Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 6

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Response to claims made in "Chapter 6"

Chapter 5

A FAIR Analysis of: Nauvoo Polygamy: "... but we called it celestial marriage" A work by author: George D. Smith

Chapter 7

Claim

• The author assumes that "[e]fforts to suppress the story" of polygamy in Nauvoo until the 1852 announcement "restricted the breadth and depth of the records that were kept."

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Censorship of Church History (edit)

Response

•  Internal contradiction: The author claims elsewhere that the History of the Church had material expurgated; we now learn that most of this material was not in the primary documents (such as Joseph's journals) because of secrecy concerns in the 1840s.
• Church history/Censorship and revision
• 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)

Claim

• After 1890 the church tried to "phase out a practice the prophet had mandated as essential to salvation."

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Necessary for salvation? (edit)

Response

• The author ignores the nuances of LDS thought on this, both before and after the Manifesto.
• Polygamy a requirement for exaltation?
• Brigham Young: is polygamy essential to salvation?

Claim

• "Official accounts" of plural marriage have been "redacted."

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Censorship of Church History (edit)

Response

• This assumes that "official accounts" existed to begin with.
• Polygamy/Requirement for exaltation
• 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)

Claim

• Joseph and Brigham are claimed to have admitted that the practice of polygamy meant they were "free to go beyond the normal 'bounds'" and "the normal rules governing social interaction had not applied to" Joseph.

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young Manuscript History, Feb 16, 1849, LDS Archives.

Response

• The author misconstrues and misrepresents the statements cited.
• Polygamists are to go beyond normal "bounds"?
• 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)

Claim

•  Author's quote: "Elizabeth [Whitney] was arranging conjugal visits between her daughter, Sarah Ann, and [Joseph]…."

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Whitney "love letter" (edit)

Response

• The Sarah Ann Whitney claim makes its appearance yet again.
• Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Whitney letter
• Use of sources—Letter to Whitneys
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mind reading
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Romance
• 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)

Claim

• The book has a subsection in "How Plural Marriage Worked," entitled "Female subordination."

Author's source(s)

• No sources provided.

Response

• The author does nothing to compare the 19th-century LDS practice of marriage with Victorian marriage in general.
• Female subordination in 19th century
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Joseph Lee Robinson is claimed to have said: "There are some on this stand that would cut my throat or take my hearts blood" if he told them what God had revealed to him.

Author's source(s)

•  Citation error
• Robinson Journal, 24, Utah State Historical Society Library.

Response

• The statement comes from the Joseph Robinson journal, but the statement is not from Robinson—it is from Joseph Smith. The author recognized this in an earlier article.^[1]

Claim

• Did Joseph flee from three states because he had been suspected of "suspicious relationships with young women?"

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• Fanny Alger certainly caused problems in Ohio. There is no good evidence, however, that Joseph had "woman problems" in New York or Missouri.

Claim

• Was Joseph arrested after the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor for violating "freedom of the press?"

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Nauvoo Expositor (edit)

Response

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism#.22Freedom_of_the_press.22
• Nauvoo Expositor

== Notes ==

1. [note]  George D. Smith, "Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841–46: A Preliminary Demographic Report," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27 no. 1 (Spring 1994), 26.

Further reading

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