S2E18 Zion Part 2

Summary

Standard of Truth Podcast: S2E18 Zion Part 2

Host: Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat
Guest: Professor Richard Leduc
Release Date: May 4, 2022

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Introduction

In Episode 18 of Season 2, titled "Zion Part 2," Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat continues his exploration of the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church). Joining him is Professor Richard Leduc, as they delve deeper into the establishment of Zion in Missouri, the challenges faced by early church members, and the criticisms from within the community.

Continuation of the Zion Discussion

Dr. Dirkmaat and Professor Leduc pick up their discussion on Zion, a foundational concept for early Latter-Day Saints aiming to establish a utopian society. They reference a previous episode where their conversation ended on a "cliffhanger," setting the stage for further exploration.

Listener Feedback and Criticism

The hosts address listener interactions, notably an email from a Missouri resident aimed at critiquing Professor Leduc. Despite receiving numerous positive and mildly critical emails, only one substantial criticism is acknowledged:

"We did receive dozens and dozens and dozens of emails criticizing me, but we only received one that criticized Richard."
— Professor Richard Leduc [02:31]

This highlights the generally positive reception of the podcast, with rare instances of significant critique.

The Missouri Pronunciation Debate

A humorous and light-hearted segment ensues as the hosts discuss the pronunciation of "Missouri." Professor Leduc's attempt to pronounce it with a specific accent drew criticism from listener Ari, prompting playful banter:

"We have some cultural oddities with regard to the pronunciation, such as crick and adding Rs where they oughtn't to be."
— Professor Richard Leduc [04:10]

This exchange underscores the cultural and regional nuances present within the early LDS community in Missouri.

The Ideal of Zion and Contemporary Parallels

Dr. Dirkmaat elaborates on the powerful vision of Zion held by early church members like Ezra Booth:

"The idea of Zion is instead this idea that what makes you happy is living the gospel and making other people happy."
— Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat [07:20]

He draws parallels between the 19th-century vision of Zion and modern-day aspirations for community and spiritual fulfillment, highlighting the enduring relevance of these ideals.

Spotlight on Ezra Booth

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to Ezra Booth, a former Methodist minister whose journey through various religious movements provides critical insights into early LDS challenges.

Booth’s Background and Conversion

Ezra Booth, described as a "man of more than ordinary powers of mind," was deeply educated, mastering Greek to read the Greek Testament:

"He used to say that in the early days of his ministry, he and Mr. Charles Elliot were the only Methodist preachers west of the Alleghenies who were able to read Greek."
— Professor Richard Leduc [13:00]

Booth's intellectual rigor made his eventual apostasy a notable event within church history.

Booth’s Apostasy and Criticism of Mormonism

After a brief period within the LDS Church, Booth becomes disillusioned with the realities of Zion in Missouri, which contrasted sharply with his utopian expectations. He authored letters denouncing Mormonism, challenging Joseph Smith's prophetic authority and the authenticity of the Book of Mormon:

"If God be a God of consistency and wisdom, I now know Mormonism to be a delusion."
— Excerpt from Ezra Booth's Letter [24:16]

Booth's critiques focus on perceived inconsistencies, the centralized authority of Joseph Smith, and the mystical experiences claimed by church leaders.

Analysis of Booth’s Letters

Professor Leduc analyzes Booth's letters, noting his attempt to rationalize his departure from the church:

"He kind of agrees with them by saying it was like, you know, it was a power that I'd never felt before."
— Professor Richard Leduc [28:00]

Booth portrays his conversion and subsequent abandonment of Mormonism as a struggle between rational skepticism and spiritual fervor.

Growing Tensions within the Early Church

Church Leadership Conflicts in Missouri

The episode details tensions between Missouri Saints and Ohio-based church leadership. Issues arose from the appointment of church officials and the adherence to church protocols. For instance, a Missouri conference elected a moderator without following the established revelation:

"The Conference of the Church kind of did a parliamentary procedure and elected someone to preside and be the moderator over the conference."
— Professor Richard Leduc [35:00]

This deviation led to reprimands from Ohio, emphasizing centralized authority and revealed guidance.

Communication Challenges between Missouri and Ohio

Geographical distances exacerbated misunderstandings and delayed responses to issues. The Missouri Saints felt isolated and underserved by the Ohio headquarters, fostering a sense of disconnect:

"It is the furthest western reaches of Missouri that the Saints are moving to an independence."
— Professor Richard Leduc [38:00]

The delayed communications, sometimes taking months, hindered effective leadership and unity within the burgeoning church community.

Establishment of the Evening and Morning Star Newspaper

To bridge communication gaps, W.W. Phelps established the "Evening and Morning Star," the first LDS Church newspaper in Jackson County:

"The idea of Jesus being the Morning Star actually comes from Revelation, the book of Revelation, chapter 22, verse 16."
— Professor Richard Leduc [43:18]

The newspaper served as a tool for disseminating revelations, church news, and maintaining doctrinal consistency among members.

Concluding Insights

Dr. Dirkmaat and Professor Leduc reflect on the complexities of establishing Zion in Missouri, the internal conflicts that arose, and the broader implications for understanding early LDS history. They acknowledge the passionate convictions of individuals like Ezra Booth and the inherent challenges in realizing a utopian vision amidst societal and organizational pressures.

The episode sets the stage for future discussions on the interactions between Missouri Missourians and the LDS settlers, emphasizing the cultural and ideological clashes that ultimately shaped the church's trajectory.

