View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/American Massacre/Chapter 3

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{{Resource Title|Response to claims made in "Chapter 3: Nauvoo, 1840"}}
{{FAIRAnalysisHeader
|title=[[../../|American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows]]
|author=Sally Denton
|noauthor=
|section=[[../../Index/|Index of claims]]: Chapter 3
|previous=[[../Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
|next=[[../Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]
|notes={{AuthorsDisclaimer}}
}}		

====23====
{{IndexClaim
|claim={{AuthorQuote|Having suffered beatings and tarrings at the hands of Mormon baiters years earlier, and having faced impending death at various junctures, Smith sensed rightly that events in Nauvoo would be the grand finale of his life.}}	
|response=
*{{InternalContradiction|The author [[American_Massacre#4|earlier]] characterized Joseph's persecutions as "imaginary"}}
|authorsources=	
*No source provided.
}}

====23 - Building a spired marble temple took precedence over everything else====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim={{AuthorQuote|Building a spired marble temple took precedence over everything else…}}
|authorsources=	
No source provided.	
}}
*{{HistoricalError}}: the Nauvoo temple was made of limestone that was quarried locally, not marble which would have required importation.

====23-24====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=Joseph's "falling out" with John C. Bennett is claimed to have been over a woman that "each desired as a plural wife."	
|response=
* In fact, Bennett was given multiple opportunities to reform his ways before being excommunicated.
*{{Detail|Polygamy_book/John_C._Bennett|l1=John C. Bennett}}
|authorsources=	
*No source provided.
}}

====24====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=Nauvoo was claimed to be "the first genuine theocracy in American history."
|response=
*{{Detail|Council of Fifty|l1=Theocracy: Council of Fifty?}}
*{{Detail|Nauvoo_city_charter|l1=Theocracy: Nauvoo city charter?}}
*{{Detail|Nauvoo_city_charter/Usurpation_of_power|l1=Theocracy: power usurped at Nauvoo?}}
|authorsources=		
* No source provided (but the analysis and claim are very reminiscent of {{CriticalWork:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=15}}).
}}

====24 - The Council of Fifty was "a group of princes" who would rule the "Mormon empire"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The Council of Fifty was "a group of princes" who would rule the "Mormon empire."
|authorsources=		
*{{CriticalWork:Bigler:Forgotten Kingdom|pages=24}}
}}
* {{HistoricalError}}: The Council of Fifty included non-Mormons as members.
{{:Question: What was the Council of Fifty?}}

====25 - Joseph had himself ordained "king" during the time that he was running for President====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=Joseph had himself ordained "king" during the time that he was running for President.
|authorsources=		
No source provided.
}}
{{:Question: Was Joseph Smith anointed to be "King over the earth" by the Council of Fifty?}}

====25====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=Joseph had a "narcissistic" "theme of deceiving self and others."
|response=
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Narcissism|l1=Joseph Smith's supposed narcissism}}
|authorsources=		
*Robert D. Anderson, ''Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith'', p. 225.
}}
====26====
{{IndexClaim
|claim={{AuthorQuote|Nauvoo, unlike Kirtland, had become the sanctuary for strange ceremonials and shrouded rites many members found increasingly alien and offensive…}}	
|response=
*{{InternalContradiction|The author earlier stated that these things were introduced in Kirtland}} 
*On page 14, speaking of Kirtland, the author states: "He then initiated the secret rituals that would further repel their conventional Christian neighbors-anointings, endowments, proxy baptisms, visions, healings, writhing ecstasies, and, especially, the concepts of 'eternal progression' and 'celestial marriage.'"
*{{HistoricalError}}: Proxy baptisms were not introduced until Nauvoo, they were not known at Kirtland.  Healings and visions were present from the Church's very beginnings.  "Writhing ecstasies" were condemned by LDS scripture by 1831 (see {{s||DC|50|}}).
|authorsources=	
*No source provided.
}}

====26====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=A "Mormon historian," (Will Bagley) claims that celestial marriage "allowed the most ordinary backwoodsman to become a god and rule over worlds of his own creation with as many wives as his righteousness could sustain."
|response=
* Bagley is not a "Mormon historian"&mdash;his account is invariably hostile to LDS leaders and truth claims.
*{{Detail|Mormonism and the nature of God/"Celestial sex"|l1="Celestial sex"}}
*{{Detail|Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification_of_man/Gods_of_their_own_planets|l1="Rule over worlds of his own creation"?}}
*{{Detail|Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man|l1=''Theosis'' or human deification}}
|authorsources=
*{{CriticalWork:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=7}}
* {{CrossRef:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=7}}
}}

