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Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./1831 to 1838: Difference between revisions

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|L=Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./1831 to 1838
|H=An analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith"
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{{FAIRAnalysisWikipedia
{{FAIRAnalysisWikipedia
|title=[[../]]
|title=[[../|"Joseph Smith"]]
|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Jr.
|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith
|uplink=[[../|Joseph Smith, Jr.]]
|uplink=[[../|Joseph Smith]]
|section=Life in Ohio (1831–38)
|section=Life in Ohio (1831–38)
|previous=[[../1827 to 1830|1827 to 1830]]
|previous=[[../1827 to 1830|Founding a Church (1827 to 1830)]]
|next=[[../1838 to 1839|1838 to 1839]]
|next=[[../1838 to 1839|Life in Missouri (1838–39)]]
|notes={{WikipediaDisclaimer}}
|notes={{WikipediaDisclaimer}}
}}
}}
=An analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith, Jr." =


===Reviews of previous revisions of this section===
==Reviews of previous revisions of this section==
[[/051909|19 May 2009]]
{{SummaryItem
|link=/051909
|subject=19 May 2009
|summary=A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia on 19 May 2009.
}}
 
==Section review==
===Life in Ohio (1831–38) {{WikipediaUpdate|9/3/2011}}===


===Life in Ohio (1831–38)===
===== =====
{{Main|Life of Joseph Smith, Jr. from 1831 to 1834|Life of Joseph Smith, Jr. from 1835 to 1838}}
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
When Smith moved to [[Kirtland, Ohio]] in January 1831,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=98–99, 116, 125}} (Smith first lived with [[Newel K. Whitney]] in Kirtland, then moved in with John Johnson in 1831 in the nearby town of [[Hiram, Ohio]], and by 1832 had secured a large estate in Kirtland).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


