Mormonism and Wikipedia/First Vision/Context and development of the vision story

A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: Mormonism and Wikipedia/First Vision A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)

The vision

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An analysis of the Wikipedia article "First Vision" (Version September 2009)

Wikipedia articles should rely mainly on published reliable secondary sources and, to a lesser extent, on tertiary sources. All interpretive claims, analyses, or synthetic claims about primary sources must be referenced to a secondary source, rather than original analysis of the primary-source material by Wikipedia editors.
—Statement from Wikipedia policy "No Original Research" off-site

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We are not interested in "what his followers say" or "what the opposition says," we're interested in facts that can be demonstrated in historical source material.
—Editor John "Foxe," stating his justification for performing original research in Wikipedia (23 October 2006) off-site

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One might ask: If we are not interested in what Joseph's followers say, nor what his opposition says, then what is left other than to interpret the primary sources directly in the Wikipedia article?

Historical context

Joseph Smith, Jr.

-	Wikipedia Main Article: First Vision–Smith_family_religious_beliefs	Wikipedia Footnotes: First Vision–Notes	A FAIR Opinion
1A	Joseph Smith, Jr., was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, to Joseph Smith, Sr., and Lucy Mack Smith. The Smiths were a farming family who moved several times because of crop failures and ill-fated business ventures. In 1816 the family arrived in western New York, where they continued to farm just outside the border of the town of Palmyra.	Smith (1832) , p. 1	Correct, per cited sources

Smith family religious beliefs

Visions

-	Wikipedia Main Article: First Vision–Smith_family_religious_beliefs	Wikipedia Footnotes: First Vision–Notes	A FAIR Opinion
2A	Like many other Americans living on the frontier at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Smith family accepted the veracity of visions, dreams, and other communications with God.	Quinn (1998)	Correct, per cited sources
2B	In 1811, Joseph Smith, Jr.'s maternal grandfather, Solomon Mack, described a series of visions and voices from God that resulted in his conversion to Christianity at the age of seventy-six.	"About midnight I saw a light about a foot from my face as bright as fire; the doors were all shut and no one stirring in the house. I thought by this that I had but a few moments to live, and oh what distress I was in....Another night soon after, I saw another light as bright as the first, at a small distance from my face, and I thought I had but a few moments to live. And not sleeping nights and reading, all day I was in misery; well you may think I was in distress, soul and body. At another time in the dead of the night I was called by my Christian name; I arise up to answer to my name. The doors all being shut and the house still, I thought the Lord called, and I had but a moment to live."Mack (1811) , p. 25	Correct, per cited sources Although this is interesting, we are not quite sure why this is even mentioned, unless the wiki editors are attempting to prove that having visions is hereditary.
2C	Between 1811 and 1819, Joseph, Sr., reported seven visions,	Smith (1853) , pp. 56, 58-59, 70–72, 74	Violates Wikipedia: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sources off-site— Wikipedia articles should rely mainly on published reliable secondary sources and, to a lesser extent, on tertiary sources. All interpretive claims, analyses, or synthetic claims about primary sources must be referenced to a secondary source, rather than original analysis of the primary-source material by Wikipedia editors. Violated by John "Foxe" —Diff: off-site  Violated by COGDEN—Diff: off-site The two wiki editors have