![FairMormon Logo](https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021_fair_logo_primary.png)
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
m (Bot replace {{FairMormon}} with {{Main Page}} and remove extra lines around {{Header}}, replaced: -- → —) |
m |
||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
− | {{Main Page}} | + | ==Section review== |
+ | ===Early years (1805–1827) {{WikipediaUpdate|9/3/2011}}=== | ||
+ | {{Main|Early life of Joseph Smith, Jr.}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805, in [[Sharon, Vermont]] to [[Lucy Mack Smith]] and her husband [[Joseph Smith, Sr.|Joseph]], a merchant and farmer. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=9, 30}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1832|p=1}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | After a crippling bone infection at age eight, the younger Smith hobbled on crutches as a child. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=21}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}}{{Main Page}} | ||
{{H2 | {{H2 | ||
|L=Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./1827 to 1830 | |L=Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./1827 to 1830 | ||
Line 33: | Line 59: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
In October 1827, Smith and his pregnant | In October 1827, Smith and his pregnant | ||
Line 45: | Line 71: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
wife moved from Palmyra to Harmony (now [[Oakland Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania|Oakland), Pennsylvania]], | wife moved from Palmyra to Harmony (now [[Oakland Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania|Oakland), Pennsylvania]], | ||
Line 58: | Line 84: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
aided by money from a comparatively prosperous neighbor [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]]. | aided by money from a comparatively prosperous neighbor [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]]. | ||
Line 75: | Line 101: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Living near his disapproving in-laws, | Living near his disapproving in-laws, | ||
Line 88: | Line 114: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith transcribed some of the characters (what he called "[[reformed Egyptian]]") engraved on the plates and then dictated a translation to his wife. | Smith transcribed some of the characters (what he called "[[reformed Egyptian]]") engraved on the plates and then dictated a translation to his wife. | ||
Line 102: | Line 128: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
For at least some of the earliest translation, Smith said he used "[[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|Urim and Thummim]]", | For at least some of the earliest translation, Smith said he used "[[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|Urim and Thummim]]", | ||
Line 124: | Line 150: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
a pair of [[seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stones]] he said were buried with the [[golden plates]]. | a pair of [[seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stones]] he said were buried with the [[golden plates]]. | ||
Line 138: | Line 164: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Later, however, he used the single chocolate-colored stone he had found in 1822 and used for treasure hunting. | Later, however, he used the single chocolate-colored stone he had found in 1822 and used for treasure hunting. | ||
Line 157: | Line 183: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
As when divining the location of treasure, | As when divining the location of treasure, | ||
Line 171: | Line 197: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith said he saw the words of the translation while he gazed at the stone or stones in the bottom of his hat, excluding all light. | Smith said he saw the words of the translation while he gazed at the stone or stones in the bottom of his hat, excluding all light. | ||
Line 189: | Line 215: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
The plates themselves were not directly consulted. | The plates themselves were not directly consulted. | ||
Line 202: | Line 228: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith did this in full view of witnesses, but sometimes concealed the process by raising a curtain or dictating from another room. | Smith did this in full view of witnesses, but sometimes concealed the process by raising a curtain or dictating from another room. | ||
Line 220: | Line 246: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith may have considered giving up the translation because of opposition from his in-laws, | Smith may have considered giving up the translation because of opposition from his in-laws, | ||
Line 244: | Line 270: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
but in February 1828, Martin Harris arrived to spur him on | but in February 1828, Martin Harris arrived to spur him on | ||
Line 260: | Line 286: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
by taking the [[Anthon transcript|characters]] and their translations to a few prominent scholars. | by taking the [[Anthon transcript|characters]] and their translations to a few prominent scholars. | ||
Line 274: | Line 300: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Harris claimed that one of the scholars he visited, [[Charles Anthon]], initially authenticated the characters and their translation, then recanted upon hearing that Smith had received the plates from an angel. | Harris claimed that one of the scholars he visited, [[Charles Anthon]], initially authenticated the characters and their translation, then recanted upon hearing that Smith had received the plates from an angel. | ||
Line 288: | Line 314: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Anthon denied this claim | Anthon denied this claim | ||
Line 307: | Line 333: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
and Harris returned to Harmony in April 1828 motivated to act as Smith's scribe. | and Harris returned to Harmony in April 1828 motivated to act as Smith's scribe. | ||
Line 320: | Line 346: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Translation continued until mid-June 1828, until Harris began having doubts about the existence of the golden plates. | Translation continued until mid-June 1828, until Harris began having doubts about the existence of the golden plates. | ||
Line 333: | Line 359: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Harris importuned Smith to let him take the existing [[Lost 116 pages|116 pages of manuscript]] to Palmyra to show a few family members. | Harris importuned Smith to let him take the existing [[Lost 116 pages|116 pages of manuscript]] to Palmyra to show a few family members. | ||
Line 347: | Line 373: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Harris then lost the manuscript—of which there was no copy—at about the same time as Smith's wife Emma gave birth to a [[stillbirth|stillborn]] son. | Harris then lost the manuscript—of which there was no copy—at about the same time as Smith's wife Emma gave birth to a [[stillbirth|stillborn]] son. | ||
Line 360: | Line 386: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith said the [[angel Moroni|angel]] had taken away the plates and he had lost his ability to translate | Smith said the [[angel Moroni|angel]] had taken away the plates and he had lost his ability to translate | ||
Line 374: | Line 400: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
until September 22, 1828, when they were restored. | until September 22, 1828, when they were restored. | ||
Line 388: | Line 414: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith did not earnestly resume the translation again until April 1829, when he met [[Oliver Cowdery]], a teacher and [[dowsing|dowser]], | Smith did not earnestly resume the translation again until April 1829, when he met [[Oliver Cowdery]], a teacher and [[dowsing|dowser]], | ||