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Notable Quotes:

• "The idea of Zion is instead this idea that what makes you happy is living the gospel and making other people happy."
  — Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat [07:20]

• "If God be a God of consistency and wisdom, I now know Mormonism to be a delusion."
  — Ezra Booth [24:16]

• "We have some cultural oddities with regard to the pronunciation, such as crick and adding Rs where they oughtn't to be."
  — Professor Richard Leduc [04:10]

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Resources and Further Listening

For more in-depth analysis and historical context, listeners are encouraged to visit standardoftruth.com and explore previous episodes that delve into related topics such as "Mormonism Unveiled" and the history of polygamy within the LDS Church.

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Note: This summary captures the essence of Episode 18, focusing on the significant discussions and insights presented by Dr. Dirkmaat and Professor Leduc. For a complete understanding, listening to the full episode is recommended.

Transcript

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Welcome to the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat, where we explore the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and gain rare historical insights into how a young farm boy was able to establish a new church and grow it by way of visions, manifestations, and miracles.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Foreign. Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Garrett Dirkmont, and I'm joined by my friend, Professor Richard Leduc.

[Ari]

Hello, Garrett. In this week's podcast, what we'd like to do is we'd like to follow up on Zion and we. When last we left you, we were.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Talking about.

[Ari]

Partridge and his journey.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

We had a cliffhanger.

[Ari]

We did.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Yeah. It was. Oh, wow. Why is Missouri so bad?

[Ari]

That's right.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

That's right.

[Ari]

Edward Partridge was sent to Palmyra to check into these Molemans and came back and said, you know what? Not only are they all right, I joined, I'm gonna be a bishop in six months.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Yep. And by the way, we're moving to Missouri. That's right. So it seems like it was a pretty big turnaround there for Lydia Partridge.

[Ari]

But now, that said, speaking of Missouri, now we'll get into this in a. But we did receive an email.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

From.

[Ari]

Someone from Missouri who wanted to provide some correction.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Well, really wanted to take you to task, actually. Yes, we received dozens and dozens and dozens of emails criticizing me, but we only received one that criticized Richard. And so I think because of that, we've decided to read that one.

[Ari]

It is funny. We literally only read the ones that are super glowingly positive or slightly critical.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

We actually don't receive very many emails, so. I know, I know. We want to act like, yeah, we have a mail department that's sorting.

[Ari]

So what you. So when we. When we're publishing, every time we. We do an episode of the podcast, Garrett's desk looks like the judge from.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Miracle on 34th Street. Yeah. Yeah. Just letter after letter after. It's just there's so many of them on my desk. Yes, that is exactly what it's like. Honestly, there's not that many. But this is. I mean, I'm going to try to do this email justice. I'm not going to be able to. This email was. Was a great deal of time was put into this. But this is from Ari.

[Ari]

Ara.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

No, no, that's. That's why he's writing to you. Okay. Yeah. To the well financed and incorrigible hosts. I think that we should rename our podcast the Incorrigible Hosts.

[Ari]

Well, Financed.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

We will. We'll have to drop that part. Yeah, yeah. People might take that for real. There was a moment in the podcast where professor leduc pronounced the word Missouri with an age, or perhaps Missoura with a uh, while referring to the northwestern portion of the state of Missouri, specifically Caldwell county, having been raised in the northern part of the state. Chillicothe, specifically, yes. The seat of Livingston County. I can hear the muskets being dusted off as I type that. That was in parentheses. Very funny. Obviously, Livingston county is one of the violent, mobocratic counties that drives the Latter Day Saints from this. In fact, the Livingston County Militia, the state militia from Livingston county, is the one that perpetrates the. The Haunl Massacre. So you really kind of brought it downer, didn't I? I'm just assuming that Ari wasn't related anyone who's a part of that. Yeah, but he says, I can affirm that though we have some cultural oddities with regard to the pronunciation, such as crick and adding Rs where they oughtn't to be, we still distinguish ourselves from our fellow statesmen of the Ozark and Tar Heel areas. That's a shot at my wife. She's a Tar Heel. Oh, for sure. With our proper pronunciation of the I and the retention of the majority of our teeth, Ari is letting us know that even though the actors on the movie Legacy pronounced Missouri with the. The. The Missouri. Well, look, at the time. I mean, I doubt that there was a whole lot of research done into proper accents from the 1830s Western Missouri at the time the movie was filmed, but Missouri has essentially no homegrown population at this point. I mean, it became a state in 1820, but nearly all of the population has moved there after 1800, so. So almost everyone living there is actually from other places in the deeper or. Or Upper South. And I mean, obviously there's some from. From the north, but very, very few. So maybe the accent that they were affecting was, you know, more like a South Carolina accent because the guy was from. I don't. I don't know. I doubt there was any thought put into it, but we've been taken. We've been duly chastised. Now, having said that, we are going to multiple times on this podcast affect a fake Missouri accent, for which Ari will have to write us. He went on to ask some questions for future podcasts, which won't fit quite into what we're doing today, but maybe we'll get back to him at a later date. Or, Ari, as you already know, Obviously, we never will. I think that most of our podcast listenership is based upon promising people that at some point will answer their questions and then not actually answering them.

[Ari]

That's correct.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Yeah.

