Joseph Smith/Legal issues

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Joseph Smith: Legal issues

Joseph Smith and legal issues

Joseph Smith's involvement with legal issues

Summary: How many times was Joseph involved with legal issues?

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• Question: How many times was Joseph Smith involved with legal issues?

Does D&C 98 teach the Saints to disobey the secular law?

Summary: According to historian D. Michael Quinn, Joseph received a revelation which "established the primacy of religious law over secular law...and not only authorized but commanded Mormons to disobey secular law and civil leaders not conforming to the commandments of God." This interpretation, however, is Quinn's own. The revelation is not telling the Saints to "disobey secular law and civil leaders"—it is telling them to "befriend" the law of the land, and seek to support "honest men and wise men" as leaders.

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• Question: Does Doctrine and Covenants 98:4-11 instruct Latter-day Saints to disobey secular law?

Claimed mismanagement of the Lawrence estate

Summary: Joseph Smith was appointed the guardian of two daughters, Maria and Sarah Lawrence, and their inheritance. He later married them in plural marriage. The evidence shows that Joseph Smith faithfully discharged his legal duties, despite the claims made by some nineteeth-century and modern critics.

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• Question: Did Joseph Smith mismanage the estate of two orphans, Maria and Sarah Lawrence by marrying these sisters polygamously in order to use the marriage to enrich himself?

1. REDIRECTJoseph Smith and legal issues