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Nobody likes multi-part series
S5E46 · Dead and in Hell Part 4
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Standard of Truth · Season 5 · Episode 46 · 1:14:29

Dead and in Hell Part 4

Joseph Smith's own brother William petitioned Congress against Utah statehood in 1849, accusing Brigham Young of treason and polygamy, and Congress ordered it printed.

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The question ·
Can you help me understand the difference in beliefs between the Church of Jesus Christ and ourselves other than just the following or then followed Sidney Rigdon after Joseph's death?
Jeff (listener)

The hosts promote the Sweetwater Rescue restaurant fundraiser, and Richard admits he pulled up a Kristy's Corner transcript in Sunday School in case the teacher asked him anything else. Kristy's Corner covers D&C 125, which gathered the Saints closer to Nauvoo before anyone expected violence in Illinois, and D&C 126, which keeps Brigham Young home as the Twelve take on a bigger role in Nauvoo. Jeff, a member out east, asks how Latter-day Saints differ from the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), which traces back to Sidney Rigdon, and how to build bridges; Gerrit explains their history and beliefs and urges kindness. After a township quiz, the hosts return to who's dead and in hell, with William Smith's 1849 remonstrance against Deseret, which accused the Saints of treason and plural marriage and was printed by order of Congress's Committee on the Territories.

Who comes upWilliam SmithBrigham YoungSidney RigdonJoseph SmithLucy Mack SmithIsaac SheenWilliam BickertonJames Strang
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Nobody likes multi-part series

Gerrit says people mock unfinished series and then complain about short ones.

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Intro Welcome to the Standard of Truth Podcast. In this podcast, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard LeDuc explore the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the life and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. They examine the original historical sources and provide context for events of the past. They approach the history of the Church with faith, expertise, and humor.
Gerrit Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, and I am joined by my friend, Dr. Richard LeDuc.
Richard Hello, Gerrit. Thanks for having me back. Excited to be here to discuss and finally find out who's dead and in hell.
Gerrit I mean, we're not really gonna get to that. Richard and I were talking about the main problem with doing multi-part series is that no one cares about them at all. And then they'll email in mocking us about the fact that we haven't finished it. And the funny part is, so then I'll stop doing multi-part series and then people email in like, I feel like all you guys are doing is short issues now and you're not doing multi-parters. So I think what that demonstrates is that as human beings, we can never be satisfied. You know, like the song in the play Hamilton, you'll never be satisfied regardless of what we come up with. But you know what will satisfy you is if on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week, I mean, this is November 6th, November 7th, November 8th. If you go to any of the Hug Hess locations in Utah, there are six of them. Now, they are all very northern.
Gerrit If you happen to be someone living in, you know, I'm guessing that there's not a lot of people in Fillmore. Headed up, but...
Richard These are in Syracuse, Centerville, Layton, North Ogden, Stansbury Park and Ogden. And every time, this is our third time we've announced it. Every time I've announced it, I've omitted details and made the owners of Hug Hess incredibly frustrated, as I can only imagine, as I continue to blow it.
Gerrit Did you tell them that as bad as you've done on the promotion, that was us editing it to make you sound better?
Richard That's the thing, I'm like, this is legitimately as good as I can do. Because their charity knows no bounds and they continue to offer more and more and I continue to blow it as they are just so kind. Because Gerrit, there's an additional piece, is the first 49 people that go today, tomorrow or Saturday to Hug Hess location and mention Sweetwater Rescue, that 100% of the proceeds of that meal go toward the charity for the first 49 people.
Gerrit We need people who are really hungry to be the first ones in line on Thursday.
Richard I need, yes, I need, we need people.
Gerrit It needs to be like a, you know, it needs to be like a goosest gloop in the first in line.
Richard Look, if you order a salad, get extra protein. I want multiple drinks. I want lemonades and coke products or Pepsi or whatever it is.
Gerrit While you're at it, why not buy around for the entire restaurant? You know, just, you know what, desserts on me for everybody.
Richard Yeah, yeah. They've got a great series of desserts, wonderful entrees. Take your friends, have a mission reunion, especially if you served a mission in Kenya. Looks like Nairobi, Kenya is going to be the place where these proceeds will go. And then, and then, Gerrit, after the first 49 people and 100% donated, it's 66% on all of the bills moving forward for the rest of the weekend. And Gerrit, I do believe that you might be coming up and perhaps having dinner with your wife, we shall see.
Gerrit Well, I'm afraid to tell people that because I don't want sales to go into the negative. Like people will have reservations, find out that I'm coming in a bit, that's it. We're going somewhere else. But Angie and I are going to go to the Centerville location on Saturday at 2 p.m. And we will, you know, if you want to come up and if you got to find me and it shouldn't be hard. I'm the person in there, ugly as sin, but Angie's beautiful. So maybe you'll see her.
