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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 3
< Criticism of Mormonism | Books | Nauvoo Polygamy
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Chapter 2 (pp. 108-255) | A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: George D. Smith
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Chapter 4 |
Chapter 3
Page | Claim | Response | Author's sources |
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159 |
"several days after Orson Pratt, Sidney Rigdon, and Ebenezer Robinson declined to affirm Smith's good character…." |
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160 |
Governor Carlin described that Nauvoo statute on writs as an "extraordinary assumption of power….most absurd and ridiculous…[a] gross usurpation of power that cannot be tolerated." |
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Nauvoo city charter (edit) |
161 |
"The Nauvoo charter, which was the basis for this presumption of independence from state jurisdiction…." |
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Nauvoo city charter (edit) |
162 |
It is interesting that [The Peace Maker, a non-member's defence of polygamy] appeared during the hiatus in the erstwhile marriage frenzy of 1842 and while Smith's apostles were traveling the countryside to counter Bennett's words and deny polygamy." |
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163 |
"…the entire Mormon community would be expelled from Illinois, primarily because of the dominant sense they betrayed public trust." |
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185 |
Joseph's "summer 1842 call for an intimate visit from Sarah Ann Whitney…substantiate[s] the intimate relationships he was involved in during those two years." |
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Whitney "love letter" (edit) |
185 |
"However, the History of the Church predictably gives no notice of these weddings." |
Censorship of Church History (edit) | |
190 |
"The pretended marriage [of Joseph Kingsbury to the polygamously-married Sarah Ann Whitney] could have been a precaution against possible pregnancy." |
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Whitney "love letter" (edit) |
193 |
Lucy Walker "told Joseph she required a revelation before she would submit [to plural marriage]. He promised that if she prayed, she would receive her own personal manifestation from God, which she reported she received 'near dawn after—a sleepless night"—when a "heavenly influence" and feeling of "supreme happiness…took possession" of her." |
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196 |
"Financial and marital issues, especially concerning the Lawrence sisters, would inflame public opinion prior to Smith's arrest." |
The author does not tell us that Madsen's work (which he cites for his claim) demonstrates that Joseph properly discharged all his financial duties as guardians of the Lawrence estate. The author completely ignores the primary documents on this issue, and relies only on Law's hostile, and demonstrably false, account.
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198 |
There was a "conflict of interests between building a church community and [Joseph's] continuing affection for young women." |
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Ages of wives (edit) |
198 |
"Joseph was pursuing Helen" Mar Kimball. |
Womanizing & romance (edit) | |
201 |
Helen's biographer concludes that she 'expected her marriage to Joseph Smith' to be a ceremony 'for eternity only,' not an actual marriage involving physical relations. |
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201 |
"How surprised she was to discover 'that it included [marriage for] time also": a physical union at age fourteen with a thirty-seven year-old man." |
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201 |
"As she put her ambivalent feelings into verse in her "Reminiscences," Helen had "thought through this life my time will be my own," but "the step I am now taking's for eternity alone." She saw her "youthful friends grow shy and cold" as "poisonous darts from sland'rous tongues were hurled." She was "bar'd out from social scenes by this destiny," and faced "sad'nd mem'ries of sweet departed joys" |
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205 |
"That [Rhoda Richards] was her husband Brigham's cousin was apparently secondary to the grander scheme of interlocking the hierarchy in marriage." |
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214 |
"Even though Smith and Clayton spent three hours preparing the eloquent language" of D&C 132…. |
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217 |
"Smith found it useful to reference the conditional restriction on marriage found in the Book of Mormon." |
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Joseph Smith: cynical motivations (edit) |
225-226 |
The author intends Joseph to be seen as arrogant. He quotes a letter from Joseph to James Arlington Bennet:
The author then editorializes:
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226 |
The author again quotes Joseph: "‘I am learned, and know more than all the world put together." |
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227 |
"There is no reason to doubt that Smith's marriages involved sexual relations in most instances." |
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227 |
"Mary Elizabeth Lightner spoke of 'three children' whom she said she 'knew he had.'" |
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228-229 |
"Until decisive DNA testing of possible Smith descendants—daughters as well as sons—from plural wives can be accomplished, ascertaining whether Smith fathered children with any of his plural wives remains hypothetical." |
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230 |
"In 1841, Sarah Pratt firmly rebuffed Smith and remained monogamously committed to her missionary husband." |
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231 |
"Cordelia C. Morley Cox….had rejected [Joseph's] amorous proposal." |
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232 |
Eliza Winters “perhaps did not” resist Joseph’s advances “but apparently talked about it all the same.” |
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Eliza Winters (edit) |
234 |
"According to LDS theology, the posthumous sealing meant that Heber would be Smith's son in the eternities, not the son of his biological father." |
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Sealing takes away families? (edit) |
235 |
[In 1831 Joseph] "directed missionaries to marry native American women." |
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236a |
The author hints that Emma would have to sneak up on Joseph to check up on him, as evidenced by “his warning to Sarah Ann to proceed carefully in order to make sure Emma would not find them in their hiding place.” |
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Whitney "love letter" (edit) |
236b |
G. D. Smith asks us to “assume . . . that LeRoi Snow’s account [about Emma and Eliza and the stairs] was accurate.” |
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Emma, Eliza & stairs (edit) |
236c |
"Just as Joseph sought comfort from Sarah Ann the day Emma departed from his hideout…." |
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Whitney "love letter" (edit) |
237 |
Joseph's "insatiable addition of one woman after another to an invisible family…." |
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Womanizing & romance (edit) |
237 |
Joseph had a "prolonged dalliance with Fanny Alger." |
Ignoring Hancock autobiography (edit) Fanny Alger (edit) Womanizing & romance (edit) |
Endnotes
- [note] Todd M. Compton, “Response to Tanners,” post to LDS Bookshelf mailing list (no date), <http://www.lds-mormon.com/compton.shtml> (accessed 2 December 2008). Compare with Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy, 198–202, 302, 362 and Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 14.
- [note] See Smith, An Intimate Chronicle, 558; see also History of the Church 5:xxxii; citing William Clayton, affidavit, 16 February 1874, Salt Lake City, Utah; originally published in Andrew Jenson, "Plural Marriage," Historical Record 6 (May 1887): 224-226.
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 |
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{{To learn more box:responses to: George D Smith}} | To learn more about responses to: George D Smith | edit |
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