interpreted a primary source (Lucy Mack Smith's 1853 history). An allowable approach would be to cite what Bushman said about this primary source, rather than directly interpreting it. In addition, the editor has incorrectly interpreted the source by: calling all seven dreams "visions," while secondary source Bushman reports that Lucy only called five of them visions. by claiming that Joseph Smith, Sr. "reported" them. According to Bushman, Lucy reported them. reporting that they all happened between 1811 and 1819, while Bushman notes that they occurred "before and after" Joseph's first vision in 1820. Bushman states, "The best barometer of the household's religious climate are seven dreams Joseph Sr. had in the years before and after his son's first vision. Lucy wrote down five of them, calling them visions. Since no other member of the family gave an account of the dreams or even referred to them, and Lucy recorded them thirty years later, there is no way of testing the accuracy of her memory. (Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, p. 36)
2D	which, according to his wife, Lucy Mack Smith, occurred when he was "much excited upon the subject of religion." The visions confirmed to Joseph, Sr., the correctness of his refusal to join any organized religious group and led him to believe that he would be properly guided to his own salvation.	Joseph Smith, Sr.'s second vision as reported by Lucy Mack Smith exhibits many similarities to a dream given in the early chapters of the Book of Mormon. Bushman (2005) , p. 36	Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect. The Bushman source does not include the quoted phrase.  References not included in the Wikipedia article The phrase is found in Lucy Mack Smith's 1853 history, printed in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents 1:254. Note also that this phrase was added to the 1853 history and does not appear in the 1845 manuscript. Lucy notes this event as sometime around March 1811, after the birth of their son William: About this time my husband's mind became much excited upon the subject of religion; yet he would not subscribe to any particular system of faith, but contended or the ancient order, as established by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and his Apostles.
2E	Before Joseph Smith, Jr., was born, his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, prayed in a grove about her husband's repudiation of evangelical religion	Bushman (2005) , p. 26	Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect. A check of Bushman's Rough Stone Rolling on page 26 does not reveal anything about Lucy praying in a grove. The editor who added the information (John "Foxe") originally added the citation Smith (1853) , pp. 55-56, but it was somehow later deleted.  References not included in the Wikipedia article The proper citation is Lucy Mack Smith's 1853 history printed in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents 1:250. This event is also referred to in her 1845 manuscript. In the 1845 manuscript, Lucy writes I was very much hurt by this but did not reply to him then but retired to a grove of handsome wild cherry trees and pray[ed] to the Lord that he <would> so influence the heart of my husband that he would <one day> be induced to rec[e]ive the Gospel whenever it was preached[.] As it is known that Lucy prayed many times and for many reasons, we can only assume that the wiki editor chose to include this because she went to a grove of trees to pray and he wants to relate that to her son Joseph's later experience in a grove.
2F	and that night had a vision in her sleep, which she interpreted as a prophecy that Joseph, Sr., would later accept the "pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God."	Smith (1853) , pp. 55-56 Quinn (1998)	Lucy states, And the interpretation given to me was...Joseph, when he was more advanced in life, would hear and received with his whole heart, and rejoice therein; and unto him would be added intelligence, happiness, glory and everlasting life.

