(DRAFT RESOUCES) Mountain Meadows

"In 1857, it is estimated that eleven thousand troops were ordered here; some seven thousand started for this place, with several thousand hangers on. They came into this Territory when a company of emigrants were traveling on the south route to California. Nearly all of that company were destroyed by the Indians. That unfortunate affair has been laid to the charge of the whites. A certain judge that was then in this Territory wanted the whole army to accompany him to Iron County to try the whites for the murder of that company of emigrants. I told Governor Cumming that if he would take an unprejudiced judge into the district where that horrid affair occurred, I would pledge myself that every man in the regions round about should be forthcoming when called for, to be condemned or acquitted as an impartial, unprejudiced judge and jury should decide; and I pledged him that the court should be protected from any violence or hindrance in the prosecution of the laws; and if any were guilty of the blood of those who suffered in the Mountain Meadow massacre, let them suffer the penalty of the law; but to this day they have not touched the matter, for fear the Mormons would be acquitted from the charge of having any hand in it, and our enemies would thus be deprived of a favorite topic to talk about, when urging hostility against us. "The Mountain Meadow massacre! Only think of the Mountain Meadow massacre!!" is their cry from one end of the land to the other.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1863

Volume 10, discourse 25, pages 104-111


http://journalofdiscourses.com/10/25

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LDS History using only LDS Sources

In October 2014, Elder Neil L. Andersen said:
We might remind the sincere inquirer that Internet information does not have a “truth” filter. Some information, no matter how convincing, is simply not true.
While acknowledging the irony of starting a Mormon history blog in response to that statement, this project is an attempt to create an easy-to-use list of some of the events in LDS history that have caused questions or concerns. Linking to LDS sources allows people to read about them but in an official/approved environment rather than feeling a need to go to other places on the internet.

Elder Andersen also said:
We might remind the inquirer that some information about Joseph, while true, may be presented completely out of context to his own day and situation.
By linking directly to LDS sources it gives the reader the opportunity to read the information in the context the church considers reasonable and fair.

Source in this article:

  1. Neil L. Andersen, Joseph Smith, General Conference October 2014
    https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/joseph-smith?lang=eng
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(DRAFT RESOURCES) LDS Blacks and the priesthood / temple attendance

RESOURCES:

" joy and relief" 
" I didn't understand why; I couldn't identify with any of the explanations that were given"
" revelation that confirmed what they desired and gave them a feeling of rightness about the time."
"they went to the Lord, I think with a semi-proposal, that this be done"
"Revelation comes in a lot of different ways. God speaks to His children in many ways. A face-to-face vision of God is very rare. That was the First Vision of God to Joseph Smith. Another way that revelation comes is by the appearance of an angel. The Apostle Paul had that kind of experience. Revelation can also come in a dream or a vision. None of those were the experience in the revelation on the priesthood. Other ways that revelation comes are in comfort (feeling of comfort), information, communicating restraint, or impelling one to do something, or to give a feeling."

 http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/additional-resource/elder-dallin-h-oaks-reaction-to-priesthood-revelation


"...by the end of his life in 1844 Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, opposed slavery. During this time some black males were ordained to the priesthood."
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/race-church

 Brigham Young, 5 February 1852
https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/StreamGate?is_rtl=false&is_mobile=false&dps_dvs=1414443613480~519&dps_pid=FL4530991

 http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/topic/race-relations

 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2?lang=eng

 Question 13th. Are the Mormons abolitionists.

Answer. No... we do not believe in setting the Negroes  free.
http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/elders-journal-july-1838?p=11&highlight=negro

 JANE MANNING JAMES: BLACK SAINT, 1847 PIONEER
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1979/08/jane-manning-james-black-saint-1847-pioneer?lang=eng

 "...when Green joined the church, a black seventy named Elijah Abel had just returned from a mission, and members of the Quorum of the Twelve were promoting Joseph Smith’s proposal to free all the slaves in the United States. Not long after Green arrived in the Great Basin, however, church leaders began to exclude black men from the priesthood, a change that also limited black members’ access to the temple."
http://history.lds.org/article/green-flake-pioneer?lang=eng

 “ALL ARE ALIKE UNTO GOD”
https://si.lds.org/bc/seminary/content/library/talks/ces-symposium-addresses/all-are-alike-unto-god_eng.pdf