====Early Ohio period {{WikipediaUpdate|1/8/2010}}====
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
his first task
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=98}} (citing LDS D&C 50 {{Harv|Phelps|1833|pp=119–23}} as Smith's "first important revelation in Kirtland").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The entry of [[Sidney Rigdon|Sidney Rigdon's]] supporters into the young church more than doubled the number of Latter Day Saints. When the comparatively well-educated and oratorically gifted Rigdon became Smith's closest adviser, he aroused the resentment of some of Smith's earliest followers.
|claim=
|authorsources=
was to bring the Ohio congregation within his own religious authority
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=123-24}}
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=99–100}} (stating that Smith "appealed as much to reason as to emotion," and referred to Smith's style as "autocratic" and "authoritarian," but noted that he was effective in utilizing members' inherent desire to preach as long as they subjected themselves to his ultimate authority); {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|p=95}} ("Joseph quickly settled in and assumed control of the Kirtland Church.").
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=231754916&oldid=231733285}}While the statement "aroused the resentment of some of Smith's earliest followers" is technically true, it is not a precise use of the cited source. Bushman says that "[r]esentment and jealousy tinged [David] Whitmer's comments about Rigdon because he had 'soon worked himself deep into Brother Joseph's affections, and had more influence over him than any other man living.'" (Bushman, p. 124). It would be more correct to state that ''David Whitmer'' expressed resentment.
|authorsources=<br>
*{{Detail|Book of Mormon/Witnesses/David Whitmer told to leave}}
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The Kirtland saints also exhibited unusual spiritual gifts such as loud prophesying, speaking in unknown tongues, swinging from house joists, and rolling on the ground. With some difficulty, Smith managed to check the most extreme forms of religious enthusiasm.
|claim=
|authorsources=
by quashing the new converts' exuberant exhibition of [[spiritual gift]]s.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=150-52}}; {{Harv|Brodie|1945|p=99}}
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=99}} (gifts included hysterical fits and trances, frenzied rolling on the floor, loud and extended [[glossalalia]], grimacing, and visions taken from parchments hanging in the night sky); {{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=150–52}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*Bushman, p. 151: "Joseph had to restrain the excesses without discouraging spiritual gifts altogether."
*Bushman, p. 151: "Joseph had to restrain the excesses without discouraging spiritual gifts altogether."
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Rigdon's congregation of converts included a prophetess that Smith declared to be of the devil.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=100}} (noting that the prophetess, named Hubbel, was a friend of Rigdon's)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Prior to conversion, the congregation had also been practicing a form of [[Christian communism]], and Smith adopted a communal system within his own church, calling it the [[United Order|United Order of Enoch]].
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=104–108}} (stating that the United Order of Enoch was Rigdon's conception (p. 108)); {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=154–55}}; {{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|p=131}} (Rigdon's communal group was called "the family"); ''see also'' {{Harvtxt|Phelps|1833|p=118}} (revelation introducing the communal system, stating, "For behold the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth is ordained for the use of man, for food, and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance, but it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another.").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*It is Brodie's own opinion that Joseph got the idea for the United Order from Sidney Rigdon. Bushman notes that the establishment of the Order "put Joseph Smith's Zion in company with scores of utopians who were bent on moderating economic injustices in these years."
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
At Rigdon's suggestion,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=103}} (stating that Rigdon suggested that Smith revise the Bible in response to an 1827 revision by Rigdon's former mentor [[Alexander Campbell (clergyman)|Alexander Campbell]]).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*Again, it is only Brodie's opinion that Rigdon suggested the Joseph revise the Bible.
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith began a [[Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible|revision of the Bible]] in April 1831,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|p=131}} (although Smith described his work beginning in April 1831 as a "translation," "he obviously meant a revision by inspiration").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Bible/Joseph Smith Translation}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
on which he worked sporadically until its completion in 1833.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=142}} (noting that though Smith declared the work finished in 1833, the church lacked funds to publish it during his lifetime).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Rectifying what Rigdon perceived as a defect in Smith's church,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Prince|1995|p=116}}.
}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith promised the church's [[Elder (Latter Day Saints)|elders]] that in Kirtland they would receive an [[Endowment (Latter Day Saints)|endowment]] of heavenly power.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Phelps|1833|p=83}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=125, 156, 308}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
While in Ohio Smith and his family had to live as guests in other people's homes. Despite a lack of privacy, Smith's revelations significantly increased. Following completion of the Book of Mormon, Smith rarely used his seer stone and now received revelations "whether a text lay before him or not."
|claim=
|authorsources=
Therefore, in the church's June 1831 [[general conference (Latter Day Saints)|general conference]],
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=131-32}}
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=111–13}} (describing this conference as "the first major failure of his life" because he made irresponsible prophesies and performed failed [[faith healing]]s, requiring Rigdon to cut the conference short).
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232115601&oldid=232112151}}The wiki editor has modified the citation, although this appears to be an unintentional transcription error, since the meaning is unchanged.
|authorsources=<br>
*Bushman states, "Joseph received the words by 'revelation,' whether or not a text lay before him."
#
*The editor originally inserted the text,
}}
*Brodie's source is Ezra Booth. Brodie's note on p.111: :
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
As Richard Bushman has said, "He received the words by 'revelation,' whether a text lay before him or not."
Booth's detailed account of the conference and the story of his own disillusionment were written in a series of letters to Edward Partridge and published in 1831-2 in the Ohio Start at Ravenna. They were reprinted in E. D. Howe: ''Mormonism Unvailed''.  
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
*The editor then performed a "stylistic tweak" by changing it to read,
*Booth claims the following (''Mormonism Unvailed'', pp. 189-90):
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
He now received supernatural direction "whether a text lay before him or not."
It now became clearly manifest, that "the man of sin was revealed," for the express purpose that the elders should become acquainted with the devices of Satan; and after that they would possess knowledge sufficient to manage him. This, Smith declared to be a miracle, and his success in this case, encouraged him to work other and different miracles. Taking the hand of one of the Elders in his own, a hand which by accident had been rendered defective, he said, "Brother Murdock, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to straighten your hand; in the mean while endeavoring to accomplish the work by using his own hand to open the hand of the other. The effort proved unsuccessful; but he again articulated the same commandment, in a more authoritative and louder tone of voice; and while uttering with his tongue, his hands were at work; but after all the exertion of his power, both natural and supernatural, the deficient hand returned to its former position, where it still remains. But ill success in this case, did not discourage him from undertaking another. One of the Elders who was decriped in one of his legs, was set upon the floor, and commanded, in the name of Jesus Christ to walk. He walked a step or two, his faith failed, and he was again compelled to have recourse to his former assistant, and he has had occasion to use it ever since. 
</blockquote>
<br><br>
A dead body. which had been retained above ground two or three days, under the expectation that the dead would be raised, was insensible to the voice of those who commanded it to awake into life, and is destined to sleep in the grave till the last trump shall sound, and the power of God easily accomplishes the work, which frustrated the attempts, and bid defiance to the puny efforts of the Mormonite.
</blockquote>
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
he introduced the greater authority of a [[Melchizedek priesthood (Latter Day Saints)|High ("Melchizedek") Priesthood]] to the church hierarchy.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=111}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=156–60}}; {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1994|pp=31–32}}; {{Harvtxt|Roberts|1902|pp=175–76}} (On 3 June 1831, "the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood was manifested and conferred for the first time upon several of the Elders." Annotation by Roberts gives an [[apologetics|apologetic]] explanation.).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
The church grew as new converts poured into Kirtland.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=101}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
In the early 1830s Smith began reworking [[Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible|the King James Version of the the Bible]].
|claim=
|authorsources=
By the summer of 1835, there were fifteen hundred to two thousand Mormons in the vicinity of Kirtland
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=130-43}}
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Arrington|1992|p=21}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
expecting Smith to lead them shortly to the [[Millennialism|Millennial]] kingdom.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=101–02, 121}}.
}}
}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
An addition to [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]], called the ''[[Book of Moses]]'', was not based on any purported ancient writings.
|claim=
|authorsources=
Though [[Oliver Cowdery]]'s mission to the Indians was a failure,
|response=
|authorsources=<br>
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=110}} (describing the mission as a "flat failure").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
he sent word he had found the site for the New Jerusalem in [[Jackson County, Missouri]].
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=108}}.
}}
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
In early 1831, revelations instructed Smith to organize a new social system, called the [[United Order]], in preparation for the coming [[millennium]]. Members were required to consecrate their property to the church so that "every man may receive according as he stands in need."
|claim=
|authorsources=
After he visited there in July 1831, Smith agreed and pronounced the county's rugged outpost
*Smith's instructions were explicit: "But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin." ''D&C'', 49:20.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=162}}; {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=109}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
"The experiment was a failure, and the two-year existence of the system was about average for the various [[communitarian|communal]] experiments being undertaken in the period."
|claim=
|authorsources=
[[Independence, Missouri|Independence]] to be the "center place" of [[Zion (Latter Day Saints)|Zion]].
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=152-55; 182-83}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|Cowdery|Rigdon|Williams|1835|p=154}}.
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=John Foxe|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232368377&oldid=232323443}}The source is improperly cited. Bushman states that the "system never worked properly." The wiki editor has stated that "[t]he experiment was a failure," enclosed the phrase within the quotes, and appended it to the portion of Bushman's quote highlighted below,
<blockquote>
The system never worked properly. The lack of property to distribute among the poverty-stricken early members hampered the system's effectiveness from the start. Joseph Struggled on, aided by Partridge and the loyal Colesville Saints, who mad eup a large part of the Mormon population in Zion. In 1833, the Mormons' expulsion from Jackson County would close down everything. The system's two-year existence '''was about average for the various communal experiments being undertaken in the period.''' {{ea}}
</blockquote>
}}
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
In July 1831, Smith visited Missouri and dictated a revelation pinpointing the location of the prophesied [[Zion (Latter Day Saints)|city of Zion]] as [[Jackson County, Missouri]], centered at the town of [[Independence, Missouri|Independence]], then a ragged village of no more than twenty dwellings.
|claim=
|authorsources=
Rigdon, however, disapproved of the location, and for most of the 1830s, the church was divided between Ohio and Missouri.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=162}}; D&C 57:2.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=115}}.
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}The citation should include pages 162-163.
}}
}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
A revelation commanded the Saints to gather there, while the church headquarters temporarily would remain in Ohio. Smith and his family continued to live in Ohio, but he visited Missouri on occasion.
|claim=
|response=
Smith continued to live in Ohio but visited Missouri again in early 1832 in order to prevent a rebellion of prominent Saints, including Cowdery, who believed Zion was being neglected.
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=119–22}}.
}}
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
By 1832, the twenty-six-year-old Smith led an organization of about a thousand followers. Not only were the burdens of his office beyond his education and experience, some disaffected former followers accused Smith of dictatorial ambition, deceiving the credulous, and an intent to take their frontier property.
|claim=
|authorsources=
Smith's trip was hastened
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=178-79}}: Two instigators of a mob were former Mormons Ezra Booth and Symonds Ryder. Booth claimed that Smith "was an insidious fraud.  Behind Joseph's plans for Zion, Booth saw a plot to trap the unsuspecting 'in an unguarded hour [as] they listen to its fatal insinuations.  The plan so ingeniously contrived, having for its aim one principal point, viz: the establishment of a society in Missouri, over which the contrivers of this delusive system, are to possess unlimited and despotic sway.' Booth thought Smith's doctrines were designed to allure the credulous and the unsuspecting, into a state of unqualified vassalage.'"  Ryder claimed that the Mormons were plotting to take their followers' property "and place it under the disposal of Joseph Smith the prophet."
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=180}}; {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=119}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
by a mob of residents led by former Saints who were incensed over the United Order and Smith's political power.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=178–79}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|pp=109–10}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
On March 24, they encouraged the mob to drag Smith and Rigdon from their beds and beat them unconscious. Smith was [[tarring and feathering|tarred and feathered]] and narrowly escaped being castrated.
|claim=
|authorsources=
The mob beat Smith and Rigdon unconscious and [[tarring and feathering|tarred and feathered]] them.
*On the basis of limited evidence, [[Fawn Brodie]] speculated that a member of the mob hoped to punish Smith for "being too intimate with his sister."{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=178-79}}; {{Harv|Brodie|1945|p=119}}. In the struggle Smith demonstrated his physical prowess but also begged for mercy. The next day, a Sunday, he preached as usual "and the quiet dignity of his sermon added to the aura of heroism fast beginning to surround him."{{Harv|Brodie|1945|p=120}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=119}} (noting that Smith may have narrowly escaped being castrated over some perceived intimacy between Smith and the sixteen year old sister of one of the mob's instigators); {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=178–79}} (arguing that the evidence for Smith's intimacy with the girl is thin). Bruised and scarred, Smith preached the following day as if nothing happened ({{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=120}}; {{Harvtxt|2002|pp=110–11}}).
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232290914&oldid=232287648}}The wiki editor twists what is stated by the cited source, Bushman (p. 179): "The historian Fawn Brodie speculated that one of John Johnson's sons, Eli, meant to punish Joseph for an intimacy with his sister Nancy Marinda, but that hypothesis fell for lack of evidence." The editor cites Bushman, but only includes Brodie's speculation without noting that the her hypothesis was disproven.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*Bushman (p. 179): "The historian Fawn Brodie speculated that one of John Johnson's sons, Eli, meant to punish Joseph for an intimacy with his sister Nancy Marinda, but that hypothesis fell for lack of evidence." The editor cites Bushman, but only includes Brodie's speculation without noting that the her hypothesis was disproven.
*Regarding the story of why Joseph was tarred and feathered, Brodie gets the woman's name wrong—it is "Marinda Nancy," not "Nancy Marinda." The account is further flawed because Marinda has no brother named Eli.  
*Regarding the story of why Joseph was tarred and feathered, Brodie gets the woman's name wrong—it is "Marinda Nancy," not "Nancy Marinda." The account is further flawed because Marinda has no brother named Eli.  
*Van Wagoner in ''Mormon Polygamy'' describes the tar and feather incident. Unfortunately, Van Wagoner tucks this information into an endnote, where the reader will be unaware of it unless he checks the sources carefully:  
*Van Wagoner in ''Mormon Polygamy'' describes the tar and feather incident. Unfortunately, Van Wagoner tucks this information into an endnote, where the reader will be unaware of it unless he checks the sources carefully:  
Line 137: Line 328:
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
*Todd Compton casts further doubt on this episode. He notes that Van Wagoner's source is Fawn Brodie, and Brodie's source is from 1884—quite late. Clark Braden, the source, also got his information second-hand, and is clearly antagonistic, since he is a member of the Church of Christ, the “Disciples,” seeking to attack the Reorganized (RLDS) Church.  
*Todd Compton casts further doubt on this episode. He notes that Van Wagoner's source is Fawn Brodie, and Brodie's source is from 1884—quite late. Clark Braden, the source, also got his information second-hand, and is clearly antagonistic, since he is a member of the Church of Christ, the “Disciples,” seeking to attack the Reorganized (RLDS) Church.  
*{{Detail|Polygamy book/Early womanizer#Marinda Nancy Johnson|l1=Marinda Nancy Johnson}}
*{{Detail_old|Polygamy book/Early womanizer#Marinda Nancy Johnson|l1=Marinda Nancy Johnson}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
The old [[Jackson County, Missouri|Jackson Countians]] resented the Mormon newcomers for various political and religious reasons.
|authorsources=<br>
#These reasons included the settlers' understanding that the Saints' intended to appropriate their property and establish a [[Millennialism|Millennial]] political kingdom ({{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=130–31}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|pp=114}}), the Saints' friendliness with the Indians ({{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=130}}); {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|pp=114–15}}), the Saints' perceived religious blasphemy {{Harv|Remini|2002|p=114}}, and especially the belief that the Saints were [[abolitionism|abolitionists]] ({{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=131–33}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|pp=113–14}}).
}}
}}


