Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example/Index

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Index to claims made in Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example, a work by author: D. Michael Quinn

This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within FairMormon Answers.

87

The author(s) of Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example make(s) the following claim:

*The author extracts the following passage:

"...two who were vary friends indeed should lie down upon the same bed at night locked in each other['s] embrace talking of their love & should awake in the morning together. They could immediately renew their conversation of love even while rising from their bed."

Author's sources:

1. Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, 9 vols. and index (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 1983-91), 2:227.

FAIR's Response

• The author butchers this quote, turning a speech about being buried near loved ones while awaiting the resurrection into advocacy of "bedtime snuggling"
• From the cited source:

President J. Smith Addressed the assembly of the saints at the temple of the Lord upon the subject of the saints death burial & resurrection of the saints. He had been requested to preach a funeral sermon by several persons who had died lost friends & he had Just Received information that Elder Lorenzo Barnes had died in England we received this information by a letter from Elder P. P. Pratt. After reading the letter he addressed the assembly in a vary feeling interesting & edefying manner among many other remarks he said he should have been more reconciled to the death of Elder barnes Could his bodey have been laid in the grave in Nauvoo or among the Saints, he said he had vary peculiar feelings relative to recieving an honorable burial with his father he Considered Nauvoo would be a burying place of the Saints & Should he die he considered it would be a great Blessing to be buried with the saints & esspecially to be buried with his father yes he wanted to lie by the side of his father that when the trump of God should sound & the voice of God should say ye Saints arise that when the tomb should birst he could arise from the grave & first salute his father & say O my father! & his father say O my son!! as they took each other by the hand he wished next to salute his brothers & sisters & then the Saints & he said it was upon this principle that the ancients were so particular to have an honorable burial with their fathers as in the case of Joseph, before his death he made his kindred promise to carry his bones to the land of Canann & they did so they embalmed his body took it to the land of Canaan & buryed it with his fathers their is a glory in this that many do not comprehend. It is true that in the resurrection that the bodies will be caught up to meet the Lord & the Saints will all be brought together though they were scattered upon the face of the whole earth yet they would not as readily salute each other as though they lay down & rose up together from the same bed, To bring it to the understanding it would be upon the same principle as though two who were vary friends indeed should lie down upon the same bed at night locked in each other embrace talking of their love & should awake in the morning together they could immediately renew their conversation of love even while rising from their bed but if they were alone & in seperate apartments they could not as readily salute each other as though they were together He remarked that should he live & have an opportunity of gathering his friends who had died together he intended to do it but if he should not live to do it himself he hoped that some of his frie friends would. He wished all of the saints to be comforted with the victory they were to gain by the resurrection it is sufficient to encorage the saint to overcome in the midst of evry trial trouble & tribulation though thunders roar & earthquakes bellow, lightnings flash & wars are upon evry hand yet suffer not a joint to tremble nor let not your heart faint for the great Eloheem will deliver you & if not before the resurrection will set you eternally free from all these things from pain sorrow & death. I have labored hard & sought evry way to try to prepare this people to comprehend the things that God is unfolding to me In speaking of the resurrection I would say that God hath shown unto me a vission of the resurrection of the dead & I saw the graves open & the saints as they arose took each other by the hand even before they got up or while getting up & great Joy & glory rested upon them.

• See also: Klaus J. Hansen, "Quinnspeak (Review of Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 10/1 (1998): 132–140. off-site
• See also: George L. Mitton and Rhett S. James, "A Response to D. Michael Quinn's Homosexual Distortion of Latter-day Saint History (Review of Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 10/1 (1998): 141–263. off-site

87

The author(s) of Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example make(s) the following claim:

The book claims that Dan Jones reported that in Carthage Joseph came "and lay himself by my side in close embrace." The author then concludes "the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith enjoyed bedtime snuggling with male friends throughout his life"

Author's sources:

1. Dan Jones to Thomas Bullock, 20 January 1855, in Ronald D. Dennis, ed., "The Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith," Brigham Young University Studies 24 no. 1 (1984), 101. {Spelling and punctuation as in the original.)off-site

FAIR's Response

The claim is nonsense, at least in the sense which the author intends us to take it—he implies that Joseph tolerated homosexual behavior, when these quotations in context say nothing of the sort. He is speaking about family bonds and the resurrection, not gay sex.

Mitton and James note that "Quinn arbitrarily changes this to "in a close embrace," a form not found in the text." (note 47).

139

The author(s) of Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example make(s) the following claim:

The author claims that Joseph "never once mentioned husband-wife relationships . . . remarkable in a sermon on loving relationships in this life and in the resurrection during which the prophet repeatedly spoke of "brothers and friends," fathers and sons, mothers, daughters and sisters. Smith's silence concerning husbands and wives was deafening in this sermon about attachments of love . . . but I do see that as the first Mormon expression of male bonding."

Author's sources:

1. Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:363. Volume 5 link

• Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of Joseph Smith, 2nd Edition, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 279 n. 11.

FAIR's Response

• Note that this is, (contrary to the author's claim) in fact, "the closest allusion to the doctrine of eternal marriage the Prophet had yet made in public discourse."
• This seems unlikely, given that fathers and mothers in glory must imply heterosexual relationships. Joseph also comforted Marcellus Bates, saying "You shall soon have the company of your companion in a world of glory."

??

The author(s) of Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example make(s) the following claim:

The author extracts the following Joseph Smith quote:

"...it is pleasing for friends to lie down together, locked in the arms of love, to sleep and wake in each other's embrace and renew their conversation."

Author's sources:

• Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:360–362. Volume 5 link

FAIR's Response

The author again warps talk of the resurrection of families through a homosexual lens to completely distort Joseph's meaning.

• From the cited source:

I will tell you what I want. If tomorrow I shall be called to lie in yonder tomb, in the morning of the resurrection, let me strike hands with my father, and cry, "My father," and he will say "My son, my son," as soon as the rock rends and before we come out of our graves.
And may we contemplate these things so? Yes, if we learn how to live and how to die. When we lie down we contemplate how we may rise in the morning; and it is pleasing for friends to lie down together, locked in the arms of love, to sleep and wake in each other's embrace and renew their conversation.
Would you think it strange if I relate what I have seen in vision in relation to this interesting theme? Those who have died in Jesus Christ may expect to enter into all that fruition of joy when they come forth, which they possessed or anticipated here.
So plain was the vision, that I actually saw men, before they had ascended from the tomb, as though they were getting up slowly. They took each other by the hand and said to each other, "My father, my son, my mother, my daughter, my brother, my sister." And when the voice calls for the dead to arise, suppose I am laid by the side of my father, what would be the first joy of my heart? To meet my father, my mother, my brother, my sister; and when they are by my side, I embrace them and they me.

• Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:360–362. Volume 5 link
• Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of Joseph Smith, 2nd Edition, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 195–196.