[Ari]

It's the foundation of our podcast.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Yeah, we should really call it the we don't answer your questions podcast. The standard of we'll think about it anyway. But yeah, we do want to continue on with this. This idea. Concept of Zyne. And when last we left everyone, there was a great deal of disappointment in what Zion was when they got there. In all deference to our friend Ari, western Missouri in 1833 was not the Garden of Eden paradise that it once was when it was the Garden of Eden, or that it is now. It was incredibly rural, backwoods and filled with, frankly, some of the undesirable aspects of frontier America. Lawlessness, gambling, things like that, houses of ill repute, or however you'd like to reference thus things. But among the people that are really offended or come to lose their faith over the fact that Zion wasn't what they thought it to be is someone we mentioned last podcast. But I thought we might want to spend a little bit more time with them. And that's Ezra Booth. Ezra Booth was a Methodist minister before he joined the church. He is enamored by the idea of a city of Zion, the idea that there is a place where there is no rich or poor, where everyone loves Jesus, where everyone treats each other good. This idea is so powerful. I mean, even as I'm saying the words, hopefully at least someone listening is thinking how incredible that would be if you had a place where literally everyone in it just loved everyone more than they loved themselves. And we live in a world now where people are taught that the highest plane that you can get to is doing everything for yourself. The pinnacle of existence is being your best self, living your own life, doing whatever makes you happy. And the idea of Zion is instead this idea that what makes you happy is living the gospel and making other people happy. In a world that's filled with all kinds of sin and inequality, the idea of a city of Zion just sounds pretty good. I. I know several of my friends. Not. Not Richard, because he's worried about it, but. But other. I do have other friends. They just will never be on the podcast because they're imaginary, who have said things like, man, you know, with. With. With all the craziness that happened with the pandemic in the past couple years, all the economic fluctuations, you know, I've had multiple people say things to me like, man, I'M ready for the second coming, you know what I mean? Like, I'm ready for Jesus to come back again. Which is a thought Christians have often had in difficult times. This is kind of how many of these early Latter Day Saints are. They are viewing this rapidly changing world. You know, 1820s and 1830s America is changing so rapidly as the United States begins to industrialize, steam engines are going on, you know, the rapid expansion of the American frontier. And not everyone is at the top of this very unequal society. And those who are left behind, you can see why they would say, you know what? I want the paradise that God promised. And Ezra Booth appears to be incredibly enamored with that. In fact, even after he leaves the so called Mormon Church back then, he will continue to affiliate with other groups that are preaching this kind of, this kind of utopian end of the suffering in this world. He'll actually become a Millerite for a while. And you know, Willie Miller had claimed that he had calculated we should do a whole podcast on William Miller. Huh?

[Ari]

Oh, absolutely.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Probably never. But at some point, yeah, after, after.

[Ari]

We'Re finished with Zion, let's do Millerites.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

After we're done with Zion. And polygamy. Or. Yeah, after polygamy will do so right after polygamy we'll do Millerites and also probably not do Millerites. But he believed that he had calculated the exact well month when Jesus was going to return by, you know, adding however many horns there were in Daniel to when, you know, when the Avignon papacy happened, when the Pope was driven from Rome and all that. Right. If, if, if William Miller had had a YouTube channel, boy, it would have.

[Ari]

Which feather?

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Oh, it was how many horns on the beast? I mean, it would have been just so many. How many cities of Salem? We don't even know. But the. Speaking of which, my mom, my mom just moved to Salem, so now I have a connection to Salem.

[Ari]

It was one of the Salems that wasn't crossing.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

It wasn't one of the holy Salems if you don't know what we're talking about. You got to listen to every one of our podcasts, preferably several times.

[Ari]

We did such a poor job indexing, we don't know which one it was.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

It was a podcast that was about.

[Ari]

I don't know what it was about. We were talking about the Second Coming.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

So. Yeah, it would have been sometime last.

[Ari]

Year between July and, and probably November.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Yeah, now, yeah, that's right.

[Ari]

It was a good one.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Sometime last year between July and now. Anyway, Miller believed that he had calculated it down to the month and you'd say, you know, no man knows that day or hour, but doesn't say anything about the month. And he believed, and his followers really believed that they knew what month Jesus was coming, that Jesus was coming and he was coming, and it was going to be this glorious thing. And of course, Jesus doesn't come. Well, after that, Booth is going to affiliate with the Shakers, which we have a whole podcast on the Shakers. Again, I can't tell you when it was, but sometime last year.

[Ari]

Well, it's actually titled the Shakers, so.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