====Expulsion of Church from Zion, and Kirtland Temple {{WikipediaUpdate|1/8/2010}}====
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Mob attacks began in July 1833,
|authorsources=<br>
#Vigilantes [[Tarring and feathering|tarred and feathered]] two church leaders,  destroyed some Mormon homes, destroyed the [[Evening and Morning Star|Mormon press]], then the westernmost American newspaper, including most copies of the unpublished [[Book of Commandments]]. ({{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=181–83}}; {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=115}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The attack on Smith in Ohio encouraged him to accelerate a trip to Missouri.
|claim=
|authorsources=
but Smith advised the Mormons to [[turning the other cheek|patiently bear them]]
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=180}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=135–36}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=235}}.
*According to the cited source, it was the ''fallout'' from the attack that precipitated the move to Missouri, rather than the attack itself: "The fallout from the attack lasted for months. The mobbers continued to menace the Johnson farm until they drove Sidney and Joseph away. In early April, they left for Missouri." (Bushman, p. 180)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
until a fourth attack, which would permit vengeance to be taken.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1994|pp=82–83}} (Smith's August 1833 revelation said that after the fourth attack, "the Saints were "justified" by God in violence against any attack by any enemy "until they had avenged themselves on all their enemies, to the third and fourth generation.," citing {{Harvtxt|Smith|Cowdery|Rigdon|Williams|1835|p=218}}).}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Nevertheless, once they began to defend themselves,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1994|pp=83–84}} (after the fourth attack on 2 November 1833, Saints began fighting back, leading to the Battle of Blue River on 4 November 1833).
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
During his 1832 visit, Smith had to dampen hard feelings among his subordinates there, but he was also able to found the first Mormon newspaper, the ''[[Evening and Morning Star]]'', at the time the westernmost newspaper in the United States.
|claim=
|authorsources=
the Mormons were brutally expelled from the county.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=181-83}};{{Harv|Brodie|1945|p=115}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=222–27}}; {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=137}} (noting that the brutality of the Jackson Countians aroused sympathy for the Mormons and was almost universally deplored by the media).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Under authority of revelations directing Smith to lead the church like a modern [[Moses]] to redeem Zion by power
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Roberts|1904|p=37}} (February 1834 revelation: "[T]he redemption of Zion must needs come by power; [t]herefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel,...and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched out arm."); {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=146}} ("Quick-springing visions of an army of liberation marching triumphantly into the promised land betrayed his sounder judgment."); {{Harvtxt|Hill|1989|pp=44–45}} (suggesting that although members of the camp expected to do battle, Smith might have hoped they could merely intimidate the Missourians by a show of force).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim  
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The paper's publisher, Mormon journalist [[W. W. Phelps (Mormon)|W. W. Phelps]], was assigned the task of compiling Smith's earlier revelations, which believers had begun to treat as sacred texts, and publishing them as the [[Book of Commandments]].
|claim=
|authorsources=
and avenge God's enemies,
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=128}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|Cowdery|Rigdon|Williams|1835|p=237}} (December 1833 revelation: Smith must "get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower, and scatter their watchmen. And inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge me of mine enemies, that by and by I may come with the residue of mine house and possess the land."); {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1994|pp=84–85}} (arguing that as of February 1834, the Saints were "free to take 'vengeance' at will against any perceived enemy").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
}}
 
