Difference between revisions of "Mormonism and Wikipedia/Joseph Smith, Jr./Distinctive views and teachings"

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An analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith"

Distinctive views and teachings

Cosmology and theology  Updated 9/3/2011

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught that all existence was material,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Creation/Creatio ex nihilo

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

including a world of "spirit matter" so fine that it was invisible to all but the purest mortal eyes.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Matter, in Smith's view, could neither be created nor destroyed;

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  
• For a detailed response, see: Creation/Creatio ex nihilo

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

the creation involved only the reorganization of existing matter.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  
• For a detailed response, see: Creation/Creatio ex nihilo

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Like matter, "intelligence" was co-eternal with God, and human spirits had been drawn from a pre-existent pool of eternal intelligences.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Embodiment, therefore, was the purpose of earth life.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

The work and glory of God, the supreme intelligence,

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 455–56 (arguing that in Smith's theology, God's authority arose not from being an ex nihilo creator, but from having the greatest intelligence).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

was to create worlds across the cosmos where inferior intelligences could be embodied.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Though Smith at first taught that God the Father was a spirit,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and the nature of God/God is a Spirit
• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and the nature of God/God is a Spirit/Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

he eventually viewed God as an advanced and glorified man,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and the nature of God/"God is a man"

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

embodied within space

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 421 ("Piece by piece, Joseph redefined the nature of God, giving Him a form and a body and locating Him in time and space."); Bloom (1992) , p. 101 ("Joseph Smith's God...is finite.... Exalted now into the heavens, God necessarily is still subject to the contingencies of time and space.").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

with a throne situated near a star or planet named Kolob, and measuring time at the rate of a thousand years per Kolob day.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Abraham/Kolob
• For a detailed response, see: Book of Abraham/Astronomy/Revolution Time

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Both God the Father and Jesus were distinct beings with physical bodies, but the Holy Spirit was a "personage of Spirit."

Author's sources:

1. Roberts (1909) , p. 325.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Through the gradual acquisition of knowledge,

Author's sources:

1. Larson (1978) , p. 7 (online ver.).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

those who were sealed to their exaltation could eventually become coequal with God.

Author's sources:

1. Widmer (2000) , p. 119.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

The ability of humans to progress to godhood implied a vast hierarchy of gods.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  
• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Each of these gods, in turn, would rule a kingdom of inferior intelligences, and so forth in an eternal hierarchy.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  
• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man
• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and the nature of God/Deification of man/Gods of their own planets

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

The opportunity to achieve godhood extended to all humanity; those who died with no opportunity to accept Latter Day Saint theology could achieve godhood by accepting its benefit in the afterlife through baptism for the dead.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  
• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and temples/Baptism for the dead

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Children who died in their innocence were guaranteed to rise at the resurrection and rule as gods without maturing to adulthood.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  Violated by COgden —Diff: off-site
  The cited source says nothing about children rising to "rule as gods without maturing to adulthood." Joseph Smith said that "children would be raised in the resurrection just as they were laid down, and that they would obtain all the intelligence necessary to occupy thrones, principalities and powers.” (History of the Church, volume 4, page 556.) Children will rise from the resurrection as children, but they will be raised to maturity. There is no Mormon doctrine of "immature gods."

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Apart from those who committed the eternal sin, Smith taught that even the wicked and disbelieving would achieve a degree of glory in the afterlife,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

where they would serve those who had achieved godhood.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  The Bushman reference refers to those who are not married by priesthood authority, not the "wicked and disbelieving." Bushman states that "the worldly wed became single again, and a permanent cap limited their progress." Ne notes that they are appointed "angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory."
•  Violates Wikipedia: Synthesis off-site: Do not put together information from multiple sources to reach a conclusion that is not stated explicitly by any of the sources.
  
  This passage coupled with the previous one constitutes Wikipedia synthesis. The second Bushman passage referring to eternal marriage is used in the Wikipedia article to make a point about those who are "wicked and disbelieving."

}}

Religious authority and ritual

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith's teachings were rooted in dispensational restorationism.

Author's sources:

1. Brooke (1994) , p. 33.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

He saw his teachings and the Church of Christ as a restoration of early Christian ideals that had been lost in a great apostasy.

Author's sources:

1. Remini (2000) , p. 84.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

At first, Smith's church had little sense of hierarchy, Smith's religious authority being derived from visions and revelations.

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , p. 7 (describing Smith's earliest earliest authority as charismatic authority).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Though Smith did not claim exclusive prophethood,

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , pp. 7–8.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

an early revelation designated him as the only prophet allowed to issue commandments "as Moses."

