Tag Archives: Nauvoo

Illinois city founded by Joseph Smith where polygamy began and he was killed.

”The event that focused anti-Mormon hostilities and led directly to the Martyrdom was the action of Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council in closing a newly established opposition newspaper in Nauvoo. Mormon historians— including Elder B. H. Roberts—had conceded that this action was illegal, but as a young law professor pursuing original research, I was pleased to find a legal basis for this action in the Illinois law of 1844... We should judge the actions of our predecessors on the basis of the laws and commandments and circumstances of their day, not ours.” - Dallin H. Oaks, LDS Apostle, Joseph, the Man and the Prophet, April 1996 | wasmormon.org
”The event that focused anti-Mormon hostilities and led directly to the Martyrdom was the action of Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council in closing a newly established opposition newspaper in Nauvoo. Mormon historians— including Elder B. H. Roberts—had conceded that this action was illegal, but as a young law professor pursuing original research, I was pleased to find a legal basis for this action in the Illinois law of 1844... We should judge the actions of our predecessors on the basis of the laws and commandments and circumstances of their day, not ours.” - Dallin H. Oaks, LDS Apostle, Joseph, the Man and the Prophet, April 1996

A Loving God?

When deconstructing religious beliefs, examining whether the God we’ve been taught to worship and admire is indeed as loving as we think is on the table for many. Christianity teaches that “God is Love,” but examining scriptural narratives reveals inconsistencies in this portrayal, especially concerning God’s actions as a parental figure. Here are several examples …

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Martha Brotherton: Pressured by Church Leaders to Become a Plural Wife

In July 1842, the Sangamo Journal published the affidavit of Martha H. Brotherton, a young English convert who had only recently arrived in Nauvoo with her family. In it, she recounts a disturbing encounter where she was pressured by church leaders Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Joseph Smith himself to become Young’s plural wife. …

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Joseph Smith’s Polygamy Denials: Carefully Worded Lies, Loopholes, and Lasting Damage

One of the most unsettling aspects of Mormon history is the secret practice of polygamy. Joseph Smith publicly denied practicing polygamy while secretly marrying between 30 and 40 women, including teenagers and other men’s wives, as the church’s published essay confirms (in a footnote). The exact number of women to whom he was sealed in …

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Rumors prompted members and leaders to issue carefully worded denials that denounced spiritual wifery and polygamy but were silent about what Joseph Smith and others saw as divinely mandated “celestial” plural marriage. [Footnote: In the denials, “polygamy” was understood to mean the marriage of one man to more than one woman but without Church sanction.] LDS Church Website, Gospel Topics Essays: Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo | wasmormon.org
Rumors prompted members and leaders to issue carefully worded denials that denounced spiritual wifery and polygamy but were silent about what Joseph Smith and others saw as divinely mandated “celestial” plural marriage. [Footnote: In the denials, “polygamy” was understood to mean the marriage of one man to more than one woman but without Church sanction.] - LDS Church Website, Gospel Topics Essays: Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo
The statements emphasized that the Church practiced no marital law other than monogamy while implicitly leaving open the possibility that individuals, under direction of God’s living prophet, might do so. [Footnote: See, for example, “On Marriage,” Times and Seasons, Oct. 1, 1842, 939–40; and Wilford Woodruff journal, Nov. 25, 1843, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; Parley P. Pratt, “This Number Closes the First Volume of the ‘Prophet,’” The Prophet, May 24, 1845, 2. George A. Smith explained, “Any one who will read carefully the denials, as they are termed, of plurality of wives in connection with the circumstances will see clearly that they denounce adultery, fornication, brutal lust and the teaching of plurality of wives by those who were not commanded to do so” (George A. Smith letter to Joseph Smith III, Oct. 9, 1869, in Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Oct. 9, 1869, Church History Library, Salt Lake City).] LDS Church Website, Gospel Topics Essays: Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo | wasmormon.org
The statements emphasized that the Church practiced no marital law other than monogamy while implicitly leaving open the possibility that individuals, under direction of God’s living prophet, might do so. [Footnote: See, for example, “On Marriage,” Times and Seasons, Oct. 1, 1842, 939–40; and Wilford Woodruff journal, Nov. 25, 1843, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; Parley P. Pratt, “This Number Closes the First Volume of the ‘Prophet,’” The Prophet, May 24, 1845, 2. George A. Smith explained, “Any one who will read carefully the denials, as they are termed, of plurality of wives in connection with the circumstances will see clearly that they denounce adultery, fornication, brutal lust and the teaching of plurality of wives by those who were not commanded to do so” (George A. Smith letter to Joseph Smith III, Oct. 9, 1869, in Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Oct. 9, 1869, Church History Library, Salt Lake City).] - LDS Church Website, Gospel Topics Essays: Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo

Why Didn’t Cowdery, Whitmer, or Harris Expose Joseph Smith as a Fraud?