It'Ll be a lot easier to find. Will be easier if you were to go to our website, standard of truth.com and, and you could, you could go to the, the episode list and hopefully you'd be able to search in there and find it. But the Shakers also have this ideal of this utopian community where everyone shares goods in common, where there's no rich and there's no poor. I mean, you can really see that this idea matters so much to Ezra Booth that he left Methodism once because it wasn't enough there for him. Became a Latter Day Saint, well, a Mormon, because there weren't Latter Day Saints yet at the time, but became a Mormon and practices that for about five months before he decides this isn't where the utopia is going to be and apostatizes and then becomes a Millerite waiting for the second coming of Jesus, when that doesn't happen, becomes a Shaker. And then eventually it's kind of the sad end of Ezra Booth. He will eventually end up leaving religion altogether. So he went from being a Methodist minister preaching the word of God to no longer. Well, he might have been agnostic. I'm not going to call him an atheist, but he's certainly no longer considers himself an adherent of organized religion. Why does he matter so much to early church history? Well, Ezra Booth will write a series of letters to one of the main Methodist ministers, one of the leaders of the Methodist Church in Ohio, Ira Eddy. And he will write these letters denouncing Mormonism, so called as he's titling it. And you know, different things in these letters are going to just attack Joseph Smith on various points. For instance, a new method for obtaining authority to preach the gospel was introduced into the church. One declared he had received a commission directly from heaven, written upon parchment. Another, that it was written in the palm of his hand and upon the lid of the Bible. The three witnesses, they were formerly considered persons of veracity. They testified that they saw the parchment or something like it when put into the hands of the candidate. These commissions, when transcribed upon a piece of paper, were read to the church, and the persons who had received them were ordained to the elder's office and sent out into the world to preach. But this also sunk into discredit and experienced the fate of the former. So he's trying to talk about how people lost their. Their beliefs. He's not. He's not the only one. About this time, the ministration of angels was supposed to be a frequent. In the church, the heavenly visitants made their appearance to certain individuals. They seldom made any communication, but presented themselves as spectacles for the beholder to gaze upon with silent admiration. Smith is the only one at present, to my knowledge, who pretends to hold and converse with the inhabitants of the celestial world. It seems from his statements that he can have access to them when and where he pleases. He does not pretend that he sees them with his natural, but with his spiritual eyes and says that he can see them as well with his eyes shut, as well as his eyes open. So also in translating, the subject stands before his eyes in print. But it matters not whether his eyes are open or shut. He can see as well as well one way as he can the other. You've probably read the testimonies of the three witnesses appended to the Book of Mormon. These witnesses testify that an angel appeared to them and presented to them the gold plates and the voice of God, declared it to be divine record. To this they frequently testify in the presence of large congregations. When in Missouri, I had the opportunity to examine a commandment given these, these witnesses previous to seeing the plates, they were informed that they should see and hear these things by faith, and then they should testify to the world as though they had seen and heard, as I see a man and hear his voice. But after all, it amounts simply to this, that by faith or imagination they saw the plates and the angel, and by faith or imagination they heard the voice of the Lord. It's interesting what he's doing there. Doctrine Covenant Section 17 certainly declares that the witnesses are going to see those various items and the angel after they have faith. Right? So they're going to see them by faith, not because they are imagining them, because they're having them appear in vision. It's that they have to exercise faith before they have this miraculous experience. But you can see how, how the very disillusioned Ezra Booth is twisting that, twisting it to make it sound like, oh, because they said they had to have faith to see them. That means they didn't actually see them, they just saw them in their mind's eye, so to speak. There are other things that he's going to attack. You know, he's going to claim that Joseph Smith is, is a despot because he's the only one who can receive revelation from heaven. He is going to, going to claim that, you know, people are led to believe these things that are true that aren't really true. Why does this matter? Well, these letters get wide circulation and in fact, we talked about Mormonism unveiled in a previous podcast, one again, which is an index and that you wouldn't be able to find, but in a previous podcast, if you listen to all of them, actually that's our, that's our method of getting listens up.

[Ari]

I think it's actually. Do you think it is in early criticisms of the Book of Mormon? I believe it's episode two or three of that one.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Yes, A part two or three. Yeah, I believe so, yeah. In the book, Mormonism Unveiled will actually republish several of Ezra Booth's letters. So they're going to get wide circulation and they are some of the earliest substantive criticisms of Joseph Smith from someone who was a member and knew him, as opposed to someone who, like on the outside, I mean, you know, Eber Howe was never a Latter Day Saint and only knew Joseph tangentially, whereas Ezra Booth was a member of the church, had joined the church, went with Joseph to Missouri, was totally disillusioned with this place that was supposed to be Zion, and left the church and unfortunately will eventually leave his faith. One thing that I think I'll take a little bit more time is a biographer writing about Ezra Booth's daughter will talk about Booth and his dalliance with Mormonism. This biographer writes in the midst of stirring scenes. He's talking about everything that's going on in Ohio. Ezra Booth began his career. He was a man of more than ordinary powers of mind. Gentle, affectionate, impressible, and deeply religious. His early intellectual training did not go beyond the rudiments taught in the common schools of Connecticut. But he was an inveterate reader of books. And the armful of choice volumes that lay on the shelves of his little library was probably greater number than could have been found in one house out of every thousand on the reserve, which is what they called that part of Ohio, Connecticut's Western Reserve. Possessed of a slender means, he adopted a profession which rendered the acquirement of wealth well nigh impossible. He early entered into the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was assigned to a circuit of nearly a thousand miles embracing its range, the township of Nelson. And there, in 1819, he married Dorcas Taylor and fixed his home. Soon after entering the ministry, he sent 11 silver dollars to England to purchase a Greek lexicon. And he so far mastered the language as to read the Greek Testament with ease. He used to say that in the early days of his ministry, he and Mr. Charles Elliot were the only Methodist preachers west of the Alleghenies who were able to read Greek. So you can see Ezra Booth has been a minister for more than a decade at the time that he converts to Mormonism and has really prized understanding the language. He's not just this uneducated circuit rider. Well, with. With all of these, you then have to deal with what do you do about the fact that everybody knows that eventually this person became a Mormon? Which. The time this biography is being written in the late 19th century, Mormons are somehow more hated than they are in the early 19th century, which is, it's, it's. You think you couldn't go up on the hate meter, but you can actually, by the late 19th century, talking again about his daughter, that's the point of this little biography, is how great his daughter was. They have to juxtapose her faith against her father's problems. Right? Ezra Booth, because of that, he's going to. The biographer writes, her father's enthusiastic temperament led him to study any new phases of religious opinion with a somewhat impressible credulity. The Mormon movement of 1830-32 swept him up for a time into its turbulent current. Ten or 15 years later, he was interested in the socialistic theories of the Shakers, with whom, as I understand, he united. For a short time later still, he paid much attention to the spiritualistic philosophy. But while Ms. Booth thoroughly respected the sincerity of her father's opinions, and from them doubtless became wise, wisely tolerant and liberal in her opinions, she maintained firmly, but without bigotry, her faith in God and in the life to come. So, you know, now her dad is essentially being juxtaposed against her, his daughter's faith. Right? He's actually the. The foil of it. You know, she's lucky. She maintained her faith with how crazy her dad was. So Ezra Booth is. Is going to become the earliest, most prolific antagonistic writer from inside the church. Look, Flasus Hurlbut is doing all kinds of things, speaking out against Joseph. But even Thalassus Hurlbut, if you remember the good doctor, he's later than this because this is 1831 that we're talking about. Flasus Hurlbut is going to be doing his damage in 1833 and 1834. For. So this is. This is early, and it's an apostle from that. From the inside. And. And, you know, I feel sorry to a degree for Ezra Booth in the sense that he so passionately wanted to see the idea of this utopian godlike society, realized that when he didn't get it in the way he wanted or as quickly as he wanted it, sent him down a road of not just apostasy from our church, but apostasy from the Millerites when he didn't get it there, apostasy from the Shakers when he didn't get it there, and then eventually apostasy from religion altogether when he didn't get it anywhere, at least not the way he was looking for it. So while I'm not a huge fan of his constant attacks against Joseph Smith, obviously there is at least some part of me that has a kind of a sympathy in the sense that he. He clearly wanted to find this peace in a. In a utopian society. And the problem is, in this world, outside of Jesus being in it, it's pretty hard to create that society.

