“Long Shall His Blood . . . Stain Illinois”

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-97
Author(s):  
Christopher James Blythe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Joseph Smith

This chapter examines the place of martyrology and ritualized cursing in Mormon apocalypticism. With the assassinations of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith in 1844, the Saints came to believe that the United States had sealed its doom. John the Revelator’s image of martyrs pleading for God to avenge their murders became a prominent element in Mormon apocalypticism. The Mormons fled Nauvoo and eventually the nation itself in order to distance themselves from their persecutors, but also to escape the very land that had been primed for judgment. Before departing, through verbal, written, and other ritualized means, the Saints cursed those complicit in their persecution.

Aftermath

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Spencer W. McBride
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Decision To Leave ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
The Church

This chapter describes the aftermath of the assassination of Joseph Smith. This aftermath includes mourning and a funeral in Nauvoo, debates over who should succeed Smith as the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who the Mormons should vote for in the election, and the decision to leave the United States altogether. The Mormons were contemplating leaving the United States before Smith’s murder, but the violent act seemed to make this departure the only way forward in the minds of many church leaders. They had come to realize that without significant reform, the United States was incapable of protecting them. This chapter also considers the result of the presidential election of 1844 and what became of each of the candidates in the years that followed.

The Burned-Over District Reconsidered: A Portent of Evolving Religious Pluralism in the United States

1984 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda K. Pritchard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Great Awakening ◽  
Second Great Awakening ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Charles Finney

The hell’s-fire revivalism of western New York, christened the Burned-Over District by nineteenth-century contemporaries, was a colorful and important chapter in the Second Great Awakening. The main characters—Joseph Smith, the Fox sisters, Charles Finney, and the like—led a religious rejuvenation that presumably reorganized spiritual life in the Finger Lakes vicinity between 1820 and 1850.

Religious Traditions in Politics: Latter-day Saints

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Phillips ◽  
Ryan Cragun
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Joseph Smith

From its inception Mormonism was an overtly political movement that sought to dismantle the barriers between religion and government. The church’s founding prophet, Joseph Smith, was both a theological and political leader, serving as mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and even running for president of the United States. After Smith’s assassination, the Mormons left the United States for the valley of the Great Salt Lake in an attempt to escape the persecution the fledgling religion had faced from its inception. Isolated from the American mainstream, the Mormons established a separatist, quasi-nation in what would become the state of Utah. Church and state were substantially conflated in the Utah Territory. Political conflict with state and federal governments is a common theme running throughout Mormon history through the mid-19th century. In Utah, the fiercest battles were over federal authorities’ attempts to eradicate Mormon polygamy. The passage of draconian anti-polygamy laws eventually forced the Mormons to abandon their distinctive marriage system and begin the process of assimilating into the larger society. Mormon assimilation has proceeded in fits and starts, and charges that church and state remain conflated in Utah are still common. The Mormon Church has been involved in several high-profile political battles on “culture war” issues. While the church has generally been neutral in electoral politics since the end of World War II, Mitt Romney’s quest for the presidency has thrust some of the esoteric doctrines of Mormonism into the spotlight.

“Many Think This Is a Hoax”

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-41
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
National Bank

This chapter discusses the issue on religious liberty that drove Joseph Smith into the 1844 presidential election. It explains how Joseph Smith wrapped his call for a federal government that is empowered to protect the citizenship rights of religious minority groups in a seven-point platform aimed at sweeping political and social reform. It also describes how Joseph Smith advocated for the reestablishment of the national bank, the end of the burgeoning penitentiary system, the territorial expansion of the United States throughout North America, and the abolition of slavery. The chapter investigates how newspapers focused on Joseph Smith as a leader of a rising religious group that deemed to be fanatical by mainstream Protestants. It discusses the ecclesiastical position of Joseph Smith's presidential candidacy that might influence the way the American public viewed him.

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