Richard Angie is beautiful.
Gerrit Yeah. And she's very kind. And so, you know, if you want to, you want to say hi or, you know, maybe ask me why we haven't yet finished Who's Dead and in Hell, you'll have the opportunity on Saturday at 2 o'clock at the Centerville location. Now, again, all of this is for the Sweetwater Rescue charity, which gets Latter-day Saints in rural, impoverished areas to the temple. When getting to the temple is essentially, it's economically prohibited. And this charity that Richard runs has done this multiple times, Lithuania, Argentina, Peru, and gotten hundreds of our fellow brothers and sisters to the temple, to hundreds of youth to the, to the baptismal fonts to do baptism for the dead. I mean, this is, it's a great way to help your fellow brothers and sisters have those blessings of the temple that, that we talk about so often.
Gerrit So again, November 6th, 7th, and 8th, that's, that's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. If you go to any of the Hug Hess locations and tell them that you are there for Sweetwater Rescue, so tell them you're there for Sweetwater, they will donate a massive portion of your bill to getting more people to the temple. And we are so grateful for them. Just what a, what an incredibly kind and selfless thing that they're willing to do to try to get more people to the temple, which is, which is what we all want to do. So, and also, you know, on the side, like you get to go eat food. So it's like, it's the greatest way to be a part of a charity, right? So, so what do I have to do? Just order food that you're going to eat and enjoy anyway.
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit Okay. Sounds, I just love helping people as you eat a third or fourth dessert.
Richard That's the, that's the thing. What did you do? I help people get to the temple. Oh yeah. Well, I had a, I had a mixed salad with a...
Gerrit Why did you gain four pounds? I was getting a lot of people to the temple. It was a lot of people.
Richard So now, Gerrit, Becky and I are going to try to get up to the North Ogden location on Friday evening, around 4.35 ish or so. So hopefully we'll see folks there and it will be...
Gerrit And you guys will literally have to find Richard because he can't see past his nose. His glasses were stolen from the arrowhead parking lot.
Richard All I have. A member of our ward came up to me on Sunday, after the second hour. And I'm saying that just to just let people know that I stay for the second hour, because I think there's a lot of assumption that I don't.
Gerrit Well, I mean, you don't have to anymore.
Richard Since I've got released, I've grown a ponytail, got a beard.
Gerrit Getting a tattoo tomorrow.
Richard So it's tribal. It's on my face. But so this gentleman came up to me, and he looked... Now, he didn't know that all my other glasses have been stolen, and I only have these one pair of glasses. He said that I look like Mo Green from The Godfather, is what he said I look like.
Gerrit I think that's a compliment.
Richard It was not, and he did not intend it as such. There was one funny thing I did share with you, Gerrit. So I have attended many a Sunday school class with you, and especially when history is discussed, there is... the teacher will usually look at you as if to say, hey, am I getting this right? And you have always been... carried yourself with such kindness and grace. If you went for some sort of pageant, you'd be Mr. Congeniality for sure.
Gerrit I try never to comment in Sunday school.
Richard Right, because you don't let people feel bad.
Gerrit And if a teacher is like, oh, am I getting that right? I always just say yes, even if they're not.
Richard Yeah, even though it's way, way, way wrong.
Gerrit Yeah, even though they're like... So like the church was founded in 1947, right?
Richard Yeah.
Gerrit Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. In a way, in a way, we all created in 1847.
Richard So, so, but what's, what's funny, though, is like I don't know anything. I don't know anything about anything. And so, but this happened to me for the first time in Sunday school on Sunday where the teacher looked at me and asked, is that right? And my response was, I don't know. I mean, I don't, I don't know.
Gerrit Well, look, we're trying to help people become Stake Relief Society Presidents and Stake Sunday School Presidents. We're trying to get some people on the High Council by the demonstration of our knowledge. You need to play along when someone says, when someone says, is that right? Just say yes.
Richard It's the scene from Ghostbusters. If someone asks you.
Gerrit If you say, yes, yeah.
Richard Well, so I mean, kidding aside, they asked if that's correct and it was correct and I said yes. But then what happened? What a perfect segue. What happened is then I went to the transcript from the last episode that we did and I pulled up Kristy's Corner on my phone so that if I was asked another question, I would be able to give a pithy response.
Gerrit That's brilliant. So you used Kristy's Corner.
Richard I did myself because I don't pay attention as you're talking here in these podcast.
Gerrit It would seem like you could just say, oh yeah, I remember Gerrit said this, but apparently not.
Richard No, because I don't remember it because I'm not listening. But what happened?
Gerrit We need to get you to follow him more so that you could have a better material then.