====26====
{{IndexClaim
|claim="One historian" (Will Bagley) claimed that Joseph "plunged into new sealings to married women, sisters, and very young girls."
|response=
* {{Prejudicial}}
* {{Presentism}}: [[Joseph_Smith_and_polygamy/Marriages_to_young_women|"Marriages to very young girls"?]]
*{{Detail|Joseph_Smith/Polygamy/Polyandry|l1="Sealings to married women"}}
*{{Detail|Mormonism and polygamy/Divine manifestations to plural wives and families|l1=Divine manifestations to plural wives and their families}}
|authorsources=
*{{CriticalWork:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=27}}
*{{CrossRef:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=27}}
}}

====27 - The founders of the Nauvoo Expositor were "men who knew too much"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The founders of the Nauvoo Expositor were "men who knew too much."
|propaganda=This is simply hype on the part of the author.
|authorsources=<br>
*{{CriticalWork:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=16}}
*{{CrossRef:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=16}}
}}
{{:Question: What caused William Law to apostatize from the Church and turn against Joseph Smith?}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith or his associates attempt to reconcile with William Law before he published the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?}}

====27 - "Smith ordered the Nauvoo Legion to storm the newspaper, destroy the press, and burn all extant issues"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim={{AuthorQuote|Smith ordered the Nauvoo Legion to storm the newspaper, destroy the press, and burn all extant issues.}}
|response=
|misinformation=The Nauvoo City Council, ''not'' the Nauvoo Legion, destroyed the newspaper.
|authorsources=
*No source provided
}}
{{:Question: How was the decision reached to destroy the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?}}
{{:Question: Why did the Nauvoo City Council feel it was necessary to destroy the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?}}

====27 - The author claims that "the constitutional defenders of the First Amendment" called for Joseph Smith's arrest after the destruction of the ''Expositor''====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The author claims that "the constitutional defenders of the First Amendment" called for Joseph Smith's arrest after the destruction of the ''Expositor''.
|propaganda=The First Amendment did not apply to local or state governments until after the Civil War.
|authorsources=
No source provided.
}}

====28====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=The book claims that Joseph sent orders to the Nauvoo Legion from Carthage Jail to come and free him.
|response=
*{{FalseStatement}}
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Martyrdom/Nauvoo Legion to rescue Joseph|l1=Nauvoo Legion was to rescue Joseph?}}
|authorsources=
*No source cited, but it is probably Brodie. See {{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=392}}.
}}
====28 - The author claims that "lore had it" that Joseph gave the Masonic distress signal "before calling out: 'Oh Lord my God. Is there no help for the widow's son?"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The author claims that "lore had it" that Joseph gave the Masonic distress signal "before calling out: 'Oh Lord my God. Is there no help for the widow's son?"
|misinformation=This is very sloppy research. Despite citing so many sources, the author gets the history wrong. There is no record of Joseph saying more than "Oh Lord, my God." In addition, the author states that Joseph gave the Masonic distress signal ''before'' calling out this phrase. In reality, the full phrase "Oh Lord my God. Is there no help for the widow's son" ''is'' the Masonic distress signal!
|authorsources=<br>
*{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=}}
*{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Mormon Hierarchy|pages=}}
*Smith, Hallwas, Lanius.
}}

====29====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=The author claims that Joseph's death was "second in importance only to that of Jesus Christ."
|response=
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Status in LDS belief}}
|authorsources=
*Eliza Snow, ''Times and Seasons'' 5 (July 1, 1844), quoted in Hallwas and Launius, 237.
}}

====29 - Allen J. Stout's journal says that he will avenge Joseph's blood to the fourth generation====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=Allen J. Stout's journal says that he will avenge Joseph's blood to the fourth generation.
|authorsources=
*Stout journal, June 28, 1844.
}}
From the cited source:
<blockquote>
"Their dead bodies were brought to Nauvoo where I saw their beloved forms reposing in the arms of death, which gave me such feelings as I am not able to describe. But I there and then resolved in my mind that I would never let an opportunity slip unimproved of avenging their blood upon the head of the enemies of the Church of Jesus Christ. I felt as though I could not live. I knew not how to contain myself, and when I see one of the men who persuaded them to give up to be tried, I feel like cutting their throats. And I hope to live to avenge their blood, but if I do not, I will teach my children to never cease to try to avenge their blood and then their children and children's children to the fourth generation as long as there is one descendant of the murderers upon the earth."  {{link|url=http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/AStout.html}}
</blockquote>
Stout vows vengeance only on "the murderers" and their kin.  Despite his anger at those who had encouraged Joseph and Hyrum to surrender, he does not take action against them.  The relevance of this to the Mountain Meadows Massacre is, then, not clear.