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The rough pioneers of Missouri found Smith's prophecies about Zion threatening.
|claim=
|authorsources=
he led to Missouri a [[paramilitary]] expedition, later called [[Zion's Camp]].
*In 1833 Smith had prophesied that the Saints were to "redeem my vineyard; for it is mine...break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower, and scatter their watchmen." (''D&C'' 101:56-58.) In February, the revelations spoke of "avenging me of my enemies." (''D&C'' 103:25.)
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=146–58}}; {{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|p=115}}.
*{{WikipediaSYN|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232473169&oldid=232470042}}The editor has synthesized a conclusion from primary sources. The ''Doctrine and Covenants'' says nothing about the "rough pioneers of Missouri" finding Joseph's prophecies about Zion threatening.  
|authorsources=<br>
*A more appropriate secondary source would be Bushman, p. 353: "The Missourians believed that Mormons thought Joseph's revelations put them beyond the law. Since the word of God outranked the law of the land, Mormons were suspected of breaking the law whenever the Prophet required it."
#
}}
}}
=====  =====
{{WikipediaPassage
|claim
Vigilantes [[Tarring and feathering|tarred and feathered]] two church leaders,  destroyed some Mormon homes, destroyed the Mormon press including most copies of the unpublished [[Book of Commandments]], and effectively forced the Saints to move to [[Clay County, Missouri|Clay County]].
|authorsources=
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=222-27}}.
|response=
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
When the camp found itself outnumbered, Smith retreated and produced a revelation explaining that the church was unworthy to redeem Zion in part because of the failure of the recently disbanded
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=141}}.
}}
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
Smith organized a military expedition from Kirtland (later called [[Zion's Camp]]) to take back the land—a revelation had commanded him to lead the church like a modern [[Moses]] to redeem Zion "by power, and with a stretched-out arm."
|claim=
|authorsources=
[[United Order]].
*D&C 103:15-18.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Roberts|1904|p=108}} (quoting text of revelation); {{Harvtxt|Hill|1989|pp=44–45}} (noting that in addition to failure to unite under the celestial order, God was displeased the church had failed to make Zion's army sufficiently strong).
}}
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The camp reached the [[Missouri River]], but did not engage the Missouri militiamen, who outnumbered them. After negotiations failed, Smith dictated another revelation stating that God was displeased with the church's lack of commitment to the [[United Order]],
|claim=
|authorsources=
Redemption of Zion would have to wait until after the elders of the church could receive another [[Endowment (Latter Day Saints)|endowment]] of heavenly power,
*LDS D&C 105:2-5.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=156–57}}; {{Harvtxt|Roberts|1904|p=109}} (text of revelation).
}}
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
and therefore, the "redemption of Zion" would have to wait until the church's elders could receive their promised [[Endowment (Mormonism)|endowment]] of heavenly power.
|claim=
|authorsources=
this time in the [[Kirtland Temple]]
*D&C 105:9-13.
|authorsources=<br>
|-
#{{Harvtxt|Smith|Cowdery|Rigdon|Williams|1835|p=233}} (Kirtland Temple "design[ed] to endow those whom [God] ha[s] chosen with power on high"); {{Harvtxt|Prince|1995|p=32 & n.104}} (quoting revelation dated 12 June 1834 (Kirtland Revelation Book pp. 97–100) stating that the redemption of Zion "cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on high; for, behold, I have prepared a greater endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them [than the 1831 endowment]").
|
}}
 
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
This endowment had been prophesied to take place in a temple planned to be built in Kirtland.
|claim=
then under construction.
|authorsources=<br>
#Construction began in June 1833 {{Harv|Remini|2002|p=115}}, not long before the first attack on the Missouri Saints.
}}
}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
After the failure of his effort to "redeem Zion", Smith was "stunned for months, scarcely knowing what to do."
|claim=
|authorsources=
Zion's Camp was a major failure
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=322}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=159}} (describing it as Smith's "second major failure").
*{{WikipediaCITE}}The cited source (Bushman, p. 322) does not contain the phrase "stunned for months, scarcely knowing what to do." This sounds more like Brodie.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*Bushman states,
*Bushman states,
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Was Zion's Camp a catastrophe? Perhaps, but it was not the unmitigated disaster that it appears to be. Most camp members felt more loyal to Joseph than ever, bonded by their hardships. The future leadership of the Church came from this group. Nine of the Church's original Twelve Apostles, all seven presidents of the Seventy, and sixty-three other members of the seventy marched in Zion's Camp. (Bushman, p. 247)
Was Zion's Camp a catastrophe? Perhaps, but it was not the unmitigated disaster that it appears to be. Most camp members felt more loyal to Joseph than ever, bonded by their hardships. The future leadership of the Church came from this group. Nine of the Church's original Twelve Apostles, all seven presidents of the Seventy, and sixty-three other members of the seventy marched in Zion's Camp. (Bushman, p. 247)
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
that stunned Smith for months
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=328}} (Smith was "stunned for months, scarcely knowing what to do.").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCITE}}The cited source (Bushman, p. 322) does not contain the phrase "stunned for months, scarcely knowing what to do." This sounds more like Brodie.
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and resulted in a crisis in Kirtland.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=160}}; {{Harvtxt|Quinn|1994|p=87}} (noting that in October 1834, Smith only gathered two votes in his failed election as Kirtland's [[coroner]]).
}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
But Zion's Camp also led to a transformation in Mormon leadership and culture.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1994|p=85}}.
}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Just before Zion's Camp left Kirtland, Smith disbanded the United Order
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=141}} ("In the Missouri debacle Joseph now saw a chance to erase the whole economic experiment—which in Kirtland had never yielded anything but trouble.").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*It is only Brodie's opinion that Joseph saw Missouri as "a chance to erase the whole economic experiment."
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and changed the name of the church to "Church of Latter Day Saints."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=147–48}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Name of the Church}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
After the Camp returned, Smith drew heavily from its participants to establish five governing bodies in the church, all of equal authority to check one another.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=161}} (The five equal councils were "the [[First Presidency|presidency]], the [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|apostles]], the [[Seventy (Latter Day Saints)|seventies]], and the two [[Presiding High Council|high councils]] of Kirtland and Missouri").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
He also produced fewer revelations, relying more heavily on the authority of his own teaching,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=159–60}} (comparing only 13 or so revelations after July 1834, several of them trivial, to the over 100 in the five years previous); {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=322, 419}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and he altered and expanded many of the previous revelations to reflect recent changes in theology and practice, publishing them as the ''[[Doctrine and Covenants]]''.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1994|pp=5–6, 9, 15–17, 26, 30, 33, 35, 38–42, 49, 70–71, 88, 198}}; {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=141}} (Smith "began to efface the communistic rubric of his young theology").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Doctrine and Covenants/Textual changes}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith also claimed to translate, from Egyptian papyri he had purchased from a traveling exhibitor, a text he later published as the ''[[Book of Abraham]]''.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=170–75}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Book of Abraham}}
*{{Detail_old|Book of Abraham/Joseph Smith Papyri}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
The Saints built the [[Kirtland Temple]] at great cost,
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Remini|2002|p=116}} ("The ultimate cost came to approximately $50,000, an enormous sum for a people struggling to stay alive.").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and at the temple's dedication in March 1836, they participated in the prophesied [[endowment (Latter Day Saints)|endowment]], a scene of visions, angelic visitations, prophesying, [[glossolalia|speaking and singing in tongues]], and other spiritual experiences.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=310–19}}; {{Harv|Brodie|1971|p=178}} ("Five years before...[Joseph] had found a spontaneous orgiastic revival in full progress and had ruthlessly stamped it out.  Now he was intoxicating his followers with the same frenzy he had once so vigorously denounced.")
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
The period from 1834–1837 was one of relative peace for Joseph Smith.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=165–66}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Nevertheless, after the dedication of the Kirtland temple in late 1837, "Smith's life descended into a tangle of intrigue and conflict"
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=322}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
and a series of internal disputes led to the collapse of the Kirtland Mormon community.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brooke|1994|p=221}} ("Ultimately, the rituals and visions dedicating the Kirtland temple were not sufficient to hold the church together in the face of a mounting series of internal disputes," citing the failure of Zion's camp, the Alger "affair," and new theological innovations).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Although the church had publicly repudiated [[polygamy]],
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|pp=340–41}} (noting that Smith confided to [[Brigham Young]] in Kirtland that "if I were to reveal to this people what the Lord has revealed to me, there is not a man or a woman that would stay with me.").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Polygamy}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
However, he soon organized the leading governing bodies of the church, and published a new book of his revelations entitled the ''[[Doctrine and Covenants]]'' to replace the destroyed ''[[Book of Commandments]]'', in the process revising and changing many of his prior revelations to reflect later church theology and practice. Under his direction, the Saints sacrificed to build a [[Kirtland Temple|stone temple]]. For a few months after its completion in early 1836, this first temple was the scene of visions, angelic visitations, prophesying, [[glossolalia|speaking and singing in tongues]], and other spiritual experiences.
|claim=
|authorsources=
behind the scenes there was a rift between Smith and Oliver Cowdery over the issue.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=310-19}};{{Harv|Brodie|1945|p=178}}. Brodie writes, "Five years before...[Joseph] had found a spontaneous orgiastic revival in full progress and had ruthlessly stamped it out.  Now he was intoxicating his followers with the same frenzy he had once so vigorously denounced."
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=323–25}}; {{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|p=188}} (noting that [[Benjamin F. Johnson]] "realized later that Joseph's polygamy was one cause of disruption and apostasy in Kirtland, although it was rarely discussed in public.").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail|Doctrine and Covenants/Textual changes}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith had by some accounts been teaching a [[Mormonism and polygamy|polygamy doctrine]] as early as 1831.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Compton|1997|p=27}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=326}}; {{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|p=340}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Polygamy}}