Richard I listen to that religiously, but this one I don't. So anyway, she asked me the question. I was like, oh yeah, no, that's great. And then I immediately got nervous that she's going to ask me more questions. Like she thinks I know stuff, which you've known me 25 years. You know, I don't know anything. And so then I pulled up Kristy's corner and I was ready to go. Never called on me again, but I was there with the facts and which is why we do it. And I believe we're doing Doctrine Covenant, Section 126.
Gerrit I had the exact opposite experience where I was looking up some other things in case they asked. I'm like, you know, maybe they might say something like this. I'll just pull this up from Joseph Smith Papers in case they wonder why they did this. And then the teacher called on me, but to read a scripture that I wasn't on anymore on my phone because I was on the Joseph Smith Papers website. So then I had to like hurry and hustle back and it made it look like I was changing my fantasy football line.
Richard Yeah, I was going to say, what's the team name if you're a fantasy football team? Is it funny? Is it witty?
Gerrit Is it just like, you know, I mean, I don't know that I can share it. Well, so that makes it sound like it's a profanity. It's not.
Richard It's not.
Gerrit Actually, my team name is and there was no Dirkmaats.
Richard Well, it's funny.
Gerrit Yeah, it's funny.
Richard That's good.
Gerrit I once had a team named after the Simpsons quote, the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. I remember that team. Yeah, that's what I used to call it.
Richard How's the team doing, by the way?
Gerrit I've had a lot of injuries, a lot of people on IR, a lot of people on IR. It is IR just-
Richard It's a mash unit.
Gerrit It is. There are more people on IR than I have active on my team. So we're about 500. We're not- We're not- I'm playing the best team in the league this week, so I'm preparing for the same kind of beat down that I fear BYU is preparing for at Texas Tech.
Richard Look, we've got a great defense. I feel like no matter what, the defense will keep us in the game. That happened at Iowa State.
Gerrit That's not what the gamblers think. They think we're going to lose by at least 11 points. No way. We're 11 points on? It's 10 and a half to 11.
Other Okay.
Richard All right. You get into Kristy's corner. I'm going to see what the line opened at because I want to see the movement on that.
Other That's a crazy number.
Gerrit No, it didn't go 10 and a half. It opened at 10 and a half.
Richard And now it's 11.
Gerrit Only depending on which, you know, I mean, I'm not saying you should check your wagers against multiple sportsbooks, but if you did, it's not always 10 and a half. I've seen it 11 a couple of times. Maybe it's moved back down to 10 and a half now. Maybe that's what people are waiting for. As soon as I can get value at 11, I'm going in. You know, it'll move back down. So, yeah, so I pray that BYU wins. Of course, it'd be the greatest thing ever. But I am like Mormon praying for the armies of the Nephites at the end.
Richard Yes. Yeah, they're praying.
Gerrit But also, Ouch. Anyway, so yes, we're going to be talking about section 126. I'm going to give you some insights that you can use to try to become, you know, the primary president or, you know, possibly the second counselor in Sunday School. This is your way in.
Other When you want to look smart in Sunday School, if you want your friends to think you're cool, when you want to seem wise and not a fool, it's Kristy's Corner.
Gerrit A lot to cover here. My guess is in most of your classes, you're actually going to cover sections 127 and 128 more. That's because they're about Baptisms for the Dead. And that's a favorite topic. And so you might spend time on that. But I wanted to spend a little bit of time on doctrine to cover section 126. You know what? Heaven's actually maybe I'll say 125 as well. 125, this revelation that they're given, talking about where people should, where they should establish settlements in and around Nauvoo. And what's really interesting is that Joseph will say that this revelation came because the Saints shouldn't be too scattered abroad. And then he actually invokes, at least according to one account of the conference, when he brings this up, that you have Hans Mill, for an example, that you don't want to have a Latter-day Saint settlement isolated 50 miles away from Nauvoo, because what if there's violence inside?
Gerrit So that shows you that in 1841, even when the violence from Missouri is passed, they're not in Missouri. And even though in Illinois, things have been pretty good. They've been pretty good in part because the Democrats control the Illinois legislature, although the Whigs are making very big inroads. Remember, this is the Illinois of Abraham. Lincoln, right? The Whigs, which Abraham Lincoln was a Whig, they are always in this slight minority in the state, but they were making up ground every year. And so all of a sudden, thousands of Latter-day Saints come flooding into Illinois. And those thousands of Latter-day Saints just so happened to vote almost universally Democrat. And so early on in the first couple of years at the Saints are in Illinois, the Democratic State Party apparatus is generally pro Latter-day Saint, helping them create the Nauvoo City Charter, which gives them broad powers, helping them lay out their purchases in their cities.