[Ari]

So what were some of his specific issues that he.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Well, he has a real problem with the fact that Jackson county is supposedly Zion to begin with. He's at first a little bit reticent to actually talk about his specific issues. He. He actually starts off by, you know, saying that he's not going to talk about it. So in his first letter, I'll read part of that to you. He's again writing to Ira Eddy, who's a very prominent Methodist leader. They received a letter. I received yours of the second instant, and heartily thank you for the favor. It revives afresh in my recollections the scenes of past years upon the remembrance with which I dwelt with a mixture of pleasurable and painful sensation. I arrived at my home on the first of the present month, having finished my tour to the west, since which time the scenes and events in the history of my life for the last few months have passed in review before my mind. So he's just getting back now In October of 1831, back to Ohio, and has left the faith. You are not, it is probable, ignorant of the designs of the most singular and romantic undertaking sufficient to say it was for the purpose of exploring the Promised Land, laying the foundation of the city of Zion, and placing the cornerstone of the Temple of God. A journey of 1,000 miles to the west has taught me far more abundantly than I should probably have learned from any other source. It has taught me quite beyond my former knowledge, the imbecility of human nature and especially my own weakness. It has unfolded in its proper character a delusion to which I had fallen victim and taught me the humiliating truth that I was exerting the powers of both my mind and body and sacrificing my time and property to build up a system of delusion almost unparalleled in the annals of the world. If God be a God of consistency and wisdom, I now know Mormonism to be a delusion. And this knowledge is built upon the testimony of my senses. In proclaiming it, I'm aware that I proclaim my own misfortune. But in doing it I remove a burden from my mind and I discharge a duty as humbling to myself as it may be profitable to others. You had heard the story of my wanderings and was induced to believe that I had been visited with a species of mental derangement. You'll notice how, how people responded to someone who was educated, someone who has the Greek language down, someone who knows the Bible like we talked about in our anti Mormon episodes, which sounds like we should probably read, probably need to rename those that sounds. We aren't doing anti Mormonism. There's enough people doing that for us. But we were talking about the early attempts to attack the, the church. What do people say? Well, he must have, he must have gotten sick. He, he must, he must be crazy or he wouldn't actually believe that. You actually see this as a recurrent theme in Latter Day Saint conversion all throughout the 19th century, and frankly, you still hear it sometimes in the 20th century that the only reason you would convert is if you're not in your right mind. And that is certainly something that is being thrown up there by the people who are trying to figure out how did this decades long pinnacle of the Methodist faith suddenly become a Mormon. Well, as he goes on, and therefore you had given me up as among those friends of early association, who in the lapse of time, would it be as though they had not existed. You had concluded that the magic charm of delusion and falsehood had so wrapped its sable mantle around me as to exclude, exclude the light of truth and secure me a devoted slave. But thanks be to God, the spell is dissipated and that captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed and not die in the pit. When I embraced Mormonism. I conscientiously believed it to be of God. The impressions of my mind were deep and powerful, and my feelings were exerted to a degree to which I had been. To a degree in which I had been a stranger, like a ghost. It haunted me day, night and day until I was mysteriously hurried, as if it were by a kind of necessity, into the vortex of delusion. At times I was much elated, but generally things in prospect were the greatest stimulants to action. So what's really interesting is having essentially denounced the fact that his friends thought that he had all, you know, had a frenzied mind, and that's the reason why he became a Latter Day Saint, he kind of then agrees with them by saying it was like, you know, it was a power that I'd never felt before. And I felt almost like I didn't even have another choice. It was day and night haunting me, or some might say the spirit working on him, saying that, yeah, this really is true. He's not the first. We talked about this earlier with Doctrine and Covenant Section 39 and 40, that here was a minister that had been a minister for 40 years, had converted, and as soon as the realization came of how many people turned on him because he had embraced the church, he immediately left the church. And so this, this seems to happen a lot. I mean, you know, ministers are giving up a lot to become Latter Day Saints. They are even today, because they're giving up their livelihood. But they also present a special problem for people who are saying the only reason why you believe the Book of Mormon is you don't know the Bible at all. You haven't read the Bible, you don't know the Bible. If you'd ever read the Bible, then you would. You would certainly not be making the conclusion that you're making. Well, since the only person then in Ohio who could read the Bible in Greek, at least according to that biographer, was Ezra Booth, making the argument. Well, he just wasn't educated in the Bible is not a very good argument. So what's the argument you have to make then? Well, he's crazy. He's obviously not in his right mind. He must have fallen and hit in his head or something like that, otherwise we wouldn't be dealing with this difficulty. Anyway, he's going to, you know, I don't know how much more we want to dwell on the, the problems that he has, but he is certainly disappointed in. In what he sees, and then it leads him to kind of reject all the things that he sees as Being unbiblical about Latter Day Saints and going back to his Protestant roots of they are teaching things that are not spelled out that way in the Bible, therefore those things cannot of necessity be true.