====29 - D. Michael Quinn said that Joseph "failed to clarify for the highest leadership of the church the precise method of succession God intended"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=D. Michael Quinn said that Joseph "failed to clarify for the highest leadership of the church the precise method of succession God intended."
|authorsources=
{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Mormon Hierarchy|pages=143}}
}}
{{:Question: What indications were there that Brigham Young would be Joseph Smith's successor?}}

====30====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=Sidney Rigdon is claimed to have "recently apostatized over Smith's attempted seduction of his daughter in to a polygamous marriage."
|response=
* {{FalseStatement}}: Sidney had not apostatized.  He remained first counselor in the First Presidency.
*{{Detail|Polygamy_book/John_C._Bennett|l1=Joseph attempted to seduce Nancy Rigdon?}}
|authorsources=
*No source provided.
}}

====31====
{{IndexClaim
|claim={{AuthorQuote|Knowing he could not compete with Smith as a seer...}}
|response=
* {{MindReading}}
* Stenhouse (the author's source) did not become a member of the Church until after Joseph's death, and he joined the Church in England.  He was in no position at all to know Sidney's thoughts or capabilities in the matter.
* {{FalseStatement}}: Sidney's later post-Mormon religious activities show him to be quite convinced that he can deliver oracles from God as Joseph did.
|authorsources=
*T.B.H. Stenhouse, 209.
}}

====32 - The temple is claimed to have "placed under the most sacred obligations to avenge the blood of the Prophet, whenever an opportunity offered, and to teach their children to do the same"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The temple is claimed to have "placed under the most sacred obligations to avenge the blood of the Prophet, whenever an opportunity offered, and to teach their children to do the same."
|authorsources=
John D. Lee in Henrie, 147.
}}
{{:Question: Was there an oath in a former version of the temple endowment that required vengeance upon the government of the United States?}}

====32====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=It is claimed that the "entire Mormon people [became] sworn and avowed enemies of the American nation."
|response=
* Despite this claim, we soon learn that the Mormons volunteered for U.S. military service (see [[American Massacre#47|p. 47 below]]).
*{{Detail|Sworn enemies of the United States|l1=Sworn enemies of the United States?}}
|authorsources=
*Lee in Henrie, 147.
}}

====36====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=Brodie's claim that when Brigham spoke in the Adamic language, it "thus acquired status in the Church."
|response=
*{{SecondaryFact}}
|authorsources=
*{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=126}}
}}

====36====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=The author claims that Brigham "disposed of his rivals." Stanley P. Hirshson is quoted as claiming that Nauvoo became a "police state."
|response=
*From the cited source:
<blockquote>
Engulfed by dissension from within and without, Young established in Nauvoo a police state.  When he returned to the town after Smith's death and was served with several writs, he strapped on a pair of six-shooters and vowed he would kill any man who handed him another summons or grabbed hold of him.  Until he left Nauvoo, he wore those guns.  (pp 61-62)
</blockquote>
*Note the following from the ''Journal of Discourses'':
<blockquote>
"When the mantle of Joseph Smith fell upon Brigham Young, the enemies of God and His kingdom sought to inaugurate a similar career for President Young; but he took his revolver from his pocket at the public stand in Nauvoo, and declared that upon the first attempt of an officer to read a writ to him in a State that had violated its plighted faith in the murder of the Prophet and Patriarch while under arrest, he should serve the contents of this writ (holding his loaded revolver in his hand) first; to this the vast congregation assembled said, Amen. He was never arrested."  ({{JDfairwiki|author=George A. Smith|disc=15|vol=13|start=110}})
</blockquote>
*{{Detail|One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/Nauvoo police violence|l1=Nauvoo a police state?}}
|authorsources=
*Stanley P. Hirshson, "The Lion of the Lord," 61.
}}