Revivals

-	Wikipedia Main Article: First Vision–Smith_family_religious_beliefs	Wikipedia Footnotes: First Vision–Notes	A FAIR Opinion
3A	Joseph was also exposed to the intense revivalism of his era. During the Second Great Awakening, numerous revivals occurred in many communities in the northeastern United States and were often reported in the Palmyra Register, a local paper read by the Smith family.	Turner (1852) , p. 214	The wiki article is making the assumption that Joseph Smith's First Vision was triggered by a formal religious revival. Joseph claimed that there was an "unusual excitement."
3B	In the Palmyra area itself, the only large multi-denominational revivals occurred in 1816-1817 and 1824-1825.	Bushman (2005) , p. 36, 46; Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004), 26, 58-60. "Indeed, it was the revival of 1824-25, his family's conversion, and his mother's pressure that caused [Smith] so much pain and suffering rather than the revival of 1817 or the one he 'remembered' for 1820."	Violates Wikipedia: Synthesis off-site: Do not put together information from multiple sources to reach a conclusion that is not stated explicitly by any of the sources. Violated by Bytebear —Diff: off-site The statement says that "the only" large revivals occurred before and after 1820. This is not stated in the cited source (Bushman), and is only implied by the second cited source (Vogel). If the words "the only" were removed, the sentence would be correct.  Violates Wikipedia: Neutral Point-of-View off-site— All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources. Violated by John "Foxe" —Diff: off-site Although the wiki author quotes Vogel's critical opinion in order to cast doubt on the occurrence of a religious revival in 1820, he fails to quote any balancing opinion, such as Bushman's view on the subject. On page 36 of Rough Stone Rolling (cited in the wiki article), Bushman says, The great revival of 1816 and 1817, which nearly doubled the number of Palmyra Presbyterians, was in progress when the Smiths arrived. For a response to this claim, see: Religious revivals in 1820.
3C	In the intervening years, there were Methodist revivals, at least within twenty road miles of Palmyra; and more than sixty years later a newspaper editor in Lyons, New York, recalled "various religious awakenings in the neighborhood."	Mather (1880) , pp. 198–199 Roberts (1902) .	References not included in the Wikipedia article It would be more accurate to acknowledge that the Palmyra Register reported a number of events that it called "revivals" during 1820 in the surrounding regions. The following primary source references are from secondary source Milton V. Backman, Jr., Joseph Smith's First Vision: Confirming Evidences and Contemporary Accounts, 2d ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), 192-194. Although Backman is mentioned later in the Wikipedia article as having primary sources of revival activity, the article never mentions that some of these were in the Palmyra Register itself - a newspaper which the wiki acknowledges was "read by the Smith family." GREAT REVIVALS IN RELIGION. The religious excitement which has for some months prevailed in the towns of this vicinity...This is a time the prophets desired to see, but they never saw it....—Palmyra Register, June 7, 1820 REVIVAL. A letter from Homer [N.Y.] dated May 29, received in this town, states, that 200 persons had been hopefully converted in that town since January first; 100 of whom had been added to the Baptist church. The work was still progressing.—Palmyra Register, August 16, 1820 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. "The county of Saratoga, for a long time, has been as barren of revivals of religion, as perhaps any other part of this state. It has been like 'the mountains of Gilboa, on which were neither rain nor dew.' But the face of the country has been wonderfully changed of late. The little cloud made its first appearance at Saratoga Springs last summer. As the result of this revival about 40 have made a public profession of religion in Rev. Mr. Griswold's church....A revival has just commenced in the town of Nassau, a little east of Albany. It has commenced in a very powerful manner....—Palmyra Register, September 13, 1820 FROM THE RELIGIOUS REMEMBRANCER A SPIRITUAL HARVEST. "I wish you could have been with us yesterday. I had the pleasure to witness 80 persons receive the seal of the covenant, in front of our Church. Soon after 135 persons, new members, were received into full communion. All the first floor of the Church was cleared; the seats and pews were all crowded with the members...Palmyra Register, October 4, 1820 For full citations, see Religious revivals in 1820/Primary sources Note that the wiki editor is careful to note that the newspaper editor did not make this claim until "more than sixty years later." This subtle spin is intended to maintain doubt that such a revival might actually have occurred.

