Mormon America: The Power and the Promise/Index

From FAIRMormon

Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

Index to claims made in Mormon America: The Power and the Promise

This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within the FAIRwiki. An effort has been made to provide the author's original sources where possible.

Introduction: A New World Faith

Page Claim Response Use of sources
xvA temple of secret rituals with precincts forbidden to tourists and TV cameras.Temples
  • No source provided.
xviiiThe Garden of Eden was literally located around Independence, Missouri.Garden of Eden in Missouri?
  • No source provided.
xixGod commissioned his American prophet to revise significant portions of the Bible that Smith taught had been corrupted by Jews and Christians.Bible corrupted by Jews and Christians?  [needs work]
  • No source provided.
xixThere is neither a forum for public debate nor a church legislature to set policy.Should the Church be a democracy?  [needs work]
  • No source provided.
xxvThey abstain from alcohol and tobacco, as many other groups do, but also from caffeinated beveragesWord of Wisdom/Cola drinks
  • No source provided

Chapter 1: Sealed with Blood

Page Claim Response Use of sources
3April 11, 1844: Joseph Smith organized the Council of Fifty to plan political future and had them anoint him “King, Priest and Ruler over Israel on Earth"The Council of Fifty
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: The Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
  • Robert Bruce Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, pp. 292-294
3Joseph Smith petitioned Congress for authorization to raise and lead a 100000-man army to subdue the western territories from Texas to Oregon, and that anyone who would “attempt to hinder or molest the said Joseph Smith” would be subject to two years’ imprisonment.
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: The Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 123-123, 360-362.
10The temple rituals had many similarities to the Masonic rituals that the prophet had just learnedTemple endowment and Freemasonry
121842: Disagreement between JS and John C. Bennett was “their competition for nineteen-year-old Nancy Rigdon as plural wife...Smith excommunicated Bennett."
13On March 11, 1844, Council of Fifty was formed as a theocratic policymaking body “shadow government” (Flanders – RLDS historian) that functioned sporadically in Utah into the 1870’sThe Council of Fifty
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: The Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
13Two of the original 53 members of the Council of Fifty “apparently were known counterfeiters."The Council of Fifty  [needs work]
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: The Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
13Joseph Smith was annointed “King, Priest and Ruler over Israel on Earth."The Council of Fifty
  • D. Michael Quinn, April 11, 1844.
15The Council of Fifty, "supposedly a civic body," took ecclesiastical action excommunicating Law and Foster.The Council of Fifty [needs work]
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: The Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
16Quinn re. Expositor: “He could not allow the Expositor to publish the secret international negotiations masterminded by Mormonism’s earthly king.”Nauvoo Expositor
  • Authors' quoting the opinion of another author, D. Michael Quinn
16“With the backing of his Council, Smith ordered that the new press be smashed and all possible copies of the press run destroyed.” (p16)Nauvoo Expositor
  • The statement is deliberately structured by the authors to lead the reader to an incorrect, and more sinister, conclusion. See Quote mining, selective quotation and distortion
  • D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: The Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 645.
17Someone slipped a six-shooter into his cell that he later fired into the attacking mobJoseph Smith as a martyr

Chapter 2: Beginnings: A Very American Gospel

Page Claim Response Use of sources
21Swedenborgianism, with its concepts of eternal marriage and a three-tiered heaven.Swedenborg and three degrees of glory
  • Source not provided
23Lucy Mack Smith, "described Joseph Jr.’s youthful fascination with Indians in the years just prior to his translation of the Book of Mormon: ...Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals..."Joseph Smith's "amusing recitals" of ancient American inhabitants
  • There is no mention of the fact that Joseph was receiving this information from Moroni during this period. See Lucy’s history prior to this statement.||
  • Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches, 1853. p. 85.
25Seer stones illegal – 1826 Smith “found guilty” of disorderly conduct for money-diggingJoseph Smith's 1826 glasslooking trial
  • D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998),
25Isaac Hale objected to marriage of Emma to Joseph because of “disreputable occupation of looking for treasure with magic stones rather than working the land like a respectable farmer"Joseph Smith and money digging
  • D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998),
  • Although Quinn is cited as the source, the statement of Isaac Hale was originally published in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), .. For details, see: The Hurlbut affidavits#Isaac Hale
26During the translation, Joseph would work on one side of the blanket "with the Urim and Thummin as a kind of magic spectacles, his favorite seer stone, the golden plates, and the hat, while the scribe worked on the other.Book of Mormon translation method
  • D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998),
26"Smith would bury his face with the seer stone in the hat and then dicate words to the scribe."Joseph Smith and seer stones
  • D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998),
29View of the Hebrews...containing considerable material on the subject, as well as a description of ancient Central American Indian ruinsBook of Mormon and View of the Hebrews
31Book of Abraham used to justify policy toward blacksBlacks and the priesthood/Repudiated ideas  [needs work]
31Joseph Smith used seer stone in 1836 to try and find treasure under a house in Salem, Mass.Joseph Smith's "treasure hunting" trip to Salem
34Danites were pledged to “plunder, lie, and even kill if deemed necessary."Danites
  • Source not specified.