A common apologetic argument in defense of Joseph Smith is that his closest early associates—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris—never outright denounced him as a fraud, even after they left or were cast out of the church. The logic goes: if anyone would have known the “truth” behind the origins of the Book of …

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Scholars have concluded that the Nauvoo City Council acted legally to destroy copies of the newspaper but may have exceeded its authority by destroying the press itself. * Dallin H. Oaks, “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,” Utah Law Review, vol. 9, no. 4 (Winter 1965), 862–903. - LDS Website: Church History Topics: Nauvoo Expositor | wasmormon.org
Scholars have concluded that the Nauvoo City Council acted legally to destroy copies of the newspaper but may have exceeded its authority by destroying the press itself. * Dallin H. Oaks, “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,” Utah Law Review, vol. 9, no. 4 (Winter 1965), 862–903. - LDS Website: Church History Topics: Nauvoo Expositor
“Joseph Smith ordered a marshal, with the assistance of the Nauvoo Legion, to destroy the printing press. On Monday evening, June 10, the marshal and his posse of approximately 100 men removed the press, scattered the type, and burned the remaining copies of the newspaper... The Nauvoo City Council had reason to believe their actions were legal... Scholars have concluded that the Nauvoo City Council acted legally to destroy copies of the newspaper but may have exceeded its authority by destroying the press itself.” - LDS Website: Church History Topics: Nauvoo Expositor | wasmormon.org
“Joseph Smith ordered a marshal, with the assistance of the Nauvoo Legion, to destroy the printing press. On Monday evening, June 10, the marshal and his posse of approximately 100 men removed the press, scattered the type, and burned the remaining copies of the newspaper... The Nauvoo City Council had reason to believe their actions were legal... Scholars have concluded that the Nauvoo City Council acted legally to destroy copies of the newspaper but may have exceeded its authority by destroying the press itself.” - LDS Website: Church History Topics: Nauvoo Expositor
“On Friday, June 7, 1844, dissenters from the Church published the one and only issue of an opposition newspaper they called the Nauvoo Expositor... The dissenters... voiced their discontent with the practice of plural marriage, Joseph Smith’s teachings on the nature of God from his recent King Follett sermon, and his mixing of religious and civic authority in Nauvoo.” - LDS Website: Church History Topics: Nauvoo Expositor | wasmormon.org
“On Friday, June 7, 1844, dissenters from the Church published the one and only issue of an opposition newspaper they called the Nauvoo Expositor... The dissenters... voiced their discontent with the practice of plural marriage, Joseph Smith’s teachings on the nature of God from his recent King Follett sermon, and his mixing of religious and civic authority in Nauvoo.” - LDS Website: Church History Topics: Nauvoo Expositor
“The legality of the council's action in suppressing the Expositor depends upon the nature of the charges in the Expositor... some of the charges involve facts that are essentially undisputed... Politics. The Expositor's general complaints about the union of the authority of church and state in Nauvoo were essentially true... Religion. The same can be said of the Expositor's charges that Joseph Smith was teaching false religious doctrines, notably polygamy. Morality.... Whether the charges were true or false, they were malicious, scandalous, and defamatory.” - Dallin H. Oaks, “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,” Utah Law Review, Vol. 9, No. 4, 1965 | wasmormon.org
“The legality of the council's action in suppressing the Expositor depends upon the nature of the charges in the Expositor... some of the charges involve facts that are essentially undisputed... Politics. The Expositor's general complaints about the union of the authority of church and state in Nauvoo were essentially true... Religion. The same can be said of the Expositor's charges that Joseph Smith was teaching false religious doctrines, notably polygamy. Morality.... Whether the charges were true or false, they were malicious, scandalous, and defamatory.” - Dallin H. Oaks, “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,” Utah Law Review, Vol. 9, No. 4, 1965

