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Difference between revisions of "Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 4"
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− | ||"In a theological explication, perhaps partly inspired by convenience, Smith saw the church hierarchy as an extended family that would continue to live together in an afterlife community." | + | || |
+ | *The author speculates: "In a theological explication, perhaps partly inspired by convenience, Smith saw the church hierarchy as an extended family that would continue to live together in an afterlife community." | ||
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*The author here suggests that Joseph's motivations were mercenary and pragmatic, rather than of sincere conviction. Smith ignores the literature on Joseph's deep-felt need and commitment to binding friendship in his personal life and theology.{{ref|friendship1}} Such a pervasive theme in his personal and scriptural writing argues against "convenience" as his motivation. | *The author here suggests that Joseph's motivations were mercenary and pragmatic, rather than of sincere conviction. Smith ignores the literature on Joseph's deep-felt need and commitment to binding friendship in his personal life and theology.{{ref|friendship1}} Such a pervasive theme in his personal and scriptural writing argues against "convenience" as his motivation. | ||
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+ | *Benjamin F. Johnson is claimed to be "representative of the mainstream in LDS practice" because he married seven wives… | ||
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*In fact, Johnson had more wives than even the average Nauvoo-era polygamist, and these were a small, highly selected group compared to polygamists in Utah. | *In fact, Johnson had more wives than even the average Nauvoo-era polygamist, and these were a small, highly selected group compared to polygamists in Utah. | ||
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====259-260==== | ====259-260==== | ||
− | ||"We do not know how long Joseph Smith had been contemplating polygamy, but the earliest conversations in which he explicitly addressed the topic were in late 1840 and early 1841." | + | || |
+ | *{{AuthorQuote|"We do not know how long Joseph Smith had been contemplating polygamy, but the earliest conversations in which he explicitly addressed the topic were in late 1840 and early 1841."}} | ||
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*Joseph reportedly specifically addressed the matter in the first half of the 1830s. | *Joseph reportedly specifically addressed the matter in the first half of the 1830s. | ||
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====263 n. 54==== | ====263 n. 54==== | ||
− | ||The author quotes Ann Eliza Young regarding events that happened in 1842: "She wrote that some of the events she related depended upon the 'experience of those so closely connected with me that they have fallen directly under my observation.'" | + | || |
+ | *The author quotes Ann Eliza Young regarding events that happened in 1842: "She wrote that some of the events she related depended upon the 'experience of those so closely connected with me that they have fallen directly under my observation.'" | ||
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*Ann Eliza Young was born in 1844 in Nauvoo. It is thus impossible for her to have been a witness of events in 1842. | *Ann Eliza Young was born in 1844 in Nauvoo. It is thus impossible for her to have been a witness of events in 1842. | ||
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− | ||John C. Bennett "publicized Young's clumsy attempt to entice [Martha] Brotherton" into plural marriage. | + | || |
+ | *John C. Bennett is claimed to have "publicized Young's clumsy attempt to entice [Martha] Brotherton" into plural marriage. | ||
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*The author again tacitly assumes that Bennett's account is reliable and truthful. | *The author again tacitly assumes that Bennett's account is reliable and truthful. | ||
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− | ||Brigham Young had an "overall materialistic theology." | + | || |
+ | *Brigham Young is claimed to have had an "overall materialistic theology." | ||
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*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]] | *[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]] | ||
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− | ||Brigham Young ridiculed geologists who "tell us that this earth has been in existence for thousands and millions of years." | + | || |
+ | *Brigham Young is claimed to have ridiculed geologists who "tell us that this earth has been in existence for thousands and millions of years." | ||
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*This is a major distortion of the text. It completely inverts Brigham's meaning. Brigham endorses the idea of an old earth, and criticizes Christian teachers who insist on a young earth. | *This is a major distortion of the text. It completely inverts Brigham's meaning. Brigham endorses the idea of an old earth, and criticizes Christian teachers who insist on a young earth. | ||
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− | ||"In part, Smith's organizational labyrinth helped keep the church together…." | + | || |
+ | *{{AuthorQuote|"In part, Smith's organizational labyrinth helped keep the church together…."}} | ||
