Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat (34:52)
No, he was on the side of the Union and he helps raise a regiment. And that regiment that he raises, I mean it. You know, here's a list of places where that. That regiment's gonna fight in. In Corinth. You know, what's the. The Battle of Shiloh, essentially. I mean, so that's one of the bloodiest battles the whole war. Up to that point, it had been the bloodiest single day of the war. But John C. Bennett himself doesn't actually participate in those battles. He signs up, he's in the military for a couple of months and then he claims sickness and so he basically leaves and. And goes back home. He's ill. And near the end of the war they actually try to bring him back in as another surgeon for the army. Now you're thinking, wow, he was able to become a surgeon. Well, when being a surgeon means you can use a saw blade on someone's femur, that's what essentially surgeons in the Civil War are. They are chopping off arms and legs, and that's how people are saved from gangrene and blood loss on the battlefield. So he is technically a veteran. He just. He doesn't actually serve in any combat theater where he sees any action. And so, I mean, there's no reason to kick over his gravestone. I will say this, though, about John C. Bennett, since we're talking about kicking over his gravestone. He has to be one of the most pathological liars in Latter Day Saint history. And look, we got all kinds of people who do all kinds of things. I mean, that we don't. That's not a surprise to us. But how do I know that John C. Bennett's a liar? Much like Thomas Ford, I know that John C. Bennett's a liar because John C. Bennett tells me that he's a liar. He wrote it and said it. So I get to, I guess, quote the guy. So let's quote the guy. He writes a book after his excommunication. So John C. Bennett, for those of you who don't know, for you're just thinking, oh, you know, he liked tomatoes. And, you know, he's. He's credited with. With making the tomato famous, actually, in America, he's excommunicated, even though he's a member of the First Presidency, because he begins introducing in Nauvoo something that is termed spiritual wifery. And it is essentially profligate sexual relations between unmarried couples. On the basis of that, as long as you both are believers, then it's fine. It's a spiritual marriage. But the union is quite physical. And he's very persuasive because he's in this high position of power. And that's one of the reasons why it's so hard to actually unpack what is going on with actual legitimate Nauvoo plural marriages, because so much of it is tainted by. By John C. Bennett and his. His and his lies. Now, when Joseph finds out what John C. Bennett's doing, he's immediately excommunicated from the church and actually goes and makes a public confession to the whole city that, yes, he had lied about this. He told people, yeah, Joseph said that was fine. It wasn't fine. And he confesses, but then immediately leaves Nauvoo and begins publishing a series of letters attacking Joseph Smith. Those letters are going to form the basis of a book that he's going to later write in 1842 called the History of the Saints. I one time had a conversation with Glenn Ross and I was like, maybe you don't want to call this History of the Saints, but I think he'd already. He'd already started down that path with this. You know, it's a positive view of the Latter Day Saints called History of the Saints. Like, well, John C. Bennett published a book on that, and he's not exactly who you like. Why do I say he's a liar? Okay, so John C. Bennett joins the church, rapidly rises in the church, and actually becomes a member of the First Presidency, becomes the mayor of Nauvoo, actually. This is what he writes in his book, the opening of his book, First Words, Reasons for joining the Mormons. It is of course, necessary for me to give some explanation of the reasons which led me to join the Mormons and my motives for remaining so long in connection with them. I am happy to state that it is in my power to do this easily and satisfactorily. I find it's almost universally the opinion of those who've heard of me in the eastern part of the United States that I united myself to the Mormons from some conviction of the truth of their doctrines and that I was, at least for a time, a convert to their pretended religion. This, however, is a very gross error. I. And this is italicized, I never believed in them or their doctrines. This is indeed was from the first, well known to my friends and acquaintances, which he provides no evidence in the western country who are all well aware of my reasons for connecting myself with the prophet and which reasons I will here state. He goes on to explain, as a good American, he realized what a threat Mormons pose. And so he deliberately went to Nauvoo, deliberately pretended that he'd been converted, tricked people into thinking that he had a testimony, was able to raise himself up all the way to the pinnacle, top point of the church in order to expose their lies. But when he got caught trying to expose their lies, then they made up this story about him being a fornicator. Now, how do I know that John C. Bennett's a liar about being a fornicator? Well, because John C. Bennett undertakes a speaking circuit where he goes around being paid to tell people the truths of Mormonism. In Boston, we have a newspaper article of a newspaper editor who attended one of his meetings. And at that meeting, as John C. Bennett was going on and on about his stuff, after years of publishing that there was no truth to the Mormon accusations against me at all. Well, why did you make a public confession of it? Because Joseph Smith told me that he would cut me up into catfish bait and throw me into the. Into the Mississippi river if I didn't do it. Okay, well, but like, you then just left like he was going to murder you, but it was like, okay, we'll see you later, and it was fine. And then you wrote this book. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. And so he, for years, has been denying that there was anything to his allegations of sexual misconduct. How do I know he's a liar? Well, because he tells this crowd in Boston that yes, he did have an affair with a fair princess of Nauvoo, but they were guilty of far more crimes. So after years of saying never committed adultery at all, I know that John C. Bennett committed adultery because John C. Bennett said that John C. Bennett committed adultery. And at least on that point, I'm willing to take his word for it. The similarly, his claim that he never, ever, ever believed, but the entire point was to trick people into joining the church so that he could come in and expose things so that he could then destroy the church. It's first of all, idiotic compared to the actual historical record. But second of all, what does John C. Bennett do after he writes this book? After he writes this book, after Joseph is murdered, John C. Bennett, only two years later, two years after he wrote these words, immediately joins himself to James Strang's breakaway Mormon group, from which he's also excommunicated for adultery. But I'm sure they were also just saying it and it never actually happened. So. So. And in the process of that, he claims that he has a revelation that Joseph gave him and told him not to open no matter what, except after I die. And it just so happens to say, oh, and by the way, James Strang is the next prophet. The guy is clearly just a habitual liar. Just from his book alone, we know he's a liar. He either lied in all the times he confessed that he had faith in Mormonism, so that makes him a liar, or he's a liar in his book by saying that he never, ever, ever had faith in Mormonism. Both of those things can't be true. But the very fact that he then joins himself to another offshoot Mormon group suggests what is he trying to expose them to? Are you just going to keep trying to expose people? The cat's out of the bag now we've got your book, John C. Bennett. So he is A distasteful person. We have. We have a friend of the show on the tour, Tim, who went to a great deal of time and effort to make shirts that I don't believe I will ever be allowed to wear, not without being fired, and I mean from my marriage, not just. They are John C. Bennett fan club shirts of which I am not a member, although this shirt states I happen to be the president. My first act as president of the John C. Bennett Fan club is to dissolve the fan club and to revisit the idea of defacing the grave.
