FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Latest revision as of 14:14, 13 April 2024
FAIR Answers—back to home page
Response to claims made in "Chapter 22: The Bennett Explosion"
| Claims made in "Chapter 21: If a Man Entice a Maid" | A FAIR Analysis of: No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, a work by author: Fawn Brodie
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Claims made in "Chapter 23: Into Hiding" |
| Claim Evaluation |
| No Man Knows My History |
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Response to claims made in No Man Knows My History, "Chapter 22: The Bennett Explosion"
Jump to details:
- Response to claim: 310 - Joseph wrote a letter to Nancy Rigdon in an attempt to persuade her to become his plural wife
- Response to claim: 312 - John C. Bennett claimed that Joseph threatened to deliver him to the Danites
- Response to claim: 314 - Bennett claimed that the Danites were present in Nauvoo
- Response to claim: 316 - Joseph proposed plural marriage to Sarah Pratt while her husband Orson was away on a mission
Response to claim: 310 - Joseph wrote a letter to Nancy Rigdon in an attempt to persuade her to become his plural wife
The author(s) of No Man Knows My History make(s) the following claim:
Joseph wrote a letter to Nancy Rigdon in an attempt to persuade her to become his plural wife.Author's sources:
- John C. Bennett, History of the Saints, pp. 243-5.
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event
It seems evident even from the divergent accounts that a letter was written.Response to claim: 312 - John C. Bennett claimed that Joseph threatened to deliver him to the Danites
The author(s) of No Man Knows My History make(s) the following claim:
John C. Bennett claimed that Joseph threatened to deliver him to the Danites if he did not sign an affidavit stating that Joseph had not permitted him to participate in "illicit intercourse."Author's sources:
- Letter from Bennett to the Sangamo Journal, July 2, 1842, published July 15, 1842
- History of the Church 5:13.
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: This claim is false
Bennett's claim rings hollow, since after the supposed encounter in which Joseph threatened him, Bennett remained in Nauvoo for another 5-6 weeks before finally leaving. A week after "escaping" from Nauvoo, Bennett returned to the city. Even after publishing his attacks on Joseph, Bennett felt safe returning to Nauvoo and meeting with the prophet—hardly the acts of someone afraid for his life from religious fanatics.Response to claim: 314 - Bennett claimed that the Danites were present in Nauvoo
The author(s) of No Man Knows My History make(s) the following claim:
Bennett claimed that the Danites were present in Nauvoo.Author's sources:
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
Bennett's remaining in Nauvoo refutes the idea that the Danites were after him. Bennett, like many anti-Mormon imitators after him, would repeatedly claim that his truth telling put his life at grave risk from the "Danite" assassins, who "pledge themselves to poison the wells and the food and drink of dissenters, apostates, and all enemies of Zion, and to murder…[and] to destroy by fire and sword all the enemies of Mormonism."[1]Absurd claim: Bennett's subsequent actions belie his worry—he was to remain openly in Nauvoo for another five weeks, and during his two years of extensive anti-Mormon lecturing and publishing, he was never threatened by Danites. He even returned to Nauvoo a week after "escaping"—hardly a sign of fear.
Response to claim: 316 - Joseph proposed plural marriage to Sarah Pratt while her husband Orson was away on a mission
The author(s) of No Man Knows My History make(s) the following claim:
Joseph proposed plural marriage to Sarah Pratt while her husband Orson was away on a mission.
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources
The typical story offered by critics is that Joseph sent Orson away on a mission so that he could marry his wife. The reality is much more complex.
Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?
Jump to details:
- Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?
- This claim is contradicted by historical data: ten of the husbands of the twelve "polyandrous" wives were not on missions at the time and there is insufficient or contradictory information about the other two
- The only question regards Orson Hyde, who had been on his mission for one year to two years before the sealing
- Hyde's wife Marinda was sealed to Orson following Joseph's death
Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?
Jump to details:
- Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?
- This claim was made in an anti-Mormon expose entitled Fifteen Years Among the Mormons
- The book claimed that Law, Foster and Jacobs were returned from missions to find their wives "blushing under the prospective honors of spiritual wifeism"
- Law and Foster never served missions, and Jacobs was not on a mission when Joseph proposed a sealing to his wife
Notes
- ↑ John C. Bennett, The History of the Saints, or an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism (Boston: Leland & Whiting, 1842), 271. (Bennett examined)