Last Updated on August 25, 2023 by Jason Harris

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Introduction

This post is primarily composed of excerpts from the LDS Gospel Topics Essays, approved for publication by the LDS First Presidency and LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles starting in 2013. These essays have helped bring to light to the general LDS membership many doctrinal, historical, racial and sexist issues that have plagued and continue to plague the LDS Church. I previously wrote some of my perspectives about these essays in far more depth in 2018, “Minimization, Distortion, Deception and Spin in the LDS Church History Gospel Topics Essays” as invited to do by my friend, Anthony Miller, on his blog.

It was soul-shattering to me several years ago to realize that much of what I had been led to believe most of my life were “Anti-Mormon Lies” were in fact true. I think the LDS Church is to be commended for the steps towards transparency and honesty publishing these essays has taken. I also think these essays still often fall far short of the standards of honesty and integrity I was expected to live in my own life as a Mormon and still strive to live by.

Despite the heartaches a faith transition has brought into my own life, there has also been immense growth from this experience. I will always be grateful for my Mormon upbringing. So many of the blessings in my own life are deeply paradoxical.

LDS Gospel Topics Essays Introductory Page

Recognizing that today so much information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be obtained from questionable and often inaccurate sources, officials of the Church began in 2013 to publish straightforward, in-depth essays on a number of topics. The purpose of these essays, which have been approved by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has been to gather accurate information from many different sources and publications and place it in the Gospel Topics section of ChurchofJesusChrist.org…

…We again encourage members to study the Gospel Topics essays… as they “seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

“Gospel Topics Essays Introductory Page” as published on churchofjesuschrist.org as of August 2023

Numerous early church leaders talked of Heavenly Father’s multiple wives. D&C 132 also suggests as much. The essay doesn’t explore this. It’s possible this essay may also have been accurately titled, “Mothers in Heaven.”

Peace and Violence among 19th Century Latter-day Saints

… early Latter-day Saints did not obtain peace easily. They were persecuted, often violently, for their beliefs. And, tragically, at some points in the 19th century, most notably in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, some Church members participated in deplorable violence against people they perceived to be their enemies… While historical context can help shed light on these acts of violence, it does not excuse them.

In the first two decades after the Church was organized, Latter-day Saints were often the victims of violence… Mobs drove them from Jackson County, Missouri, in 1833; from the state of Missouri in 1839, after the governor of the state issued an order in late October 1838 that the Mormons be expelled from the state or “exterminated” and from their city of Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846…

At the Latter-day Saint settlement of Far West, some leaders and members organized a paramilitary group known as the Danites, whose objective was to defend the community against dissident and excommunicated Latter-day Saints as well as other Missourians. Historians generally concur that Joseph Smith approved of the Danites but that he probably was not briefed on all their plans and likely did not sanction the full range of their activities. Danites intimidated Church dissenters and… clashed with their Missouri opponents, leading to a few fatalities on both sides [and] raided two towns believed to be centers of anti-Mormon activity, burning homes and stealing goods…

… Peaceful accommodation between Latter-day Saints and Indians was both the norm and the ideal. At times, however, Church members clashed violently with Indians…

At times… President Young… and other leaders preached with fiery rhetoric, warning against the evils of those who dissented from or opposed the Church… leaders taught that some sins were so serious that the perpetrator’s blood would have to be shed in order to receive forgiveness… This concept, which came to be known as blood atonement, was a stock component of anti-Mormon rhetoric in the 19th century. While many of the exaggerated claims that appeared in the popular press and anti-Mormon literature are easily disproven, it is likely that in at least one instance, a few Latter-day Saints acted on this rhetoric…

… in early September 1857, a branch of the territorial militia in southern Utah (composed entirely of Mormons), along with some Indians they recruited, laid siege to a wagon train of emigrants traveling from Arkansas to California. As the wagon train traveled south from Salt Lake City, the emigrants had clashed verbally with local Mormons over where they could graze their cattle… local Church leaders and members in Cedar City, Utah, advocated violence…

…militiamen planned and carried out a deliberate massacre. They lured the emigrants from their circled wagons with a false flag of truce and, aided by Paiute Indians they had recruited, slaughtered them. Between the first attack and the final slaughter, the massacre destroyed the lives of 120 men, women, and children in a valley known as Mountain Meadows. Only small children—those believed to be too young to be able to tell what had happened—were spared… The militiamen sought to cover up the crime by placing the entire blame on local Paiutes, some of whom were also members of the Church.