====36 - The author claims that John D. Lee was "an integral component in the new power structure" after Joseph's death====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The author claims that John D. Lee was "an integral component in the new power structure" after Joseph's death.
|propaganda=The author must provide evidence for this assertion.  Even if Lee ''was'' part of the LDS lay leadership, this does nothing to prove that his actions were sanctioned by his superiors.
|authorsources=
No source provided.
}}

====37 - The author claims that Emma and other Smith relatives returned to Far West and founded the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The author claims that Emma and other Smith relatives returned to Far West and founded the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
|misinformation=The RLDS church was organized in Amboy, Illinois.  Emma Smith lived in Nauvoo, Illinois until her death.  Emma did not encourage or organize the RLDS church; when her son, Joseph Smith III, agreed to take its leadership, she traveled to the inaugural meeting to support him.
|authorsources=
No source provided.
}}

====37 - The author claims that Joseph wanted people to receive their endowments for the "Mormon road to heaven"====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The author claims that Joseph wanted people to receive their endowments for the "Mormon road to heaven."
|misinformation=The cited source says nothing about Joseph Smith at all.  It is an anti-Mormon expose of the endowment ceremonies. The cited source is notoriously unreliable. Even the anti-Mormon Fanny Stenhouse wrote that the book "so mixed up fiction with what was true, that it was difficult to determine where one ended and the other began,"  and a good example of how "the autobiographies of supposed Mormon women were [as] unreliable"  as other Gentile accounts, given her tendency to "mingl[e] facts and fiction" "in a startling and sensational manner." <ref>{{CriticalWork:Stenhouse:Tell It All|pages=x-xii, 618, the footnote on the latter page confirms the identity of the author as Ettie V. Smith, whose account supposedly formed the basis for Green's work}}</ref> The authors' poor grasp of LDS historiography, and poor historical judgment is again manifest.
|authorsources=
Nelson Winch Green, "Fifteen Years Among the Mormons," 41.
}}

====37====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=It is claimed that LDS missionaries to England "capitalized on the intolerable social and economic conditions" in order to gain converts.
|response=
* {{SecondaryFact}}
* Brodie's claim oversimplifies a great deal.  Charles Dickens described LDS immigrants as "the pick and flower of England."  Immigration was also not a matter of instant financial benefits. 
*{{Detail|Economics of LDS immigration}}  
|authorsources=
*{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=264}}
}}

====38====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=Quoting D. Michael Quinn, the author notes that Brigham said that women "have no right to meddle in the affairs of the Kingdom of God."
|response=
* {{SourceDistortion}}: Quinn provides a more extensive citation which the author omits.
*{{Detail|Brigham Young/Women not to meddle|l1=Brigham Young: Women not to meddle?}}
|authorsources=
*{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Mormon Hierarchy|pages=650}}
}}

====38====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=The author claims that Brigham "commended his police for nearly beating to death an apostate within the walls of the temple.
|response=
*Although the author provides no source for the claim, it is likely that this refers to the flogging of three men by Nauvoo Police. 
|authorsources=
*No source provided.
}}
{{:Question: Did Hosea Stout have three men flogged because they "were not in good fellowship"?}}

====38-39====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=The author mentions "the pending indictment of two leaders of the Church on counterfeiting charges..."
|response=
*Although the author provides no source for the claim, it is likely that this refers to a critical claim that Brigham Young, Willard Richards, Parley Pratt, and Orson Hyde were involved in making counterfeit coins.
*{{Detail|One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/Counterfeiting apostles and Joseph|l1=Counterfeiting by the apostles at Nauvoo?}}
|authorsources=
*No source provided.
}}
{{:Question: Are there government records that prove that the apostles were involved in counterfeiting in Nauvoo?}}

==Response to claim: 39 - The author claims that "thousands of armed Mormons and Gentiles faced off" in Nauvoo==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=The author claims that "thousands of armed Mormons and Gentiles faced off" in Nauvoo.
|propaganda=''Everyone'' on the frontier in 19th century America was armed&mdash;this was necessary for hunting and protection. That being said, there was never an armed "face-off" in Nauvoo. The Latter-day Saints were driven out of Nauvoo by the threat of military force.
|authorsources=
No source provided.
}}

== ==
{{Endnotes label}}

<references/>

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[[fr:Specific works/American Massacre/Index/Chapter 3]]