In 1997, the celebration of the
150th anniversary that marked the beginning of the first Mormon emigration to
the old West of the United States was observed. Mormons can be justifiably
proud of this enormous effort, for it is truly one of the great emigrations of
American history that was marked by great sacrifice, courage and visionary
zeal. Throughout that year, the Mormon Church held many observances and
reenactments that brought to life this well-known historical event.
However,
there are other incidents and occurances concerning the history of the Mormon
Church which it will never bring to light and publicize, and for very good
reason. For the church, the squelching of any discussion of these events is
vital to maintaining the momentum of its enormously successful campaign to
gain mainstream status in American culture. Behind the carefully crafted
legend the church projects of its past, there exists a secret history of
Mormonism which church-financed public relations blitzes will never allude to.
The Mormon Church has continually relied upon its ability to conceal, deny,
dismiss and rewrite major portions of it's own history, in an effort to
deceptively sanitize its past - and to maintain its public image. we would like to bring to light some of this secret history so as
to give you a more objective view of the claims of the Mormon Church that it
makes about its own past.
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, claimed that in the spring
of 1820, when he was a fourteen year old boy in upstate New York, he was
visited by God and Christ and informed of the apostasy of all Christian
churches. The visitation supposedly occurred in response to his attempt to
make sense of a local revival then taking place among various denominations.
This incident, called the First Vision, is what Mormon apostle Hugh Brown says
"constitutes the groundwork of the Church which was later
organized." Smith also claimed that his relation of the vision to his
community brought great persecution upon him, further proving how spiritually
ignorant and in need of restoration they were.
But the actual facts concerning
the incident as proclaimed by the LDS Church's account tell another story. First of all, there
was no 1820 revival as claimed by Smith, since examination of local church and
historical records show that a revival took place in 1824 instead. Smith was
known to have been active in Methodist church services around this time
period. Several revisions to the First Vision accounts throughout the years
that seriously contradict one another were recorded by Smith, his own mother
Lucy, and church scribes, changing dates, facts, incidents and even the number
of divine personages who visited him. In fact it wasn't until 1838 that the
present version of the story was finally set forth, a time gap of almost 18
years. These contradictions alone cast grave doubt upon Smith's story since
they call into serious question his claimed encounters with divinity.
As the Mormon Church began to develop, it was not long until the
controversial practice of plural marriages or polygamy was adopted, around
1835. And the relationship between the practice of polygamy and Mormonism is
far more extensive than the Latter Day Saint Church will ever admit, at least
in this present day. For example, note this official statement by the church
on its Internet web site: "Some early leaders and members of the Church
entered into plural marriages during the latter half of the nineteenth
century. After receiving a revelation, Church President Wilford Woodruff
declared that the practice should be discontinued. That position has been
reaffirmed by every President of the Church since."
The "Historical Summary" contained in a new book published by the
church on the teachings of Brigham Young, another early church leader,
portrays his marital life as that of a happily remarried widower, saying
nothing about his own deep involvement with polygamy. The church's position
seems to be attempting to downplaying the extent of the practice among its
early followers, even suggesting that these were isolated instances of
aberration clearly out of the Mormon mainstream of the day in the 1800's.
The truth is often much stranger than fiction, and
this is particularly true in regards to polygamy among the Mormon Church of
the nineteenth century. As the Church steadfastly avoids acknowledging just how
extensive it was, it also deliberately ignores the fact that it was none other
than Joseph Smith who first adopted the practice. At first he secretly
practiced it alone, then with other leaders even while it was opposed by both
church members and non-Mormons - and his wife Emma. When he could no longer
keep the matter in secrecy, Smith then announced that he had received a
revelation from God commanding that plural marriage be kept by all true
believing Mormon men, since it was necessary to achieve godhood. This marital
process - called "exaltation" - required them to have at least a
second wife. This was a matter of public social and religious practice among
Mormon culture in the Old West for well over 50 years. Brigham Young did not
have only two wives as the book we just mentioned claims - he actually had
upwards of twenty seven of them. Only Congress' refusal to grant statehood to
the Utah territories until it was abandoned finally forced the Mormon prophet
to publicly repudiate it through "revelation." With great reluctance
the practice was finally given up only officially in the 1890s: those couples
who had already been involved with it continued to generally cohabit and live
as they used to, in full disobedience to the laws of the land.