Folk magic

-	Wikipedia Main Article: First Vision–Smith_family_religious_beliefs	Wikipedia Footnotes: First Vision–Notes	A FAIR Opinion
4A	The family also practiced a form of folk magic,	Quinn (1998) , p. xx-xxi A 1985 memorandum sent from the headquarter of the LDS Church Educational System to regional and local administrators read, "Even if the Mark Hofmann letters were to be unauthentic, such issues as Joseph Smith's involvement in treasure-seeking and folk magic remain. Ample evidence exists for both of these, even without the letters."	Correct, per cited sources
4B	which, although not uncommon in this time and place, was criticized by many contemporary Protestants "as either fraudulent illusion or the workings of the Devil."	Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971), 256.	The wiki editor fails to mention that some practitioners of "folk magic," such as Willard Chase, were also ministers themselves. The editor is, however, quite aware of this fact. Note the comment that editor John "Foxe" makes on the talk page of a different Wikipedia article "Golden Plates": Chase is an odd duck, a money digger and a Methodist preacher, who really seems most irritated at Joseph Smith for taking his seer stone. (Get over it, Willard; it's just a rock.) My biggest problem with Chase as a witness is not that he disbelieves in Smith but that he does believe in money digging. --John "Foxe" (15 February 2007) off-site
4C	Both Joseph Smith, Sr. and at least two of his sons worked at "money digging," using seer stones in (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure.	Smith (1838a) , pp. 42–43 (admitting that he was what he called a "money digger," but saying that it "was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it"). Elders’ Journal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,1: 43 (July 1838). For a discussion of Joseph Smith's money-digging activities by a sympathetic academic biographer, see Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 48-49.	In his footnote, the editor chooses to use the word "admitting" to describe Joseph's comments about money digging. From History of the Church 3:29: Tenth—"Was not Joseph Smith a money digger?" Yes, but it was never a very profitable job for him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it. Note how Richard L. Bushman is qualified as a "sympathetic" academic biographer.
4D	In a draft of her memoirs, Lucy Mack Smith referred to folk magic: I shall change my theme for the present, but let not my reader suppose that because I shall pursue another topic for a season that we stopt our labor and went at trying to win the faculty of Abrac, drawing magic circles or soothsaying, to the neglect of all kinds of business. We never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation. But whilst we worked with our hands, we endeavored to remember the service of and the welfare of our souls.	Lucy Smith "Preliminary Manuscript," LDS Church Archives, in EMD, 1: 285	Correct, per cited sources The wiki editor has updated the text and punctuation somewhat. From Vogel, p. 285: Now I shall change my theme for the present but let not my reader suppose that because I shall pursue our labor and went <at> tryin=g to win the faculty of Abrac[,] drawing Magic circles or sooth saying to the neglect of all kinds of but[i.sness we never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation but whilst we worked with our hands we endeavored to remmember the service of & the welfare of our souls. This text was removed from the 1853 edition of Lucy's history. See: Biography of Lucy Mack Smith See: Lucy Mack Smith on "faculty of Abrac" and "magic circles"
4E	D. Michael Quinn has written that Lucy Mack Smith viewed these magical practices as "part of her family's religious quest" while denying that they prevented "family members from accomplishing other, equally important work."	D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View ((Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987), 55: "Joseph Smith's mother did not deny her family participation in occult activities but simply affirmed that these did not prevent family members from accomplishing other, equally important work." In a note at EMD 1: 285 (n. 84), Dan Vogel argues that this sentence from the draft may have been excised from the 1853 edition of Lucy Mack Smith's memoirs because of its allusion to folk magic, "which was a sensitive subject for those not wishing to give credence to claims made in affidavits collected in 1833 by Philastus Hurlbut."	Correct, per cited sources Vogel states that the allusion to folk magic is "[o]ne possible reason" for the exclusion of this reference from the 1853 edition. The Quinn citation is actually part of Vogel's footnote on page 285, note 84: D. Michael Quinn has noted, "Joseph Smith's mother did not deny her family's participation in occult activities but simply affirmed that these did not prevent family members from accomplishing other, equally important work. More significantly, she also affirmed that these folk magic activities were part of her family's religious quest" (Quinn 1987, 55)
