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A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: "Joseph Smith" A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)
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Founding a church (1827–30) |
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The article has remarkable balance right now. Any attempts to deliberately add Mormon POV will both spark an edit war and in the end degrade the literary quality of the current article because of the difficulty of clearing the corpses from the battlefield when it concludes. Improvements in this article are more likely to come from deletions than additions.
—Editor "John Foxe," 13 January 2009 off-site
I think Smith is handled with kid gloves in this article. There needs to be more emphasis on the fraudulent means that he used to start his religion and also the emphasis on sex at the end of his life.
—Editor "John Foxe," posting using his banned sockpuppet "Hi540," 13 January 2009 off-site
Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph, a merchant and farmer.Author's sources:
After a crippling bone infection at age eight, the younger Smith hobbled on crutches as a child.Author's sources:
In 1816–17, the family moved to the western New York village of PalmyraAuthor's sources:
and eventually took a mortgage on a 100 acre farm in nearby Manchester town.Author's sources:
During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm.Author's sources:
Although the Smith family was caught up in this excitement,Author's sources:
they disagreed about religion.Author's sources:
Joseph Smith may not have joined a church in his youth,Author's sources:
After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone, telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden treasure. About this time he became concerned as to his future state of existence, and was baptized, becoming thus a member of the Baptist Church. Soon after joining the Church, he had a very singular dream; but he did not tell his father of his dream, until about a year afterwards. He then told his father that, in his dream, a very large and tall man appeared to him, dressed in an ancient suit of clothes, and the clothes were bloody.
but he participated in church classesAuthor's sources:
and read the Bible. With his family, he took part in religious folk magic,Author's sources:
a common practice at the time.Author's sources:
At this time the revivals of western New York's so-called "Burned-over District" were bringing thousands out of private folk religion and into organized churches, whose clergy opposed folk magic.
Like many people of that era,Author's sources:
Standing on the margins of instituted churches, they [the Smiths] were as susceptible to the neighbors' belief in magic as they were to the teachings of orthodox ministers.
both his parents and his maternal grandfather had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God.Author's sources:
Smith later said that he had his own first vision in 1820, in which God told him his sins were forgivenAuthor's sources:
and that all the current churches were false.Author's sources:
The Smith family supplemented its meager farm income by treasure-digging,Author's sources:
Some neighbors also said that in "1819 or '20, they [the Smith family] commenced digging for money for a subsistence." Other neighbors specified that during "the spring of 1820" Joseph Jr. was extremely active in the treasure-quest.
likewise relatively common in contemporary New EnglandAuthor's sources:
though the practice was frequently condemned by clergymen and rationalists and was often illegal.Author's sources:
Joseph claimed an ability to use seer stones for locating lost items and buried treasure.Author's sources:
To do so, Smith would put a stone in a white stovepipe hat and would then see the required information in reflections given off by the stone.Author's sources:
In 1823, while praying for forgiveness from his "gratification of many appetites,"Author's sources:
Smith said he was visited at night by an angel named Moroni, who revealed the location of a buried book of golden plates as well as other artifacts, including a breastplate and a set of silver spectacles with lenses composed of seer stones, which had been hidden in a hill near his home.Author's sources:
Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him.Author's sources:
During the next four years, Smith made annual visits to the hill, only to return without the plates because he claimed that he had not brought with him the right person required by the angel.Author's sources:
Stories circulated of a requirement to bring Alvin to the hill to get the plates; and when he died, someone else. Emma, it was said, was designated as a key. The stories have a magical flavor, but other stories have the angel warning Joseph about greed and the evildoings of the money-diggers, as if the messenger was moving him away from his treasure-hunting ways.
Meanwhile, Smith continued traveling western New York and Pennsylvania as a treasure seeker and also as a farmhand.Author's sources:
In 1826, he was tried in Chenango County, New York, for "glass-looking," the crime of pretending to find lost treasure.Author's sources:
While boarding at the Hale house in Harmony, he met Emma Hale and, on January 18, 1827, eloped with her because her parents disapproved of his treasure hunting.Author's sources:
Claiming his stone told him that Emma was the key to obtaining the plates,Author's sources:
Emma, it was said, was designated as a key.