 Jamaica
http://history.lds.org/article/pioneers-in-every-land-jamaica-victor-nugent?lang=eng

 "...we “poked fun” at an old Yorkshireman, who was assumed, by way of mirth, to be a Cœlebs in search of polygamy at an epoch of life when perhaps the blessing might come too late; and at an exceedingly plain middle-aged and full-blooded negro woman, who was fairly warned—the children of Ham are not admitted to the communion of the Saints, and consequently to the forgiveness of sins and a free seat in Paradise—that she was “carrying coals to Newcastle."
http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/trailExcerptMulti?lang=eng&sourceId=5732
Dan Camp, He was a Negro slave.
https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=44319

 Orson Hyde was present. after Supper asked what is the situation of the Negro
http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/journal-december-1842-june-1844-book-1-21-december-1842-10-march-1843?p=47&highlight=negro

"...the Indians have greater cause to com plain of the treatment of the whites than the Negroes or  Sons of Cain"

Footnote 72 states: "The concept of Cain as the progenitor of blacks was an old and prevalent one."

http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/journal-december-1841-december-1842?p=14

"Still he says, he is independent. If he is, let him live alone; and when he has lived alone six months, he will be apt to come to his senses, if he has bread enough to keep him until then.
At the end of that time he would be wishing for the society of the negro baboon, or anything at all like the human form. He would hunger and thirst for an association with his fellow being..."

A Discourse by Elder Amasa M. Lyman, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, December 9, 1855

Volume 3, discourse 23, pages 164-177

http://journalofdiscourses.com/3/23
"Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a sin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to."

http://journalofdiscourses.com/11/41

Remarks by President Brigham Young, in the Bowery, G.S.L. City, August 19, 1866

Volume 11, discourse 41, pages 266-272


"Gone is every element of discrimination."

The question of extending the blessings of the priesthood to blacks had been on the minds of many of the Brethren over a period of years.

On this occasion he raised the question before his Brethren—his Counselors and the Apostles. Following this discussion we joined in prayer in the most sacred of circumstances.

...by the power of the Holy Ghost there came to that prophet an assurance that the thing for which he prayed was right, that the time had come, and that now the wondrous blessings of the priesthood should be extended to worthy men everywhere regardless of lineage.

There was not the sound “as of a rushing mighty wind,” there were not “cloven tongues like as of fire” (Acts 2:2–3)... No voice audible to our physical ears was heard. But the voice of the Spirit whispered with certainty into our minds and our very souls.

All of us knew that the time had come for a change and that the decision had come from the heavens. The answer was clear. There was perfect unity among us in our experience and in our understanding.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1988/10/priesthood-restoration?lang=eng

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Polygamy - Plural Marriage - Polyandry

Official Plural Marriage essays on LDS.org:
The essays are approved by the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12