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*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]] | *[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]] | ||
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====281 and 281 n. 86==== | ====281 and 281 n. 86==== | ||
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+ | *Brigham Young is claimed to have "worked out a scheme" in which church members were organized into companies of 'tens' and 'fifties'….[footnote] The author then notes that "[t]he first LDS divisions of this kind were in Missouri, where Samson Avard….told men it would soon be their privilege to "….take to yourselves spoils of the goods of the ungodly gentiles." | ||
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*The author seems unwilling to let any anti-Mormon trope go unmentioned—we have to have the [[Danites]]! | *The author seems unwilling to let any anti-Mormon trope go unmentioned—we have to have the [[Danites]]! | ||
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− | ||"a history of the Mormons in the West would be … a history of a mad prophet's visions turned by an American genius into the seed of life." | + | || |
+ | *{{AuthorQuote|"a history of the Mormons in the West would be … a history of a mad prophet's visions turned by an American genius into the seed of life."}} | ||
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*[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]] | *[[../../Loaded and prejudicial language|Loaded and prejudicial language]] | ||
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− | *The author gives the false impression that this destruction was the act of the Church—it was not; it was done by the civil government, including non-Mormons. | + | *{{AuthorQuote|"When the opposition newspaper appeared and devoted space to polygamy, Smith and the ruling councils had it destroyed."}} |
+ | || | ||
+ | *The author gives the false impression that this destruction was the act of the Church—it was not; it was done by the civil government, including non-Mormons. The "council" was the Nauvoo City council. | ||
*Smith also presumes that the concern was only about polygamy. He fails to inform the reader about concerns regarding its libelous nature and consequent risk of mob violence. | *Smith also presumes that the concern was only about polygamy. He fails to inform the reader about concerns regarding its libelous nature and consequent risk of mob violence. | ||
*For example, Joseph was said to be a “blood thirsty and murderous…demon…in human shape” and “a syncophant{{cs}}, whose attempt for power find no parallel in history… one of the blackest and basest scoundrels that has appeared upon the stage of human existence since the days of Nero, and Caligula.” He was also accused of causing the death of young women. The author acts instead as if the paper spoke only of polygamy. | *For example, Joseph was said to be a “blood thirsty and murderous…demon…in human shape” and “a syncophant{{cs}}, whose attempt for power find no parallel in history… one of the blackest and basest scoundrels that has appeared upon the stage of human existence since the days of Nero, and Caligula.” He was also accused of causing the death of young women. The author acts instead as if the paper spoke only of polygamy. | ||
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− | ||"…since institutional histories have minimized the incidence and profile of polygamy (see chapter 1), it is easy to imagine that most men who entered polygamy did so in a cursory way." "In reality, the typical Utah polygamist whose roots in the principle extended back to Nauvoo had between three and four wives, with a higher incidence of large families." | + | || |
+ | *{{AuthorQuote|"…since institutional histories have minimized the incidence and profile of polygamy (see chapter 1), it is easy to imagine that most men who entered polygamy did so in a cursory way." "In reality, the typical Utah polygamist whose roots in the principle extended back to Nauvoo had between three and four wives, with a higher incidence of large families."}} | ||
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*{{InternalContradiction|vi: "...these same polygamists continued marrying to the point that they had acquired an average of nearly six wives per family. This model became the blueprint for forty years of Utah polygamy."}} | *{{InternalContradiction|vi: "...these same polygamists continued marrying to the point that they had acquired an average of nearly six wives per family. This model became the blueprint for forty years of Utah polygamy."}} | ||
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+ | *The author states that as Nauvoo was gradually depopulated, it became increasingly lawless. | ||
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*The lawlessness of Nauvoo was in part due to the collapse of any police force when the Illinois legislature rescinded the Nauvoo charter. | *The lawlessness of Nauvoo was in part due to the collapse of any police force when the Illinois legislature rescinded the Nauvoo charter. | ||
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− | ||Mormons brought about 100 black slaves with them to Deseret, representing two percent of the total population, from 1847 to | + | || |
