A Lesson in Political Negotiations

2021 ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Spencer W. McBride
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Important Lesson ◽  
White House ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Martin Van Buren ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

In this chapter Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Elias Higbee travel from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., to petition the federal government for reparations for their lost property in Missouri. The chapter summarizes the history of the Mormons and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including the violent persecution of Joseph Smith and his followers by mobs in Missouri, and their ultimate expulsion from the state under threat of state-sanctioned extermination. Smith and Higbee meet with President Martin Van Buren at the White House and request his assistance with their petition to Congress. Van Buren declines to assist the Latter-day Saints, losing the political support of the group. Joseph Smith learns an important lesson about political negotiations in Washington, D.C.

“Some Little Necromancy”

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
The Political ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Political Dissent ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Alternative Religions ◽  
The Church

This chapter looks into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that was labeled “Salem Witchcraftism,” “hocus pocus,” and “superstition” in its first decade. It analyzes the political dissent against Mormonism, which shared an antipathy with anti-Shakerism that purported superstition and magic. It also mentions Ann Lee, the Shaker founder, who was referred to as a “fortune teller” and Joseph Smith Jr. who was branded as “very expert in the arts of necromancy.” The chapter explores the propensity of critics to accuse Mormons of superstition and magical practice and associate that accusation with an enmity toward republicanism. It talks about the so-called alternative religions of the early republic routinely faced charges of being both superstitious and dangerous to democracy.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Ashurst-McGee ◽  
Robin Scott Jensen ◽  
Sharalyn D Howcroft
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Early History ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Church

Mark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen, and Sharalyn D. Howcroft introduce Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources by noting the rich documentary record of the early history of Mormonism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among these the documents from the founding era under Joseph Smith are several major sources to which historians continually turn for information. However, as the authors explain, this is often with little appreciation for the complexity of the circumstances under which these documents were produced. The volume provides several examples of how understanding the complexity of documentary production helps historians to use these sources more critically. The authors individually introduce the chapters of the book.

The Pearl of Greatest Price

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terryl Givens ◽  
Brian Hauglid
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Fourth Volume ◽  
History Of ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Principal Parts ◽  
The Church

This book narrates the history of Mormonism’s fourth volume of scripture, canonized in 1880. The book tracks this work’s predecessors, describes its several components, and assesses their theological significance in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Four principal parts are discussed, along with the controversies associated with each. The Book of Moses purports to be a Mosaic narrative missing from the biblical version of Moses’s purported writings. Little noticed in the scholarship on Mormonism, these chapters, produced only months after the Book of Mormon was published, actually contain almost all of Mormonism’s core doctrines as well as a virtual template for the project of Restoration Joseph Smith was to effect. Most controversial of all is the Book of Abraham, a production that arose out of a group of papyri Smith acquired, along with four mummies, in 1835. Most of the papyri disappeared in the great Chicago fire of 1871, but the surviving fragments come from Egyptian documents. That fact and the translations Smith attempted to make from the hieroglyphs on the surviving vignettes have convinced most Egyptologists that Smith’s work was fraudulent or inept. Mormon scholars, however, have developed several frameworks for vindicating its inspiration and his calling as a prophet. Chapter 3 attempts to make sense of Smith’s several, at times divergent, accounts of his First Vision, one of which is canonized as scripture. Chapter 4 assesses the creedal nature of Smith’s “Articles of Faith” in the context of his professed anticreedalism.

Joseph Smith for President

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer W. McBride
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Political System ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
White House ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
National Bank ◽  
The Church

In 1844, Joseph Smith, the controversial founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had amassed a national following of some 25,000 believers—and a militia of some 2,500 men. In this year, his priority was protecting the lives and civil rights of his people. Having failed to win the support of any of the presidential contenders for these efforts, Smith launched his own renegade campaign for the White House, one that would end with his assassination at the hands of an angry mob. Smith ran on a platform that called for the total abolition of slavery, the closure of the country’s penitentiaries, the re-establishment of a national bank to stabilize the economy, and most importantly, an expansion of protections for religious minorities. Spencer W. McBride tells the story of Smith’s quixotic but consequential run for the White House and shows how his calls for religious freedom helped to shape the American political system we know today.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Spencer W. McBride
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
History Of ◽  
Discriminatory Effect