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 121, 175; Phelps (1833) , p. 67 ("[N]o one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church, excepting my servant Joseph, for he receiveth them even as Moses.").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

This religious authority encompassed economic and political as well as spiritual matters. For instance, in the early 1830s, he temporarily instituted a form of religious communism, called the United Order, requiring Saints to consecrate all their property to the church.

Author's sources:

1. Brodie (1972) , pp. 106, 112, 121–22.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

He also envisioned that theocratic institutions he established would have a role in the world-wide political organization of the Millennium.

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , pp. 111–12, 115 (describing the expected role of the Council of Fifty).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

By the mid-1830s, Smith began teaching a hierarchy of three priesthoods (Melchizedek, Aaronic, and Patriarchal),

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , pp. 27–34; Bushman (2005) , pp. 264–65.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

each of them a continuation of biblical priesthoods through patrilineal succession or ordination by biblical figures appearing in visions.

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , p. 7.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Upon introducing the Melchizedek or "High" Priesthood in 1831,

Author's sources:

1. Brodie (1971) , p. 111;Bushman (2005) , pp. 156–60; Quinn (1994) , pp. 31–32;Roberts (1902) , pp. 175–76 (On 3 June 1831, "the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood was manifested and conferred for the first time upon several of the Elders.").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught that its recipients would be "endowed with power from on high," thus fulfilling a need for a greater holiness and an authority commensurate with the New Testament apostles.

Author's sources:

1. Prince (1995) , pp. 19, 115–116, 119 (noting influence ofSidney Rigdon in developing this idea); Gospel of Luke 24:49 (Authorized King James Version) ("And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endowed with power from on high.").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

This doctrine of endowment evolved through the 1830s,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Temples/Endowment

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

until in 1842, the Nauvoo endowment included an elaborate ceremony containing symbolism similar to that of Freemasonry.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Temples/Endowment/Freemasonry

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

The endowment was extended to women in 1843,

Author's sources:

1. Prince (1995) , p. 140.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

though Smith never clarified whether women could be ordained to priesthood offices.

Author's sources:

1. Prince (1995) , p. 201.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught that the High Priesthood's endowment of heavenly power included the sealing powers of Elijah, allowing High Priests to effect binding consequences in the afterlife.

Author's sources:

1. Brooke (1994) , pp. 30, 194–95, 203, 208 (Smith introduced the sealing power in 1831 as part of the High Priesthood, and then attributed this power to Elijah after he appeared in an 1836 vision in the Kirtland Temple).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

For example, this power would enable proxy baptisms for the dead

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Baptism for the dead

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

and priesthood marriages that would be effective into the afterlife.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Marriage/As a requirement for exaltation

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Elijah's sealing powers also enabled the second anointing, or "fulness(sic) of the priesthood"

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Temples/Second anointing

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

which, according to Smith, sealed married couples to their exaltation, thus virtually guaranteeing their eternal godhood.

Author's sources:

1. Brooke (1994) , p. 294 ("The ritual of the second anointing...granted a virtually unconditional promise of divinity in the celestial kingdom."); Bushman (2005) , pp. 497–98 (The second anointing ceremony "was Joseph's attempt to deal with the theological problem of assurance" of one's eternal life).

FAIR's Response

Theology of family

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

During the early 1840s, Smith unfolded a theology of family relations called the "New and Everlasting Covenant"

Author's sources:

1. Roberts (1909) , pp. 502–07 (1842 revelation describing the New and Everlasting Covenant).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

that superseded all earthly bonds.

Author's sources:

1. Foster (1981) , pp. 161–62.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

He taught that outside the Covenant, marriages were simply matters of contract,

Author's sources:

1. Foster (1981) , pp. 161–62 (quoting a source stating that in Smith's view, sex within earthly marriages was not sinful if the marriage was cemented by bonds of love and affection, but sex could be sinful even within marriage if the partners were alienated from each other).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

and Mormons outside the Covenant would be mere ministering angels to those within, who would be gods.

Author's sources:

1. Foster (1981) , p. 145.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

To fully enter the Covenant, a man and woman must participate in a "first anointing", a "sealing" ceremony, and a "second anointing".

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 497–98 (those who were married eternally were then "sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise" through the second anointing); Brooke (1994) , pp. 256–57.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

When fully sealed into the Covenant, Smith said that no sin nor blasphemy (other than the eternal sin) could keep them from their "exaltation," that is, their godhood in the afterlife.

Author's sources:

1. Roberts (1909) , pp. 502–03; Bushman (2005) , pp. 497–98 (the second anointing provided a guarantee that participants would be exalted even if they sinned); Brooke (1994) , p. 257.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

According to Smith, only one person on earth at a time—in this case, Smith—could possess this power of sealing.

