Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormon America: The Power and the Promise/Index
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| A FAIR Analysis of: Mormon America: The Power and the Promise A work by author: Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. OstlingIndex of Claims
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Quote mining |
| 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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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
xv
Claim
The authors mention a temple of secret rituals with precincts forbidden to tourists and TV cameras.
Author's source(s)
- No source provided.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and temples
xviii
Claim
It is claimed that LDS believe that the Garden of Eden was literally located around Independence, Missouri.
Author's source(s)
- No source provided.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Garden of Eden in Missouri?
xix
Claim
The authors claim that God told Joseph to "revise significant portions of the Bible that Smith taught had been corrupted by Jews and Christians."
Author's source(s)
- No source provided.
Response
xix
Claim
The book claims that there is no forum for public debate and that there is no church legislature to set policy.
Author's source(s)
- No source provided.
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
xxv
Claim
They abstain from alcohol and tobacco, as many other groups do, but also from caffeinated beverages.
Author's source(s)
- No source provided
Response
- The claim is false
- For a detailed response, see: Word of Wisdom/Cola drinks
Chapter 1: Sealed with Blood
3
Claim
April 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"
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
- Robert Bruce Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi, pp. 292-294
Response
- For a detailed response, see: The Council of Fifty
3
Claim
Joseph 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.
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 123-123, 360-362.
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
10
Claim
The temple rituals had many similarities to the Masonic rituals that the prophet had just learned.
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
12
Claim
1842: Disagreement between JS and John C. Bennett was “their competition for nineteen-year-old Nancy Rigdon as plural wife...Smith excommunicated Bennett."
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
13
Claim
On 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’s.
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: The Council of Fifty
13
Claim
Two of the original 53 members of the Council of Fifty “apparently were known counterfeiters."
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: The Council of Fifty [needs work]
13
Claim
Joseph Smith was anointed “King, Priest and Ruler over Israel on Earth."
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, April 11, 1844.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: The Council of Fifty
15
Claim
The Council of Fifty, "supposedly a civic body," took ecclesiastical action excommunicating Law and Foster.
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 127-128, 643.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: The Council of Fifty [needs work]
16
Claim
Quinn re. Expositor: “He could not allow the Expositor to publish the secret international negotiations masterminded by Mormonism’s earthly king.”
Author's source(s)
- Authors' quoting the opinion of another author, D. Michael Quinn
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Nauvoo Expositor
16
Claim
Author's quote:With the backing of his Council, Smith ordered that the new press be smashed and all possible copies of the press run destroyed.
Author's source(s)
- The statement is structured by the authors to lead the reader to an incorrect, and more sinister, conclusion. See Quote manipulation
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 645.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Nauvoo Expositor
17
Claim
Someone slipped a six-shooter into his cell that he later fired into the attacking mob.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Martyrdom
Chapter 2: Beginnings: A Very American Gospel
21
Claim
Swedenborgianism, with its concepts of eternal marriage and a three-tiered heaven.
Author's source(s)
- Source not provided
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Plan of salvation/Three degrees of glory/Swedenborg
23
Claim
Lucy 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..."
Author's source(s)
- Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches, 1853. p. 85.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/"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.
25
Claim
Seer stones illegal – 1826 Smith “found guilty” of disorderly conduct for money-digging.
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Legal issues/Trials/1826 glasslooking trial
25
Claim
Isaac 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."
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )
- Although Quinn is cited as the source, the statement of Isaac Hale was originally published in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), . (Affidavits examined). For details, see: The Hurlbut affidavits#Isaac Hale
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Money digging
26
Claim
During the translation, Joseph would work on one side of the blanket "with the Urim and Thummim as a kind of magic spectacles, his favorite seer stone, the golden plates, and the hat, while the scribe worked on the other."
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Translation
26
Claim
Joseph would "bury his face with the seer stone in the hat and then dictate words to the scribe."
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Seer stones
29
Claim
Author's quote:View of the Hebrews...containing considerable material on the subject, as well as a description of ancient Central American Indian ruins.
Author's source(s)
- No source provided.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews
- The claim is false See Quote manipulation
31
Claim
Book of Abraham used to justify policy toward blacks.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and racial issues/Blacks and the priesthood/Repudiated ideas [needs work]
31
Claim
Joseph Smith used seer stone in 1836 to try and find treasure under a house in Salem, Mass.
Author's source(s)
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Money digging/"Treasure hunting" trip to Salem
- The statement is incorrect and pejorative. See Quote manipulation
34
Claim
Danites were pledged to “plunder, lie, and even kill if deemed necessary."
Author's source(s)
- Source not specified.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Danites
Chapter 3: The American Exodus
40
Claim
The authors claim that a warrant was issued to arrest Brigham Young on a charge of sheltering counterfeiters.
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
42
Claim
The authors claim that there is historical evidence that Joseph Smith blessed his son, Joseph III that he would become his successor.
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
54
Claim
Mountain Meadows massacre.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Mountain Meadows Massacre
Chapter 4: Polygamy Then and Now
58
Claim
Joseph started polygamy and had a large number of wives.