The Introduction to the book explains the reasons that Joseph Smith ran for president in 1844. Though electoral victory was extremely unlikely for Smith, his unlikely campaign is significant to the history of the United States because it encapsulates the discontent of thousands of Americans with the political status quo. The campaign also illuminates the political obstacles to universal religious freedom in nineteenth-century America. In particular, it demonstrates that political philosophies such as the states’ rights doctrine, which, on the surface, had nothing to do with religious freedom, had a discriminatory effect on religious minorities when implemented. Accordingly, Joseph Smith found himself on the vanguard of Americans calling for a stronger federal government, one that could enforce the Bill of Rights in individual states.

Introduction

First Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Steven C. Harper
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
New York State ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
York State ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Joseph Smith (1805–44), founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism, remembered that his first audible prayer, uttered in the woods near his parents’ home in western New York State, resulted in a vision of heavenly beings who forgave him and told him Christianity had gone astray. Scholars debate the multiple memories Smith recorded of this event, arguing about which is accurate. Latter-day Saints, meanwhile, have just begun, historically speaking, to awaken to the fact that there are multiple memories and to wrestle with the implications. Until now, no one has brought memory studies to bear on the origins of the church. This book is the first to trace the history of Joseph Smith’s memories.

Mormonism and Race

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Q. Mason
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Church

As a religion born in the modern period, Mormonism inherited and has in many ways inhabited modern racial categories and theories. Since the time of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the majority of Latter-day Saints’ racial views have generally tracked with broader American society, but the religion’s distinctive theology and history also produce alternative racial rationales, discourses, and experiences unique to Mormonism. Focusing on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this chapter examines how race has been operationalized in Mormon scripture (in particular the Book of Mormon), the history of Mormonism in America, and scholarly treatments. Never simply dichromatic, Mormon considerations of race have included African Americans but also paid substantial attention to the native peoples of the Americas (North and increasingly Central and South) and Pacific Islanders.

Esotericism and the “Coded Word” in Mormonism

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-54
Author(s):  
Clyde Forsberg Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Popular Religion ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Social Commentary ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Divine Inspiration ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
New Religion

In the history of American popular religion, the Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, have undergone a series of paradigmatic shifts in order to join the Christian mainstream, abandoning such controversial core doctrines and institutions as polygamy and the political kingdom of God. Mormon historians have played an important role in this metamorphosis, employing a version (if not perversion) of the Church-Sect Dichotomy to change the past in order to control the future, arguing, in effect, that founder Joseph Smith Jr’s erstwhile magical beliefs and practices gave way to a more “mature” and bible-based self-understanding which is then said to best describe the religion that he founded in 1830. However, an “esoteric approach” as Faivre and Hanegraaff understand the term has much to offer the study of Mormonism as an old, new religion and the basis for a more even methodological playing field and new interpretation of Mormonism as equally magical (Masonic) and biblical (Evangelical) despite appearances. This article will focus on early Mormonism’s fascination with and employment of ciphers, or “the coded word,” essential to such foundation texts as the Book of Mormon and “Book of Abraham,” as well as the somewhat contradictory, albeit colonial understanding of African character and destiny in these two hermetic works of divine inspiration and social commentary in the Latter-day Saint canonical tradition.

scholarly journals Development of the Genealogical FamilySearch Database and Expanding Its Use to Map and Measure Multiple Generations of American Migration

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Samuel M. Otterstrom ◽  
Brian E. Bunker ◽  
Michael A. Farnsworth
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Short History ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Genealogical Data ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
The Church ◽  
Family Trees

Genealogical research is full of opportunities for connecting generations. Millions of people pursue that purpose as they put together family trees that span hundreds of years. These data are valuable in linking people to the people of their past and in developing personal identities, and they can also be used in other ways. The purposes of this paper are to first give a short history of the development and practice of family history and genealogical research in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has developed the FamilySearch website, and second, to show how genealogical data can illustrate forward generation migration flows across the United States by analyzing resulting patterns and statistics. For example, descendants of people born in several large cities exhibited distinct geographies of migration away from the cities of their forebears.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document