Other information from official sources:
  • Mormon Newsroom on Polygamy: lists the above three essays and provides a media friendly summary of the practice
  • Joseph Smith Papers: summary of Nauvoo Journals, December 1841-April 1843. Second half of the essay discusses Nauvoo plural marriage using Joseph Smith's journal and other sources
  • Joseph Smith Papers: Journal, March–September 1838. summary of Nauvoo Journals, December 1841-April 1843. Second half of the essay discusses Nauvoo plural marriage using Joseph Smith's journal and other sources
Additional reading suggested by official sources:
Key issues and events mentioned in the LDS sources. Everything in "quotes" is taken directly from official LDS sources with the source linked:
  • Polygamy was illegal in the 19th century: "In Joseph Smith’s time, monogamy was the only legal form of marriage in the United States" (LDS source)
  • Joseph's plural marriages were not recognised by the state, but were instead a religious ceremony or "sealing," These were either "sealings for time and eternity" or "sealings for eternity only...  Joseph Smith participated in both types of sealings."
    • "Sealings for time and eternity included commitments and relationships during this life, generally including the possibility of sexual relations."
    • "Eternity-only sealings indicated relationships in the next life alone."
  • "The exact number of women to whom (Joseph) was sealed in his lifetime is unknown... Careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40." (LDS source, see also footnote 24. Joseph's familysearch.org file has 24 of his plural wives listed)
  • Some of Joseph's plural wives were already legally married to other men: "Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married... Estimates of the number of these sealings range from 12 to 14." LDS source, see also footnote 29)
  • Joseph Smith's first plural marriage was to "...Fanny Alger, in Kirtland, Ohio, in the mid-1830s... Joseph Smith had married Alger, who lived and worked in the Smith household, after he had obtained her consent and that of her parents" (LDS source)
    • Oliver Cowdery was excommunicated in 1838. The second of nine charges against Cowdery was "insinuating (Joseph Smith) was guilty of adultery." Joseph and Cowdery were close friends. Joseph had "intrusted (Cowdery) with many things" and had apparently confirmed to Cowdery "the reality of a confidential relationship with Alger." Cowdery characterized "...the relationship as 'a dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger’s.'" (LDS Source, see footnote 54)
    • "After the marriage with Alger ended in separation" Joseph does not appear to have taken any additional wives "...until after the Church moved to Nauvoo, Illinois." "...Louisa Beaman and Joseph Smith were sealed in April 1841." 
  • "Emma likely did not know about all of Joseph’s sealings." Plural marriage was described as an "excruciating ordeal" for Emma. (LDS source)
  • "Emma opposed plural marriage"
    • "In the summer of 1843, Joseph Smith dictated the revelation on marriage" (now D&C section 132).
    • "The revelation on marriage required that a wife give her consent before her husband could enter into plural marriage" (LDS source)
    • The revelation also said that if permission was not given by the wife then "she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt." (132:65). The revelation also warns Emma that if she will not receive the law she "shall be destroyed." (132:64)
    • Joseph went on to marry women without Emma's consent. "He may have thought Emma’s rejection of plural marriage exempted him from the law of Sarah. Her decision to “receive not this law” permitted him to marry additional wives without her consent. (LDS source)
  • Plural marriage was done in secret: "Participants in these early plural marriages pledged to keep their involvement confidential." After rumours began to spread, members and leaders issued "carefully worded denials that denounced spiritual wifery and polygamy but were silent about what Joseph Smith and others saw as divinely mandated “celestial” plural marriage." (LDS source)
    • On 1st October 1842 the church's periodical, the Times & Seasons, edited by Joseph Smith, published an article called "On Marriage" (Times & Seasons is reference in the Nauvoo Polygamy essay on LDS.org, footnote 23).
    • The article quoted the 1835 version of the Doctrine and Covenants (section 101): "Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again." the T&S article added: "We have given the above rule of marriage as the only one practiced in this church."
      • Section 101 was retained in the 1844 version (as section 109), an edition approved by Joseph Smith before his death
      • The revelation now found in D&C section 132 "...was not made public until Elder Orson Pratt, under the direction of President Brigham Young, announced it at a Church conference on 29 August 1852. The revelation was placed in the Doctrine and Covenants in 1876." (LDS Source) 
    • In the T&S publication, Relief Society leaders said: "We the undersigned members of the ladies' relief society, and married females do certify and declare that we know of no system of marriage being practised in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints save the one contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants" (LDS Source)
No comments:

Gospel Topics essays are approved by the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12

This series of resources draws extensively from the LDS Gospel Topics essays published on LDS.org during 2013 and 2014.

LDS.org states:
"...we are very pleased that these scholars would agree to do this research. They then submitted a draft of their paper to a committee of historians here in the Church History Department as well as General Authorities who have reviewed their work and adjusted some edits. Those edits are made with the permission of the original writer. And that’s then submitted to the presiding Quorums of the Church, the Twelve and the First Presidency for approval. And then it’s published in Gospel Topics under LDS.org." (emphasis added) 
Elder Steven E. Snow
Church Historian and Recorder and the Executive Director of the Church History Department.
Video statement, 01:13
https://www.lds.org/topics?lang=eng#media=11373505780672488714-eng

Elder Snow was also interviewed by church-owned newspaper Deseret News in 2013:
The church's First Presidency approves each of the enhanced topic pages. 
"The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve both have been very supportive of this process," Elder Snow said. "I think they sense the need to provide accurate information to our members to counter a lot of sensationalism that tends to come about online or on the Internet over some of these historical topics." 
"We want them to be able to go to a place where they can read accurate information and be able to seek to understand those historical chapters in the context of time and place and understand these answers have been approved by the presiding Brethren of the church. I think that will give many of our members confidence that they can rely on those answers." (emphasis added) 
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865592128/LDS-Church-enhances-web-pages-on-its-history-doctrine.html?pg=all
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