====Collapse of church in Ohio {{WikipediaUpdate|1/11/2010}}====
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Sometime between 1833 and 1836, Smith engaged in a furtive relationship with his adolescent serving girl [[Fanny Alger]].
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=323}} (noting that Alger was fourteen in 1830 when she met Smith, and her involvement with Smith was between that date and 1836, and suggesting that the relationship began as early as 1831). {{Harvtxt|Compton|1997|p=26}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=326}} (noting Compton's date and conclusion)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Plural wives/Fanny Alger}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
After the dedication of the Kirtland temple, Smith's life "descended into a tangle of intrigue and conflict."
|claim=
|authorsources=
Although Cowdery claimed the relationship was a "filthy affair,"
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=322}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=181–82}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=323–25}}; {{Harvtxt|Smith|2008|pp=38–39 n.81}} (questioning whether Smith and Alger were actually married; "a dirty, nasty, filthy affair,").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Plural wives/Fanny Alger}}
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Smith insisted the relationship was not adulterous, presumably because he had taken Alger as a plural wife.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=325}}: Smith "wanted it on record that he had never confessed to such a sin. Presumably, he felt innocent because he had married Alger."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*Bushman notes,
<blockquote>
On his part, Joseph never denied a relationship with Alger, but insisted it was not adulterous. He wanted it on record that he had never confessed to such a sin. Presumably, he felt innocent because he had married Alger."
</blockquote>


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The religious enthusiasm generated by the opening of the temple was damaged by a series of internal disputes that caused the collapse of the church in Ohio.
|claim=
|authorsources=
Cowdery, who was in the process of leaving the church,
*{{Harvtxt|Brooke|1994|p=221}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=323–25}} ("In the contemporaneous documents, only one person, Cowdery, believed that Joseph had had an affair with Fanny Alger. Others may have heard the rumors, but none joined Cowdery in making accusations. David Patten, who made inquiries in Kirtland, concluded the rumors were untrue. No one proposed to put Joseph on trial for adultery. Only Cowdery, who was leaving the Church, asserted Joseph's involvement.")
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
One dispute had to do with the embarrassment caused by Smith's failure of "redeem Zion". Another dispute related to a 14-year-old girl named [[Fanny Alger]], with whom Smith had married as a [[plural marriage|plural wife]]. Smith's assistant president [[Oliver Cowdery]] was dismayed by this, considering it to be a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair."
|claim=
|authorsources=
was eventually charged with [[slander]] and expelled from the church.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=322-27}}. The relationship had ended by 1836, and Alger married a non-Mormon grocer in Indiana, bearing him nine children. To her brother, who later wrote to her about her relationship with the Prophet, she replied, "That is all a matter of my own.  And I have nothing to communicate."
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=324}}: "In 1838, [Cowdery] was charged with 'seeking to destroy the character of President Joseph Smith jr by falsly insinuating that he was guilty of adultry &c.' Fanny Alger's name was never mentioned, but doubtless she was the women in question."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}
*{{Detail|Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Fanny Alger and William McLellin}}
*Bushman cites ''Far West Record'', 163 (Apr. 12, 1838)
 
