Difference between revisions of "Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 7"

416

• The Church has allowed these records to be seen by researchers and even published by Signature Books.^[1] This seems a strange course of action for an organization determined (as Smith repeatedly insists) to "expurgating" the history of plural marriage.
• Censorship_and_revision_of_LDS_history
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Censorship
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

• No source given.

Censorship of Church History (edit)

• See also ch. Preface: xiii, xiii-xiv, and xv
• See also ch. 1: 5
• See also ch. 2: 57 and 75
• See also ch. 2a: 88, 103, 119, 137, and 185
• See also ch. 4: 289
• See also ch. 6: 356
• See also ch. 8: 453 and 473

423

• Joseph had, in fact, signed a note for the land—thus going into debt himself. He sold land at variable prices, charging those who could afford more money so that he could give free or cheap land to the poor.
• This is not land speculation.
• Joseph Smith land speculation
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

• No source provided.

429

• G.D. Smith fails to tell us that Francis was, in fact, Nancy's boyfriend and her suitor. He also neglects to mention that Francis had contracted a venereal disease from a prostitute, had been seducing women under John C. Bennett's tutelage, and may have engaged in a homosexual relationship with Bennett.
• John C. Bennett

• No source provided.

John C. Bennett (edit)

• See also ch. 1: 5
• See also ch. 2: 65, 69, 70, 71, 72, and 73
• See also ch. 2a: 114, 119, 122, and 123-125
• See also ch. 3: 230
• See also ch. 4: 243, 274, and 309
• See also ch. 7: 429

435

• The author's "reply" to Dallin Oaks is a non sequitur. Oaks (and Firmage and Magrum) demonstrate at length that both Illinois and U.S. law had ample precedent in case law and practice for the abatement of the Expositor.
• If the author wishes to dispute the legal scholarship marshaled by Oaks' 40 page review, it deserves more than a dismissive footnote, and he ought to interact with Oaks' article, not a brief summary in a secondary source.^[2]
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism#.22Freedom_of_the_press.22
• Nauvoo Expositor

• Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts : a Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 112-13, 390n13 (Citing Oaks). ISBN 0252069803.

Nauvoo Expositor (edit)

• See also ch. Preface: xii
• See also ch. 4: 285
• See also ch. 6: 408
• See also ch. 7: 435

438–439

• G.D. Smith completely ignores the primary documents on this issue, and relies only on Law's hostile, and demonstrably false, account.
  • Mismanagement of the Lawrence estate?
• See also ch. 3: 196
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

• Cook, William Law, 120.

442

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Misrepresentation_of_sources#.22separate_its_troubles_from_their_apparent_causes.22
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

• No source provided.

445

•  Internal contradiction: G.D. Smith told us earlier only that in England Clayton "was personally suspected of ‘having had unlawful intercourse with women.’” He said nothing about this being due only to Clayton's discussion of the matter.
• Smith still does not tell us, though, that the charge came from an “apostate Mormon,” whom Clayton claimed had maliciously distorted his words.
• William Clayton and polygamy
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

• Smith, Intimate Chronicle, xlix-l.

William Clayton (edit)

• See also ch. 4: 244, 245, and 247
• See also ch. 7: 445

446

• He does not tell us that the reason Woodruff was worried was because at the time (1887) federal marshals were pursuing and jailing polygamists and their wives who refused to testify. Woodruff was trying to keep members out of jail, not trying to suppress polygamy.
• Wilford Woodruff criticizes publication of polygamists
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

• Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 135.

447

• If the church had scant evidence in 1875, what evidence did those compiling the History of the Church more than twenty years earlier have? This speaks directly to Smith's complaints about the History of the Church.
• Censorship_and_revision_of_LDS_history
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Censorship

• Joseph F. Smith to Orson Pratt Sr., 19 July 1875, Joseph F. Smith Letterbooks, Ms d 1325, Joseph F. Smith Collection, Church History Library and Archives.

Censorship of Church History (edit)

• See also ch. Preface: xiii, xiii-xiv, and xv
• See also ch. 1: 5
• See also ch. 2: 57 and 75
• See also ch. 2a: 88, 103, 119, 137, and 185
• See also ch. 4: 289
• See also ch. 6: 356
• See also ch. 8: 453 and 473

449

• Smith cites five works for this claim. All five, contrary to his claim, discuss the role of plural marriage in Joseph Smith's martyrdom, as well as other facts.
• LDS histories over many years omit plural marriage
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Censorship
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

•  Citation error
• The author lists these works but does not give page numbers.

1. Brigham H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Provo, UT: BYU Press, 1965).
2. Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and The “Falling Away” (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1922).
3. William E. Berrett, The Restored Church: A Brief History of the Origin, Growth and Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Salt Lake City: Department of Education of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Deseret Book, 1958).
4. Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, An Apostle; The Father and Founder of the British Mission (Salt Lake City: Kimball family, 1888).
5. Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-Day Saints, 2nd ed. (New York: Knopf, 1992).

Censorship of Church History (edit)

• See also ch. Preface: xiii, xiii-xiv, and xv
• See also ch. 1: 5
• See also ch. 2: 57 and 75
• See also ch. 2a: 88, 103, 119, 137, and 185
• See also ch. 4: 289
• See also ch. 6: 356
• See also ch. 8: 453 and 473

450

• SOURCE DISTORTION
• Contrary to G.D. Smith's claim, Godfrey's cited chapter is entitled "plural marriage," and he discusses it at length there and in his abstract and conclusion.
• LDS histories over many years omit plural marriage#Godfrey
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Censorship
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

•  Citation error
• Kenneth W. Godfrey, “Causes of Mormon Non-Mormon Conflict in Hancock County, Illinois, 1839–1846” (PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1967), chap 7.

450 n. 106

• Correct title is: "Causes of Mormon Non-Mormon Conflict…" (emphasis added)

•  Citation error
• See left