Author's source(s)
- Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), . ( Index of claims ) [ATTENTION!]
- Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997). ( Index of claims )
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy
58
Claim
The authors claim that Fawn Brodie’s research was largely substantiated by later scholarship.
Response
- In reality, many of Brodie's claims have been losing ground in light of more recent scholarship. For example, see how Brodie's claims about Joseph Smith's alleged children through polygamous marriages have been refuted as the result of modern DNA research.
- For a detailed response, see: No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith
58
Claim
There were at least five cases of women who rejected his polygamous proposals.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy
58
Claim
At 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.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy
59
Claim
Possibly a few exceptional cases involving his closest associates taking wives who already had husbands.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Polyandry
59
Claim
It is claimed that Joseph Smith "often" asked close friends for their wives and daughters.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy
59
Claim
Some of the marriages were the result of pressure or spiritual coercion from the prophet.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy
60
Claim
The “comely sixteen-year-old Fanny Alger” became Joseph's plural wife in 1833.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Marriages to young women
60
Claim
W.W. Phelps introduced an anti-polygamy resolution in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting while Joseph was away, which was adopted by the Church.
Author's source(s)
- Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 185. ( Index of claims )
Response
- For a detailed response, see: 1835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy
60
Claim
Scriptural 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 132.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: 1835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy
61
Claim
Smith conducted marriage for Newell Knight against law, since the woman was not yet divorced from her non-Mormon husband. Smith said "Gentile law has no power to call me to account for it."
Author's source(s)
- D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 623.
- Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 623.
Response
- The claim is false: No law was broken, and marriage certificates were issued by the state of Ohio; no license was required.
- Any religious leader had a right to perform marriages in Ohio.
- For a detailed response, see: Ohio marriages illegal?
- This claim is also made in One Nation Under Gods: p. 129, 529n14-15
61
Claim
His youngest bride, in some ways typical, was fourteen-year-old Helen Mar Kimball.
Author's source(s)
- Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 486-534. ( Index of claims )
Response
- Note the authors' pejorative opinion: "in some ways typical."
- For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Marriages to young women
62
Claim
Helen had not grasped that marriage in time would eventually have a sexual component.
Author's source(s)
- Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 486-534. ( Index of claims )
Response
- The claim is false The statement is not supported by the source. Compton never states anything about a "sexual component."
- For a detailed response, see: The nature of Helen Mar Kimball's marriage?
66
Claim
The 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)
Author's source(s)
- Jacob 2:24-27
- Encyclopedia of Mormonism
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon condemns polygamy
67
Claim
Swedenborg taught “spiritual wifery” in marriage for eternity. Swedenborg was discussed in Smith’s hometown newspaper.
Author's source(s)
- 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 ( Index of claims )
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Swedenborg and three degrees of glory [needs work]
67
Claim
1842 declaration of monogamy in the Times and Seasons was signed by Emma and two of Smith’s wives Eliza Snow and Sarah Cleveland.
Response
- Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, pp. 128-129.
Chapter 7: Mormons, Inc.
115
Claim
Author's quote:"Outsider's money estimates always raise disclaimers from officialdom, presumably because of the danger that fat-looking figures might weaken members' tithing compliance."
Author's source(s)
- Author's opinion
Response
- This is an absurd statement. The authors appear to have no idea why Latter-day Saints actually pay tithing.
Chapter 10: Families Forever
160
Claim
The author's claim that LDS believe that even God himself is married.
Author's source(s)
- No source given
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Was Jesus Christ married?
161
Claim
Couples are "sealed forever" through secret ritual in a Mormon temple.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Celestial Marriage
Chapter 19: Are Mormons Christian? Are Non-Mormons Christian?
320
Claim
The people of the New World were visited by the "Mormon Jesus."
Response
- The term "Mormon Jesus" is a pejorative term used by evangelicals to imply that Latter-day Saints do not worship the "true" Jesus.
- For a detailed response, see: Latter-day Saints aren't Christians?
- See Quote manipulation
Dissenters and Exiles
352
Claim
Author's quote:"The church has often swatted down intellectuals individually"
Author's source(s)
- Quote by Lavina Fielding Anderson
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Excommunication of scholars
354
Claim
The 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."
Author's source(s)
- Lavina Fielding Anderson
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Strengthening Church Members Committee [needs work]
354
Claim
The LDS system of internal discipline "operates more like a small cult than a major denomination."
Author's source(s)
- Author's opinion
Response
- The statement that the Church is "like a small cult" is pejorative. See Quote manipulation
- For a detailed response, see: Criticism of Mormonism/Mormonism is a cult
354
Claim
The LDS Church penalizes members for "merely criticizing officialdom or for publishing truthful—if uncomfortable—information," and "shroud their procedures with secrecy."
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and Church discipline [needs work]
354
Claim
The LDS Church prosecutes "many more of its members" than other religious groups.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and Church discipline [needs work]
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
- 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
