Mormon Coffee

Images of the Restoration is a really interesting blog site for those interested in Mormon history. Currently, the site includes 10 drawings that represent different aspects of the foundational history of the LDS Church with documented historical accounts accompanying each image. Some of the topics included are Oliver Cowdery’s gift of using a divining rod, Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon, the nine First Vision accounts, and the final hours at Carthage Jail (pictured below).

The creators of the site explain,

“Many interesting and informative events in the development of Mormonism have never been depicted in visual art, and remain concealed in big, dry history books. This site represents an attempt to bring some of these events to light. Hopefully, after viewing these images, those history books won’t seem so big or dry anymore.

“Many other important facts and events in the development of Mormonism have appeared in Mormon art, but some have been depicted in ways that are materially inaccurate and misleading. This is a place to find Mormon art that is as true as possible to the historical record.”

Consequently, the depiction of the Prophet and his friends in Carthage Jail is unlike anything we might find in any official LDS portrayal of the event. The description of the image given at Images of the Restoration begins:

“Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered in a gunfight in the late afternoon of June 27, 1844. This drawing depicts the hours immediately before that gunfight, which Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and Willard Richards spent smoking, drinking, and singing to lighten their mood.”

This description is followed by several supportive quotes from History of the Church and one from William Clayton’s Journal.

As might be anticipated, many Mormons do not like the Images of the Restoration site. Here are a few comments as reported in a February 2008 Beliefnet News article:

• “Kim Farah, a spokeswoman at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, expressed ‘zero interest’ in commenting on the ‘anti-Mormon’ blog.”
• “William R. Stringham, a Mormon bishop in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, said trying to understand Mormon doctrine through the ‘anti-Mormon activists who are parading as historians’ would be like trying to understand Judaism through the writings of Adolf Hitler.”
• “Scott Gordon, president of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR), an independent Mormon apologetics group, said the issues portrayed on the blog are ‘favorites that are brought up and highlighted by antagonists of the LDS Church.’”

Interesting comments, especially in light of the fact that the “anti-Mormon activists” and “antagonists” who created the images and the blog site are Latter-day Saints.

This raises the question: What, exactly, constitutes being “anti-Mormon”? It seems that here, among these LDS people quoted, “anti-Mormon” is synonymous with a truthful presentation of LDS history. Which, for me, raises yet another question.

A new LDS Church History Library is currently under construction in downtown Salt Lake City. Speaking of the extensive collection of documents that will be housed in the Library, Church historian and member of the Seventy Marlin K. Jensen said,

” These documents are the crown jewels of Mormonism. The truthfulness of Mormonism is inextricably tied to its history, and it is in our best interest to preserve these records and make them available to those who wish to study the origins of this remarkable faith.”

My question: Will the new Church History Library be “anti-Mormon”? Or will it instead portray a perhaps inaccurate but faith-promoting view of Mormon history?

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Probably to the dismay of FAIR and FARMS revisionists, Mormon apologist Rod Meldrum claims that DNA and archaeological evidence supports the traditional, one-Cumorah Hemispheric Geography Model for the Book of Mormon.

On the MormonMentality blog, esodhiambo asked readers to make a list of the “least influential Mormons of the Twentieth Century.” A couple of readers took this to mean the “person least influential on 20th century LDS-ism” and named Joseph Smith. One reader wrote,

“I second [the] nomination of the Prophet Joseph. No one’s name gets mentioned more whose thoughts and contributions get ignored so much.”

It’s an interesting idea. If we were making a list, I think we might include the names of at least the first five LDS prophets as those whose doctrines are often considered irrelevant in Mormonism today. A number of their significant teachings have fallen by the wayside. Like seeds that fell on rocky ground, the doctrines endured for a while; but when tribulation or persecution arose because of them, the Saints quickly swept the teachings under a rug (please pardon my mixed metaphors) [see Matthew 13:20-21]. This is not to say that the doctrines have necessarily been abandoned; they might not be spoken of very often, but they have never been formally denounced.

I’ll list one largely ignored teaching from each of the first five LDS prophets. Please feel free to add to the list.

Joseph Smith: “We shall, in this lecture speak of the Godhead: we mean the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing and supreme power over all things– …They are the Father and the Son: The Father being a personage of spirit, …The Son, …a personage of tabernacle, …possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit…” (Lectures on Faith, Lecture Fifth)

Brigham Young: “Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken–HE is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom WE have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later.” (Journal of Discourses 1:50-51; caps and italics retained from the original)

John Taylor: “Why is it, in fact, that we should have a devil? Why did not the Lord kill him long ago? …He needed the devil and great many of those who do his bidding just to keep men straight, that we may learn to place our dependence upon God, …When he destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order that [the devil] might be properly represented upon the earth.” (Journal of Discourses 23:336)

Wilford Woodruff: “If there was a point where man in his progression could not proceed any farther, the very idea would throw a gloom over every intelligent and reflecting mind. God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end. It is just so with us.” (Journal of Discourses 6:120)

Lorenzo Snow: “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.” (quoted in Latter-day Prophets Speak, Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Bookcraft, 71)

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As some of you have noticed for the past few days, our site has been down, at one point for even twelve continuous hours. Various problems seem to persist, so sometime this week I am moving all of MRM’s stuff to a new host. So if we experience some more cyber-hiccups, you’ll know why.

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On a recent trip through Iowa I stopped at the Polk City Cemetery, where early Latter-day Saint leader John C. Bennett is buried.