Gerrit And so what's really interesting is in March of 1841, there really was no indicator that the government or the populace in Illinois was going to turn against them. So this is one of those revelations that Joseph Smith receives that is kind of a foreshadowing, right? Because it's natural when everyone's moving to Nauvoo to go, you know, why don't we just go build a settlement 20 miles away from Nauvoo, and then we're still close, but now the land's super cheap, and we can, you know, we can still have the benefits of being close to the city, but we have all the inexpensive not being right in Nauvoo itself. And this revelation explains where the saints should settle. And instead of these kind of far-flung stakes that have been established already in Illinois, away from Nauvoo, it kind of brings them all back closer to the center, a tighter gathering. And in fact, when the violence does take place, after Joseph's murder and the mobs begin to burn out, it's these outlying Latter-day Saint settlements like Yale, Rome and Lima that are going to be hit the hardest by this violence.
Gerrit But it's not nearly as disjointed, and you don't have the same kind of gigantic massacre that you do in Missouri in part because the saints are gathered closer together. And that comes from this revelation, Doctrine and Covenants, Section 125, received at a time when there was no reason to be afraid that there would be mob violence. But God, of course, knows things before we know them. That's the best part about believing in God. Now, Section 126, you're getting a twofer here. This revelation, you know, telling Brigham Young that he's going to stay home and not 12, you could pass right over that and not even think about it a whole lot. But remember, the entire point of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is there to be traveling, a traveling High Council. Now again, when we say High Council today, it's just like, yeah, every person I've ever known has been on the High Council.
Gerrit I say it blithely, I've never been on a High Council, so I guess I shouldn't say it that way. But there's hundreds of thousands of current and former High Councilmen in the Church because every stake has a High Council and not everyone serves on it forever. I mean, obviously you get changed in and out. But in the early days of the Church, there were no stakes or very few stakes, depending on now we're getting to Nauvoo, there's going to be a few more. And so you had a High Council at the seat of government of the Church, at the headquarters of the Church, and you had a traveling High Council, which is what the Quorum of the Twelve was designed to do. And so they had authority outside of the headquarters of the Church. Their duty was to essentially run the Church everywhere that Joseph wasn't. Well, Doctored Covetous Section 126 tells Brigham Young that he's going to stay in Nauvoo for a little while.
Gerrit It's no more required for you to leave your families in times past. Now, of course, Brigham Young still is. In fact, he's going to be on yet another mission when Joseph Smith is murdered three years later. But this isn't a revelation that kind of demonstrates the changing nature of the apostleship. That they are moving from apostles who have a great deal of authority in the church, but don't really wield authority in Nauvoo to a group that wields authority in Nauvoo. And we actually see this in a conference that is held in August of 1841. They have a conference that they're supposed to meet at. People show up for the conference, and presiding on the stand is Brigham Young, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And Brigham Young is well aware that that's not what his duty is supposed to be, because they're in Nauvoo.
Gerrit He's not supposed to preside over conferences in Nauvoo, because the Quorum of the Twelve has authority outside of Nauvoo. It would be like your stake president traveling to a different stake and presiding over that stake meeting. People would be like, look, I know you're a stake president. I know you've got authority. You just don't have it here. Obviously, apostles had much, much more authority than a stake president. There's not a very good analogy in this sense. I could say bishop, but they don't really have a general population of bishops yet either. So part of the problem with using analogies as the church is unfolding is there are very few things that actually fit as the restoration unfolds. But Brigham Young presides over the meeting. And the first thing he says when he gets up is, I don't want anyone here to think that I'm trying to usurp some authority. Joseph told me to come preside over this meeting. And the very fact that Brigham Young says that demonstrates to you that he knew that everyone in the attendance would be like, wait a minute.
Gerrit Why is the president of the Quorum of the Twelve presiding at a conference in Nauvoo? You guys preside at conferences outside of Nauvoo, not in Nauvoo. And the reason why Joseph wasn't there, very tragically actually, is that his young little boy, his young son Don Carlos, had passed away the night before. And so that morning, instead of being at the conference, Joseph was bearing his son. But he comes to the afternoon session, and the minutes of the conference say this, President Joseph Smith, now arriving, proceeded to state to the conference at considerable length, the object of their present meeting, in addition to what President Brigham Young had said in the morning, and said that the time had come when the 12 should be called upon to stand in their place next to the First Presidency and attend to the settling of immigrants and to the business of the Church at the stakes and to assist to bear off the Kingdom Victorious to the nations.
Gerrit And as they had been faithful and had borne the burden of the heat of the day, that it was right that they should have an opportunity of providing something for themselves and their families, so again, just like what you see in Doctrine and Covenants, section 126, and at the same time relieve him so that he might attend to the business of translating. Because at the time, Joseph was translating the Book of Abraham. And so you see this shift, this very public shift. Brigham Young saying, hey, I know I'm not supposed to preside, but Joseph told me to come preside. And then you have Joseph coming to the afternoon session saying, yeah, Brigham Young did exactly what I told them to do. And it's time for the Quorum of the Twelve, almost like they've proven themselves. They've borne the burden of the heat of the day. And now they need to help him lead the church in Nauvoo. And they start taking a bigger and bigger and bigger role. So that is what's going to help you become at least second counselor in the state primary presidency.
