What if Joseph Smith Jr. had not died young?

[_krose]

How would the LDS church be different today if their prophet had not been killed, but had lived a long life and died of old age?

It is my opinion that his early death made the church what it is today. Well, that and their relocation to Utah, where they could grow the religion as its own kingdom, outside established US laws and mainstream religious influences. Without this, I think the Mormon sect would probably have been just another one of the mildly successful start-up movements of the time that dwindled out, such as the Shakers.

Here is my scenario if Smith had lived:

- He and several others probably would have been sent to prison for polygamy, which would have had a drastically different effect on the lay membership than his martyrdom.

- If he were able to keep the practice of the Principle secret (and then necessarily abandoned it in secret to avoid prosecution), he would have continued on as before, producing more revelations, more prophecies, more scriptures, and more 'translations' of ancient texts. The result would have been a large collection of misses than not even Nibley could explain away.

- He would have handed the leadership of the church to his son, which would have created a sort of royal succession down through generations of Smiths, further marginalizing the church.

What do you think?




-------

[_Dr. Shades]

I doubt he could've kept polygamy secret. Even as it was, rumors had leaked out.

The more reputations he had to ruin, the more threats he had to utter, the more disaffected his followers would've become.

If he had lived, I'm sure he would've destroyed the church on his own. Eventually, there would've been far more William Laws than there were Brigham Youngs.

[_EAllusion]

Far more religions die on the vine than make it past the trying 1st to 2nd generation handoff, so the safe bet is that the religion fades if Smith isn't martyred. But then again, maybe not.

His theological views were getting increasingly out there from normative Christianity. I think that path would've continued. There would've come a point where calling a Mormon a Christian would be like calling a Christian a Jew. It's technically correct in a taxonomic sense, but enough contrasts would've built up to be better suited in giving the religious movement a name unto itself, especially given the rhetoric of the Saints in that timeperiod.

[_EAllusion]

The result would have been a large collection of misses than not even Nibley could explain away.

The JW's have a large collection of "misses" that hasn't deterred them from existing. The Mormon story already has enough problems as it is. I doubt a few more made up stories would tip the scales.

[_harmony]

Had he lived, he would have destroyed the church.

[_krose]

The JW's have a large collection of "misses" that hasn't deterred them from existing. The Mormon story already has enough problems as it is. I doubt a few more made up stories would tip the scales.

I know about the JW prophecies about the end of the world. Do they have anything that would be equivalent to multiple books of scripture that come from 'translations' of ancient documents that don't match reality?

I am assuming that he would have likely found more opportunities to repeat his translating success with more Egyptian scrolls. And I envision him producing a detailed document from Mayan stone glyphs that corroborate Book of Mormon stories.

The Book of Abraham and its relationship to its source scroll is a problem, but I imagine it would become much more difficult to explain multiple documents that bear no resemblance to their source, especially if the avenue of claiming that the source has been lost is unavailable.

You are right that people find a way to maintain belief in the face of contrary evidence. I just think it's likely that there would be far fewer of them.

[_TAK]

Jos Smith was a megalomaniac .. I think he would have imploded eventually and the church fallen apart. Moving to Utah and eventually succumbing to US laws and society is what allowed them to grow..

Isn’t there speculation that Smith may have actually been assassinated by other LDS leaders?

[_Jason Bourne]

I have often wondered about this and it is fun to speculate. I think there have been some good observations already here.

It seems that Joseph started getting more and more innovative as time went on. Had he lived indeed the church may have moved farther from Christianity and lost much of its appeal. Would the Church have changed to eliminate some of that problem? Well we know it has. Briigham certainly did not simplify and make more basic the Mormonism of 1844-1876. The Church abandoned polygamy. Had it not it would have been destroyed. It abandoned some of the more radical notions that were preached in the 19th century as well. It revamp it image from 1910 to 1955 significantly. So maybe Joseph would have done the same or the Church might have after he eventually died.

Had he lived though keep in mind he was planning a move west. That could have made all the difference. It may have then continued just like it did under Brigham Young.

[_JoetheClerk]

Under Joseph the Saints may well have migrated to Texas before going further West. One likely scenario is that Joseph would probably have been shot by a husband whose wife Joseph was having relations with. Somehow I think one of the cucolded husbands would have found the strength to pick up a rifle and end his days of 'espousing a virgin' who was married to someone else, finally ending the sham of plural marriage.(at least for Joseph)

Persecution was necessary for Josephs leadership. Without it atrophy would set in, questions would be asked and the lies stacked on on top of the other. This is what happened in Nauvoo where persecution was not much of a problem. People started asking questions and the end result was a gunfight at the Carthage jail.

[_krose]

Had he lived though keep in mind he was planning a move west. That could have made all the difference. It may have then continued just like it did under Brigham Young.

That's a good point, and it is certainly a possibility, but I wonder if he would have been as effective a kingdom builder as Young was. I also wonder if he would have openly practiced and spread plural marriage the way Young did, once they were outside US boundaries.