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Emma Smith "suspected a relationship and threw Fanny out of the house."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Ostling|1999|p=60}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*The Ostlings state,
<blockquote>
The comely sixteen-year-old Fanny Alger, a hired girl living with the Smiths in Kirtland, became the prophet's plural wife in 1833 when he was twenty-seven. In a pattern that was to be repeated several times, Emma suspected a relationship and threw Fanny out of her house.
</blockquote>
*The Ostlings do not provide precise endnotes for the reference. In the endnotes on page 405 for the related chapter, they cite "Early Mormon polygamy and Emma's reaction to the principle: Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, ''Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith: Prophet's Wife, "Elect Lady," Polygamy's Foe'', p. 64.
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Plural wives/Fanny Alger}}
*{{Detail_old|Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormon America: The Power and the Promise}} for an overview of the Ostlings' book.
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
Building the temple left the church deeply in debt, and Smith was hounded by creditors.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=217, 329}} The temple left a debt of $13,000, and Smith borrowed tens of thousands more to make land purchases and purchase inventory for a merchandise store. By 1837, Smith had run up a debt of over $100,000.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*According to the cited source, the remaining debt on the temple was $13,000, and "Joseph opened a merchandise store, but the venture called for still more capital. The month after he returned from Salem, he borrowed $11,000 for land purchases and store inventory. John Corrill heard the store inventory eventually cost between $80,000 and $90,000. The borrowing went on through 1837 until Joseph had run up debts of over $100,000" (Bushman, p. 329),
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
After Smith heard about treasure supposedly hidden in [[Salem, Massachusetts]], he traveled there and received a revelation that God had "much treasure in this city."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Quinn|1998|pp=261–64}}; {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=192}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=328}}.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging/"Treasure hunting" trip to Salem}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
The greatest strain on the church, however, was financial. From an economic perspective, the Kirtland temple had been "a disaster," as money that might have been used for the [[City of Zion]] was channeled into a costly building project. Both Smith and his church went deeply in debt, and Smith was "hounded by his creditors ever after."
|claim=
|authorsources=
After a month, he returned empty-handed.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=217, 329}}. By 1837, Smith had run up a debt of over $100,000.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=328}}; {{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=193}}: "Joseph made no apology for this indiscretion. In his history he described the trip to Salem as an ordinary missionary tour, and the incident eventually was forgotten."
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=Trevdna|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=148846196&oldid=148792783}}This paragraph and footnote makes it sound as if the temple alone was the reason for Joseph's debt. According to the cited source, the remaining debt on the temple was $13,000, and "Joseph opened a merchandise store, but the venture called for still more capital. The month after he returned from Salem, he borrowed $11,000 for land purchases and store inventory. John Corrill heard the store inventory eventually cost between $80,000 and $90,000. The borrowing went on through 1837 until Joseph had run up debts of over $100,000." (Bushman, p. 329)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{Detail_old|Joseph Smith/Money digging/"Treasure hunting" trip to Salem}}
===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
In an attempt to recover, in August 1836, Smith dictated a revelation that there was "much treasure" in [[Salem, Massachusetts]]. Hoping he might find it with his seer stone, he and his closest associates left the financially troubled Kirtland community for the East.  By September they were back in Kirtland; they returned with no treasure.
|claim=
|authorsources=
Smith then turned to [[wildcat banking]], establishing the [[Kirtland Safety Society]] in January 1837, which issued [[bank note]]s [[financial capital|capitalized]] in part by [[real estate]].
*'D&C'' 111:2; {{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=322}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=328}}.
*{{WikipediaSYN|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232532126&oldid=232529588}}The cited sources say nothing about Joseph using a seer stone. Bushman (p. 328) states, "Perhaps Joseph believed he could identify the site using his boyhood gifts as a treasure-seeker." The paragraph as written is also incorrect, implying that the revelation directed Joseph to go to Salem, In reality, the revelation was received ''after'' the trip to Salem&mdash;it began with the words "I the Lord your God am not displeased with your coming this journey, notwithstanding your follies."
|authorsources=<br>
*The assumption that Joseph used a seer stone is made by evangelical authors Richard and Joan Ostling in their book ''Mormon America'', however, this source is not cited in the wiki article. The Ostlings claim that Joseph "left his financially troubled church for Salem, Massachusetts, at summer's end in 1836, hoping one last time that the use of his seer stone might produce treasure that he had been told lay under a house (D&C 111). The Ostlings only citation is to {{s||DC|111|}}, which, as stated previously, says nothing about the use of a seer stone. See {{CriticalWork:Ostling:Mormon America|pages=31}}
#
*See [[Joseph Smith's "treasure hunting" trip to Salem]]
}}
}}
*Bushman p. 328: It should be noted that Bushman states that in addition to the capital, that "[t]he rest of the issue was secured by land. In actuality, the Safety Society was a partial 'land bank,' a device New Englanders had once resorted to in their cash-poor, land-rich society."
*{{Detail_old|Kirtland Safety Society}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
A more common expedient for raising money on the frontier was [[wildcat bank]]ing. Smith and other church leaders lacked sufficient capital to obtain a state banking charter, and in 1836 they established the [[Kirtland Safety Society]] as a quasi-[[bank]].  Notes were printed and circulated in January 1837, but the Society's limited cash reserve and a national bank crisis, the [[Panic of 1837]], led to the failure of the venture within a month. The notes bore Smith's signature, and he was personally blamed for the fiasco.  The nationwide panic also encouraged creditors to pursue their debtors vigorously.
|claim=
|authorsources=
Smith invested heavily in the notes
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=329-30}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=328}} (Smith "had bought more stock than eighty-five percent of the investors.").
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232994922&oldid=232982288}}The cited source is incorrectly represented. Bushman states that in addition to the capital, that "[t]he rest of the issue was secured by land. In actuality, the Safety Society was a partial 'land bank,' a device New Englanders had once resorted to in their cash-poor, land-rich society." The wiki editor wants to make it sound as if Joseph was instigating a fraud by establishing the bank and printing notes without adequate backing.
|authorsources=<br>
*{{Detail|Kirtland Safety Society}}
#
}}
}}
*{{Detail_old|Kirtland Safety Society}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
Many Latter Day Saints, including prominent leaders who had invested with the bank, became disaffected and either left the church or were excommunicated.
|claim=
|authorsources=
and encouraged the Saints to buy them as a religious duty.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=336-38}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|pp=195–96}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=334}}.
*{{WikipediaMissingRef}}Bushman states the following on page 626, note 42: "Milton Backman notes that none of the bank's largest shareholders and only eight percent of all shareholders left the Church. (Backman, "Kirtland Temple," 221.)
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{Detail_old|Kirtland Safety Society}}
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
The bank failed within a month.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=330}} (noting that business started on 2 January 1837, business was floundering within three weeks, and payment stopped on 23 January 1837).
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
There were even a couple of unseemly rows in the temple, including one occasion on which guns and knives were drawn.
|claim=
|authorsources=
As a result, the Kirtland Saints suffered intense pressure from debt collectors and severe price volatility.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=339}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=331–32}}.
*{{WikipediaSYN|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232537365&oldid=232532126}}The cited source describes a single disruptive incident in the temple&mdash;the one involving weapons. The wiki editor has expanded this to "a couple of unseemly rows in the temple."
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
When a leading apostle, [[David W. Patten]], raised insulting questions, Smith slapped him in the face and kicked him into the yard.
|claim=
|authorsources=
Smith was held responsible for the failure, and there were widespread defections from the church,
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=332, 337, 339}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=332, 336–38}}. [[Richard Bushman]] notes that [[Heber C. Kimball]] claimed that in June 1837, not more than 20 men in Kirtland believed Smith was a prophet, but argues that this was an exaggeration, and that there were still "hundreds and probably thousands of loyal followers" during this time {{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=332}}.
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}From Bushman, "David Patten, a leading apostle, raised so many insulting questions Joseph 'slap[p]ed him in the face & kicked him out of the yard.'"
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
}}
*{{WikipediaCorrect}}


===== =====
===== =====
{{WikipediaPassage
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|claim
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
After a warrant was issued for Smith's arrest on the charge of bank fraud, Smith and Rigdon fled Kirtland for Missouri on the night of January 12, 1838.
|claim=
|authorsources=
including many of Smith's closest advisers.
*{{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=339-40}}.
|authorsources=<br>
|response=
#The fallout included an unseemly row in the temple where guns and knives were drawn {{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=339}}. When a leading apostle, [[David W. Patten]], raised insulting questions, Smith slapped him in the face and kicked him into the yard {{Harv|Bushman|2005|pp=332, 337, 339}}. Even stalwarts [[Parley P. Pratt]] and [[Orson Pratt]] left the church for a few months {{Harv|Bushman|2005|p=332}}.
*{{WikipediaCITE|editor=John "Foxe"|wikipedialink=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Smith,_Jr.&diff=232537365&oldid=232532126}}The cited source (Bushman) makes no mention of a "warrant issued for Smith's arrest on the charge of bank fraud." This was originally cited to Brodie, p. 207&mdash;the editor removed this cite during a rewrite and referenced Bushman instead.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*{{WikipediaMissingRef}}Bushman states the following on page 626, note 42: "Milton Backman notes that none of the bank's largest shareholders and only eight percent of all shareholders left the Church. (Backman, "Kirtland Temple," 221.)
*From Bushman, "David Patten, a leading apostle, raised so many insulting questions Joseph 'slap[p]ed him in the face & kicked him out of the yard.'"
 
===== =====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith<ref name="at_the_time">Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.</ref>
|claim=
After a warrant was issued for Smith's arrest on a charge of banking fraud, Smith and Rigdon fled Kirtland for Missouri on the night of January 12, 1838.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Harvtxt|Brodie|1971|p=207}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=339–40}}; {{Harvtxt|Hill|1977|p=216}} (noting that Smith characterized the warrant as "mob violence...under the color of legal process").
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*Bushman states, "Joseph and Rigdon left Kirtland in the night on January 12, 1838. The lawsuits were building up, and apostates were feared to be plotting more desperate measures. Joseph claimed that armed men&mdash;whether Mormons or irate creditors, he did not say&mdash;pursued them for two hundred miles from Kirtland." (Bushman, p. 340)
*Bushman states, "Joseph and Rigdon left Kirtland in the night on January 12, 1838. The lawsuits were building up, and apostates were feared to be plotting more desperate measures. Joseph claimed that armed men&mdash;whether Mormons or irate creditors, he did not say&mdash;pursued them for two hundred miles from Kirtland." (Bushman, p. 340)
}}
*{{SeeCriticalWork|author=Fawn Brodie|work=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith}}


==References==
{{To_learn_more_box:anti-Mormon_literature_and_Wikipedia}}
{{WikipediaRefList:Joseph Smith, Jr.}}


==Further reading==
{{MormonismAndWikipedia}}


{{suggestions}}
{{Endnotes sources}}

Latest revision as of 07:05, 31 May 2024

An analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith"



Founding a Church (1827 to 1830)
A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: "Joseph Smith"
 A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here) 		Life in Missouri (1838–39)
The name Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. Wikipedia content is copied and made available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Reviews of previous revisions of this section

19 May 2009

Summary: A review of this section as it appeared in Wikipedia on 19 May 2009.