Line 405: | Line 431: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
who now became Smith's scribe. | who now became Smith's scribe. | ||
Line 418: | Line 444: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
They worked full time on the translation between April and early June 1829, | They worked full time on the translation between April and early June 1829, | ||
Line 430: | Line 456: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
and then moved to [[Fayette, New York]] where they continued to work at the home of Cowdery's friend [[Peter Whitmer]]. When the translation spoke of an institutional church and a requirement for baptism, Smith and Cowdery baptized each other, | and then moved to [[Fayette, New York]] where they continued to work at the home of Cowdery's friend [[Peter Whitmer]]. When the translation spoke of an institutional church and a requirement for baptism, Smith and Cowdery baptized each other, | ||
Line 443: | Line 469: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
with written documents five years later stating that [[John the Baptist]] had appeared and ordained them to [[Aaronic priesthood (LDS Church)|a priesthood]]. | with written documents five years later stating that [[John the Baptist]] had appeared and ordained them to [[Aaronic priesthood (LDS Church)|a priesthood]]. | ||
Line 456: | Line 482: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Translation was completed around July 1, 1829. | Translation was completed around July 1, 1829. | ||
Line 468: | Line 494: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Knowing that potential converts to the planned church might find Smith's story of the plates incredible, | Knowing that potential converts to the planned church might find Smith's story of the plates incredible, | ||
Line 480: | Line 506: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith asked a group of [[Book of Mormon witnesses|eleven witnesses]], including Martin Harris and male members of the Whitmer and Smith families, to sign a statement testifying that they had seen the golden plates, and in the case of the latter eight witnesses, had actually hefted the plates. | Smith asked a group of [[Book of Mormon witnesses|eleven witnesses]], including Martin Harris and male members of the Whitmer and Smith families, to sign a statement testifying that they had seen the golden plates, and in the case of the latter eight witnesses, had actually hefted the plates. | ||
Line 494: | Line 520: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
According to Smith, the [[angel Moroni]] took back the plates after Smith was finished using them. | According to Smith, the [[angel Moroni]] took back the plates after Smith was finished using them. | ||
Line 507: | Line 533: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
The translation, known as the [[Book of Mormon]], was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, by printer [[Egbert Bratt Grandin|E. B. Grandin]]. | The translation, known as the [[Book of Mormon]], was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, by printer [[Egbert Bratt Grandin|E. B. Grandin]]. | ||
Line 521: | Line 547: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
[[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] financed the publication by mortgaging his farm. | [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] financed the publication by mortgaging his farm. | ||
Line 533: | Line 559: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Soon thereafter on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Christ]], | Soon thereafter on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Christ]], | ||
Line 552: | Line 578: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and [[Colesville, New York]]. | and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and [[Colesville, New York]]. | ||
Line 565: | Line 591: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
The Book of Mormon brought Smith regional notoriety, | The Book of Mormon brought Smith regional notoriety, | ||
Line 578: | Line 604: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
but also strong opposition by those who remembered Smith's money-digging and his 1826 trial near Colesville. | but also strong opposition by those who remembered Smith's money-digging and his 1826 trial near Colesville. | ||
Line 592: | Line 618: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Soon after Smith reportedly performed an [[exorcism]] in Colesville, | Soon after Smith reportedly performed an [[exorcism]] in Colesville, | ||
Line 609: | Line 635: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
he was again tried as a [[vagrancy (people)|disorderly person]] but was acquitted. | he was again tried as a [[vagrancy (people)|disorderly person]] but was acquitted. | ||
Line 626: | Line 652: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Even so, Smith and Cowdery had to flee Colesville to escape a gathering mob. Probably referring to this period of flight, Smith told years later of hearing the voices of [[Saint Peter|Peter]], [[James, son of Zebedee|James]], and [[John the Apostle|John]] who he said gave Smith and Cowdery an apostolic authority. | Even so, Smith and Cowdery had to flee Colesville to escape a gathering mob. Probably referring to this period of flight, Smith told years later of hearing the voices of [[Saint Peter|Peter]], [[James, son of Zebedee|James]], and [[John the Apostle|John]] who he said gave Smith and Cowdery an apostolic authority. | ||
Line 640: | Line 666: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
When [[Oliver Cowdery]] and other church members attempted to exercise independent authority | When [[Oliver Cowdery]] and other church members attempted to exercise independent authority | ||
Line 653: | Line 679: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
—as when [[Eight Witnesses|Book of Mormon witness]] [[Hiram Page]] used his [[seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stone]] to locate the American [[New Jerusalem]] prophesied by the Book of Mormon | —as when [[Eight Witnesses|Book of Mormon witness]] [[Hiram Page]] used his [[seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stone]] to locate the American [[New Jerusalem]] prophesied by the Book of Mormon | ||
Line 667: | Line 693: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
—Smith responded by establishing himself as the sole [[prophet]]. | —Smith responded by establishing himself as the sole [[prophet]]. | ||
Line 680: | Line 706: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith disputed Page's location for the New Jerusalem, | Smith disputed Page's location for the New Jerusalem, | ||
Line 693: | Line 719: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
but dispatched Cowdery to lead a mission to [[Missouri]] to find its ''true'' location | but dispatched Cowdery to lead a mission to [[Missouri]] to find its ''true'' location | ||
Line 706: | Line 732: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
and to proselytize the Native Americans. | and to proselytize the Native Americans. | ||
Line 715: | Line 741: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Smith also dictated a lost "[[Book of Moses|Book of Enoch]]," telling how the [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|biblical Enoch]] had established a [[Zion (Latter Day Saints)|city of Zion]] of such civic goodness that God had taken it to heaven. | Smith also dictated a lost "[[Book of Moses|Book of Enoch]]," telling how the [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|biblical Enoch]] had established a [[Zion (Latter Day Saints)|city of Zion]] of such civic goodness that God had taken it to heaven. | ||
Line 728: | Line 754: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
On their way to Missouri, Cowdery's party passed through the [[Kirtland, Ohio]] area and converted [[Sidney Rigdon]] and over a hundred members of his [[Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)|Disciples of Christ]] congregation, | On their way to Missouri, Cowdery's party passed through the [[Kirtland, Ohio]] area and converted [[Sidney Rigdon]] and over a hundred members of his [[Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)|Disciples of Christ]] congregation, | ||