4F	Quinn also notes that the Smith family "participated in a wide range of magic practices, and Smith's first vision occurred within the context of his family's treasure quest."	Quinn (1998) , p. 31. Michael Coe, professor emeritus of Anthropology at Yale, has called Joseph Smith "a great religious leader...one of the greatest people who ever lived" because like a shaman, like "magicians doing magic," he began by faking his visions but ended up convincing himself (as well as others) that they were true. Coe interview on PBS "The Mormons."	Violates Wikipedia: Synthesis off-site: Do not put together information from multiple sources to reach a conclusion that is not stated explicitly by any of the sources. Violated by John "Foxe" —Diff: off-site It strikes us as odd that Michael D. Coe, an Anthropology professor who is well known as one of the foremost experts on the Maya, is quoted in an article describing the environment in which Joseph Smith's first vision occurred. Dr. Coe is not considered an authority on Joseph Smith's First Vision. It is helpful to view Dr. Coe's quote in context. I realized what kind of a person this Joseph Smith was. In my opinion, he was not just a great religious leader; he was a really great American, and I think he was one of the greatest people who ever lived. This extraordinary man, who put together a religion -- probably with many falsities in it, falsehoods, so forth, to begin with -- eventually came to believe in it so much that he really bought his own story and made it believable to other people. In this respect, he's a lot like a shaman in anthropology: these extraordinary religious practitioners in places like Siberia, North America among the Eskimo, the Inuit, who start out probably in their profession as almost like magicians doing magic. I really think that Joseph Smith, like shamans everywhere, started out faking it. I have to believe this -- that he didn't believe this at all, that he was out to impress, but he got caught up in the mythology that he created. This is what happens to shamans: They begin to believe they can do these things. It becomes a revelation: They're speaking to God. And I don't think they start out that way; I really do not. ... (Michael D. Coe interview off-site) Note how Dr. Coe's comment "like a shaman in anthropology" is transformed by our wiki editor (a self-proclaimed "seeker of truth") into "like a shaman." Dr. Coe's comment about Joseph having "started out faking it" is transformed into "he began by faking his visions."
4G	Jan Shipps notes that while Joseph Smith's "religious claims were rejected by many of the persons who had known him in the 1820s because they remembered him as a practitioner of the magic arts," others of his earliest followers were attracted to his claims "for precisely the same reason."	Shipps (1985) , p. 18.
4H	Richard Bushman has called the spiritual tradition of the Smith family "a religious melee." Joseph Smith, Sr., insisted on morning and evening prayers, but he was spiritually adrift. "If there was a personal motive for Joseph Smith Jr.'s revelations, it was to satisfy his family's religious want and, above all, to meet the need of his oft-defeated, unmoored father."	Bushman , pp. 25-27	From the cited source, p. 25: Joseph Sr. was not lacking in religion. He spontaneously knelt with his wife to pray for Sophronia in her illness and insisted on morning and evening prayers. Revival seasons aroused his desire for religion. when Solomon Mack was converted during the revival of 1810 and 1811, Joseph Sr. "became much excited upon the subject of religion." What he could not embrace was the institutional religion of his time.
4I	No members of the Smith family were church members in 1820, the reported date of the First Vision.	Quinn (1998) , p. 322. Quinn calls the Smiths "unchurched Christians" who "possessed seer stones, a dagger for drawing the required circles, as well as magic parchments to ward off thieves and communicate with good spirits to help find treasures."	An author's opinion has been converted to fact— An opinion expressed by the author of a secondary source is being portrayed in the article as if it were a proven fact. Violated by John "Foxe" —Diff: off-site Quinn's opinion that the Smith's were "unchurched Christians" is reworked into the "fact" in the main article text that "no members of the Smith family were church members in 1820." This is intended to set the stage in order to "prove" that Joseph's statement that other members of his family joined the Presbyterians at the time of his first vision is false. Rather than converting Quinn's opinion into the "fact" that "no members of the Smith family were church members in 1820," it would be more accurate to quote John A. Matzko: "[S]ometime before 1828 Lucy and three of her children—Hyrum, Samuel, and Sophronia—joined the Presbyterian church..." (John A. Matzko, "The Encounter of Young Joseph Smith with Presbyterianism," Dialogue 40/3 (2007): 71.) Matzko's statement is correct based upon known historical documents, without speculating upon whether or not the Smith's had joined in 1820.  References not included in the Wikipedia article Lucy's baptism prior to 1820, as recorded in her own history, is not noted. Lucy states, This course I pursued for many years till at last I concluded that my mind would be easier if I were baptized and I found a minister who was willing to baptize me and leave me free from any membership in any church after which I pursued the same course untill the a my oldest son attained his 22nd year. (1845 manuscript, original spelling retained) (Vogel, Early Mormon Documents 1:242) Vogel notes on p. 242, note 33: "Alvin became twenty-two on 11 February 1820." See: First Vision/Lucy Mack Smith and the Presbyterians

References

Wikipedia references for "First Vision"

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