+ | *It is noted that "Mormons brought about 100 black slaves with them to Deseret, representing two percent of the total population, from 1847 to 1850" and that "[s]lavery and polygamy formed a witch's brew that isolated Deseret from the rest of the U.S. through its territorial period to he 1890s." | ||
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*[[../../Political history claims#Utah slavery alienated the nation]] | *[[../../Political history claims#Utah slavery alienated the nation]] | ||
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+ | *The author claims that the United States government "expressed its opinion of this secessionist enclave in the west" by sending troops in 1857" | ||
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*[[../../Political_history_claims#Utah_a_seccessionist_enclave]] | *[[../../Political_history_claims#Utah_a_seccessionist_enclave]] | ||
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− | ||"No doubt, [Heber C. Kimball's] hesitation [in further plural marriages] had been similar to Young's, due to the weight of responsibilities involved in running church operations and because of the adverse publicity from Bennett's disclosures." | + | || |
+ | *{{AuthorQuote|"No doubt, [Heber C. Kimball's] hesitation [in further plural marriages] had been similar to Young's, due to the weight of responsibilities involved in running church operations and because of the adverse publicity from Bennett's disclosures."}} | ||
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*When the relevant documents are examined, it becomes apparent that Kimball was reluctant to practice plural marriage partly because he knew this was difficult for his first wife, Vilate.{{ref|kimball1}} | *When the relevant documents are examined, it becomes apparent that Kimball was reluctant to practice plural marriage partly because he knew this was difficult for his first wife, Vilate.{{ref|kimball1}} | ||
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+ | *The author speculates that there would have been six plural husbands in Nauvoo by 1842 if John Bennett "had not been expelled…." | ||
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Revision as of 21:35, 18 March 2009
Chapter 3 | A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: George D. Smith
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Chapter 5 |
Page | Claim | Response | Author's sources |
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241-248 |
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William Clayton (edit) |
243 |
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John C. Bennett (edit) |
244 |
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William Clayton (edit) |
245 |
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William Clayton (edit) |
245 |
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William Clayton (edit) |
247 |
The author states:
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William Clayton (edit) |
247 |
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William Clayton (edit) |
247 |
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William Clayton (edit) |
249 |
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250 |
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252 |
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252 |
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Joseph Smith: cynical motivations (edit) |
253 |
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Statistical problems (edit) |
259-260 |
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263 n. 54 |
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274 |
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John C. Bennett (edit) |
276 |
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277 |
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281 |
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281 and 281 n. 86 |
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282 |
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285 |
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Nauvoo Expositor (edit) |
289 |
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Statistical problems (edit) |
295 |
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297 |
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297 |
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303 |
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309 |
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John C. Bennett (edit) |
Endnotes
- [note] Smith, Intimate Chronicle, xlix, 488–489, 490 n. 444.
- [note] Steven Epperson, ""The Grand, Fundamental Principle": Joseph Smith and the Virtue of Friendship," Journal of Mormon History 23/2 (Fall 1997): 81-101. See also DC 84꞉63,77-78, DC 88꞉3-4,62,113,117, DC 93꞉51, DC 94꞉1, DC 97꞉1, DC 100꞉1, DC 103꞉1, DC 104꞉1, DC 105꞉26, DC 109꞉6, DC 121꞉9-10, DC 125꞉25, JS-H 1꞉28.
- [note] See, for example, Augusta Joyce Crocheron (author and complier), Representative Women of Deseret, a book of biographical sketches to accompany the picture bearing the same title (Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham & Co., 1884). See also Stanley B. Kimball, "Heber C. Kimball and Family, the Nauvoo Years," Brigham Young University Studies 15/4 (Summer 1975): 466; citing Heber C. Kimball to Vilate Kimball, 12 February 1849. Original letter formerly in the possession of President Spencer W. Kimball, and now in the Church Historical Department; and Vilate Kimball to Heber C. Kimball, 16 October 1842 as quoted in Helen Mar Whitney, "Scenes and Incidents," 11 (1 June 1882):1-2.