Line 741: | Line 767: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
more than doubling the size of the church. | more than doubling the size of the church. | ||
Line 754: | Line 780: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Rigdon visited New York and quickly became second in command of the church, | Rigdon visited New York and quickly became second in command of the church, | ||
Line 767: | Line 793: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
to the discomfort of Smith's earlier followers. | to the discomfort of Smith's earlier followers. | ||
Line 780: | Line 806: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
In the face of acute and growing opposition in New York, Smith announced that Kirtland was the "eastern boundary" of the New Jerusalem, | In the face of acute and growing opposition in New York, Smith announced that Kirtland was the "eastern boundary" of the New Jerusalem, | ||
Line 793: | Line 819: | ||
===== ===== | ===== ===== | ||
{{IndexClaimItemShort | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
− | |title= | + | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> |
|claim= | |claim= | ||
and that the Saints must gather there. | and that the Saints must gather there. | ||
Line 811: | Line 837: | ||
{{suggestions}} | {{suggestions}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | In 1816–17, the family moved to the western [[New York]] [[Palmyra (village), New York|village of Palmyra]] | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=30}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | and eventually took a mortgage on a 100 acre [[Smith Family Farm|farm]] in nearby [[Manchester (town), New York|Manchester town]]. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=32–33}}. From about 1818 until after the July 1820 purchase, the Smiths [[squatting|squatted]] in a [[log home]] adjacent to the property. ''Id.'' | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Smith family place of residence in 1820}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | During the [[Second Great Awakening]], the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Shipps|1985|p=7}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Religious revivals in 1820|First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't mention a revival}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Although the Smith family was caught up in this excitement, | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Brooke|1994|p=129}} ("Long before the 1820s, the Smiths were caught up in the dialectic of spiritual mystery and secular fraud framed in the hostile symbiosis of divining and counterfeiting and in the diffusion of Masonic culture in an era of sectarian fervor and profound millenarian expectation."). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCITE|editor=COgden|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith&diff=341396046&oldid=341391231}}The citation used to support this assertion doesn't support the claim that the Smith family was caught up in "this excitement" of "religious enthusiasm," instead implying that the Smith family was associated with "divining and counterfeiting." The citation is mismatched to the assertion in the main body text. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | they disagreed about religion. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Vogel|2004|p=xx}} (Smith family was "marked by religious conflict".); {{Harvtxt|Hill|1989|pp=10–11}} (noting "tension between [Smith's] mother and his father regarding religion"). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Joseph Smith may not have joined a church in his youth, | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #Smith said that he decided in 1820, based on his [[Joseph Smith's First Vision|First Vision]], not to join any churches {{Harv|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|p=4}}. However, {{Harv|Lapham|1870}} said that Smith's father told him his son had once become a [[Baptist]]). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *From Lapham's 1870 account (47 years after the events described) we seem some interesting oddities. Lapham is paraphrasing an interview with Joseph Smith, Sr. Note that this account is being given almost 30 years ''after'' Joseph Smith, Jr. published the story of the First Vision and visit by Moroni. | ||
+ | <blockquote> | ||
+ | After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone, telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden treasure. About this time he became concerned as to his future state of existence, and was baptized, becoming thus a member of the Baptist Church. Soon after joining the Church, he had a very singular dream; but he did not tell his father of his dream, until about a year afterwards. He then told his father that, in his dream, a very large and tall man appeared to him, dressed in an ancient suit of clothes, and the clothes were bloody. | ||
+ | </blockquote> | ||
+ | *See the primary source online here: [http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Historical_Magazine_(second_series)/Volume_7/May_1870/Interview_with_the_Father_of_Joseph_Smith&oldid=314358 "Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, Forty Years Ago. His Account of the Finding of the Sacred Plates", Historical Magazine [second series] 7 (May 1870): 305–09.] | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't forbid joining a church}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | but he participated in church classes | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #Smith is known to have attended Sunday school at the Western Presbyterian Church in Palmyra {{Harv|Matzko|2007}}. Smith also attended and spoke at a Methodist probationary class in the early 1820s, but never officially joined ({{Harvnb|Turner|1852|p=214}}; {{harvnb|Tucker|1876|p=18}}). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Joseph became "partial to the Methodist sect" in 1820}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | and read the Bible. With his family, he took part in [[folk religion|religious folk magic]], | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{harvtxt|Quinn|1998|p=30}}("Joseph Smith's family was typical of many early Americans who practiced various forms of Christian folk magic."); {{harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=51}} ("Magic and religion melded in the Smith family culture."); {{Harvtxt|Shipps|1985|pp=7–8}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|pp=16, 33}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | a common practice at the time. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{harvtxt|Quinn|1998|p=31}}; {{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|p=53}} ("Even the more vivid manifestations of religious experience, such as dreams, visions and revelations, were not uncommon in Joseph's day, neither were they generally viewed with scorn."). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *From the cited source, | ||
+ | <blockquote> | ||
+ | At this time the revivals of western New York's so-called "Burned-over District" were bringing thousands out of private folk religion and into organized churches, whose clergy opposed folk magic. | ||
+ | </blockquote> | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Like many people of that era, | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{harvtxt|Quinn|1988|pp=14–16, 137}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *Quinn quotes Bushman on page 137: | ||
+ | <blockquote> | ||
+ | Standing on the margins of instituted churches, they [the Smiths] were as susceptible to the neighbors' belief in magic as they were to the teachings of orthodox ministers. | ||