Author's sources:

1. Roberts (1909) , pp. 501 ("I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this Priesthood are conferred.")

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught that the highest exaltation would be achieved through "plural marriage" (polygamy),

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and polygamy/Brigham Young said that the only men who become gods are those that practice polygamy

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

which was the ultimate manifestation of this New and Everlasting Covenant.

Author's sources:

1. Bloom (1992) , p. 108 (polygamy and consequent progression towards godhood were "the true essence of becoming a Latter-day Saint, the heart of Mormon religion making.").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Plural marriage allowed an individual to transcend the angelic state and become a god

Author's sources:

1. Bloom (1992) , p. 105.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

by accelerating the expansion of one's heavenly kingdom.

Author's sources:

1. Foster (1981) , p. 145 ("[I]f marriage with one wife...could bring eternal progression and ultimate godhood for men, then multiple wives in this life and the next would accelerate the process, in line with God's promise to Abraham that his seed eventually would be as numerous as the sand on the sea shore."); Brodie (1971) , p. 300 ("[I]f a man went to heaven with ten wives, he would have more than ten-fold the blessings of a mere monogamist, for all the children begotten through these wives would enhance his kingdom.").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught and practiced this doctrine secretly but publicly denied it.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Hiding the truth

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Nevertheless, Smith taught that once he revealed the doctrine to any man or woman, failure to practice it would be to risk God's wrath.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Did women turn Joseph down

}}

History and eschatology

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught that during a Great Apostasy, the Bible had degenerated from its original inerrant form, and the "abominable church," led by Satan, had perverted true Christianity.

Author's sources:

1. Hullinger (1992) , p. 154.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

He viewed himself as the latter-day prophet who restored those lost truths via the Book of Mormon

Author's sources:

1. Hullinger (1992) , p. 154-54 (describing how the Book of Mormon solved various 19th century biblical controversies).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

and later revelations. He described the Book of Mormon as a literal "history of the origins of the Indians."

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Historicity

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

The book called the Indians "Lamanites," a people descended from Israelites who had left Jerusalem in 600 BCE

Author's sources:

1. Smith (1830) , p. 51 (Jesus "cometh according to the words of the angel, in six hundred years from the time my father left Jerusalem."); Phelps (1833) , p. 41 ("Lamanites are a remnant" of the Jews).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

and whose skin pigmentation was a curse for their sinfulness.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Curse

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Though Smith first identified Mormons as gentiles, he began teaching in the 1830s that the Mormons, too, were literal Israelites.

Author's sources:

1. Brooke (1994) , pp. 213–14 (arguing that the shift occurred after 1832 and may have related to Oliver Cowdery's failed mission to the Missouri "Lamanites"); Shipps (1985) , pp. 82–83 (arguing that the identification of the Saints as literal Israelites was in place prior to 1838).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith also claimed to have regained lost truths of sacred history through his revelations and revision of the Bible. For example, he taught that the Garden of Eden had been located in Jackson County, Missouri, that Eve's partaking of the fruit was part of God's plan,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Garden of Eden in Missouri

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

that Adam had practiced baptism, that the descendants of Cain were "black,"

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and racial issues/Blacks and the priesthood/The "curse of Cain" and "curse of Ham"

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

that Enoch had built a city of Zion so perfect that it was taken to heaven,

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 138–41.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

that Egypt was discovered by the daughter of Ham,

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 288.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

that the descendants of Ham were denied the patriarchal right of priesthood,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• The idea that the “mark of Cain” and the "curse of Ham" was a black skin is something that was used by many Protestants as a way to morally and biblically justify slavery. This idea did not originate with Latter-day Saints, although the existence of the priesthood ban prior to 1978 tends to cause some people to assume that it was a Latter-day Saint concept.
• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and racial issues/Blacks and the priesthood/The "curse of Cain" and "curse of Ham"

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

that Abraham had discovered astronomical truths by peering into a Urim and Thummim,

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Abraham/Astronomy

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

that King David had been denied his godhood because of his sin, and that John the Apostle would walk the earth until the Second Coming of Jesus.

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 74.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith declared that he would be one of the instruments in fulfilling Nebuchadnezzar's statue vision in the Book of Daniel: that he was the stone that would destroy secular government without "sword or gun",

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 521.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

which would then be replaced with a theocratic Kingdom of God.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and government/The Council of Fifty

}}

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith taught that this political kingdom would be multidenominational and "democratic" so long as the people chose wisely; but there would be no elections.

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 522–23.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Jesus would appear during the Millennium as the ultimate ruler. Following a thousand years of peace, Judgment Day would be followed by a final resurrection, when all humanity would be assigned to one of three heavenly kingdoms.

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 521, 536–37.