[Ari]

So this, this problem though, that he's, that he's having, many of the Saints are having this. We talked about Brigham Young receiving section 76 and the difficulty with that. That's a problem that, that many are having, right?

[Professor Richard Leduc]

At least the problem of trying to deal with what do you do when what is being taught contradicts the rest of the Christian world? But for Latter Day Saints like Ezra Booth, the biggest contradiction is that the Book of Mormon exists at all and that Joseph Smith is a prophet and he spends much of his time in his criticisms talking about that, that Joseph Smith is the only one who can receive revelation for the Church. And you get this impression from Booth that one of the problems is he doesn't agree with everything that Joseph Smith is teaching and you don't really have a recourse. I mean, this isn't like a democracy where, you know, I have a real problem with what the President is doing. Oh, well, then we'll just vote him out of office. And this kind of anti democratic criticism of Mormonism is going to, it's going to come back over and over and over again by people attacking it because it allows them to say the people following the Church have to be deluded, they've been brainwashed. They've been, they've been almost forced to believe in it. And that delegitimizes people's individual acts of faith, right? Oh, you don't really believe because you thought about it, you've just been brainwashed. Well, you know, oftentimes when people use the term brainwashed, what they really mean is you believe something that I don't believe and I don't have the ability to argue it with you, therefore you've been brainwashed. I mean that, I'm not saying there aren't times that people aren't legitimately led astray. I mean, obviously people are and they're told things that aren't true. But the words thrown around a lot primarily as a way to win arguments that the other person doesn't legitimately hold their beliefs. They only hold them because they're stupid, essentially. And if they, if they were smart, if they, if they weren't brainwashed, if they hadn't been programmed, they wouldn't think those things. So we always have to be kind of careful because what it causes us to do is it causes us to delegitimize the faith professions of someone else. So when a Muslim woman declares that she wears a face veil because she believes that it is what Allah wants her. Her to do, you can find quite a few Christians who will say, well, that might be what she says, but that's only because she's been brainwashed into believing that. Right. And in doing that, what are you saying? That she doesn't have any autonomy? She doesn't have any actual faith. The only faith she has is this brainwashed, fake faith. So it's, It's a dangerous road to go down, and it's certainly the road people went down when it came to. When it came to Latter Day Saints explaining why certain people became Latter Day Saints and, and, and, and how they could leave the. The truth that they had behind them. One of the things I wanted to talk about is that it's not just Ezra Booth who is. Has difficulties with church leadership in Missouri. It starts with a trickle of members heading to Missouri, and then it's going to be over a thousand by 1833. In fact, I have to apologize to Ari, because we are going to multiple times probably slip into the fake Missouri accent perpetrated by the movie Legacy. I mean, how many times have you seen the movie, Richard?

[Ari]

Oh, my gosh, 50, 104 million times.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

It was, like, the only movie you were allowed to watch when you were a child.

[Ari]

Well, actually, when I was a child, it was only actually in Salt Lake in the, in the theater, on. At the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. So it wasn't even in wide circulation.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

But what were you watching instead? We had.

[Ari]

Together Forever. We watched that.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

My.

[Ari]

My mother had a fairly strict Sabbath day television policy, and so it was. It was church videos with an occasional Disney movie that snuck in there from time to time. But to answer your question, 4 million times.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

4 million times. Yeah. Well, and there's a very iconic scene in Legacy, which we'll make reference to over and over again, and the person will not be using the appropriate Missouri accent, as Ari has. As Ari has demonstrated, we're gonna need him as our consultant on all things Missouri. Although given the fact he's from Livingston county, we got to be careful. You never know. All right, Ari could tomorrow show up with a bandolero like he's Willard Richards in Carthage jail and, you know, filled with guns. We never know. But the. The reality is, is as more and more members are moving to Missouri, they are not just kind of causing unsettled feelings among the Missourians who are there, but there starts to be a strained relationship between the Latter Day Saints who have moved all the way to Missouri and the leadership of the church that is back in Ohio. As I've stated before, and I'll state it again over and over, it is a thousand miles away. We think of. When we're just thinking of Ohio and Missouri in our heads, we think of them as being states very close to one another. Except for Ari, who's like, no, I've never thought of it being. I get it, I get it.