Gerrit Right? Richard, you think that, will that get them there?
Richard It should, it should. That information, the first one by itself, no, but the second one should put them.
Gerrit Yeah, you got to, you got to stack. So remember, you have to start talking, Sarah, before they even start the lesson. Before coming in, you stand up like it's a, like it's a Quaker meeting. You stand up as though you're moved by the spirit and you begin to say, I'm gonna tell you something about doctoring comes in section 125. And then that's how it happens.
Richard Well, like you said, cause that one's not likely to be mentioned. It's likely to go, you know, harden the paint on baptism for the dead. And so you're gonna need that.
Gerrit That's why you just got it. You've got to own it. You've got to take control. You've got to, sure, the teacher has a lesson plan. You've got to be the lesson plan's now you.
Richard So, going straight into the Phebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag, we have an email from Jeff. The email from Jeff says, I can only assume after not hearing from you that I didn't include enough praise in my original email, not to mention maybe the worst time to profit joke in church history. I've been litening to yin's. Look, I already struggle with sight and obviously this-
Gerrit Yeah, you can't use slang words with Richard. That's-
Richard Yin's.
Gerrit I mean, you might as well be like six, seven to him. That's just not happening.
Richard I think 41's catching on. I'm not sure if 41 has a double entendre and then I just said-
Gerrit Well, speaking of which, Doctrine and Covenants section 125 and 126 received in 1841.
Richard Way to pull that back. I've been litening to yin for about a year now, and I love the podcast. You two have an infectious light-heartedness and cheery temperament that makes it a pleasure to liten every week. By the way, Gerrit, I had an opportunity to talk to a missionary, Parker, who is going to serve in Jacksonville, Florida. He is the grandchild of friend of the show, Jeff, who went on the tour with us and, oh yes, Emily, his mother. Anyway, it was very fun. He listened to almost the entire podcast prior to going on his mission. So I can only imagine he will step into immediate AP calling and responsibility.
Gerrit Well, did he get the MTC district leader key?
Richard So I literally took, I will find out, actually. I took a picture with him yesterday. So I will get to the bottom of this.
Gerrit Yeah, I need to find out from Jeff whether or not he has that key.
Richard Anyways, good for Parker out in good old Jacksonville. It is your selfless sacrifice to create this podcast that made me want to do a deeper dive into church history and pulled me from a spiritual slump into being an anxious student again. Thank you for that. I'm going to call you on a false advertising though. Oh, I was, I was in the elders quorum.
Gerrit Why are we reading this one? Why are we reading ones that hate us?
Richard This was the nicest one.
Gerrit Oh, okay.
Richard Of the hundreds and hundreds this week, this was the best. No, I'm kidding. I was in Elders, I was in the elders quorum presidency before I started listening to Kristy's Corner and since have been banished from Sunday school to the primary. I would actually argue that's an enormous upgrade.
Gerrit Yeah, I feel like, so you don't have to sit through elders quorum lessons anymore? Okay.
Richard No offense to Rex's elders quorum president. Yeah.
Gerrit Well, jobless Rob is my elders quorum president now. And so he asked me if I would teach a couple of Sundays ago. And when I showed up, the funny part was there were like six people in the room that he had also asked to teach. And all of them had told him no for one reason or another, but they were all actually there.
Richard That's it. That is funny.
Gerrit It's a very funny thing. It's like, y'all, I told them I wasn't going to be here. Like, but you are here.
Richard That's funny. All right. Sorry. I'm doing some side research that we'll be getting to at the bottom here. Granted, being in primary with my wife is kind of the best calling it, right? You see, I didn't even read the Latin. This is totally, totally the case. I would love to serve with Becky. That would be an absolute blast. She's my best friend. It'd be fun to hang out with her actually at church. But plus I have assumed that when my primary students go into their youth classes, quoting the King Follett Sermon, I'll be back in the wedding.
Gerrit Well played, Jeff. That's what we've said. Look, if you can somehow work in the King Follett Sermon in your primary lessons, they'll take you out of primary. So that's your plan. You're on your way out.
Richard Let the record stand that that's a joke. I'm very happy serving right now where the Lord wants me. Yes, of course. I do have a couple of questions. First, just wondering who's dead and in hell. You know what? We're going to get to that maybe.
Gerrit Never.
