Difference between revisions of "Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormon America: The Power and the Promise/Index"

21

• Swedenborgianism, with its concepts of eternal marriage and a three-tiered heaven.

• Swedenborg and three degrees of glory

• Source not provided

23

• Lucy Mack Smith, "described Joseph Jr.’s youthful fascination with Indians in the years just prior to his translation of the Book of Mormon: ...Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals..."

• Joseph Smith's "amusing recitals" of ancient American inhabitants
• There is no mention of the fact that Joseph was receiving this information from Moroni during this period. See Lucy’s history prior to this statement.

• Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches, 1853. p. 85.

25

• Seer stones illegal – 1826 Smith “found guilty” of disorderly conduct for money-digging.

• Joseph Smith's 1826 glasslooking trial

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )

25

• Isaac Hale objected to marriage of Emma to Joseph because of “disreputable occupation of looking for treasure with magic stones rather than working the land like a respectable farmer."

• Joseph Smith and money digging

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )
• Although Quinn is cited as the source, the statement of Isaac Hale was originally published in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834). (Affidavits examined). For details, see: The Hurlbut affidavits#Isaac Hale

26

• During the translation, Joseph would work on one side of the blanket "with the Urim and Thummim as a kind of magic spectacles, his favorite seer stone, the golden plates, and the hat, while the scribe worked on the other."

• Book of Mormon translation method

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )

26

• Joseph would "bury his face with the seer stone in the hat and then dictate words to the scribe."

• Joseph Smith and seer stones

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), ( Index of claims )

29

•  Author's quote: View of the Hebrews...containing considerable material on the subject, as well as a description of ancient Central American Indian ruins.

• Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews
•  The author's claim is false See Quote manipulation

• No source provided.

31

• Book of Abraham used to justify policy toward blacks.

• Blacks and the priesthood/Repudiated ideas  ^{[needs work]}

31

• Joseph Smith used seer stone in 1836 to try and find treasure under a house in Salem, Mass.

• Joseph Smith's "treasure hunting" trip to Salem
• The statement is incorrect and pejorative. See Quote manipulation

• DC 111

34

• Danites were pledged to “plunder, lie, and even kill if deemed necessary."

• Danites

• Source not specified.

42

• There is historical evidence that Joseph Smith blessed his son, Joseph III that he would become his successor.

• Mark Hofmann  ^{[needs work]}
• Mark Hofmann produced a forgery that was claimed to be the blessing given by Joseph Smith to his son Joseph Smith III.

54

• Mountain Meadows massacre.

• Mountain Meadows Massacre

58

• Joseph started polygamy and had a large number of wives.

• Joseph Smith and polygamy

• Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945). ( Index of claims )  ^[ATTENTION!]
• Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997). ( Index of claims )

58

• The authors claim that Fawn Brodie’s research was largely substantiated by later scholarship.

• Actually, many of Brodie's claims have been losing ground in light of more recent scholarship. For example, see how Brodie's claims about Joseph Smith's alleged children through polygamous marriages have been refuted as the result of modern DNA research.
• No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith

58

• There were at least five cases of women who rejected his polygamous proposals.

• Joseph Smith and polygamy

58

• At least 11 of Joseph's wives married to another man. Mormon apologists have attempted to justify polygamy in part because it sheltered single women beyond marriageable age, the facts show otherwise. The vast majority of plural wives were younger than the first wife, often nubile teenagers.

• Joseph Smith and polygamy

59

• Possibly a few exceptional cases involving his closest associates taking wives who already had husbands.

• Joseph Smith and polyandry

59

• It is claimed that Joseph Smith "often" asked close friends for their wives and daughters.

• Joseph Smith and polygamy

59

• Some of the marriages were the result of pressure or spiritual coercion from the prophet.

• Joseph Smith and polygamy

60

• The “comely sixteen-year-old Fanny Alger” became Joseph's plural wife in 1833.

• Joseph Smith and polygamy/Marriages to young women

60

• W.W. Phelps introduced an anti-polygamy resolution in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting while Joseph was away, which was adopted by the Church.

• 1835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy

• Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 185. ( Index of claims )

60

• Scriptural resolution in D&C against polygamy Phelps/Cowdery “became a scriptural revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants.” This remained until removed in 1876 and replaced by Section 132.

• 1835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy

61

• Smith conducted marriage for Newell Knight against law, since the woman was not yet divorced from her non-Mormon husband. Smith said "Gentile law has no power to call me to account for it."

•  The author's claim is false: No law was broken, and marriage certificates were issued by the state of Ohio; no license was required.
• Any religious leader had a right to perform marriages in Ohio.
• Ohio marriages illegal?
• This claim is also made in One Nation Under Gods: p. 129, 529n14-15

• D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 623.
• Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 623.

61

• His youngest bride, in some ways typical, was fourteen-year-old Helen Mar Kimball.

• Note the author's pejorative opinion: "in some ways typical."
• Joseph Smith and polygamy/Marriages to young women

• Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 486-534. ( Index of claims )

62

• Helen had not grasped that marriage in time would eventually have a sexual component.

•  The author's claim is false The statement is not supported by the source. Compton never states anything about a "sexual component."
• The nature of Helen Mar Kimball's marriage?

• Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 486-534. ( Index of claims )

66

• The Book of Mormon was "conventionally monogamous:" "Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, Saith the Lord…Hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none" (Jacob 2:24, 27)

• Book of Mormon condemns polygamy

• Jacob 2꞉24-27
• Encyclopedia of Mormonism

67

• Swedenborg taught “spiritual wifery” in marriage for eternity. Swedenborg was discussed in Smith’s hometown newspaper.

• Swedenborg and three degrees of glory  ^{[needs work]}

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 115, 153, 176, 217-219, 487n ( Index of claims )

67

• 1842 declaration of monogamy in the Times and Seasons was signed by Emma and two of Smith’s wives Eliza Snow and Sarah Cleveland.

• Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, pp. 128-129.

115

•  Author's quote: "Outsider's money estimates always raise disclaimers from officialdom, presumably because of the danger that fat-looking figures might weaken members' tithing compliance."

• Author's opinion

160

• The author's claim that LDS believe that even God himself is married.

• Was Jesus Christ married?

• No source given

161

• Couples are "sealed forever" through secret ritual in a Mormon temple.

• Celestial Marriage

320

• The people of the New World were visited by the "Mormon Jesus."

• Latter-day Saints aren't Christians
• The statement is pejorative. See Quote manipulation

352

•  Author's quote: "The church has often swatted down intellectuals individually"

• Excommunication of scholars

• Quote by Lavina Fielding Anderson

354

• The Church operates a clipping service called the "Strengthening Church Members Committee" to monitor individual members, which Lavina Fielding Anderson refers to as "an internal espionage system."

• Strengthening Church Members Committee

• Lavina Fielding Anderson

354

• The LDS system of internal discipline "operates more like a small cult than a major denomination."

• The statement is pejorative. See Quote manipulation
• LDS Church is a cult

• Author's opinion

354

• The LDS Church penalizes members for "merely criticizing officialdom or for publishing truthful—if uncomfortable—information," and "shroud their procedures with secrecy."

• Excommunication  ^{[needs work]}

354

• The LDS Church prosecutes "many more of its members" than other religious groups.

• Excommunication  ^{[needs work]}