambler, he worked his way across the country, earning his wealth initially through gambling, and killing several men in gun draws. He's a positive, loved member of the family who uses his considerable intellect, wits and wealth to help resolve some crisis in the novels.

"Uncle Will and the Fitzgerald Curse" is Will's story. A significant portion of the book is spent on Will's childhood, in the Fitzgerald family home in Pennsylvania. Already a headstrong child, Will reacts negatively to his maternal grandfather moving into the home. He is an autocratic religious bigot who -- with his father's enabling -- takes over authority in the house. His mother is also plagued with religious intolerance, but also is a loving influence. Will and his grandfather clash over several years, with Will slowly defying his parents, and the community. He turns into a known troublemaker, non-conformist, "bad seed."

There is a chapter, early in the book, in which Will, in his upper mid teens, is seduced by an unhappy early-middle-aged female librarian, who harbors a past romantic grudge against his father. The sexual seduction passages are not explicit, but is a bit shocking, perhaps more today where a mature adult seducing an impressionable teen is considered a criminal offense rather than a "rite of passage."

When Will turns 18 his father describes in detail the Fitzgerald family curse, which evolves from an Irish descendant named Dennis who turned traitor in the old country. Due to the treachery, a curse was placed on one male child of each generation. Several sons die ignoble deaths. In Will's family, the "cursed" one is predicted to suffer a fate worse than death. Although Will has heard his father scoff at the curse's veracity, listening this time, he senses his father believes he is cursed. He leaves his family at 18 on very formal, chilly terms, determined to become a gambler, head West, and build an empire. (I forget to mention that the aggrieved father who set the curse dictated that all male descendants of the traitor carry the middle name, Dennis.)

Will's travels through the West and the early years of his adult life take him through St. Louis, where he meets a mentor who teaches him to gamble successfully, with advice to live a detached life. Regarding women, the mentor says, "Why buy a cow when milk is so cheap."

Silver Plume, Colorado, which is a real place (I've been there) is the next major, long-term stop in Will's education. He takes a high-level gambling position with a successful saloon owner, with an eye toward buying the saloon'gambling hall one day and having his empire. He also gains a measure of prominence in the mining town. As always there are very descriptive characters, sort of Damon Runyun-esque, if the late Broadway scribe had written about the mining town West, about parlor house madams, female saloon owners, bullies, gamblers, miners, old-timers ...

His tenure in Silver Plume teaches a maturing Will several harsh realities caused by the life choices and viewpoints he's followed. He initiates a physical relationship with a beautiful showgirl, mistaking lust and a desire to possess her for love. She wants a wedding ring, and eventually leaves the relationship.

Later, he falls even harder for a newspaperman's daughter. She's a pretty young woman, charitable and religious. She represents conventionality, something that Will has rejected. My opinion is that Will sees in her the values he first learned in his youth. He mistakes his response to her purity, charity and friendship as love. She rejects him, preferring a more conventional mate, and a  conventionally decent life, although she lacks the maturity to understand that the "decent" homes she tells Will she wants her children to play in may not not necessarily be populated with decent adults.

Will painfully discovers, during his failed courtship, that prominent men with whom he rubs shoulders with will never accept him into their society or families.

It's actually a blessing that she rejects him, but it crushes Will, who leaves Silver Plume and wanders for a long time -- distracted -- until he wills himself to forget her. His despair during that time causes him to think that maybe he is a cursed Fitzgerald.

Will eventually makes his way to Silverlode and uses his gambling skill to win The White Horse Saloon in a high-stakes game with the owner, but has to outdraw and kill him afterward. Soon after, he finds a healthy, lifetime love.

"Uncle Will and the Fitzgerald Curse" is a great read, as satisfying as "Papa Married a Mormon" and "Mama's Boarding House." I sense it didn't sell as well as the others. It's a very expensive book to buy used; I've only seen first editions for sale. I owned a copy for years, but lost it in a 1997 move across country. I finally bought a copy for $150 a few weeks ago. Usually copies run $250 and above. I've added three links (here, here and here) to buy used copies. (I will add that I am skeptical of any offer for under $100). Readers who can't afford a copy should write to libraries and see if they will photocopy the book for a reasonable price. The book is out of print, so I imagine there is no legal impediment. I have receives photocopied pages of books from libraries.

I've written a lot about Fitzgerald and his work, on another blog, Plan9Crunch. Here is one and another is a review of the film version of "The Great Brain." It was released in 1978.

Fitzgerald researcher Carrie Lynn runs the valuable Finding Fitzgerald blog. She is also the author of a recent book, Finding Fitzgerald. It answers many long sought-after questions about the people who represented the characters in Fitzgerald's novels and how the author's hometown of Price, Utah, represents both "Adenville" and "Silverlode." You can buy Finding Fitzgerald here. I have done a review of the book here and interviewed Ms Lynn here. (Below is a photo of author John D. Fitzgerald).