Smith went with her to the hill on September 22, 1827. This time, he said, he retrieved the plates and placed them in a locked chest.Author's sources:
He said the angel commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else but to publish their translation, reputed to be the religious record of indigenous Americans.Author's sources:
Joseph later promised Emma's parents that his treasure-seeking days were behind him.Author's sources:
Although Smith had left his treasure hunting company, his former associates believed he had double-crossed them by taking for himself what they considered joint property.Author's sources:
They ransacked places where a competing treasure-seer said the plates were hidden,Author's sources:
and Smith soon realized that he could not accomplish the translation in Palmyra.Author's sources:
Wikipedia references for "Joseph Smith, Jr." |
FairMormon regularly receives queries about specific LDS-themed Wikipedia articles with requests that we somehow "fix" them. Although some individual members of FAIR may choose to edit Wikipedia articles, FairMormon as an organization does not. Controversial Wikipedia articles require constant maintenance and a significant amount of time. We prefer instead to respond to claims in the FAIR Wiki rather than fight the ongoing battle that LDS Wikipedia articles sometimes invite. From FAIR’s perspective, assertions made in LDS-themed Wikipedia articles are therefore treated just like any other critical (or, if one prefers, "anti-Mormon") work. As those articles are revised and updated, we will periodically update our reviews to match.
Editors who wish to participate in editing LDS-themed Wikipedia articles can access the project page here: Wikipedia:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement. You are not required to be LDS in order to participate—there are a number of good non-LDS editors who have made valuable contributions to these articles.
FAIR does not advocate removing any references from Wikipedia articles. The best approach to editing Wikipedia is to locate solid references to back up your position and add them rather than attempting to remove information. Individuals who intend to edit should be aware that posting information related to the real-world identities of Wikipedia editors will result in their being banned from editing Wikipedia. Attacking editors and attempting to "out" them on Wikipedia is considered very bad form. The best approach is to treat all Wikipedia editors, whether or not you agree or disagree with their approach, with respect and civility. An argumentative approach is not constructive to achieving a positive result, and will simply result in what is called an "edit war." Unfortunately, not all Wikipedia editors exhibit good faith toward other editors (see, for example, the comment above from "Duke53" or comments within these reviews made by John Foxe's sockpuppet "Hi540," both of whom repeatedly mocked LDS beliefs and LDS editors prior to their being banned.)
Although there exist editors on Wikipedia who openly declare their affiliation with the Church, they do not control Wikipedia. Ironically, some critics of the Church periodically falsely accuse Wikipedia editors of being LDS simply because they do not accept the critics' desired spin on a particular article.
Again, the answer is no. The truth is that Wikipedia is generally self-policing. Highly contentious articles do tend to draw the most passionate supporters and critics.
Although some LDS-related Wikipedia articles may appear to have a negative tone, they are in reality quite a bit more balanced than certain critical works such as One Nation Under Gods. Although many critical editors often accuse LDS-related Wikipedia articles of being "faith promoting" or claim that they are just an extension of the Sunday School manual, this is rarely the case. Few, if any, Latter-day Saints would find Wikipedia articles to be "faith promoting." Generally, the believers think that the articles are too negative and the critics believe that the articles are too positive. LDS Wikipedia articles should be informative without being overtly faith promoting. However, most of the primary sources, including the words of Joseph Smith himself, are "faith promoting." This presents a dilemma for Wikipedia editors who want to remain neutral. The unfortunate consequence is that Joseph's words are rewritten and intermixed with contradictory sources, resulting in boring and confusing prose.
We examine selected Wikipedia articles and examine them on a "claim-by-claim" basis, with links to responses in the FairMormon Answers Wiki. Wikipedia articles are constantly evolving. As a result, the analysis of each article will be updated periodically in order to bring it more into line with the current version of the article. The latest revision date may be viewed at the top of each individual section. The process by which Wikipedia articles are reviewed is the following:
The ability to quickly and easily access literature critical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been made significantly easier through the advent of the Internet. One of the primary sites that dominates search engine results is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that “anyone can edit.” Wikipedia contains a large number of articles related to Mormonism that are edited by believers, critics, and neutral parties. The reliability of information regarding the Church and its history is subject to the biases of the editors who choose to modify those articles. Even if a wiki article is thoroughly sourced, editors sometimes employ source material in a manner that supports their bias. This essay explores the dynamics behind the creation of Wikipedia articles about the Church, the role that believers and critics play in that process, and the reliability of the information produced in the resulting wiki articles.
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