In 1844, just 14 years after publishing the Book of Mormon and
organizing the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith was shot to death while a prisoner
in the city jail of Carthage, Illinois when a band of armed men stormed the
building. In another standard work of the Church, the Doctrine and Covenants,
Smith was said to be as a "lamb led to the slaughter" as he traveled
to Carthage to give himself up to the authorities as one who would die
innocently and in cold blood. Church history has always taken great pains to
portray Smith as a martyr: this is readily apparent when a visitor to Temple
Square in the heart of Salt Lake City, Utah is invited to view
"Legacy" a motion picture shown at the Joseph Smith Memorial
Building. It powerfully portrays Smith's death as that of a passive victim of
mob violence, a defenseless figure suffering for preaching the Mormon
restoration of Christianity. Millions of visitors annually are confronted with
this story, as well as at annual memorials at the preserved jail in Carthage.
Again, the actual historical truth is considerably different. Smith did
not, as is dramatically portrayed, quietly resign to die without a struggle. A
portion of the official History of the
Church which is never quoted reveals that Smith pulled a six-shooter
pistol and returned the fire of the mob as it broke down his cell door. John
Taylor, who would later become the third prophet of the church, recounted in
another portion of this History that
Smith shot and killed two men who were attempting to storm his jail cell and
wounded another before he was shot as he attempted to escape the room through
the second story window of the jail, and was killed by gunfire in the street.
This is another portion of the secret history of Mormonism that most Mormons,
let alone non-Mormons are not even aware of. Smith did not die as a martyr
whatsoever - he died defending himself and tried to escape, which under the
circumstances is understandable, but hardly qualifies him as a "lamb led
to the slaughter."
The last portion of the secret history of Mormonism we will briefly
examine is the role of the church in what is now known as the Mountain Meadows
Massacre. In September 1857, after a prolonged siege, a wagon train of
settlers emigrating to California was virtually wiped off the face of the
earth by an armed band of men as they passed through the territories of
Southern Utah. While the church says absolutely nothing about it, and allows
secular history to recall the tragedy, what little it has said has made it
clear that it views the attack as one in which Indian hostilities played a
prominent role in the disaster. An article in a church magazine reporting on
the erection of a memorial to the incident appeared to be carefully worded so
that an ignorant reader would get the idea that Indians did the killing, and
would get no clue about what really happened.
Again the truth must be made known. The massacre was a deliberate act
of Mormon militia acting under orders from church officials doubling as local
military leaders who were assisted by their Indian allies. Mormon militia
disguised themselves as Indians during the abortive siege of the wagon train.
And it was
These are just some of the highlights of the secret history of Mormonism that you won't ever hear mentioned by the Mormon Church. Time will not allow us to discuss any other of the questionable historical whitewashings that the Church has made. In our opinion, it raises the gravest questions regarding the credibility of the claims of a church asserting itself to be the only "true church."
Think about it. How can you seriously entertain the claims of a religious organization that has exerted all of the effort it has made to conceal it's less than divine origins and history? Despite all of the problems one may find with contemporary Christian denominations today, they pale to insignificance when compared to the duplicity, deception and distortion that the Mormon Church has engaged to create the pristine image it now wields. If the Mormon Church can be said to be true in any way at all, then an excellent place for it to demonstrate its truthful nature is in an honest admission and assessment of its historical deceptions. However, over 150 years of history have proven that this is highly unlikely.
As we close, we
urge you to do your own homework and learn more about the Church than it will
tell you about itself - and to not forget one important point: if you get
involved with an organized religion without knowing its history, a stranger
will be claiming your faith.
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