179 years today Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was killed. Here's a look back at a book that examines the murder and its aftermath.
That day June 27, 1844 is pivotal in LDS history, marking the end of the faith's founding era and the beginning of its exile and exodus to Utah.
Though the episode is"without parallel," Beam says, its neglect in the country's self-awareness has to do with"the marginalization of Mormons." And Smith was not just gunned down by a mob of hooligans, Beam says. His murderers included"a prominent newspaper editor, a state senator, a justice of the peace, two regimental military commanders, and men who just a few months before were faithful members of Joseph's church...'respectable set of men.'"
Within 14 years, Smith's followers numbered in the thousands. They were chased from state to state, upbraided for their theological innovations, their political unity, communal economics, and, finally, their social arrangements, including patriarchal polygamy. But the Mormon leader, who initially planned to flee, had gotten himself out of other legal scrapes and thought he could this time as well.
Newspaper writers often used"cut-throat language," he says, and described Mormons as"an unscrupulous, schismatic religious people."But all the reasons why the Mormons' enemies claimed to oppose the new faith didn't add up to such visceral hatred.Traditional Christians at the time"felt their way of life was in jeopardy," the historian says."It pushed them into extreme measures.
The peaceful transition to a new prophet and a new home was a credit to Smith, Bushman says."The core of people were desperately loyal to Joseph but they were converted to the church, not to the man."The Mormon leader's death"did not paralyze the Mormons," Beam writes."Instead, it galvanized the Saints, strengthened them in their beliefs, and propelled them westward to a new, thriving 'Zion.
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