FAIR's Response

Political views

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith ran for President of the United States in 1844, campaigning as "General Joseph Smith" because he had earlier been appointed Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion. Smith considered the United States Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, to be inspired by God and "the Saints' best and perhaps only defense."

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 377.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

He believed a strong central government crucial to the nation's well-being but thought democracy better than tyranny—although he also taught that a theocratic monarchy was the ideal form of government.

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 522.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

In foreign affairs, Smith was an expansionist, though he viewed "expansionism as brotherhood."

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 516: "If Texas petitions Congress to be adopted among the sons of liberty, give her the right hand of fellowship; and refuse not the same friendly grip to Canada and Mexico."

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith favored a strong central bank and high tariffs to protect American business and agriculture. He disfavored imprisonment of convicts except for murder, preferring efforts to reform criminals through labor; he also opposed courts-martial for military deserters. He supported capital punishment but opposed hanging,

Author's sources:

1. Roberts (1902) , p. 435.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

preferring execution by firing squad or beheading in order to "spill [the criminal's] blood on the ground, and let the smoke thereof ascend up to God."

Author's sources:

1. Roberts (1909) , p. 296.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Despite having published a pro-slavery essay in 1836,

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 289, 327–28 (the essay "exhibited the conventional prejudiced of his day in asserting that blacks were cursed with servitude by a 'decree of Jehovah.'"); Hill (1977) , p. 381 (noting that Smith did not want to be identified as an abolitionist, even when he disfavored slavery).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith later strongly opposed slavery.

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 289; Hill (1977) , pp. 380, 383 (citing 1833 revelation stating that "it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

During his presidential campaign, he proposed abolishing slavery by 1850 and compensating slaveholders

Author's sources:

1. Hill (1977) , p. 384.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

through sale of public lands.

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , pp. 516, 327–28. Smith also proposed cutting congressional pay from eight to two dollars per day and requiring only two representatives per million people, thus reducing the number of representatives in the House to forty.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith did not believe blacks to be genetically inferior to whites;

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 289; Hill (1977) , pp. 384–85.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

he welcomed both freemen and slaves into the church and even ordained free black members into the priesthood

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 289; Hill (1977) , pp. 381–82, 85.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

But he opposed baptizing slaves without permission of their masters, and he opposed miscegenation.

Author's sources:

1. Bushman (2005) , p. 289; Hill (1977) , p. 379.

FAIR's Response

Ethics and behavior

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith said his ethical rule was, "When the Lord commands, do it";

Author's sources:

1. Roberts (1904) , p. 170.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

and by issuing revelations, Smith supplemented biblical imperatives with new directives. One of these revelations, called the "Word of Wisdom," was framed not as a commandment, but as a recommendation. Coming at a time of temperance agitation,

Author's sources:

1. Brodie (1971) , p. 166; Bushman (2005) , p. 212 (revelation "came at a time when temperance and food reforms were flourishing in the United States").

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

the guideline recommended that Saints avoid "strong" alcoholic drinks, wine (except sacramental wine), tobacco, meat (except in times of famine or cold weather), and "hot drinks."

Author's sources:

1. Smith (1835)

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith and other contemporary church leaders did not always follow this counsel.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

• For a detailed response, see: Word of Wisdom/Joseph Smith used tea
• For a detailed response, see: Word of Wisdom/Joseph Smith sold liquor in Nauvoo

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The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

In 1831, Smith taught that those who kept the laws of God had "no need to break the laws of the land."

Author's sources:

1. Phelps (1833) , p. 135.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Nevertheless, beginning in the mid-1830s and into the 1840s, as the Mormon people became involved in conflicts with the Missouri and Illinois state governments, Smith taught that "congress has no power to make a law that would abridge the rights of my religion," and that they were not under the obligation to follow laws they deemed as being contrary to their "religious privilege."

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , p. 88.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

He also taught that:

that which is wrong under one circumstance, may be and often is, right under another. God said thou shalt not kill—at another time he said thou shalt utterly destroy. This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted—by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the elders of the kingdom are placed. Whatever God requires is right...even things which may be considered abominable to all those who do not understand the order of heaven.

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , p. 112 (quoting a letter Smith wrote to the 19 year old daughter of Sidney Rigdon to justify Smith's polygamous proposal to her).

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Smith may thus have felt justified in promoting polygamy despite its violation of both traditional ethical standards and the criminal law.

Author's sources:

1. Quinn (1994) , pp. 88–89.

FAIR's Response

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

In 1842 Smith published the "Articles of Faith," a short document later canonized, which declared that members of the church believed in "honoring, obeying, and sustaining the law."

Author's sources:

1. 12th Article of Faith. Pearl of Great Price.

FAIR's Response

References

Wikipedia references for "Joseph Smith, Jr."

Further reading

Mormonism and Wikipedia