Richard Yes. The second, can you help me understand the difference in beliefs between the Church of Jesus Christ and ourselves other than just the following or then followed Sidney Rigdon after Joseph's death? How do you think we can build bridges of understanding with these good people who share so many beliefs with us rather than ignoring them or tearing them down? Being a member of church out east can feel lonely at times. I can only imagine how it must feel for smaller restoration churches like these, and I hate to think they feel isolated even from us. One last note to end on a laugh. I listened on Spotify, which gives suggestions for similar content. When you listen, the selection of suggested podcasts changes, but the first suggestion is always the same. Unashamed with the guys from Duck Dynasty, I was going to make a joke about that, but I feel like the fact stands well enough on its own. Love you guys. All the best.
Richard Adam. By the way, the Yizners, or the Yizzers? Yinzers? It's not even... These aren't words. The Yinzers cry out, we want to hear more about townships. I do have more about townships, Gerrit, but if you could answer the Bickertonite question for Jeff.
Gerrit Yeah, so I desperately want to get to Who's Dead and in Hell. We have so many people wondering if I don't find out what president's in hell. But here's the thing. I thought this was a good question that I thought, you know, maybe engage on. What he's referring to is one of the largest branches of... They don't call themselves Latter-day Saints. So, I mean, they don't call themselves Mormons either. But you could call it a restoration branch. So they are sometimes referred to as Bickertonites. They're based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And so he's asking, you know, what's the difference and how can we reach out? Now, I think in general, there's certainly been better relations between members of our church and their church than there had been.
Gerrit But if you're asking what their difference is, I mean, every group that's a breakaway group has different things that they focus on or not. Probably the most stark difference that you would find if you were to go to a meeting. Now, look, they've got a lot of things that are the same, okay? They don't have a paid ministry. They believe that you have to have baptism in order to be saved. So like already, they are different than every other Protestant religion, right? Because baptism by immersion is essential, right? And they believe the Book of Mormon is absolutely the Word of God. And they quote from it. They love it. I've met multiple members of it's called the Church of Jesus Christ is what their official title to their church is. They quote from the Book of Mormon all the time. So if you're asking, you know, what's a way to build bridges or how could I have a conversation with them?
Gerrit Man, you have a conversation about how much you love the Book of Mormon and you're going to have a four hour conversation with them about the parts of the Book of Mormon you love the most. So that is really the closest thing. Now, here's what you would find if you were to look at like, you know, they have a handout called What We Believe, you know, that has a list of kind of some articles of faith. They're not the same articles of faith from the Wentworth letter, but, you know, they all start with we believe this, we believe this, right? You would find it very interesting that while it is littered with references to the Book of Mormon and the Bible. So, you know, we believe in this and then, you know, so, you know, let me give you a, for instance, this is something that sets them apart from Protestants. We believe obedience to the gospel is necessary to obtain salvation by taking the following actions.
Gerrit Believe and have faith that Jesus Christ is the risen Savior of the Lord, honest, goddess. Repent of your sins with a desire to sin no more. Be baptized by immersion in water for a remission of sins. Receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. Live righteously, remain faithful, and endure to the end of your life. Now that, I mean, right now, it's like I just gave a talk in sacrament meeting, right? I mean, that things are sounding pretty good. In fact, one of the bullet points to this is men are not accountable for the sin of Adam, which was atoned for by Christ. Man are to be punished for their own transgressions. Little children are represented as characteristic of heaven. So, so you could see there's a lot of things there that you're like, wow, but what you won't find on this statement of beliefs is even a reference, not even a word to Joseph Smith.
Gerrit And it's actually one of the most salient features of the Church of Jesus Christ or the Bickertonites. Again, they don't really want to call themselves that. Some of them, their followers will, just like you'll still call yourself a Mormon to help people. But they're called the Church of Jesus Christ. And they have tens of thousands of members total. So, I mean, they are large. They're the third largest restoration branch after the Community of Christ, most likely anyway. It's hard to tell what numbers of some other, at least of the branches that broke off when Joseph died. Obviously, there's others that broke off at other times. But yeah, Joseph Smith isn't even mentioned anywhere in it. And so, William Bickerton, he actually was not a member of the church that Joseph Smith started. So, Joseph Smith is murdered.
Gerrit And we all know, I mean, probably the thing about the aftermath of Joseph's murder that Latter-day Saints know the best is that Sidney Rigdon was one of the people who came along and said, you know what, I should be the guardian of the church. And for a long time, Brigham Young will labor with Sidney Rigdon, saying, look, the keys, Joseph gave the keys to the Quorum of the Twelve. And, you know, Sidney Rigdon's argument is undercut by Emma Salimon, who himself is a member of the First Presidency and backs the Quorum of the Twelve, right? So when you're arguing, well, I'm a member of the First Presidency, so I have the authority to lead the church. And Lyman stands up and is like, well, I'm also a member of the First Presidency. And I say, we don't have the authority to lead the church. Well, you know, that's it. You know, Sidney Rigdon would have rather that Lyman didn't show up that day, right? Because that really undercuts the argument.