Hamblin biography captures the many talents of the 'apostle to the Indians'

Review by Doug Gibson

Add early Mormon explorer/colonizer/missionary Jacob Hamblin to the list of excellent biographies of early Mormon church leaders. Historian Todd Compton’s “A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamlin, Explorer and Indian Missionary,” University of Utah Press, 2013, covers its subject extensively.

Hamblin is best known for his efforts to assimilate American Indians into or near Mormon towns and culture. Those efforts, although very sincere, ultimately failed. As Compton explains, the entire movement of eastern United States’ settlers into long-inhabited Indian lands created a situation in which tribes were forced into competition for necessities such as water, seeds for food, hunting, and of course land. It was an overall battle that the American Indian would lose.

As a result, as Compton notes, Hamblin’s most effective skill with American Indians was his ability to negotiate through tense altercations. In 1874, after three Navajos were killed — and another wounded — by an Indian hater, his outlaw sons, and a hired man, Hamblin bravely went — essentially unprotected — to explain to the angry Navajos and others that the Mormons were not to blame. As Compton relates, Hamblin calmly asserted his innocence as Indians in the council were telling him he would soon be tortured and murdered as a payback. Hamblin survived that experience, and his explanation of the massacre ultimately overrode a biased report from a corrupt Indian agent who disliked Mormons. Only his genuine honesty, respect for the American Indians, and his past history of championing the Indians of the area, saved his life.

Compton’s biography solidifies Hamblin’s legacy as one of the best early explorers of the mid- to late- 19th century. He led exploring teams into pristine lands in and around the Grand Canyon. He led treks into Arizona, and was among the first to visit the Hopis. He moved into barren areas of Arizona, getting past the Colorado River, the Virgin River, going through canyons and along cliffs in areas that might trouble mountain goats. Compton relates Hamblin’s experiences with noted American West explorer John Wesley Powell, correctly noting that Powell relied heavily on Hamblin’s previous excursions, using his knowledge and experience.

In southern Utah, Hamblin settled Santa Clara, Kanab and other areas. A polygamist, he included American Indian women as wives. He was a fierce believer in Mormonism. As Compton explains, he was typical of believers in his era, noting “revelations” and judgments of God that could occur anywhere, in dreams, or while traversing the countryside. One explorer colleague wryly noted a trip in which Hamblin attempted to convert him to Mormonism.

Hamblin was baptized in Wisconsin in 1842. After his wife converted, the family traveled to Nauvoo shortly before the death of Joseph Smith. After the killing of the Mormon prophet, Hamblin gave his alliance to Brigham Young, eventually left Nauvoo after helping build the temple, and endured severe poverty in waiting areas such as Mount Pisgah, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, while waiting, with other Latter-day Saints, to earn the money to travel to Utah. One consolation was a return to Wisconsin and discovering his father, Isaiah, who had been anti-Mormon, had joined the church along with others of the family. They eventually traveled with him to Utah.

There was a severe drawback, though. Hamblin’s wife, Lucinda, left him and the family prior to the trek to Utah. As Compton notes, Hamblin is very harsh to her in his autobiography but conditions themselves were extremely harsh, and Compton adds that Hamblin’s next wife, Rachel, who knew Lucinda, had kinder recollections of her.

Things didn’t get easier for the family. Severe cholera struck their pioneer company while traveling to Utah. Although there were many deaths, and Jacob, Rachel and family members suffered, none of the Hamblin family died.

Although Compton clearly admires his subject, and the book often rebukes more hostile accounts of Hamblin, including John D. Lee’s memoirs, the author does not avoid the failings of Hamblin. Although he was not in southern Utah when the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred, and would have certainly opposed it, Hamblin did assist Brigham Young and other leaders in misleading authorities of the massacre’s details. He also helped hide suspects, such as John D. Lee, by moving him to remote living spots. And, when Lee became expendable to Brigham Young, Hamblin dutifully testified against him at his trail.

This “disloyalty,” however, is mitigated by the fact that Lee was indeed guilty. As Compton, and others have noted, a key injustice of the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre is that others clearly as guilty as Lee, were not prosecuted and punished.

Hamblin’s efforts with the Indians were hampered by the widespread inability to understand the deep cultural chasm between the natives and the settlers. In fact, he eventually more or less gave up on working with the Paiutes of southern Utah, turning his expectations to the Hopis in Arizona. His most valuable strengths were his history of integrity with the Indians and his negotiating skills. They were needed often, particularly during the long Black Hawk War, and an 1860 expedition in Navajo in which George A. Smith Jr., the teenage son of LDS apostle George A. Smith, was killed by Indians. Hamblin’s earned trust was used often in dealing with Navajos, a strong tribe, with wealthy farmers, that was decimated by westward expansion.