+ | </blockquote> | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | both his parents and his maternal grandfather had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=26, 36}}; {{Harvtxt|Brooke|p=1994|pp=150–51}}; {{Harv|Mack|1811|p=25}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|1853|pp=54–59, 70–74}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Plagiarism accusations/Joseph Smith, Sr.'s dream and Lehi's vision}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Smith later said that he had his own [[Joseph Smith's First Vision|first vision]] in 1820, in which God told him his sins were forgiven | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Smith|1832}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=39}} (When Smith first described the vision twelve years after the event, "[h]e explained the vision as he must have first understood it, as a personal conversion".) | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/1832/Motivation is different}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | and that all the current churches were false. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #No source provided | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/1832/Doesn't forbid joining a church}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/No reference to First Vision in 1830s publications|First Vision/No mention in non-LDS literature before 1843}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith's First Vision/Seldom mentioned in LDS publications before 1877}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | The Smith family supplemented its meager farm income by treasure-digging, | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|p=136}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *From the cited source, | ||
+ | <blockquote> | ||
+ | Some neighbors also said that in "1819 or '20, they [the Smith family] commenced digging for money for a subsistence." Other neighbors specified that during "the spring of 1820" Joseph Jr. was extremely active in the treasure-quest. | ||
+ | </blockquote> | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | likewise relatively common in contemporary [[New England]] | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Newell|Avery|1994|pp=16}}("Money digging, or treasure hunting, was widespread among the rural areas of New York and New England as well as the area of Pennsylvania near the Hales'.") | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | though the practice was frequently condemned by clergymen and rationalists and was often illegal. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=25–26, 30}}. "Despite the fact that folk magic had widespread manifestations in early America, the biases of the Protestant Reformation and Age of Reason dominated the society's responses to folk magic. The most obvious effect was that every American colony (and later U.S. state) had laws against various forms of divination." (30) | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Joseph claimed an ability to use [[Seer stones (Latter Day Saints)|seer stones]] for locating lost items and buried treasure. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1987|p=173}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=49–51}}; {{Harvtxt|Persuitte|2000|pp=33–53}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Seer stones}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | To do so, Smith would put a stone in a white [[stovepipe hat]] and would then see the required information in reflections given off by the stone. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Brooke|1994|pp=152–53}}; {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=43–44}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=45–52}}. ''See also'' the following primary sources: {{Harvtxt|Harris|1833|pp=253–54}}; {{Harvtxt|Hale|1834|p=265}}; {{Harvtxt|Clark|1842|p=225}}; {{Harvtxt|Turner|1851|p=216}}; {{Harvtxt|Harris|1859|p=164}}; {{Harvtxt|Tucker|1867|pp=20–21}}; {{Harvtxt|Lapham|1870|p=305}}; {{Harvtxt|Lewis|Lewis|1879|p=1}}; {{Harvtxt|Mather|1880|p=199}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Seer stones}} | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | In 1823, while praying for forgiveness from his "gratification of many appetites," | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|p=5}} (writing that he "displayed the weakness of youth and the <del>corruption</del> <ins>foibles</ins> of human nature, which I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations <del>to the gratification of many appetites</del> offensive in the sight of God," deletions and interlineations in original); {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=136–38}} (arguing that Smith was praying for forgiveness for a sexual sin to maintain his power as a seer); {{Harvtxt|Smith|1994|pp=17–18}} (arguing that his prayer related to a sexual sin). ''But see'' {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=43}} (noting that Smith did not specify which "appetites" he had gratified, and suggesting that one of them was that he "drank too much"). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *Note that D. Michael Quinn postulates that Joseph "once made an extraordinarily candid reference to his sexual struggle from 1820 to 1823" based upon the "gratification of many appetites" quote in Joseph's 1838 account, but the account itself says nothing about a "sexual struggle." | ||
+ | *{{SeeCriticalWork|author=D. Michael Quinn|work=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Smith said he was visited at night by an angel named [[Angel Moroni|Moroni]], who revealed the location of a buried book of [[golden plates]] as well as other artifacts, including a [[breastplate]] and a set of [[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|silver spectacles]] with lenses composed of [[seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stones]], which had been hidden in a hill near his home. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|p=4}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *It should be noted that the hill near Joseph Smith's home was not named "Cumorah" at this point in time. The name was only applied later after the publication of the Book of Mormon. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #Mormon historian Richard Bushman argues that "the visit of the angel and the discovery of the gold plates would have confirmed the belief in supernatural powers. For people in a magical frame of mind, Moroni sounded like one of the spirits who stood guard over treasure in the tales of treasure-seeking." {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=50}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | During the next four years, Smith made annual visits to the hill, only to return without the plates because he claimed that he had not brought with him the right person required by the angel. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=163–64}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=54}} (noting accounts stating that the "right person" was originally Smith's brother Alvin, then when he died, someone else, and finally his wife Emma). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *From the cited source Bushman: | ||
+ | <blockquote> | ||
+ | Stories circulated of a requirement to bring Alvin to the hill to get the plates; and when he died, someone else. Emma, it was said, was designated as a key. The stories have a magical flavor, but other stories have the angel warning Joseph about greed and the evildoings of the money-diggers, as if the messenger was moving him away from his treasure-hunting ways. | ||