Gerrit But when Brigham Young stops laboring with Sidney Rigdon, is when Sidney Rigdon alleges that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet and says that the church had not been led by the spirit for a long time. For Brigham Young, that was the end of it. And we talked about that. We actually did, we had another episode where we talked about Sidney Rigdon and his apostasy and the things surrounding that. So Rigdon is going to leave. He's going to be cut off, excommunicated. Rigdon goes back to Pennsylvania, which is where he's from. And there are some followers who form very few from, from Nauvoo. It's probably fewer. I mean, in to the dozens at most, he really gets most of his followers from like the Eastern branches.
Gerrit And one of the reasons why he's able to do this, in fact, James Strang has the same effect because he's going to argue, hey, they're practicing polygamy in Nauvoo. They're saying that God became God. You know, those are all not, you know, they might be in Gerrit Dirkmaat's first discussion when he meets people on their mission. But it's not what most of the average people are being taught on their mission. And so it's from these new converts or from people in these Eastern branches that you get more people. Well, William Bickerton is one of the people who gets baptized by Sydney Rigdon. Well, into the Rigdonite Church. He's not baptized by Sydney Rigdon himself. But not until June of 1845. So he was never a part, at least at that point, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Gerrit So Rigdon's in this, you know, difficult position, right? Where he obviously is a part of some of these great revelations and whatnot. But Rigdon and Bickerton are going to have a split. Rigdon tries to set up kind of like a, I mean, he wanted to create a, like a, I don't want to use the word socialist, but you know, a commune where everyone shared things equally, like trying to create a Zion society. And that led to a bunch of disagreements. And eventually, you know, Rigdon kind of gets kicked out of his own church and a bunch of followers of Rigdon start to gravitate towards to Bickerton. Now Bickerton had been a Methodist. So one of the things is really interesting. If you were to take Methodism, so this is this Arminian belief that you have to accept Jesus, that salvation is a lifelong process.
Gerrit If you were to take Methodism and insert the Book of Mormon, that's kind of what you end up with, with the Church of Jesus Christ. You know, Bickerton doesn't know really what to do after, you know, the falling out with Rigdon. And in fact, they are, for a time, baptized into the Latter-day Saint Church, into our church, by some missionaries. But one of the biggest things that, that is, they are not okay with is plural marriage. And that it's that way, obviously, with a lot of these offshoot branches. So they're going to form their own church. As to, you know, what's the relationship between our church and their church? Well, once our church becomes the main church, I mean, I think while you, while living in the East, you know, you do, I get it, I've been there.
Gerrit It does feel a little bit lonely and there's not very many members. And I hope you do reach out to them and create relationships with them. They're great people. I mean, every member of the Church of Jesus Christ that I have met, the Bickertonite, you know, saints, is just a great person. And why wouldn't they be? They've completely centered their life on the Book of Mormon. I mean, they absolutely believe it's the Word of God, and they try to live a righteous life. I don't think that, I mean, I'm guessing that there's a considerable number of listeners right now, not Richard, of course, but maybe Richard in Sunday School, that didn't even really know that this church existed. Right? So when you say, you know, why are they treated poorly or, you know, suggest they might be treated poorly by Latter-day Saints, I frankly think it's more often than not, they're not treated at all, right? They're not really ever thought about. And that's pretty natural when you think about the fact that, you know, there's 17 million Latter-day Saints.
Gerrit And so, yeah, on a local level, they might, you know, want to get in some arguments about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, two members of the Bickertonite, you know, branch. Mainly, they don't really think about them at all. And I'm not saying that's good. I'm just saying that's probably the most likely thing. Some of their differences in belief would make it hard like, for instance, on their own website, on their own things that they put out, they do not mention Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith is not a part of it. So they don't actually tell you where the Book of Mormon came from. They don't tell you that it was translated by. And they also don't accept as scripture any of the Doctrine and Covenants. That's why I said it's more like you take Methodism and you mix in the Book of Mormon. But other doctrines that you think are very important that come from the Doctrine and Covenants, from revelations Joseph received, they aren't there.
Gerrit And frankly, the smaller groups often take a very antagonistic approach to members of our faith. Again, this is in the past. I mean, obviously, there's individuals or individuals. Every Bickertonite I've ever met has been nothing but a great disciple of Jesus Christ and very kind to me and someone who you could see the Light of Christ in. But if you look at some of their literature, you can see the reason why you might have a hard time, you know, just thinking everything's great. You know what I mean? You know, they have a pamphlet they published. They've republished it multiple times, which is a statement of their beliefs. And, you know, look, it says things in it that are great. Our faith is exclusively on the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Gerrit Because our belief in the Book of Mormon, we have at times, this is how they open their pamphlet. Because of our belief in the Book of Mormon, we have at times been mistakenly referred to as a faction broken away from the Utah Mormons. We do therefore declare that we are entirely a distinct and separate church without affiliations to any other church or groups of the Restoration Movement. Nor are we affiliated with any other religious group or people or church regardless of their denomination. So their, you know, statement of faith is, we have, we are not them. And I could see that. I mean, because we would say the same thing. If someone's like, Oh yeah, I met one of you Mormons. They didn't believe in the Doctrine and Covenants. You'd be like, well, look, uh, we're, we do, uh, you know, we would say that we do. But this is in their pamphlet that they publish. We would state that the Book of Mormon has been shamefully misrepresented.
