Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 5

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Response to claims made in "Chapter 5"

Chapter 4

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

Chapter 6

Response to claims made in Nauvoo Polygamy, "Chapter 5"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author points out that after Joseph's death, Rhoda Richards was sealed to "her cousin Brigham Young."

FAIR's Response

• Here the author again relies on presentism to provide a hostile interpretive lens. It was not unusual for first cousins to marry. Nineteen of the present-day states permit unrestricted marriage between first cousins, and most countries have no restrictions at all on marriage between cousins. In its exploitation of the presentist fallacy, the author’s remark is utterly irrelevant in its historical context.
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "Orson Hyde reported seeing a 'wonderful lustful spirit' on his visit to the polygamous Cochranite community….In 1834 he acquired his own lustful spirit in Marinda Johnson…."

FAIR's Response

• Use of sources: "wonderful lustful spirit"
• 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)

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Parley P. Pratt's is claimed to have been seald to his "last wife, Eleanor McComb McLean...without divorcing her legal husband, who fatally shot Parley near Van Buren, Arkansas…."

FAIR's Response

• The author again relies on presentism. Practices regarding marriage and divorce differed substantially from the 20th or 21st century.
• The author also tells us nothing about McComb's tyrannical and abusive husband, making him appear the wronged party.
• Polygamy/Parley P. Pratt's marriage and murder
• Polygamy/Remarrying without civil divorce
• 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)

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The murder of Parley P. Pratt is claimed to be "the proximate cause of the Mountain Meadows Massacre."

Author's sources:

1. Scott F. and Maurine J. Proctor, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (1874; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 586-99.

FAIR's Response

• Use of sources: Pratt murder proximate cause of MMM?
• Polygamy/Parley P. Pratt's marriage and murder

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Did Parley P. Pratt engage in "theological philanderings?"

FAIR's Response

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language
• 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)

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Edwin Wooley married Louisa Chapin Rising as a polygamous wife even though she was not divorced from her legal husband.

FAIR's Response

• Polygamy/Remarrying without civil divorce
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism
• 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)

The author(s) make(s) the following claim:

*Ezra Taft Benson was "a correspondent of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover…."

FAIR's Response

• It is not clear what relevance this has to Benson, plural marriage, or anything else, save perhaps that it associates the church president with a figure now regarded as repressive, megalomaniacal, and something of a sexual deviant.
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language
• 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)

Notes