[Ari]

Although, relax, Ari.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Ari, man. Just all the criticism just coming from Ari anyway. But it's the furthest western reaches of Missouri that the Saints are moving to an independence. And it's the almost the furthest eastern reaches of Ohio where Kirtland is. And. And there's not a, you know, a super highway leading to between the two or trail trains or anything like that. And so it is a at least two months to get any response from either place. If you're in Missouri and you write a letter back to Joseph Smith saying, hey, we don't know what to do about this Ezra Booth guy, whatever, right? Ezra Booth left. Just as an example, if Joseph was in Ohio when that letter came in, and if he responded to that letter as soon as he got it, the soonest those Missourians would get that answer, those Missouri Saints would get that answer would be two months. That's the fastest they could get it. They might not get it for three or four months. And so there. There starts to be this kind of feeling of disconnection. Joseph Smith appoints leaders of the church in Missouri to kind of govern the church there as opposed to the church in Ohio. But you can see some of this tension that's starting to creep up. That's in 1832. So 1831, Joseph declares that Jackson county is the place where the temple is going to be built in the new Jerusalem. Latter Day Saints begin immigrating there a year later, 1832. It's actually literally a year later, in July of 1832, there is a conference that's convened in Ohio that is going to criticize some of the actions that have taken place. Sorry. It's in March that this conference took place. They've received the minutes of one of the meetings of the church in Missouri that the elders in Ohio have, and they proceed to point out all the things that that Missouri church presidency did that are not actually okay by the guidelines of the church. I won't go through all of them. But for instance, first we deem it of primary importance that Every order and regulation in the Church of Christ be established in wisdom, and for its government should be preserved inviolate. As with the proceeding of this conference reported in its minutes relative to the appointment of a moderator are illegal, as that office by revelation was conferred upon an individual, namely our brother Edward Partridge, Bishop of the Church. We therefore charge the conference in this act of appointment with assuming a power with which it has not been invested. So. So apparently, at least the understanding was at the time. And, you know, our friend Brady listening to this will be like, yes, the understanding of the time was that the bishop, Edward Partridge, was supposed to conduct the conference of the Church. And instead, the Conference of the Church kind of did a parliamentary procedure and elected someone to preside and be the moderator over the conference. So when that. When the information. When the minutes of that meeting get to Ohio, the response is, what are you doing? You don't elect who's leading you at this. God elects who's leading you at this. And he already did. And his name's Edward Patridge. His name's Patridge, and he watches socks games. He probably pronounces Missouri incorrectly. Ari. In fact, there's no doubt about it. I don't know how he's pronouncing it. Probably with some kind of Maine accent. We don't know right. In Missouri. And we don't know. We don't know how he's saying it right. But there's a list of these things, which, honestly, you would see them as relatively minor things, but it's kind of a demonstration that there is this kind of growing tension between the saints in Missouri who feel isolated, they feel cut off, and they feel like the leaders of the church back in Ohio don't fully understand the circumstances that they are in. Now, I'm not trying to say these people aren't faithful. Obviously, you know, Edward Partridge is faithful. I mean, that's. It's not a question of that, but there's a kind of a strain, I think, that develops because of a lack of communication. Communication is essential to having good relationships. And. And basically, they are in a place where it's. It's pretty hard to have a good relationship. Joseph Smith, in July of 1832, is going to write a letter to W.W. phelps. Now, W.W. phelps is one of the people who's been called by God to go to Missouri. And there he's commanded by God to establish a print shop and to also help with the curriculum for children. We don't really know what he. What he did with that, but he is going to start the Evening and Morning Star newspaper in Jackson County. There in Independence, the Jackson county newspaper, Evening and Morning Star is the first church newspaper. Now, up to this point, there have been several things that were published in, In. In newspapers from the church, but usually by antagonists, like, so the Painsville Telegraph will publish DNC20 and then attack it and make fun of it the whole time. But the church establishes its own newspaper and they begin publishing their own articles and their own revelations.

[Ari]

So that's an interesting name for the paper. Where does it, where does it get its name?

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Well, the idea of Jesus being the. The Morning Star actually comes from Revelation, the book of Revelation, chapter 22, verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and Morning Star. So that's where that. And then, you know, some people have also theorized that, you know, people took the idea of Venus being the. The Morning and Evening Star as a symbol of Jesus because of. Was there before the sun comes up and it's there after it goes down. And that kind of, you know, Jesus is always there. Right. But at any rate, the. The newspaper is going to be a big deal for the church and W.W. phelps, who, who already ran, if you recall our Masonry episode. And you have to go back and listen to all those. In fact, most of the podcasts at this point will just be other referencing. You need to go back and listen to the others. We've got to drive those numbers. Just got to drive them. Driving for what? I'm not even sure why. Okay, I guess so that my mom isn't the only person listening at this point. Both of our wives are asleep. I don't think Rachel's mom's listening anymore. Ari's mad at us because we can't pronounce Missouri correctly.

[Ari]

We keep teasing him about it. Yeah, this whole podcast.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

And Gina's probably mad because we haven't mentioned Vermont. Look, that.