Bennett joined the LDS Church in Nauvoo, during the summer of 1840. He quickly became a very close friend and confidante of Joseph Smith. Joseph received a revelation on January 19, 1841, which made mention of John C. Bennett. Recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 124, the revelation says,

“And for his [Bennett's] love he shall be great, for he shall be mine if he do this, saith the Lord. I have seen the work which he hath done, which I accept if he continue, and will crown him with blessings and great glory.” (D&C 124:17)

Two weeks later (February 1, 1841) John C. Bennett became the mayor of Nauvoo. On April 8th he became the “Assistant President” of the LDS Church, taking over the office for Sidney Rigdon, who was ill, until such a time as Rigdon could resume his responsibilities.

In the first part of July 1841 Joseph Smith received a letter from his brother Hyrum and William Law, who were then in Pennsylvania. They had discovered that John C. Bennett was not as he appeared. Providentially coming into contact with a man from Bennett’s old neighborhood, they learned Bennett had a wife and children who had left Bennett due to his “ill treatment” of them. (History of the Church 5:37)

When Joseph confronted Bennett with this allegation, Bennett confessed it was true. Nevertheless, he continued in favor with the Prophet and in leadership in the Church for another year, though this season was not without controversy.

Rumors of seducing women under the guise of “spiritual wifery” dogged Bennett. He was believed to offer medical services as an abortionist to LDS women with unwanted pregnancies. He seemed to view plural marriage as something to be engaged in for his own gratification rather than as a holy calling. Yet he was allowed to continue as a “faithful” Latter-day Saint until, according to biographer Fawn Brodie, Bennett and the Prophet set their affections on the same young woman (19-year-old Nancy Rigdon).

Bennett was formally excommunicated from the LDS Church on June 23, 1842. He became a bitter enemy of Joseph and the Saints, publishing exposes of scandalous Mormon behavior in Nauvoo.

John C. Bennett reaped consequences for being a traitor. From the Journal of Aroet Lucious Hale, a young Mormon living in Nauvoo at the time:

“The Prophet Joseph predicted a curse on John C. Bennett. He told him if he did not repent of his sins and sin no more, the curse of God Almighty would rest upon him, that he would die a vagabond upon the face of the earth, without friends to buy [bury] him. He told him that he stunk of women. In the year 1850, President Young was speaking about the matter. He said that he had watched the life of John C. Bennett. Bennett went to California in the great gold fever excitement, that Bennett died in one of the lowest slums of California, that he was dragged out with his boots on, put into a cart, hauled off, and dumped into a hole, a rotten mass of corruption. This prediction or prophecy came to pass as well as many others that I heard the Prophet Joseph make.”

I was surprised, then, to find John C. Bennett buried in Polk City, Iowa. His grave is situated in a beautiful spot atop a hill overlooking a tranquil lake. His tombstone is one of the largest in the cemetery. A flag honoring his service as a surgeon in the Union army sits beside his grave. It is reported that he was well respected by his Polk City neighbors and was “well-off” when he died. He was known in Iowa for practicing medicine, breeding chickens and cattle, and promoting anti-slavery issues.

LDS Church historian Andrew Jensen reportedly wrote,

“Bennett lived to be despised by all who knew him. “For some years before his death he suffered from violent fits; he also partly lost the use of his limbs and of his tongue, and it was difficult for him to make himself understood. He dragged out a miserable existence, without a person scarcely to take the least interest in his fate, and died without a soul to mourn his departure”

It is believed that John C. Bennett suffered a stroke and its aftermath. He lingered with a protracted illness until his death in 1867 at the age of 64. His second wife, Sarah, died about a year later and is buried beside him. Bennett’s reputation as a Mormon was deplorable; but in Polk City, Iowa, they named a street after him.

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The wind blew on Friday and snuffed the lamp out. The wind blew. The earth shook. Darkness settled down like a heavy, suffocating pall. Wailing and mourning and oppressive grief filled every fold.

Go home. Light the fire. Think of other things.

Did the sun rise on Saturday? Did the birds dare to sing? Maybe. Probably. But it was not a day like any other. Darkness still reigned in the hearts of God’s people. Their hopes and their dreams died a slow death on Friday. As they watched, their peace drained away in wandering rivulets down the beam of a Cross, finally – mercifully – soaking into the dusty earth. The lamp had been snuffed out on Friday. On Saturday, for them, the sun did not rise.

On Sunday morning, while it was still dark, they headed for the tomb. Heavy of heart, burdened with sadness, they brought spices to honor the One in whom they had trusted; the One they loved. On the way, the sharp darkness began to soften. Would the sun indeed rise this day?

The earth shook. Heaven opened. The stone rolled away. (Matthew 28; John 20)

Do not be afraid.

Look! There He stands, His face like the sun shining in full strength. (Revelation 1:17)

Do not be afraid.

Look! He who is, who was, and who is to come – the Almighty — is alive. (Revelation 1:8)

Do not be afraid. The darkness is gone. The lamp is relit. The Son has risen from the dead, just as He said. (Matthew 28:6)

Hallelujah! Christ the Lord is risen today! He was dead, and behold, He lives forevermore. (Revelation 1:18)

Hope is reborn. Peace is renewed. The glory of the LORD has risen upon God’s people. Their sun shall no more go down, nor their moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be their everlasting light, and the days of their mourning shall be ended. (Isaiah 60:1, 20)

Christ is risen!

Does His everlasting light shine in you?

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