Joseph Smith as plundering mobber. Interesting stuff.
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:27 pm
The Gods of Amazon.com delivered a new book to me yesterday, from Stephen C. LeSueur, entitled "The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri". I've seen the book referred to many times people, and I wanted to read it for myself.
Well, already on page 4, where LeSueur is laying out the "bird's eye view" of the book, which he will get into in much greater detail in later chapters, we find this gem:
"The degree of Joseph Smith's complicity in the Mormon military activities has long been debated by historians. Evidence now available, however, demonstrates that he directed much of the plundering and burning committed by Mormon soldiers in Daviess County."
I ordered this book after a family member sent out a chain email to everyone in the family with an "inspirational" thought. It said that Joseph Smith had warned the settlers at Haun's Mill not to be there, and that they rejected the Prophet's counsel and were subsequently attacked and murdered. The moral of the story is to harken to the words of the Prophet, and that if you don't, you emperil yourself and your family.
I replied back with something I'd read previously, that the mob that attacked Haun's Mill was apparently made up largely of Missourians who had had their homes and farms plundered and burned in Daviess County by the Mormons. No doubt they were mightily pissed off about this, and fighting mad. I cannot, and am not trying to condone the Haun's Mill Massacre at all, however it is important to recognize it in its context, as the Mormons so often say with respect to the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
So Joseph Smith warned the settlers of Haun's Mill that they were in danger. They were in danger from people who were pissed off and fighting mad about something that Joseph Smith had done to them, and he knew it!
Anyhow, I know from reviews I've read that the book will show that the Missourians and the Mormons were both guilty of a lot of mistakes, and of actions that aggrieved the other side. This apparent neutrality, however, leaves us in a position where the Kingdom of God, and God's right-hand man on Earth, his Prophet, acted just as badly as a bunch of early 19th century American backwoods hick settlers. The justifications for it are really hard to swallow. We all know the typical Mormon obsession with persecution, and how the whole Missouri episode is pointed to by most TBMs as an egregious example of Satanic oppression of God's work on Earth. Well it just ain't so. The Mormons gave as well as they got, and it's not inaccurate to say that they brought a lot of what happened down upon their own heads.
I'm going to try to plow through this book quickly in the next week or so. I really have wanted, for some time now, to know a lot more details about what happened on both sides of the conflict. I've picked up a lot of pieces of it here and there, but this ought to tie it all together and fill in a lot of blanks.
Well, already on page 4, where LeSueur is laying out the "bird's eye view" of the book, which he will get into in much greater detail in later chapters, we find this gem:
"The degree of Joseph Smith's complicity in the Mormon military activities has long been debated by historians. Evidence now available, however, demonstrates that he directed much of the plundering and burning committed by Mormon soldiers in Daviess County."
I ordered this book after a family member sent out a chain email to everyone in the family with an "inspirational" thought. It said that Joseph Smith had warned the settlers at Haun's Mill not to be there, and that they rejected the Prophet's counsel and were subsequently attacked and murdered. The moral of the story is to harken to the words of the Prophet, and that if you don't, you emperil yourself and your family.
I replied back with something I'd read previously, that the mob that attacked Haun's Mill was apparently made up largely of Missourians who had had their homes and farms plundered and burned in Daviess County by the Mormons. No doubt they were mightily pissed off about this, and fighting mad. I cannot, and am not trying to condone the Haun's Mill Massacre at all, however it is important to recognize it in its context, as the Mormons so often say with respect to the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
So Joseph Smith warned the settlers of Haun's Mill that they were in danger. They were in danger from people who were pissed off and fighting mad about something that Joseph Smith had done to them, and he knew it!
Anyhow, I know from reviews I've read that the book will show that the Missourians and the Mormons were both guilty of a lot of mistakes, and of actions that aggrieved the other side. This apparent neutrality, however, leaves us in a position where the Kingdom of God, and God's right-hand man on Earth, his Prophet, acted just as badly as a bunch of early 19th century American backwoods hick settlers. The justifications for it are really hard to swallow. We all know the typical Mormon obsession with persecution, and how the whole Missouri episode is pointed to by most TBMs as an egregious example of Satanic oppression of God's work on Earth. Well it just ain't so. The Mormons gave as well as they got, and it's not inaccurate to say that they brought a lot of what happened down upon their own heads.
I'm going to try to plow through this book quickly in the next week or so. I really have wanted, for some time now, to know a lot more details about what happened on both sides of the conflict. I've picked up a lot of pieces of it here and there, but this ought to tie it all together and fill in a lot of blanks.