Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Index/Chapter 6

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Chapter 5

A FAIR Analysis of: Nauvoo Polygamy: "... but we called it celestial marriage" A work by author: George D. Smith Index of Claims, Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Note: This is a review of claims and/or responses to misrepresentations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found in this work. The inclusion of an author's work here does not imply that he or she is "anti-Mormon," or that none of his or her works have value. Those who do not wish to examine the claims contained in what some would consider an "anti-Mormon" work are advised to proceed no further.

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Claims made in "Chapter 6"

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/Nauvoo Polygamy/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/Nauvoo Polygamy/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/Nauvoo Polygamy/Loaded and prejudicial language
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Mind reading
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/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/Nauvoo Polygamy/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/Nauvoo Polygamy/Presentism#.22Freedom_of_the_press.22
• Nauvoo Expositor

Endnotes

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

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works

• American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows— (Index of claims)
• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
• Ashamed of Joseph: Mormon Foundations Crumble
• Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism/Inside Today's Mormonism — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Behind the Mask of Mormonism
• Specific works/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• Specific works/By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
• Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism
• Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 1
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 2
• Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism
• Early Mormonism and the Magic World View — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Specific works/Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mormonism
• Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History
• From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism
• In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith — (Index of Claims)
• Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon
• Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record
• Is the Mormon My Brother?
• Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet
• Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon (2nd edition)—(Index of claims)
• Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined
• The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) — (Index of claims)
• Leaving the Saints
• Letters to a Mormon Elder
• Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church — (Index of claims)
• Mormon America: The Power and the Promise — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Mirage: Seeing Through the Illusion of Mainstream Mormonism
• Mormonism 101—Index of claims
• Mormonism (Kurt Van Gorden)
• Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? — (Index of claims)
• The Mysteries of Godliness—A History of Mormon Temple Worship
• Nauvoo Polygamy — (Index of claims—Use of sources—Prejudicial language—Presentism—Mind reading—Censorship—Romance—Assumptions—Magick)
• New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
• New Mormon Challenge
• No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith — (Index of claims)
• One Nation Under Gods — (Index of claims—Use of Sources—Prejudicial language—Absurd claims—Presentism—Mind reading—Rewording—Omissions—Sarcasm)
• The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844
• Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example — (Index of claims)
• Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
• The Changing World of Mormonism — (Index of claims)
• Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon
• Under the Banner of Heaven — (Index of claims)
• Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture