General

Greg Prince’s landmark biography of Leonard Arrington will be available at the end of May. Leonard Arrington and The Writing of Mormon History is the first biography to draw on Arrington’s 20,000 pages of journals. Of particular interest is Arrington’s time as Church Historian, from 1972 to 1980. Tonight I had the privilege of attending a presentation where Greg talked about his new book.

1972 ushered in a time of significant restructuring in LDS Church leadership. The Prophet and First Presidency had previously led the Church as a nearly flat organization, with little intentional coordination between individual fiefdoms. The apostles, for example, were merely charged to bear witness to the world, which largely consisted of presiding at Stake Conferences.

President Harold B. Lee wished to see more coordination (or correlation) between the different instructional aspects of Church hierarchy. At the same time, the Church had requested a study of the organization, asking how its management structure could be updated to reflect best practices. One of the notable recommendations was a true historians department, one that was not merely an adjunct responsibility of an ecclesiastical leader with no formal history training.

President Lee decided to heed the recommendation, and selected noted historian Leonard Arrington as the first “real” historian for the Church. The grand experiment would fail in less than 10 years. Continue reading Leonard Arrington: A View of Our Recent Past

Reluctant Polygamist, the book that grew out of the Faithful Joseph series posted here in 2014, will be available via Amazon.com later this week. The Amazon price will be $14.95 + S/H.

To kick this off, I am offering a limited edition of autographed, numbered copies for $10 each, to cover costs and handling. The offer is only valid through Monday, April 11, at 11:59 pm MDT, or until 500 books have been requested, whichever occurs earlier.

Each limited edition comes with a personalized pdf excerpt (sent via mail), the signed book, and certificate.

The first twenty-five copies will be raffled off among those signing up by Saturday, April 9, at 11:59 pm MDT. The winners of the raffle will not be invoiced for their copies.

To sign up for the autographed limited edition, click on the SurveyMonkey logo or paste this URL into your browser: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BJ9TG8X

Continue reading Reluctant Polygamist Limited Edition

In 2000, a British judge found Deborah Lipstadt innocent of libel with respect to her book, Denying the Holocaust. The movie Denial, now in post-production, documents the real-life court battle between Holocaust-denier David Irving (played by Timothy Spall) and Professor Lipstadt (played by Rachel Weisz, pictured). Directed by Oscar-nominee Mick Jackson and based on the book Deborah Lipstadt wrote about the trial, the movie may be expected to emphasize the difference between conscientious or objective historical research and “histories” that knowingly and “deliberately mis-represent or manipulate historical evidence.”

David Irving waited to sue Lipstadt in the British courts because English libel law puts the burden of proof on the defendant rather than the plaintiff. Lipstadt and Penguin won the case by demonstrating in court that Lipstadt’s accusations against Irving were substantially true and therefore not libelous. Mr Justice Gray produced a written judgment 334 pages long detailing Irving’s systematic distortion of the historical record.

The trial was the first time a legal standard was established for historical objectivity. For those of us who don’t have time to master all 334 pages, Wendie E. Schneider distilled the ruling into seven concise principles:

1) Treat all sources with appropriate reservations. This is a principle too often ignored in treatments of Mormon history. One can often predict the leanings of a historian by which sources they will include without critical review and which sources they will pretend don’t even exist. Continue reading Denial

BYU-I professor Andrea Radke-Moss has come forward with an account that Eliza R. Snow was gang-raped by eight Missouri men.

The original account was recorded in the 1930s by Alice Merrill [Horne] (b. 1868), grand-daughter of Bathsheba Wilson Bigler [Smith] (b. 1822) apparently based on discussions of former times shared in the 1880s, when Alice was a teen or pre-teen.

Alice’s account is given significant credence because Bathsheba was particularly close to Eliza R. Snow. Though Bathsheba didn’t ascend to the presidency of the Relief Society until the death of Eliza Snow, she had been the youngest member of the Relief Society at the first meeting, where Eliza R. Snow was installed as secretary.

The Reported Event

According to the story in the Salt Lake Tribune, Eliza was raped in Missouri circa 1838 by 8 men. Andrea Radke-Moss asserted that due to the rape, Eliza was subsequently infertile.

Why I Hesitate to Wholly Accept this Account as Reported Continue reading Eliza and Missouri

This week the Advanced Review Copy of Reluctant Polygamist will disappear from Amazon.com.

Publication of the official release of Reluctant Polygamist will occur April 6, 2016. It may be possible to accommodate significant changes if you contact me by March 26. Cover quotes received by that date can be included in the book.

My name is listed as author, and I accept full responsibility for the contents. But you have had an enormous influence on how the story emerged as well as the topics I eventually decided to cover beyond my original proposed agenda.

If you would like me to come talk in your neck of the woods, email me. I’ll see what I can arrange, as I would love to interact directly with people on this topic.

Thesis

Reluctant Polygamist discusses the evidence supporting a new view of Joseph Smith’s final years and the subsequent interactions regarding polygamy amongst the various religious traditions that emerged from Joseph Smith’s religious legacy. Reluctant Polygamist builds on the Faithful Joseph series I posted here at M* from December 2013 to August 2014.

Bottom Line Up Front: Joseph Smith was a great-hearted man attempting his best to teach and live Celestial Marriage, which he believed was a command from God. Simultaneously he was fighting a frightening and pervasive heresy based on illicit and promiscuous sex, attempting to save as many as possible.

Elder Ballard on Church Education

A friend briefed me on Elder Ballard’s address at the annual “An Evening with a General Authority” this past Sunday. The address was particularly aimed at Seminary and Institute teachers in the Church Educational System (CES).

I enjoyed the quotes that were reported in the Deseret News article reporting the address:

“As Church education moves forward in the 21st century, each of you needs to consider any changes you should make in the way you prepare to teach, how you teach and what you teach if you are to build unwavering faith in the lives of our precious youth,” Elder Ballard said. “Gone are the days when a student asked an honest question and a teacher responded, ‘Don’t worry about it!’ Gone are the days when a student raised a sincere concern and a teacher bore his or her testimony as a response intended to avoid the issue. Gone are the days when students were protected from people who attacked the Church.” Continue reading An End to the ARC

This past weekend I was at Nauvoo for the Untold Stories Symposium. My topic was Catherine Laur Fuller Warren and her testimony against Dr. John C. Bennett. The audio below was recorded live, with minor edits to make it shorter (30 minutes vs. longer) and less blooper-filled. The powerpoint file for the presentation is also attached.

The Widow’s Testimony – powerpoint file

This, I felt, was the core of the new paradigm I have explored in my Faithful Joseph series. This is the previously untold history that is key to understanding everything else that happened in Nauvoo.

The trip to Nauvoo provided some interesting insights: Continue reading The Widow’s Testimony: Catherine Laur Fuller Warren

I was fascinated to learn celebrated journalist John J. Miller^[1] had written a Kindle Single on the subject of James J. Strang.

I was thrilled that John Miller was willing to do a Q&A with me for your benefit.

For those not familiar with James J. Strang, he was the 1844 convert who claimed to be Joseph Smith’s chosen successor.

Strang started by renouncing polygamy and spiritual wifery at a time when Brigham Young and Heber Kimball were continuing Joseph Smith’s secret teachings regarding the possibility of plural wives in Celestial marriage. Ironically, men known to have participated in illicit intercourse and spiritual wifery under the leadership of John C. Bennett and William Smith would become Strangites. Strang came to Nauvoo right around the time William Law and Austin Cowles were becoming lethally disaffected with Mormonism. He was baptized in the month when Law and Cowles were gathering conspirators with the intent of murdering Joseph Smith. As many who actively conspired against Joseph allied themselves with Strang (including my ancestor, Austin Cowles), I have come to regard membership in Strang’s sect as a highly suspicious sign.

A few years after Strang put himself at the front of a post-martyrdom Mormon sect claiming to renounce polygamy, Strang began gallivanting around the country with “Charles J. Douglas,” a 19-year-old woman whose real name was Elvira Eliza Field. Ms. Field would dress in men’s clothing to permit her to accompany the man she regarded as her husband. Strang’s original wife, never more than lukewarm about her husband’s association with Mormonism, left him. Strang married three more plural wives. All four of his plural wives were pregnant in 1856 when matters came to a head.

By 1856 tension between Strang and those who opposed him resulted in his shooting. Strang lingered for weeks before dying, never conferring on another the keys to his Strangite kingdom. In Strang’s case, he had actually had himself coronated king, hence the title of John Miller’s book.

Meg: I enjoyed this slim volume immensely. What brought you to write about James Strang?
Continue reading Book Review: The Polygamist King – James J. Strang

1. ^[1] John J. Miller writes for National Review, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. The Chronicle of Higher Education has called him “one of the best literary journalists in the country.”↩

[Original painting of Joseph Smith circa 1842 and digital alteration of painted HPH copy]

The November-December 1980 issue of Sunstone contained an article by Lorie Winder examining the physical descriptions and depictions of Joseph Smith. Though physical characteristics tell us little about the man himself, I understand why she titled her article In Search of the Real Joseph Smith.

I have frequently used the forward facing oil painting created in 1842 by an unknown artist in my posts about Joseph Smith. This is a painting that was owned by Joseph Smith III and is now owned by the Community of Christ. But this image is incorrect in various ways when compared to Joseph’s death mask:

1. The eyes are too small and too close to the center of the face.
2. The mouth is too small and too close to the nose.
3. The chin is too close to the nose and gives the appearance of a concave face, where Joseph had a convex face.
4. The nose itself is too narrow and the tip is far too pointy.

Continue reading In Search of the Real Joseph Smith

In response to the announcement that the Advanced Review Copy of Reluctant Polygamist is available, “Reader” suggested I look at a recent 42-page pdf titled Joseph Smith’s Monogamy: Exploring a Counter-narrative Regarding Plural Marriage. Henceforth I will refer to this as JSM.

The link didn’t work. A google search brought me to a copy that was posted at the blog “To The Remnant,” which is Adrian Larsen’s blog about doctrinal points that he thinks the mainstream LDS Church misunderstands. I haven’t read his site deeply, but it appears those who do comment on his blog embrace the heresy of Denver C. Snuffer. [Updated 12/6] Anonymous Bishop, another Snuffer sycophant, has also posted the pdf.

For the record, I am using the same format I used to comment on Brian Hales’ rebuttal of me. But I like Brian and Laura Hales. I don’t like anonymous people. To the anonymous author of JSM, I request that you grow the courage to own your writings. God, who is the only one who really matters, already knows you wrote it. Feel free to let your family, friends, and Church leaders know you are who you are. Continue reading Commentary on Joseph Smith’s Monogamy

The Reluctant Polygamist ARC is available for order today.

The Kindle edition is available for $0.99

A paperback edition is available from CreateSpace for $6.55 if you use discount code X2WKPKUV.

The paperback edition is at Amazon.com for $8.25, and with free Prime shipping (for those with Prime), Amazon might be the least expensive option. If you don’t see this listed, check back in a day or two.

Here is the pdf file. You’ll need a password, which you can get by following these PDF Instructions. The file has a watermark reminding you to delete this by 2/29/2016.

This is an ARC

As mentioned, this is an Advanced Review Copy of the book. Any and all criticism is welcome and may alter the final book. [updated 12/10] Initial feedback from KA and Reader has been incorporated, along with fixing endnote numbering and a few other details. For more information, check out the details a reluctantpolygamist.com.

I had hoped to have a complete, polished version available. And when it comes to the text itself, I think I have achieved that goal. Continue reading Reluctant Polygamist ARC Release