Section review

Life in Ohio (1831–38)  Updated 9/3/2011

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

When Smith moved to Kirtland, Ohio in January 1831,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

his first task

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

was to bring the Ohio congregation within his own religious authority

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

by quashing the new converts' exuberant exhibition of spiritual gifts.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Rigdon's congregation of converts included a prophetess that Smith declared to be of the devil.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Prior to conversion, the congregation had also been practicing a form of Christian communism, and Smith adopted a communal system within his own church, calling it the United Order of Enoch.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • It is Brodie's own opinion that Joseph got the idea for the United Order from Sidney Rigdon. Bushman notes that the establishment of the Order "put Joseph Smith's Zion in company with scores of utopians who were bent on moderating economic injustices in these years."

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

At Rigdon's suggestion,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith began a revision of the Bible in April 1831,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

on which he worked sporadically until its completion in 1833.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Rectifying what Rigdon perceived as a defect in Smith's church,

Author's sources:
  1. Prince (1995) , p. 116.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith promised the church's elders that in Kirtland they would receive an endowment of heavenly power.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Therefore, in the church's June 1831 general conference,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • Brodie's source is Ezra Booth. Brodie's note on p.111: :

Booth's detailed account of the conference and the story of his own disillusionment were written in a series of letters to Edward Partridge and published in 1831-2 in the Ohio Start at Ravenna. They were reprinted in E. D. Howe: Mormonism Unvailed.

  • Booth claims the following (Mormonism Unvailed, pp. 189-90):

It now became clearly manifest, that "the man of sin was revealed," for the express purpose that the elders should become acquainted with the devices of Satan; and after that they would possess knowledge sufficient to manage him. This, Smith declared to be a miracle, and his success in this case, encouraged him to work other and different miracles. Taking the hand of one of the Elders in his own, a hand which by accident had been rendered defective, he said, "Brother Murdock, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to straighten your hand; in the mean while endeavoring to accomplish the work by using his own hand to open the hand of the other. The effort proved unsuccessful; but he again articulated the same commandment, in a more authoritative and louder tone of voice; and while uttering with his tongue, his hands were at work; but after all the exertion of his power, both natural and supernatural, the deficient hand returned to its former position, where it still remains. But ill success in this case, did not discourage him from undertaking another. One of the Elders who was decriped in one of his legs, was set upon the floor, and commanded, in the name of Jesus Christ to walk. He walked a step or two, his faith failed, and he was again compelled to have recourse to his former assistant, and he has had occasion to use it ever since.

A dead body. which had been retained above ground two or three days, under the expectation that the dead would be raised, was insensible to the voice of those who commanded it to awake into life, and is destined to sleep in the grave till the last trump shall sound, and the power of God easily accomplishes the work, which frustrated the attempts, and bid defiance to the puny efforts of the Mormonite.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

he introduced the greater authority of a High ("Melchizedek") Priesthood to the church hierarchy.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

The church grew as new converts poured into Kirtland.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

By the summer of 1835, there were fifteen hundred to two thousand Mormons in the vicinity of Kirtland

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

expecting Smith to lead them shortly to the Millennial kingdom.

Author's sources:
  1. Brodie (1971) , pp. 101–02, 121.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Though Oliver Cowdery's mission to the Indians was a failure,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

he sent word he had found the site for the New Jerusalem in Jackson County, Missouri.

Author's sources:
  1. Brodie (1971) , p. 108.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

After he visited there in July 1831, Smith agreed and pronounced the county's rugged outpost

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Independence to be the "center place" of Zion.

Author's sources:
  1. Smith (Cowdery) , p. 154.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Rigdon, however, disapproved of the location, and for most of the 1830s, the church was divided between Ohio and Missouri.

Author's sources:
  1. Brodie (1971) , p. 115.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith continued to live in Ohio but visited Missouri again in early 1832 in order to prevent a rebellion of prominent Saints, including Cowdery, who believed Zion was being neglected.

Author's sources:
  1. Brodie (1971) , pp. 119–22.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith's trip was hastened

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

by a mob of residents led by former Saints who were incensed over the United Order and Smith's political power.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

The mob beat Smith and Rigdon unconscious and tarred and feathered them.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • Bushman (p. 179): "The historian Fawn Brodie speculated that one of John Johnson's sons, Eli, meant to punish Joseph for an intimacy with his sister Nancy Marinda, but that hypothesis fell for lack of evidence." The editor cites Bushman, but only includes Brodie's speculation without noting that the her hypothesis was disproven.
  • Regarding the story of why Joseph was tarred and feathered, Brodie gets the woman's name wrong—it is "Marinda Nancy," not "Nancy Marinda." The account is further flawed because Marinda has no brother named Eli.
  • Van Wagoner in Mormon Polygamy describes the tar and feather incident. Unfortunately, Van Wagoner tucks this information into an endnote, where the reader will be unaware of it unless he checks the sources carefully:

One account related that on 24 March [1832] a mob of men pulled Smith from his bed, beat him, and then covered him with a coat of tar and feathers. Eli Johnson, who allegedly participated in the attack "because he suspected Joseph of being intimate with his sister, Nancy Marinda Johnson, … was screaming for Joseph's castration." There is more to the story than this, however—much more. Van Wagoner even indicates that it is "unlikely" that "an incident between Smith and Nancy Johnson precipitated the mobbing."

  • Todd Compton casts further doubt on this episode. He notes that Van Wagoner's source is Fawn Brodie, and Brodie's source is from 1884—quite late. Clark Braden, the source, also got his information second-hand, and is clearly antagonistic, since he is a member of the Church of Christ, the “Disciples,” seeking to attack the Reorganized (RLDS) Church.
  • For a detailed response, see: Marinda Nancy Johnson
  • For an analysis of Fawn Brodie's critical work, see A FAIR Analysis of No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

The old Jackson Countians resented the Mormon newcomers for various political and religious reasons.

Author's sources:
  1. These reasons included the settlers' understanding that the Saints' intended to appropriate their property and establish a Millennial political kingdom (Brodie (1971) , pp. 130–31; Remini (2002) , pp. 114), the Saints' friendliness with the Indians (Brodie (1971) , p. 130); Remini (2002) , pp. 114–15), the Saints' perceived religious blasphemy Remini (2002) , p. 114, and especially the belief that the Saints were abolitionists (Brodie (1971) , pp. 131–33; Remini (2002) , pp. 113–14).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Mob attacks began in July 1833,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

but Smith advised the Mormons to patiently bear them

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

until a fourth attack, which would permit vengeance to be taken.

Author's sources:
  1. Quinn (1994) , pp. 82–83 (Smith's August 1833 revelation said that after the fourth attack, "the Saints were "justified" by God in violence against any attack by any enemy "until they had avenged themselves on all their enemies, to the third and fourth generation.," citing Smith (Cowdery) , p. 218).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Nevertheless, once they began to defend themselves,

Author's sources:
  1. Quinn (1994) , pp. 83–84 (after the fourth attack on 2 November 1833, Saints began fighting back, leading to the Battle of Blue River on 4 November 1833).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

the Mormons were brutally expelled from the county.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Under authority of revelations directing Smith to lead the church like a modern Moses to redeem Zion by power

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and avenge God's enemies,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

he led to Missouri a paramilitary expedition, later called Zion's Camp.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

When the camp found itself outnumbered, Smith retreated and produced a revelation explaining that the church was unworthy to redeem Zion in part because of the failure of the recently disbanded

Author's sources:
  1. Brodie (1971) , p. 141.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

United Order.

