Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 5

Contents

Response to claims made in "Chapter 5"



A FAIR Analysis of: Nauvoo Polygamy: "... but we called it celestial marriage", a work by author: George D. Smith

Response to claims made in Nauvoo Polygamy, "Chapter 5"


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Response to claim: 325 - The author points out that after Joseph's death, Rhoda Richards was sealed to "her cousin Brigham Young"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author points out that after Joseph's death, Rhoda Richards was sealed to "her cousin Brigham Young."

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Here the author again relies on presentism to provide a hostile interpretive lens. It was not unusual for first cousins to marry. Nineteen of the present-day states permit unrestricted marriage between first cousins, and most countries have no restrictions at all on marriage between cousins. In its exploitation of the presentist fallacy, the author’s remark is utterly irrelevant in its historical context.


Response to claim: 333 - Parley P. Pratt's is claimed to have been seald to his "last wife, Eleanor McComb McLean...without divorcing her legal husband"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Parley P. Pratt's is claimed to have been seald to his "last wife, Eleanor McComb McLean...without divorcing her legal husband, who fatally shot Parley near Van Buren, Arkansas…."

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

The author relies on presentism. Practices regarding marriage and divorce differed substantially from the 20th or 21st century. The author also tells us nothing about McComb's tyrannical and abusive husband, making him appear the wronged party.


Response to claim: 345 - Edwin Wooley married Louisa Chapin Rising as a polygamous wife even though she was not divorced from her legal husband

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Edwin Wooley married Louisa Chapin Rising as a polygamous wife even though she was not divorced from her legal husband.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Response to claim: 351 - Ezra Taft Benson was "a correspondent of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover"

The author(s) make(s) the following claim:

Ezra Taft Benson was "a correspondent of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover…."

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

It is not clear what relevance this has to Benson, plural marriage, or anything else, save perhaps that it associates the church president with a figure now regarded as repressive, megalomaniacal, and something of a sexual deviant.


Notes