+ | </blockquote> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Meanwhile, Smith continued traveling western New York and Pennsylvania as a treasure seeker and also as a farmhand. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=47–53}}; {{Harvtxt|Newell|Avery|1994|pp=17}}; {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=54–57}} | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Early Smith family history/Early work as a farmhand}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | In 1826, he was tried in [[Chenango County, New York|Chenango County]], New York, for "glass-looking," the crime of pretending to find lost treasure. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|pp=1–2}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=51–52}}; {{Citation|title=Revised Statutes of the State of New York|volume=1|year=1829|publication-place=Albany, NY|publisher=Packard and Van Benthuysen|page=638: part I, title 5, § 1|url=http://books.google.com/?id=RX84AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA638|author1=(state), New York|author2=Butler, Benjamin Franklin|author3=Spencer, John Canfield}} ("[A]ll persons pretending to tell fortunes, or where lost or stolen goods may be found,...shall be deemed [[vagrancy (people)|disorderly persons]].") | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCITE}}Joseph never claimed to have ''found'' lost treasure. He was tried for ''attempting'' to find lost treasure using a stone. | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Legal trials/1826 glasslooking trial}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | While boarding at the Hale house in Harmony, he met [[Emma Hale Smith|Emma Hale]] and, on January 18, 1827, eloped with her because her parents disapproved of his treasure hunting. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=53}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *Joseph and Emma eloped because her father would not allow them to be married due to his disapproval of Joseph's treasure seeking activities. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Claiming his stone told him that Emma was the key to obtaining the plates, | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=163–64}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=54}} (noting accounts stating that Emma was the key). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCITE}}Joseph never claimed that his stone "told" him anything. He used to stone to obtain information. | ||
+ | *Bushman, p. 54: | ||
+ | <blockquote> | ||
+ | Emma, it was said, was designated as a key. | ||
+ | </blockquote> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Smith went with her to the hill on September 22, 1827. This time, he said, he retrieved the plates and placed them in a locked chest. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=60}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | He said the angel commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else but to publish their translation, reputed to be the religious record of [[indigenous Americans]]. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Smith|Mulholland|Thompson|Phelps|Richards|1839–1843|pp=5–6}} | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Relationship to Amerindians}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Joseph later promised Emma's parents that his treasure-seeking days were behind him. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=54}} | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | Although Smith had left his treasure hunting company, his former associates believed he had double-crossed them by taking for himself what they considered joint property. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Harris|1859|p=167}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=61}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | They ransacked places where a competing treasure-seer said the plates were hidden, | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=54}} (treasure seer Sally Chase attempted to find the plates using her seer stone). | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{WikipediaCorrect}} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Money digging}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== ===== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaimItemShort | ||
+ | |title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref> | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | and Smith soon realized that he could not accomplish the translation in Palmyra. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | #{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=60–61}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|p=55}}. | ||
+ | |authorsources=<br> | ||
+ | # | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Translation}} |
Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph, a merchant and farmer.Author's sources:
After a crippling bone infection at age eight, the younger Smith hobbled on crutches as a child.Author's sources:
Early years | A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: "Joseph Smith" A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)
|
1831 to 1838 |
The name Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. Wikipedia content is copied and made available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
Every witness to Joseph Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon said that he looked at a stone in his hat. Arguing that Smith never said how he translated is arguing from silence. There is no evidence for anything else but the hat and just Mormon embarrassment at how silly this method must seem to most prospective converts today.....The burden of proof is on you. There are no accounts of Smith translating that indicate he used any other method but the hat. You can't argue from silence. Where are the references to any other method? Even the father of lies himself didn't spell one out.....Baloney. No other eyewitness said there was any other method. No scholarship argues for any other method. You're just pushing this POV because there's no reason to preserve golden plates for generations if Smith made no use of them. But according to all eyewitnesses that's exactly what happened. Embarrassing, isn't it?
—Editor "John Foxe," posting using his banned sockpuppet "Hi540," insisting that the stone-in-hat was the only Book of Mormon translation method ever documented, 23 October 2009 off-site
In October 1827, Smith and his pregnantAuthor's sources:
}}
wife moved from Palmyra to Harmony (now Oakland), Pennsylvania,Author's sources:
}}
aided by money from a comparatively prosperous neighbor Martin Harris.Author's sources:
Because of mounting pressure in Manchester to see and examine the plates, Joseph realized he could never translate them in peace and safety if he stayed in town. He would have to leave Palmyra to do it; but that created a problem. He was debt-ridden, and any sudden departure would bring his creditors chasing after him with subpoenas for his arrest. Fortunately the angel had revealed to Joseph that Martin Harris, a prosperous farmer, had been chosen to help in the translation of the plates.
}}
Living near his disapproving in-laws,Author's sources:
}}
Smith transcribed some of the characters (what he called "reformed Egyptian") engraved on the plates and then dictated a translation to his wife.Author's sources:
}}
For at least some of the earliest translation, Smith said he used "Urim and Thummim",Author's sources:
Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes than he would take a sentance and it would apper in Brite Roman Letters. (MANUSCRIPT OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH, 22 Sept. 1827)
For two months, form about April 12 to June 14, 1828, Joseph and Harris were hard at work. Joseph translated using the interpreters (also called the Urim and Thummim, crystals mounted on a breast plate), and Harris wrote down the text as it was dictated. A curtain divided the men to prevent Harris from seeing the plates.
}}
a pair of seer stones he said were buried with the golden plates.Author's sources:
}}
Later, however, he used the single chocolate-colored stone he had found in 1822 and used for treasure hunting.Author's sources:
"To help him with the translation, Joseph found with the gold plates “a curious instrument which the ancients called Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones set in a rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.” Joseph also used an egg-shaped, brown rock for translating called a seer stone."
