Bagley upsets Richard Bushman.

[hauslern]

On the Road with Joseph Smith Richard Bushman:

“Will Bagley, the old gadfly, asked about a book he called Joseph Jackson’s Tales of Old Nauvoo (turned out he had the title wrong, it’s A narrative of the Experiences of Joseph H. Jackson in Nauvoo: Disclosing the Depths of Mormon Villainy (1844). . . To Bagley I had to admit I had not seen the Jackson book and did not even know about it. Embarrassingly, and said no. Bagley said that Jackson presented a persuasive psychology of Joseph going from one sexual exploit to another in crescendo, culminating in plural marriage. . . I said that I was suspicious of many charges against Joseph especially if written much later. Bagley retorted that it was published in 1844. I was a little ruffled, though I recovered well enough after. . . I am writing now at 1:30am after awakening with a troubled heart. I don’t like to be caught off base like that. . . I looked at the book the next day and found it to be in the category of John Bennett’s The History of the Saints. Possibly some truth there but lots of exaggeration” pp58-59.

Jackson’s writing and Wil Bagley’s response can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UFo ... av_K5/edit

Bagley in an email to me wrote:

Let me know what you make of the commentary. I'm proud I wrote this: See pages 1-22.

"Jackson’s account of Smith’s sexual adventures and ambitions merits comment. If true, Jackson described what could be termed a “sexual predator,” who boasted of sleeping with twenty score women, treated the dozens of women devoted to him as chattel through whom he “could get any stranger’s money,” who promised his wife a spiritual husband to stifle her complaints about his dozens of mistresses and then reneged on his promise, and finally targeted his niece and sister as his next conquests. The justifications Smith used to explain such behavior to his closest followers seem to fall into the class of his “secret teachings”: how else to explain his successors’ devotion to the notion of marrying their own sisters?"

[drumdude]

The google link needs to be made public.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

The google link needs to be made public.

Here you go:

https://archive.org/details/adventurese ... 7/mode/2up

[hauslern]

I changed my link from to me to anyone with the link now. Does it work? It includes Bagley's comments.

[Moksha]

I looked at the book the next day and found it to be in the category of John Bennett’s The History of the Saints. Possibly some truth there but lots of exaggeration” pp58-59.

Yeah, what was up with Bennett's claim that Joseph and the Saints practiced so-called "Polygamy" when they could find but one wife? Too deceptive for truthful LDS standards!!! I mean, it is not as though Joseph's lusts brought him to the fourteen-year-olds and spoiled their chance to attend the middle school dance, it was something commanded by an angel with a drawn sword. Bagley lacked the keen mental gymnastics of apologists.

The question may be asked, how is it possible for so corrupt a man as Joe Smith is represented to be, could ever have attained complete control as he unquestionably had over the minds of the honest portion of his followers? I confess the question puzzles me.

No man, who has ever seen the influence of blind fanaticism over the human mind can imagine the effect it will produce.

Almost sounds like this 1844 writing is prophesizing the MAGA movement.

[drumdude]

I changed my link from to me to anyone with the link now. Does it work?. It includes Bagley's comments.

Yep working now!

[hauslern]

Bushman: "“He did not lust for women so much as he lusted for kin.”

Wow, an interesting excuse for adultery. Maybe Trump could have used that.