I was feeling quite lazy for my OP-ED on Mitt Romney, so I decided to copy over Wikepedia’s information on Joseph Smith Jr. – the founder of the Mormon Church – and annotate the entry…since so many folks are currently suggesting that Mitt is going to gain the Republican nomination – I wanted to re-familiarize my readers with the beginnings of Mormonism – just in case someone out there is naïve enough to believe that you can separate Church-and-State.
Joseph Smith, Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, which gave rise to Mormon theology. Smith is regarded by his followers as a prophet.
Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont, the fifth child of Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. By 1817, Smith\’s family had moved to the \”burned-over district\” of western New York, an area repeatedly swept by religious revivals during the Second Great Awakening. Smith family members held divergent views about organized religion, but they believed in visions and prophecies and engaged in folk religious practices typical of the era. For instance, during his youth and early adulthood, Smith himself used a seer stone to search for buried treasure.
Well, I guess I tried something like this as well when I was a child.
Beginning in the early 1820s, Smith said he had visions, in some of which he said an angel directed him to a buried book of golden plates, inscribed with a Christian history of ancient American civilizations. In 1830, he published what he said was an English translation of these plates as the Book of Mormon, and organized branches of the Church of Christ, saying he had been chosen by God to restore the early Christian church. Church members were later called Latter Day Saints, Saints, or Mormons.
What this Wikepedia extract does not tell you is that Smith allegedly had to give the plates back to-the-angel-in-question, and, in the early 1820s Smith would have only been 15, 16, 17 or 18 — AND all-of-my-readers know that the adolescent brain isn’t close to having its neural connections completed at that age.
In 1831, Smith moved west to Kirtland, Ohio intending to establish a utopian city called Zion in western Missouri, but Missouri settlers expelled the Saints in 1833. After leading Zion\’s Camp, an unsuccessful expedition to recover the land, Smith began building a temple in Kirtland. In 1837, the Kirtland Safety Society, a bank established by Smith and other church leaders, collapsed. The following year Smith joined his followers in northern Missouri, where earlier settlers fearing the rapid growth of Mormon communities fought them in the 1838 Mormon War. The Saints were defeated and expelled from Missouri, and Smith was imprisoned.
Gee…Joseph doesn’t sound like a winner – he does seem pretty fanatical, however.
After being allowed to escape state custody in 1839, Smith led his followers to settle at Nauvoo, Illinois on Mississippi River swampland. There he served as both mayor and commander of its large militia, the Nauvoo Legion. In early 1844, he announced his candidacy for President of the United States. That summer, after the Nauvoo Expositor criticized Smith\’s practice of polygamy, the Nauvoo City Council ordered the paper\’s destruction. During the ensuing turmoil, Smith first declared martial law and then surrendered to the governor of Illinois. Although the governor promised his safety, Smith was murdered while awaiting trial in Carthage, Illinois.
Ahhhhh! Now we see the attraction of Mormonism! Polygamy!! And, while the idea of polygamy is ALWAYS an exciting male fantasy – and many men seem to have put the practice to constructive use – it can lead to some rather incestuous predicaments. In addition – other texts suggest that Joe Jr. was murdered by his own followers.
Smith\’s followers regard many of his publications as scripture. His teachings include unique views about the nature of God, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious collectivism. He is seen as one of the most charismatic and inventive figures of American history, and his followers regard him as a prophet of at least the stature of Moses and Elijah. Smith\’s legacy includes a number of religious denominations, including the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Missouri-based Community of Christ, which collectively claim a growing membership of more than 14 million worldwide.
So, if you want somebody whose religious guru is Joseph Smith Jr. as your president – you’re welcome to him – because as far as I’m concerned, Joseph Smith was a crazy fuck, and, come-to-think-of-it, so was Jesus. And everyone I’ve ever met claiming Jesus as his/her Savior has turned out to be a pretty big asshole…chances are…if you claim Joseph Smith as your Savior – you’re a pretty big asshole as well.