[Ari]

This is the last time we're going to mention Vermont right now.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

We're done. We'll never. From where the sun now stands in the sky, we will mention Vermont no more. Forever. Anyway, Joe's is going to write a letter to W. Phelps, who. Phelps is converted. He. He, you know, leaves his newspaper business in New York, comes with the saints, gets immediately sent to Zion and. And is just going to be this real help in the church trying to publish its scriptures there. And Joseph really feels a very strong kinship to him. But in the summer of 1832. So, again, this is just a year after the church has established itself in Jackson county at all. Phelps has apparently written a relatively terse letter to Joseph Smith that Joseph, responding to it, you know, essentially tries to pass over it by saying, you know, because I know all of the difficulties you're laboring under. You know, I'll excuse the, quote, cold and indifferent manner of your letter. And. And what is Joseph referring to? There's apparently a lot of things going on, not just the, you know, not following the church protocols when it comes to the conference, but church members in Missouri are not helping themselves with their prophecies of things that they say are going to happen and kind of boldly declaring to the inhabitants of Missouri that they are going to be the ones controlling their land. At one point in this letter that Joseph writes back to Phelps, he talks about the fact that members of the church in Missouri are stirring up other people because they're writing to their family members and saying things that haven't been revealed to the church. For instance, the weak members who are acquainted with your evil hearts of unbelief to write wicked and discouraging letters to their relatives who have zeal, but not according to knowledge and prophesy falsely, which excites many to believe that you are putting up the Indians to slay the Gentiles, which exposes the lives of the saints everywhere. You observe that God has been merciful. Very true. Then never forget to revere his holy name forever. That circumstances are as well with you as they are. You requested me to preserve all the original copies of the Commandments. My reasons for. For not sending the remainder, and also the vision. I think I will give you satisfaction towards me, as I have much care and tribulation calculated to weigh down and destroy the mind. And in times past, they have been snatched from under my hand. As soon as they are given. I will send them to you as soon as possible. But I will exhort you to be careful not to alter the sense of any of them. For he that adds or diminishes to the prophecies must come under the condemnation of written therein. So. So one of the things that apparently Phelps has been relatively terse. We don't have this original letter, unfortunately, whatever Phelps wrote to him. So we have to kind of surmise by Joseph's response what it is that Phelps was mad about. And one of the things he seems to be angry about is that Phelps needs material for his paper. Like any good journalist, he. He wants. He wants to be able to publish the revelations, obviously, the revelations being published for the first time ever in the newspaper is, you know, that's a pretty hot commodity newspaper item. Not only among Latter Day Saints who now have a copy of a revelation from Joseph, but even the antagonists of the church also want to hear what this John Smith guy saying, even though he's not John Smith and Joseph tells him that, you know, no, I'm not just sending every single initial copy of Revelation I receive. They are sometimes taken from me as soon as I dictate them. So he's kind of saying, look, I need to let a little time age on these a little bit. And also, you know, is a little worried that Phelps might try to improve upon them. You know, oh, maybe your grammar is not the best. Let me fix that as I publish it. So you can see that there's. There's that going on. The. The other thing that Phelps is anxiously awaiting is he's waiting for Joseph to finish the translation of the Bible that he's working on, because the plan is to publish the Bible translation along with the Book of Commandments, which is this the forerunner to the Doctrine and Covenants that, again, we talked about in a previous podcast that you'll have to go back and find somewhere near the beginning. It's.

[Ari]

I think that one's. That one is November.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

I think you just say November for all of them.

[Ari]

I do.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

I could say anything right now. Do you remember when we did the one on polygamy? Well, that was that November.

[Ari]

Yeah. November of 2038.

[Professor Richard Leduc]

Yeah, November of 2107. 7. When my days are lengthened to that of a tree. At any rate, he's explaining to him all of the difficult things that they're going through and why they're not able to respond. So. So this is kind of an evidence of these kind of growing tensions. Now, I don't want to overstate them in the sense that, oh, the saints in Missouri were apostates, that it's not coming to that. But there are certainly tensions on both sides in Missouri. It's easy to feel isolated. It's easy to feel like they're not getting enough support from the headquarters of the church and that they're being unfairly criticized for making decisions on the ground. Okay, well, yeah, thanks for letting us know that we needed to have the bishop run the conference, but you weren't here to tell us that. So we just did what people normally do in meetings, and you elect someone to be the leader of it. You know, that's very democratic, very American, and Just not very Mormon. Right? It's not what, it's not what you do. I mean, very few of you have gone to a sacrament meeting lately where, you know, the way it started was someone stood up and said, all right, let's vote on who should preside over this conference. Right? Probably there's several bishops out there who are saying, please, let's not go to that. Let's not go to that model. I'm worried about what the result of the vote might be, but what's going on with them? So you have that going on. You've got some, these little bit internal tensions there. The church is trying to grow there. But what about with the Missourians? What's going on with them? So in our next podcast, I want to talk about how the Missourians are reacting to this trickle that's becoming a small stream that soon, at least to them, starts to become a type of a flood of these religious fanatics that unlike most of the Missourians populating western Missouri that were from Virginia and Tennessee and Arkansas and places that Ari has claimed don't have all of their teeth, these Latter Day Saints are coming from New York and Ohio and Vermont, and they are, they have very different values than the Missourians who are there. And so they're not only outsiders, they're outsiders who bring with them a toxic value system as far as the Missourians are concerned. And so we will pick that up in our podcast next week. Thank you so much for listening.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat]

Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Garrett Dirkmot. If you know anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. And for more resources, visit standardoftruth.com until next time.