—“A Peaceful Heart,” Friend, Sep 1974, 7 off-site (emphasis added)
}}
As when divining the location of treasure,Author's sources:
}}
Smith said he saw the words of the translation while he gazed at the stone or stones in the bottom of his hat, excluding all light.Author's sources:
[A]s work on the Book of Mormon proceeded, a seerstone took the place of the Urim and Thummim as an aid in the work, blending magic with inspired translation." (Bushman, p. 131) "There is evidence that the translation stone was given him after he lost the Urim and Thummim when the 116 pages disappeared. (Bushman, p. 590, note 24 citing Van Wagoner and Walker, "'The Gift of Seeing,'" 54)
}}
The plates themselves were not directly consulted.Author's sources:
}}
Smith did this in full view of witnesses, but sometimes concealed the process by raising a curtain or dictating from another room.Author's sources:
[Martin Harris] says he wrote a considerable part of the book, as Smith dictated, and at one time the presence of the Lord was so great, that a screen was hung up between him and the Prophet; at other times the Prophet would sit in a different room, or up stairs, while the Lord was communicating to him the contents of the plates.
}}
Smith may have considered giving up the translation because of opposition from his in-laws,Author's sources:
From my standing in the Methodist Episcopal Church, I suppose he was careful how he conducted or expressed himself before me. At one time, however, he came to my house, and asked my advice, whether he should proceed to translate the Book of Plates (referred to by Mr. Hale) or not. He said that God had commanded him to translate it, but he was afraid of the people: he remarked, that he was to exhibit the plates to the world, at a certain time, which was then about eighteen months distant. I told him I was not qualified to give advice in such cases. Smith frequently said to me that I should see the plates at the time appointed.
}}
but in February 1828, Martin Harris arrived to spur him onAuthor's sources:
Joseph Smith, Jun., Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris, may be considered as the principals in this work; and let Martin Harris tell the story, and he is the most conspicuous of the four.—He informed me, that he went to the place where Joseph resided, and Joseph had given it up, on account of the opposition of his wife and others: but he told Joseph. "I have not come down here for nothing, and we will go on with it." Martin Harris is what may be called a great talker, and an extravagant boaster; so much so, that he renders himself disagreeable to many of his own society.
}}
by taking the characters and their translations to a few prominent scholars.Author's sources:
}}
Harris claimed that one of the scholars he visited, Charles Anthon, initially authenticated the characters and their translation, then recanted upon hearing that Smith had received the plates from an angel.Author's sources:
}}
Anthon denied this claimAuthor's sources:
In the first letter Anthon said he refused to give Harris a written opinion; according to the second, the opinion was written "without any hesitation," in an attempt to expose the fraud.
}}
and Harris returned to Harmony in April 1828 motivated to act as Smith's scribe.Author's sources:
}}
Translation continued until mid-June 1828, until Harris began having doubts about the existence of the golden plates.Author's sources:
}}
Harris importuned Smith to let him take the existing 116 pages of manuscript to Palmyra to show a few family members.Author's sources:
}}
Harris then lost the manuscript—of which there was no copy—at about the same time as Smith's wife Emma gave birth to a stillborn son.Author's sources:
}}
Smith said the angel had taken away the plates and he had lost his ability to translateAuthor's sources:
}}
until September 22, 1828, when they were restored.Author's sources:
}}
Smith did not earnestly resume the translation again until April 1829, when he met Oliver Cowdery, a teacher and dowser,Author's sources:
...remember this is thy gift now this is not all for thou hast another gift which is the gift of working with the sprout Behold it hath told you things Behold there is no other power save God that can cause this thing of Nature to work in your hands. (Revelation, April 1829–B [D&C 8], in Robin Scott Jensen, Robert J. Woodford, and Stephen C. Harper, eds., Manuscript Revelation Books, vol. 1 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2009), 17. )
}}
who now became Smith's scribe.Author's sources:
}}
They worked full time on the translation between April and early June 1829,Author's sources:
}}
and then moved to Fayette, New York where they continued to work at the home of Cowdery's friend Peter Whitmer. When the translation spoke of an institutional church and a requirement for baptism, Smith and Cowdery baptized each other,Author's sources:
}}
with written documents five years later stating that John the Baptist had appeared and ordained them to a priesthood.Author's sources:
}}
Translation was completed around July 1, 1829.Author's sources:
}}
Knowing that potential converts to the planned church might find Smith's story of the plates incredible,Author's sources:
}}
Smith asked a group of eleven witnesses, including Martin Harris and male members of the Whitmer and Smith families, to sign a statement testifying that they had seen the golden plates, and in the case of the latter eight witnesses, had actually hefted the plates.Author's sources:
}}
According to Smith, the angel Moroni took back the plates after Smith was finished using them.Author's sources:
}}
The translation, known as the Book of Mormon, was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, by printer E. B. Grandin.Author's sources:
}}
Martin Harris financed the publication by mortgaging his farm.Author's sources:
}}
Soon thereafter on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the Church of Christ,Author's sources:
"The manuscript may have the effect, [Steven C. Harper] said, of resolving a controversy that has arisen over whether the Church was organized at Fayette, N.Y., as has traditionally been understood, or at Manchester, N.Y. It does so by affirming that a revelation given on April 6, 1830, was given at Fayette, not at Manchester. 'The 1833 Book of Commandments, heretofore the earliest source available, located this revelation in Manchester,' he explained. Some authors thus argued that the traditional story of the Church's founding in Fayette lacked foundation in the historical record, 'but we can now see that in this case, tradition and the historical record match up,' he said."
(R. Scott Lloyd, "'Major Discovery' Discussed at Mormon History Association Conference," Church News, 22 May 2009.)