… In the early 2000s, historians in the Church History Department… scoured… historical records… on the massacre. In the resulting book, published by Oxford University Press in 2008, authors Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard concluded that while intemperate preaching about outsiders by Brigham Young, George A. Smith, and other leaders contributed to a climate of hostility, President Young did not order the massacre…

Aside from the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a few Latter-day Saints committed other violent acts against a small number of dissenters and outsiders… The heated rhetoric of Church leaders directed toward dissenters may have led these Mormons to believe that such actions were justified. The perpetrators of these crimes were generally not punished…

Many people in the 19th century unjustly characterized the Latter-day Saints as a violent people. Yet the vast majority of Latter-day Saints, in the 19th century as today, lived in peace with their neighbors and families, and sought peace in their communities. Travelers in the 19th century often noted the peace and order that prevailed in Mormon communities in Utah and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the actions of relatively few Latter-day Saints caused death and injury, frayed community relationships, and damaged the perception of Mormons as a peaceful people…

Throughout the Church’s history, Church leaders have taught that the way of Christian discipleship is a path of peace.

“Peace and Violence among 19th Century Latter-day Saints” as published on churchofjesuschrist.org as of August 2023

As mentioned in the essay, Joseph approved of the Danites but may not have known of their full range of activities. However, he clearly knew they were using violent means to achieve their ends. The following quote from Joseph Smith’s diary is not included in the essay:

…we have a company of Danites in these times, to put to rights physically that which is not righ[t], and to clense the Church of verry great evils which hath hitherto existed among us, inasmuch as they cannot be put to rights by teachings & persuaysons…

Joseph Smith diary, Missouri Journal, 1838, March to September, under July 27, 1838 as found on josephsmithpapers.org as of August 2023

Also of note, Governor Bogg’s “extermination order” mentioned in the essay is thought to have been in part a reaction to Sidney Rigdon’s July 4th oration at Far West.

And that mob that comes on us to disturb us; it shall be between us and them a war of extermination, for we will follow them, till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us: for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed.

Sidney Rigdon’s July 4, 1838 Far West Discourse as published on josephsmithpapers.org as of August 2023

The essay also mentions there is no proof Brigham Young ordered the Mountain Meadows Massacre. However, it fails to mention that for twenty years he obstructed the pursuit of justice, investigations, etc. into this matter.

Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Official Declaration 1, Doctrine and Covenants

After receiving revelation, President Wilford Woodruff issued the following Manifesto, which was accepted by the Church as authoritative and binding on October 6, 1890. This led to the end of the practice of plural marriage in the Church.

To Whom It May Concern: Press dispatches having been sent for political purposes [that]… allege that plural marriages are still being solemnized…

I, therefore, as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have during that period been solemnized in our Temples or in any other place in the Territory… One case has been reported… but I have not been able to learn who performed the ceremony; whatever was done in this matter was without my knowledge…

Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved.

And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.

… The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray.

Official Declaration 1, Doctrine and Covenants

The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage

For much of the 19th century, a significant number of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced plural marriage—the marriage of one man to more than one woman… In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto, which led to the end of plural marriage in the Church…

The Manifesto declared President Woodruff’s intention to submit to the laws of the United States. It said nothing about the laws of other nations. Ever since the opening of colonies in Mexico and Canada, Church leaders had performed plural marriages in those countries, and after October 1890, plural marriages continued to be quietly performed there… Under exceptional circumstances, a smaller number of new plural marriages were performed in the United States between 1890 and 1904…

The exact process by which these marriages were approved remains unclear. For a time, post-Manifesto plural marriages required the approval of a member of the First Presidency. There is no definitive evidence, however, that the decisions were made by the First Presidency as a whole; President Woodruff, for example, typically referred requests to allow new plural marriages to President Cannon for his personal consideration…

At first, the performance of new plural marriages after the Manifesto was largely unknown to people outside the Church. When discovered, these marriages troubled many Americans…

After the election of B. H. Roberts, a member of the First Council of the Seventy, to the U.S. Congress, it became known that Roberts had three wives, one of whom he married after the Manifesto. A petition of 7 million signatures demanded that Roberts not be seated. Congress complied…

The exclusion of B. H. Roberts opened Mormon marital practices to renewed scrutiny…

At the April 1904 general conference, President Smith issued a forceful statement, known as the Second Manifesto, attaching penalties to entering into plural marriage…

The Second Manifesto was a watershed event. For the first time, Church members were put on notice that new plural marriages stood unapproved by God and the Church…

Marriage between one man and one woman is God’s standard for marriage, unless He declares otherwise, which He did through His prophet, Joseph Smith. The Manifesto marked the beginning of the return to monogamy, which is the standard of the Church today

“The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage” as published on churchofjesuschrist.org as of August 2023

Are “Mormons” Christian?

The Witness of The Spirit

“The Witness of the Spirit” as granted after prayer and study is repeatedly cited in these essays as the way to come to know “the truth” regarding the faith-challenging content of many of these essays. What isn’t discussed is that other groups also preach this same method to come to know their (competing and often contradictory) truth claims and describe their sure witnesses in remarkably similar and sometimes identical ways as Latter-day Saints.

Jason Harris lived as an orthodox Mormon for forty years. He writes about his experiences leaving the Mormon Church and reconstructing a new World-View. He believes all religions and scripture are man-made, potentially helpful and harmful. He believes there is Divinity in all of them and everywhere.