Hamblin lived a frontier man’s life, often away from his family, as liable to sleep in a leaky tent than a clean bed. He suffered economically due to his church devotion, and that caused hardship for his wives and children. The “apostle to the Indians,” and his family, dealt with floods and parched conditions, and threats from Indians. His sorrows included returns from long explorations only to learn a child had died. He lived to age 67, dying of malaria in his own bed at the family home.

-- 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

Do you have your own, personal Three Nephites experience?

We Mormons have our own personal religious lore; one that tops the list is the Three Nephites. A healthy percentage of members who make it to church more often than not either have their own personal Three Nephites tale or can relate at least one that has been passed onto them.

The Three Nephites are mentioned in The Book of Mormon as disciples of Jesus Christ who ask to remain on earth until Jesus Christ returns and convert souls for him. Christ says yes, which is the same answer he gives to John the Beloved in the New Testament.

(I digress here to wonder how often the Three Nephites and John the Beloved have met the past 1,977 years or so. Do they ever get tired of each other? Do they ever squabble? I couldn’t imagine being on my best behavior waiting for a guest who won’t tell us when he’ll ever return.)

Despite my occasional skepticism, I’m one of those who can boast of his own “Three Nephites experience.” But first, some more about the LDS folklore of the Three Nephites. Besides John the Beloved, the Three Nephites have parallels to The Wandering Jew, Catholic saints and even the Prophet Elijah. Although reports of Three Nephites activity are not — for good reason — official Mormon doctrine, their calling is mentioned in Mormonism’s most unique scripture. One who claims a literal belief in the Book of Mormon must agree that the three are still hanging around somewhere. The same goes for the Bible and John the Beloved.

The first Three Nephites tale I recall hearing is about an army officer on the front in World War II who gives a lift in his jeep to three wandering civilians. When he drops them off, one of the men asks what he can do to repay the officer. The officer flippantly replies, “Tell me when this war will end?” The man gives him a date. The officer thinks nothing of the answer until the war ends, and you guessed it, on the exact date the man told him!

There’s a million of these tales. In 1949, author Hector Lee published “The Three Nephites: The Substance and Significance of the Legend in Folklore,” Albuquerque, The University of New Mexico Press. Here are a couple of accounts that Lee collected:

• The Hitchhiking “ghost” Nephite, where an old hitchhiker was picked up by couple traveling to Grand Junction, Colo. It was 1944. The old hitchhiker was a whiz on current events. At the most desolate part of their journey, the hitchhiker insisted on being let out. Naturally the couple protested. The hitchhiker told them they would soon be hauling a dead body to Grand Junction. He then told them the exact date that World War II would end. Sure enough, the couple came upon a car wreck with a fatality and hauled the dead driver to Grand Junction. The war ended on the same date as well.

I mention this tale because it’s similar to the one I heard as a child. The setting had changed and there was no dead body and there were three hitchhikers instead of one. I imagine that as “Three Nephites sightings” are passed along over and over, the tale can change significantly.

• Here’s another Three Nephites tale Lee compiled with a lot of the supernatural included. Mrs. Aylda Abbott Squires of Wa Wa Springs, in Utah, recounts an 1874 experience when she was all alone on the homestead and a lone man came by and asked for food. Mrs. Squires was frightened but provided him a meal. The man blessed her and promised her that a pain she was feeling in her liver would go away and that she would never want for basic necessities. As he turned a corner leaving she followed to see where he had gone but the man had disappeared. She returned to her table and discovered the lunch she had seen him eat and drink was untouched. Later, her mother reminded her that her Patriarchal blessing had mentioned she would see one of the Three Nephites.

I just love these tales. They’re part of what makes Mormonism so interesting and unique.

So here’s my “Three Nephites” tale. It’s got more holes in it than that once-sacred garment with the tokens cut off that grandma uses for cleaning, but here it is:

• It was 1983, in Chiclayo, Peru. My senior companion and I were in a massive slum, thousands of people living in homes without electricity or water. We were searching for the home of a referral. The potential investigator’s name was Marcos. After traipsing through the dusty dirt streets for the better part of a day, we stopped to stare at a very peculiar sight. A pig was hog-tied, presumably moments away from the slaughter. You’ve never heard screaming until you’ve heard a hog-tied pig scream. A crowd had gathered to stare at the pig. For some reason a man standing a few feet away caught our attention. One of us, I can’t recall which, asked — for the 100th time — “Do you know where Marcos lives?”

The man casually made a fist, thumb out, and glanced and pointed over his back toward an alley with a few house inward. “He lives back there,” he said.

To sum up a long story, we met Marcos, baptized him and later were baptized about 10 or 11 of his family members. Soon after we left Peru, Marcos went on his own mission. I’m glad Marcos and his family helped me to meet one of the Three Nephites.

A footnote

That same day, during our first visit with Marcos, the pig stopped screaming. When we returned to the site, there was only a dark, dank-smelling wet stain where the pig once screamed.

It took me about 10 years to realize that it would have been an impressive encore if the wandering Nephite had taken a moment to save the pig.

-- Originally published in 2010 at StandardNET.