}}
and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, New York.Author's sources:
}}
The Book of Mormon brought Smith regional notoriety,Author's sources:
}}
but also strong opposition by those who remembered Smith's money-digging and his 1826 trial near Colesville.Author's sources:
}}
Soon after Smith reportedly performed an exorcism in Colesville,Author's sources:
"Almost immediately [Newel Knight] spoke to me," Joseph wrote in his autobiography, "and with great earnestness requested me to cast the devil out of him, saying the he knew he was in him, and that he also knew that I could cast him out." "If you know that I can, it shall be done," Joseph replied, and in the conventional exorcist's fashion commanded the devil in the name of Christ to release the man's soul. Immediately Knight cried out that he saw the devil leave him and vanish from sight. His convulsions ceased and he fell upon the bed unconscious, awakening later to testify that he had glimpsed eternity.
}}
he was again tried as a disorderly person but was acquitted.Author's sources:
When village toughs failed to stop the baptisms, the law stepped in. Before the newly baptized members could be confirmed, a constable from South Bainbridge delivered a warrant for Joseph's arrest. Doctor A. W. Benton of Chenago County, whom Joseph Knight called a "catspaw" of a group of vagabonds, brought charges against Joseph as a disorderly person. (Bushman, p. 116).
}}
Even so, Smith and Cowdery had to flee Colesville to escape a gathering mob. Probably referring to this period of flight, Smith told years later of hearing the voices of Peter, James, and John who he said gave Smith and Cowdery an apostolic authority.Author's sources:
}}
When Oliver Cowdery and other church members attempted to exercise independent authorityAuthor's sources:
}}
—as when Book of Mormon witness Hiram Page used his seer stone to locate the American New Jerusalem prophesied by the Book of MormonAuthor's sources:
}}
This event is discussed in the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Seminary Teacher Manual (2013):
In 1830, the Prophet Joseph Smith encountered a challenge because Church members did not understand the order of revelation in the Church. Hiram Page claimed to receive revelations for the Church through the medium of a special stone, and some Church members, including Oliver Cowdery, believed him. Shortly before a Church conference that was held on September 26, 1830, the Lord revealed truths that helped Oliver Cowdery and others understand the order of revelation in the Church.[2]
Oliver was actually directed by the Lord to correct Hiram Page in this matter. It was a "teaching moment" for Oliver:
11 And again, thou shalt take thy brother, Hiram Page, between him and thee alone, and tell him that those things which he hath written from that stone are not of me and that Satan deceiveth him;
12 For, behold, these things have not been appointed unto him, neither shall anything be appointed unto any of this church contrary to the church covenants.
13 For all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith.
14 And thou shalt assist to settle all these things, according to the covenants of the church, before thou shalt take thy journey among the Lamanites. (D&C 28꞉11-14).
—Smith responded by establishing himself as the sole prophet.Author's sources:
}}
Smith disputed Page's location for the New Jerusalem,Author's sources:
}}
but dispatched Cowdery to lead a mission to Missouri to find its true locationAuthor's sources:
}}
and to proselytize the Native Americans.Author's sources:
- Phelps (1833) , pp. 67–68 (Cowdery "shall go unto the Lamanites and preach my gospel unto them".).
Smith also dictated a lost "Book of Enoch," telling how the biblical Enoch had established a city of Zion of such civic goodness that God had taken it to heaven.Author's sources:
}}
On their way to Missouri, Cowdery's party passed through the Kirtland, Ohio area and converted Sidney Rigdon and over a hundred members of his Disciples of Christ congregation,Author's sources:
}}
more than doubling the size of the church.Author's sources:
}}
Rigdon visited New York and quickly became second in command of the church,Author's sources:
}}
to the discomfort of Smith's earlier followers.Author's sources:
}}
In the face of acute and growing opposition in New York, Smith announced that Kirtland was the "eastern boundary" of the New Jerusalem,Author's sources:
}}
and that the Saints must gather there.Author's sources:
}}
Wikipedia references for "Joseph Smith, Jr." |
FairMormon regularly receives queries about specific LDS-themed Wikipedia articles with requests that we somehow "fix" them. Although some individual members of FAIR may choose to edit Wikipedia articles, FairMormon as an organization does not. Controversial Wikipedia articles require constant maintenance and a significant amount of time. We prefer instead to respond to claims in the FAIR Wiki rather than fight the ongoing battle that LDS Wikipedia articles sometimes invite. From FAIR’s perspective, assertions made in LDS-themed Wikipedia articles are therefore treated just like any other critical (or, if one prefers, "anti-Mormon") work. As those articles are revised and updated, we will periodically update our reviews to match.
Editors who wish to participate in editing LDS-themed Wikipedia articles can access the project page here: Wikipedia:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement. You are not required to be LDS in order to participate—there are a number of good non-LDS editors who have made valuable contributions to these articles.
FAIR does not advocate removing any references from Wikipedia articles. The best approach to editing Wikipedia is to locate solid references to back up your position and add them rather than attempting to remove information. Individuals who intend to edit should be aware that posting information related to the real-world identities of Wikipedia editors will result in their being banned from editing Wikipedia. Attacking editors and attempting to "out" them on Wikipedia is considered very bad form. The best approach is to treat all Wikipedia editors, whether or not you agree or disagree with their approach, with respect and civility. An argumentative approach is not constructive to achieving a positive result, and will simply result in what is called an "edit war." Unfortunately, not all Wikipedia editors exhibit good faith toward other editors (see, for example, the comment above from "Duke53" or comments within these reviews made by John Foxe's sockpuppet "Hi540," both of whom repeatedly mocked LDS beliefs and LDS editors prior to their being banned.)
Although there exist editors on Wikipedia who openly declare their affiliation with the Church, they do not control Wikipedia. Ironically, some critics of the Church periodically falsely accuse Wikipedia editors of being LDS simply because they do not accept the critics' desired spin on a particular article.
Again, the answer is no. The truth is that Wikipedia is generally self-policing. Highly contentious articles do tend to draw the most passionate supporters and critics.
Although some LDS-related Wikipedia articles may appear to have a negative tone, they are in reality quite a bit more balanced than certain critical works such as One Nation Under Gods. Although many critical editors often accuse LDS-related Wikipedia articles of being "faith promoting" or claim that they are just an extension of the Sunday School manual, this is rarely the case. Few, if any, Latter-day Saints would find Wikipedia articles to be "faith promoting." Generally, the believers think that the articles are too negative and the critics believe that the articles are too positive. LDS Wikipedia articles should be informative without being overtly faith promoting. However, most of the primary sources, including the words of Joseph Smith himself, are "faith promoting." This presents a dilemma for Wikipedia editors who want to remain neutral. The unfortunate consequence is that Joseph's words are rewritten and intermixed with contradictory sources, resulting in boring and confusing prose.
We examine selected Wikipedia articles and examine them on a "claim-by-claim" basis, with links to responses in the FairMormon Answers Wiki. Wikipedia articles are constantly evolving. As a result, the analysis of each article will be updated periodically in order to bring it more into line with the current version of the article. The latest revision date may be viewed at the top of each individual section. The process by which Wikipedia articles are reviewed is the following:
The ability to quickly and easily access literature critical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been made significantly easier through the advent of the Internet. One of the primary sites that dominates search engine results is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that “anyone can edit.” Wikipedia contains a large number of articles related to Mormonism that are edited by believers, critics, and neutral parties. The reliability of information regarding the Church and its history is subject to the biases of the editors who choose to modify those articles. Even if a wiki article is thoroughly sourced, editors sometimes employ source material in a manner that supports their bias. This essay explores the dynamics behind the creation of Wikipedia articles about the Church, the role that believers and critics play in that process, and the reliability of the information produced in the resulting wiki articles.
</noinclude>
We welcome your suggestions for improving the content of this FAIR Wiki article. |
Sites we recommend: |
In 1816–17, the family moved to the western New York village of PalmyraAuthor's sources:
and eventually took a mortgage on a 100 acre farm in nearby Manchester town.Author's sources:
During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm.Author's sources:
Although the Smith family was caught up in this excitement,Author's sources:
they disagreed about religion.Author's sources:
Joseph Smith may not have joined a church in his youth,Author's sources:
After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone, telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden treasure. About this time he became concerned as to his future state of existence, and was baptized, becoming thus a member of the Baptist Church. Soon after joining the Church, he had a very singular dream; but he did not tell his father of his dream, until about a year afterwards. He then told his father that, in his dream, a very large and tall man appeared to him, dressed in an ancient suit of clothes, and the clothes were bloody.
but he participated in church classesAuthor's sources:
and read the Bible. With his family, he took part in religious folk magic,Author's sources:
a common practice at the time.Author's sources:
At this time the revivals of western New York's so-called "Burned-over District" were bringing thousands out of private folk religion and into organized churches, whose clergy opposed folk magic.
Like many people of that era,Author's sources:
Standing on the margins of instituted churches, they [the Smiths] were as susceptible to the neighbors' belief in magic as they were to the teachings of orthodox ministers.
both his parents and his maternal grandfather had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God.Author's sources:
Smith later said that he had his own first vision in 1820, in which God told him his sins were forgivenAuthor's sources:
and that all the current churches were false.Author's sources:
The Smith family supplemented its meager farm income by treasure-digging,Author's sources:
Some neighbors also said that in "1819 or '20, they [the Smith family] commenced digging for money for a subsistence." Other neighbors specified that during "the spring of 1820" Joseph Jr. was extremely active in the treasure-quest.
likewise relatively common in contemporary New EnglandAuthor's sources:
though the practice was frequently condemned by clergymen and rationalists and was often illegal.Author's sources:
Joseph claimed an ability to use seer stones for locating lost items and buried treasure.Author's sources:
To do so, Smith would put a stone in a white stovepipe hat and would then see the required information in reflections given off by the stone.Author's sources:
In 1823, while praying for forgiveness from his "gratification of many appetites,"Author's sources:
Smith said he was visited at night by an angel named Moroni, who revealed the location of a buried book of golden plates as well as other artifacts, including a breastplate and a set of silver spectacles with lenses composed of seer stones, which had been hidden in a hill near his home.Author's sources:
Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him.Author's sources:
During the next four years, Smith made annual visits to the hill, only to return without the plates because he claimed that he had not brought with him the right person required by the angel.Author's sources:
Stories circulated of a requirement to bring Alvin to the hill to get the plates; and when he died, someone else. Emma, it was said, was designated as a key. The stories have a magical flavor, but other stories have the angel warning Joseph about greed and the evildoings of the money-diggers, as if the messenger was moving him away from his treasure-hunting ways.
Meanwhile, Smith continued traveling western New York and Pennsylvania as a treasure seeker and also as a farmhand.Author's sources:
In 1826, he was tried in Chenango County, New York, for "glass-looking," the crime of pretending to find lost treasure.Author's sources:
While boarding at the Hale house in Harmony, he met Emma Hale and, on January 18, 1827, eloped with her because her parents disapproved of his treasure hunting.Author's sources:
Claiming his stone told him that Emma was the key to obtaining the plates,Author's sources:
Emma, it was said, was designated as a key.
Smith went with her to the hill on September 22, 1827. This time, he said, he retrieved the plates and placed them in a locked chest.Author's sources:
He said the angel commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else but to publish their translation, reputed to be the religious record of indigenous Americans.Author's sources:
Joseph later promised Emma's parents that his treasure-seeking days were behind him.Author's sources:
Although Smith had left his treasure hunting company, his former associates believed he had double-crossed them by taking for himself what they considered joint property.Author's sources:
They ransacked places where a competing treasure-seer said the plates were hidden,Author's sources:
and Smith soon realized that he could not accomplish the translation in Palmyra.Author's sources:
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.
Donate Now