Further reading
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{{To learn more box:responses to: 8: The Mormon Proposition}} | To learn more box:responses to: 8: The Mormon Proposition | edit |
{{To learn more box:''Under the Banner of Heaven''}} | To learn more about responses to: Under the Banner of Heaven | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Robert Price}} | To learn more about responses to: Robert Price | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ankerberg and Weldon}} | To learn more about responses to: Ankerberg and Weldon | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ashamed of Joseph}} | To learn more about responses to: Ashamed of Joseph | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Beckwith and Moser}} | To learn more about responses to: Beckwith and Moser | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Beckwith and Parrish}} | To learn more about responses to: Beckwith and Parrish | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Benjamin Park}} | To learn more about responses to: Benjamin Park | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bible versus Joseph Smith}} | To learn more about responses to: Bible versus Joseph Smith | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bible versus Book of Mormon}} | To learn more about responses to: Bible versus Book of Mormon | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: ''Big Love''}} | To learn more about responses to: Big Love | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Brett Metcalfe}} | To learn more about responses to: Brett Metcalfe | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bill Maher}} | To learn more about responses to: Bill Maher | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bruce H. Porter}} | To learn more about responses to: Bruce H. Porter | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Carol Wang Shutter}} | To learn more about responses to: Carol Wang Shutter | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: CES Letter}} | To learn more about responses to: CES Letter | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Charles Larson}} | To learn more about responses to: Charles Larson | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Christopher Nemelka}} | To learn more about responses to: Christopher Nemelka | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Colby Townshed}} | To learn more about responses to: Colby Townshed | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Contender Ministries}} | To learn more about responses to: Contender Ministries | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Crane and Crane}} | To learn more about responses to: Crane and Crane | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: D. Michael Quinn}} | To learn more about responses to: D. Michael Quinn | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Dan Vogel}} | To learn more about responses to: Dan Vogel | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: David John Buerger}} | To learn more about responses to: David John Buerger | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: David Persuitte}} | To learn more about responses to: David Persuitte | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Denver Snuffer}} | To learn more about responses to: Denver Snuffer | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Dick Bauer}} | To learn more about responses to: Dick Bauer | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Duwayne R Anderson}} | To learn more about responses to: Duwayne R Anderson | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Earl Wunderli}} | To learn more about responses to: Earl Wunderli | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ed Decker}} | To learn more about responses to: Ed Decker | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Erikson and Giesler}} | To learn more about responses to: Erikson and Giesler | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ernest Taves}} | To learn more about responses to: Ernest Taves | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Fawn Brodie}} | To learn more about responses to: Fawn Brodie | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: George D Smith}} | To learn more about responses to: George D Smith | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Grant Palmer}} | To learn more about responses to: Grant Palmer | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Hank Hanegraaff}} | To learn more about responses to: Hank Hanegraaff | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Hurlbut-Howe}} | To learn more about responses to: Hurlbut-Howe | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: James Brooke}} | To learn more about responses to: James Brooke | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: James Spencer}} | To learn more about responses to: James Spencer | edit |
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{{To learn more box:responses to: Jerald and Sandra Tanner}} | To learn more about responses to: Jerald and Sandra Tanner | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD}} | To learn more about responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: John Dehlin}} | To learn more about responses to: John Dehlin | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Jonathan Neville}} | To learn more about responses to: Jonathan Neville | edit |
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{{To learn more box:responses to: Martha Beck}} | To learn more about responses to: Martha Beck | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Mcgregor Ministries}} | To learn more about responses to: Mcgregor Ministries | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: McKeever and Johnson}} | To learn more about responses to: McKeever and Johnson | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: New Approaches}} | To learn more about responses to: New Approaches to the Book of Mormon | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Richard Abanes}} | To learn more about responses to: Richard Abanes | edit |
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{{To learn more box:responses to: Richard and Joan Ostling}} | To learn more about responses to: Richard and Joan Ostling | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Rick Grunger}} | To learn more about responses to: Rick Grunger | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Robert Ritner}} | To learn more about responses to: Robert Ritner | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Rod Meldrum}} | To learn more about responses to: Rod Meldrum | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Roger I Anderson}} | To learn more about responses to: Roger I Anderson | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ronald V. Huggins}} | To learn more about responses to: Ronald V. Huggins | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Sally Denton}} | To learn more about responses to: Sally Denton | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Simon Southerton}} | To learn more about responses to: Simon Southerton | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Thomas Murphy}} | To learn more about responses to: Thomas Murphy | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Todd Compton}} | To learn more about responses to: Todd Compton | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Vernal Holley}} | To learn more about responses to: Vernal Holley | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Walter Martin}} | To learn more about responses to: Walter Martin | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Wesley Walters}} | To learn more about responses to: Wesley Walters | edit |
{{To learn more box:responses to: Will Bagley}} | To learn more about responses to: Will Bagley | edit |