Spiritual manifestations at the dedication of the Kirtland temple

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Question

Was there really spiritual manifestations attending the dedication of the Kirtland temple? I have heard allegations that it was in fact a drunken orgy.

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 179. ( Index of claims )

Answer

The Kirtland "Pentecost"

It is ironic that critics refer to the Kirtland Temple dedication as some form of "Pentecost" for the early Church, when, at the first pentecost, the Apostles were also accused of being drunken. "Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine." (See Acts 2:13-15)

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

—Acts 2꞉4-13 (emphasis added)

In November 2002, an early account of the dedication of the Kirtland temple surfaced, confirming the spiritual outpouring. This account provides an excellent contemporary window into the event:

Sunday evening after joseph spoke opened & told them the day of penticost was continued the the [sic] Brethren began to to prophesy many prophesied in the name of the Lord then began speaking in tongues and it filled as it were the whole house, perhaps there were forty speaking at once cloven tongues of fire was seen to sit on many of them an hand was seen laid upon one when he spake in tongues to the lamanites many Visions seen, one saw a pillow or cloud rest down upon the house bright as when the sun shines on a cloud like as gold, two others saw three personages hovering in the room with bright keys in their hands, and also a bright chain in their hands ...^[1]

The origin of the story of "drunken behavior"

The earliest account we have is from apostate Benjamin F. Winchester, who was a friend of Joseph Smith’s, an LDS leader in the early 1840s. He wrote that the Kirtland temple dedication “ended in a drunken frolic.” Benjamin Winchester left the Church during the Nauvoo era in the 1840s, the temple dedication occurred in March of 1836, so, he was a member even AFTER the supposed events in Kirtland that he later condemned. Why? Why didn’t he leave earlier if he knew that such things were serving as the surrogate for spirituality 5 years earlier?

Such an accusation conflicts with many other contemporary accounts and is inconsistent with the Latter-day Saint attitude toward intemperance. If such behavior had been manifest, individuals would have undoubtedly recorded the information in their diaries or letters in 1836, but the negative reports emerged long after the events had transpired and among vindictive critics who had become enemies of the Church.^[2]

In 1886 an antimormon named Wilhelm Wyl published a book called MORMON PORTRAITS; JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET, HIS FAMILY & FRIENDS, in it he published the most lurid tales he could gather about the early leaders of the Church

He quotes from William McLellin and other early Church apostates to demonstrate that the Prophet and his family and friends were drunkards and fakes. Among his tales is this one regarding the Kirtland Temple dedication. Very likely his source was Mr. Winchester, but I haven't been able to review his book to ascertain that for sure. Assuming of course that there are source notes in the book.

In 1890 one A. Theodore Schroeder went to Salt Lake City and stayed for ten years digging through libraries and collections again looking for ammunition with which to attack the Church. He returned to Wisconsin in 1900 and donated all his books and papers to the Wisconsin State Historical Society Library, in Madison Wisconsin. He also wrote several anti-mormon articles in journals of the time. He quotes W. Wyle in many of his articles. One in particular was published in the American Historical Journal v.3 1908. In it he quotes Wyle in an article called "Mormonism and Intoxicants" (pp 238-249).

Other, more modern authors, like Richard Abanes, have quoted Wyl and Theodore Schroeder to substantiate their claims against the Church. Ultimately all their "proofs" fall upon the word of apostates.

Endnotes

1. [note]  [Milton V. Backman, Jr., The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-Day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1983), 309n377]