Chapter 3: The American Exodus

Page Claim Response Use of sources
42There is historical evidence that Joseph Smith blessed his son, Joseph III that he would become his successor.Mark Hofmann  [needs work]
  • Mark Hofmann produced a forgery that was claimed to be the blessing given by Joseph Smith to his son Joseph Smith III.
54Mountain Meadows massacreMountain Meadows Massacre

Chapter 4: Polygamy Then and Now

Page Claim Response Use of sources
58Joseph started polygamy and had a large number of wivesJoseph Smith and polygamy
58Brodie’s research was largely substantiated by later scholarshipNo Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith
58There were at least five cases of women who rejected his polygamous proposalsJoseph Smith and polygamy
58At least 11 of Joseph's wives married to another man. Mormon apologists have attempted to justify polygamy in part because it sheltered single women beyond marriageable age, the facts show otherwise. The vast majority of plural wives were younger than the first wife, often nubile teenagers.Joseph Smith and polygamy
59Possibly a few exceptional cases involving his closest associates taking wives who already had husbandsJoseph Smith and polyandry
59Smith often asked close friends for their wives and daughtersJoseph Smith and polygamy
59Some of the marriages were the result of pressure or spiritual coercion from the prophetJoseph Smith and polygamy
60The “comely sixteen-year-old Fanny Alger” became Joseph's plural wife in 1833Joseph Smith and polygamy/Marriages to young women
60W.W. Phelps introduced an anti-polygamy resolution in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting while Joseph was away, which was adopted by the Church1835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy
60Scriptural resolution in D&C against polygamy Phelps/Cowdery “became a scriptural revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants.” This remained until removed in 1876 and replaced by Section 1321835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy
61His youngest bride, in some ways typical, was fourteen-year-old Helen Mar KimballJoseph Smith and polygamy/Marriages to young women
62Helen had not grasped that marriage in time would eventually have a sexual component.The nature of Helen Mar Kimball's marriage?
66The Book of Mormon was "conventionally monogamous:" "Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, Saith the Lord…Hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none" (Jacob 2:24, 27)Book of Mormon condemns polygamy
67Swedenborg taught “spiritual wifery” in marriage for eternity. Swedenborg was discussed in Smith’s hometown newspaperSwedenborg and three degrees of glory  [needs work]
  • D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 115, 153, 176, 217-219, 487n
671842 declaration of monogamy in the Times and Seasons was signed by Emma and two of Smith’s wives Eliza Snow and Sarah Cleveland.
  • Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, pp. 128-129.

Chapter 10: Families Forever

Page Claim Response Use of sources
160Even God himself is marriedWas Jesus Christ married?
  • No source given
161Couples are "sealed forever" through secret ritual in a Mormon templeCelestial Marriage

Chapter 19: Are Mormons Christian? Are Non-Mormons Christian?

Page Claim Response Use of sources
320The people of the New World were visited by the "Mormon Jesus."Latter-day Saints aren't Christians

Dissenters and Exiles

Page Claim Response Use of sources
352"The church has often swatted down intellectuals individually"Excommunication of scholars
  • Quote by Lavina Fielding Anderson
354The Church operates a clipping service called the "Strengthening Church Members Committee" to monitor individual members, which Lavina Fielding Anderson refers to as "an internal espionage system."Strengthening Church Members Committee
  • Lavina Fielding Anderson
354The LDS system of internal discipline "operates more like a small cult than a major denomination."LDS Church is a cult
354The LDS Church penalizes members for "merely criticizing officialdom or for publishing truthful—if uncomfortable—information," and "shroud their procedures with secrecy."Excommunication  [needs work]
354The LDS Church prosecutes "many more of its members" than other religious groupsExcommunication  [needs work]

Further reading

Critical Works
Personal tools