Author's sources:
  1. Roberts (1904) , p. 108 (quoting text of revelation); Hill (1989) , pp. 44–45 (noting that in addition to failure to unite under the celestial order, God was displeased the church had failed to make Zion's army sufficiently strong).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Redemption of Zion would have to wait until after the elders of the church could receive another endowment of heavenly power,

Author's sources:
  1. Brodie (1971) , pp. 156–57; Roberts (1904) , p. 109 (text of revelation).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

this time in the Kirtland Temple

Author's sources:
  1. Smith (Cowdery) , p. 233 (Kirtland Temple "design[ed] to endow those whom [God] ha[s] chosen with power on high"); Prince (1995) , p. 32 & n.104 (quoting revelation dated 12 June 1834 (Kirtland Revelation Book pp. 97–100) stating that the redemption of Zion "cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on high; for, behold, I have prepared a greater endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them [than the 1831 endowment]").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

then under construction.

Author's sources:
  1. Construction began in June 1833 Remini (2002) , p. 115, not long before the first attack on the Missouri Saints.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Zion's Camp was a major failure

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • Bushman states,

Was Zion's Camp a catastrophe? Perhaps, but it was not the unmitigated disaster that it appears to be. Most camp members felt more loyal to Joseph than ever, bonded by their hardships. The future leadership of the Church came from this group. Nine of the Church's original Twelve Apostles, all seven presidents of the Seventy, and sixty-three other members of the seventy marched in Zion's Camp. (Bushman, p. 247)

}}

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

that stunned Smith for months

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.

    The cited source (Bushman, p. 322) does not contain the phrase "stunned for months, scarcely knowing what to do." This sounds more like Brodie.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and resulted in a crisis in Kirtland.

Author's sources:
  1. Brodie (1971) , p. 160; Quinn (1994) , p. 87 (noting that in October 1834, Smith only gathered two votes in his failed election as Kirtland's coroner).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

But Zion's Camp also led to a transformation in Mormon leadership and culture.

Author's sources:
  1. Quinn (1994) , p. 85.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Just before Zion's Camp left Kirtland, Smith disbanded the United Order

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and changed the name of the church to "Church of Latter Day Saints."

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

After the Camp returned, Smith drew heavily from its participants to establish five governing bodies in the church, all of equal authority to check one another.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

He also produced fewer revelations, relying more heavily on the authority of his own teaching,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and he altered and expanded many of the previous revelations to reflect recent changes in theology and practice, publishing them as the Doctrine and Covenants.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith also claimed to translate, from Egyptian papyri he had purchased from a traveling exhibitor, a text he later published as the Book of Abraham.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

The Saints built the Kirtland Temple at great cost,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and at the temple's dedication in March 1836, they participated in the prophesied endowment, a scene of visions, angelic visitations, prophesying, speaking and singing in tongues, and other spiritual experiences.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

The period from 1834–1837 was one of relative peace for Joseph Smith.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Nevertheless, after the dedication of the Kirtland temple in late 1837, "Smith's life descended into a tangle of intrigue and conflict"

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and a series of internal disputes led to the collapse of the Kirtland Mormon community.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Although the church had publicly repudiated polygamy,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

behind the scenes there was a rift between Smith and Oliver Cowdery over the issue.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith had by some accounts been teaching a polygamy doctrine as early as 1831.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Sometime between 1833 and 1836, Smith engaged in a furtive relationship with his adolescent serving girl Fanny Alger.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Although Cowdery claimed the relationship was a "filthy affair,"

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith insisted the relationship was not adulterous, presumably because he had taken Alger as a plural wife.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • Bushman notes,

On his part, Joseph never denied a relationship with Alger, but insisted it was not adulterous. He wanted it on record that he had never confessed to such a sin. Presumably, he felt innocent because he had married Alger."

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Cowdery, who was in the process of leaving the church,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

was eventually charged with slander and expelled from the church.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources
  • Bushman cites Far West Record, 163 (Apr. 12, 1838)


The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Emma Smith "suspected a relationship and threw Fanny out of the house."

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • The Ostlings state,

The comely sixteen-year-old Fanny Alger, a hired girl living with the Smiths in Kirtland, became the prophet's plural wife in 1833 when he was twenty-seven. In a pattern that was to be repeated several times, Emma suspected a relationship and threw Fanny out of her house.

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Building the temple left the church deeply in debt, and Smith was hounded by creditors.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • According to the cited source, the remaining debt on the temple was $13,000, and "Joseph opened a merchandise store, but the venture called for still more capital. The month after he returned from Salem, he borrowed $11,000 for land purchases and store inventory. John Corrill heard the store inventory eventually cost between $80,000 and $90,000. The borrowing went on through 1837 until Joseph had run up debts of over $100,000" (Bushman, p. 329),

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

After Smith heard about treasure supposedly hidden in Salem, Massachusetts, he traveled there and received a revelation that God had "much treasure in this city."

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

After a month, he returned empty-handed.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith then turned to wildcat banking, establishing the Kirtland Safety Society in January 1837, which issued bank notes capitalized in part by real estate.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • Bushman p. 328: It should be noted that Bushman states that in addition to the capital, that "[t]he rest of the issue was secured by land. In actuality, the Safety Society was a partial 'land bank,' a device New Englanders had once resorted to in their cash-poor, land-rich society."
  • For a detailed response, see: Kirtland Safety Society

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith invested heavily in the notes

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

and encouraged the Saints to buy them as a religious duty.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

The bank failed within a month.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

As a result, the Kirtland Saints suffered intense pressure from debt collectors and severe price volatility.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

Smith was held responsible for the failure, and there were widespread defections from the church,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  Correct, per cited sources

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

including many of Smith's closest advisers.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  •  References not included in the Wikipedia article
    Bushman states the following on page 626, note 42: "Milton Backman notes that none of the bank's largest shareholders and only eight percent of all shareholders left the Church. (Backman, "Kirtland Temple," 221.)
  • From Bushman, "David Patten, a leading apostle, raised so many insulting questions Joseph 'slap[p]ed him in the face & kicked him out of the yard.'"

The author(s) of the Wikipedia article on Joseph Smith[1] make(s) the following claim:

After a warrant was issued for Smith's arrest on a charge of banking fraud, Smith and Rigdon fled Kirtland for Missouri on the night of January 12, 1838.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • Bushman states, "Joseph and Rigdon left Kirtland in the night on January 12, 1838. The lawsuits were building up, and apostates were feared to be plotting more desperate measures. Joseph claimed that armed men—whether Mormons or irate creditors, he did not say—pursued them for two hundred miles from Kirtland." (Bushman, p. 340)
  • For an analysis of Fawn Brodie's critical work, see A FAIR Analysis of No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith.
Wikipedia and anti-Mormon literature
Key sources
  • Roger Nicholson, "Mormonism and Wikipedia: The Church History That 'Anyone Can Edit'," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 1/8 (14 September 2012). [151–190] link
Wiki links
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  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 1.39 1.40 1.41 1.42 1.43 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.47 1.48 1.49 1.50 1.51 1.52 1.53 1.54 1.55 1.56 1.57 1.58 1.59 1.60 1.61 1.62 1.63 1.64 1.65 1.66 1.67 1.68 1.69 1.70 1.71 1.72 1.73 Due to the nature of wikipedia, articles can change. This analysis applies to the article as it stood circa September 2011.
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