Leadership Suppress Dissenfecting Light – The Nauvoo Expositor

On June 7, 1844, a bold and short-lived newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor published its first—and only—issue in Nauvoo, Illinois. It was created by former Mormon insiders who could no longer remain silent. They leveled charges against Joseph Smith, including abuse of power, political tyranny, and most explosively, his secret polygamy. The Nauvoo Expositor printed …

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The church’s whitewashed, faith-promoting history glosses over many crucial parts of Green Flake’s story. It omits that in Nauvoo, the Flake family donated his slave labor to help build the temple. It skips the fact that he was sent west not as a free pioneer, but to perform slave duties—and that when he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, he plowed the land, planted the first crops, and built a log cabin, all in preparation for the arrival of his enslavers. The church also fails to mention that Green was later given to the church itself as tithing and “served” Brigham Young as a personal servant—a euphemism for slave—for at least a year. Even his eventual emancipation is left unspoken, likely because the details remain unclear and uncomfortable to confront.
The church’s whitewashed, faith-promoting history glosses over many crucial parts of Green Flake’s story. It omits that in Nauvoo, the Flake family donated his slave labor to help build the temple. It skips the fact that he was sent west not as a free pioneer, but to perform slave duties—and that when he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, he plowed the land, planted the first crops, and built a log cabin, all in preparation for the arrival of his enslavers. The church also fails to mention that Green was later given to the church itself as tithing and “served” Brigham Young as a personal servant—a euphemism for slave—for at least a year. Even his eventual emancipation is left unspoken, likely because the details remain unclear and uncomfortable to confront.
“One family of enslavers in Nauvoo was the Flake family. They enslaved a man named Green Flake. While building the Nauvoo Temple, families were asked to donate one day in ten to work on the temple. The Flake family used Green's forced labor to fulfill their tithing requirement.” - Joel Flake "Green Flake: His Life and Legacy" | wasmormon.org
“One family of enslavers in Nauvoo was the Flake family. They enslaved a man named Green Flake. While building the Nauvoo Temple, families were asked to donate one day in ten to work on the temple. The Flake family used Green's forced labor to fulfill their tithing requirement.” - Joel Flake "Green Flake: His Life and Legacy"

Green Flake, The Man and Slave Labor The Church Accepted as Tithing

Today, the LDS Church no longer condones slavery, and leaders assert that the church has always been against slavery and racism, but there is a hidden history of racism and even slavery in the church. There are even instances where slaves were given as tithing to the church—the church used slave labor in temple construction. Green Flake …

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Jane Manning James: Faithful Servant, Denied Sisterhood, Sealed into Slavery

Jane Elizabeth Manning James was a remarkable woman who exemplified deep faith and resilience, despite the racism and systemic exclusion she endured within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born free in Wilton, Connecticut, in the early 19th century. As a child, she worked as a domestic servant in a prosperous white household. …

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Joseph Smith’s Kinderhook Plates Kinder-Surprise Translation Redaction

In Kinderhook, Illinois, about 50 miles south of Nauvoo, six bell-shaped brass plates were allegedly found when digging up a burial mound on a farmer’s land. He said he’d dreamt about finding treasure in the mound and organized a dig. A couple Mormons were present when some small plates with ancient-looking inscriptions were found and …

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The Drawn Flaming Sword of Polygamy – Spiritual Abuse and Manipulation

Joseph Smith secretly practiced polyandry and polygamy, or what the church later called plural marriage. The church freely admits this today (when forced) whereas previously it was all denied as anti-mormon lies. A strange hill to die on since the church is well known for practicing polygamy for decades in Utah. The church was hesitant …

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Email to Sydney Australia Mortdale Stake: Pilot Program – Informed Consent

The members of the Sydney Australia Mortdale Stake received an email informing them the area had been selected for a Pilot Program named Informed Consent. The program announced two objectives: 1) to ensure that converts are fully informed before they commit to baptism, and 2) for all members to have a “short” lesson to make …

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Mormonism and The BITE Model

Determining whether The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) qualifies as a cult hinges on various criteria. According to the BITE model, we find evidence that it meets several characteristics associated with cults. Note that the term “cult” carries negative connotations and lacks a universally agreed-upon definition, and …

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A Fig For Polygamy?

Early church leaders (Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Orson Pratt among others) allegedly had a change of heart for polygamy. At first, they reportedly resisted the practice but later on accepted it and vehemently defended it. Did they really resist in the first place or are these just retro-active stories and manipulation in order to …

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