Gerrit And we desire every lover of truth to read it for themselves as they cannot afford to rely on the common report concerning any matter connected with their soul salvation. We hereby assure all men that it teaches nothing contrary to purity and sound doctrine and its history of dealings with God, with Aborigines of this land. It contains a vast amount of prophetic matter, of unlimited importance bearing on the future. It is impossible for lovers of, uh, of virtue and truth who are reasonably free from prejudice to carefully peruse its contents without experiencing delight and satisfaction. I think we'd agree on all that. I mean, right here, we agree, right? Or for persons who are soaked in greed, hypocrisy and sensuality, to read this book without being maddened by its stinging reproaches of their character and conduct. It affords cold comfort for polygamous or bigamous. Jacob, the ancient prophet of the Lord of this land, writes as follows, Wherefore, I, the Lord God, will not suffer, this people shall do like unto them of old time, meaning David and Solomon, with their many wives.
Gerrit Wherefore, my brethren shall hear me and hearken to the word of the Lord, for there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife and concubines, you shall have none. For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And the whoredoms are an abomination before me, thus saith the Lord of hosts. This is not the only instance by any means where polygamy is condemned by the Book of Mormon. The Almighty commanded Lehi when he brought him to this land positively against the practice of polygamy. Old King Noah was condemned by Abinadi for the same offense. Riplakish is also condemned to the Book of Ether for the same abomination. Therefore we believe that a man shall have save it be only one wife and a woman only one husband and base our faith especially upon the Book of Mormon in this particular. So, you know, our church doesn't have in its statement of faith a statement about here's the reason why anyone who doesn't accept the Doctrine and Covenants is an apostate. You know, I mean, that can be implied but it's not what we hand out to people.
Gerrit So, one of the reasons why I think there's sometimes some tension is, look, they are making a direct argument. Now, you'll notice that they don't quote the whole verse, right? They don't say, for if I will raise up seed unto myself, I will command my people. I don't know why they left that part of the scriptures out, almost as if it undercuts the argument, but they're making this claim, a religious claim, and they're welcome to make whatever claim they want. But it's a doctrinal claim of their church, not just of their members, that the Book of Mormon precludes any practice of polygamy as being ordained of God. And that might sound really great to some of the people listening, because you don't like polygamy, and you wish that it had never been practiced as well. I understand that. At the same time, if we believe that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and John Taylor and Wilfred Woodruff are prophets, then we believe that the Book of Mormon does not preclude God commanding people to practice polygamy.
Gerrit So I think the main differences are, they don't accept any aspect of the Doctrine and Covenants or the Revelations of Joseph Smith. In fact, in this entire nine-page statement of faith, the word Joseph Smith does not appear in it. If you were investigating this church and you were to ask where the Book of Mormon came from, they would essentially say it was miraculous and it's a record of people who lived in America, which is true. I mean, I'm on board with that, but they wouldn't even talk about the translation of it in this Statement of Faith, right? So I think that's where they'd be. But you know what? I encourage you reach out to them. I mean, you will find good, godly people. You're probably not going to convince them of our church. But if I were to talk to someone and that's what I was trying to do, I would say, hey, look, we both believe in the Book of Mormon. What if we at least looked at the revelations Joseph Smith received while he was translating the Book of Mormon?
Gerrit Because I think you and I can both agree that while he was translating, he was inspired by God. And maybe read those. Maybe that would be helpful. But yeah, great people. You should absolutely be kind and grateful if you have them as your friends and neighbors. But obviously, they would disagree with the things that we believe and that's kind of how things work out. We have basically no time, right, Richard?
Richard We have a little bit of time, but I do have a quick question for you.
Gerrit Oh, good. I'll follow up to this.
Richard Well, sort of. Follow up to the email. If you were to guess the state that has the largest number of townships in the United States. Now, there's lots of states that don't have any townships or define them as such. So what would be your guess on the state with the most townships and the state with the least townships that at least has one township?
Gerrit Wow, that's a good question. Pennsylvania is going to have a lot of townships, man.
Richard They do. Pennsylvania is on the board. They are.
Gerrit Michigan is township heavy.
Richard They are.
Gerrit You know, I...
Richard Michigan and Pennsylvania are top five, top ten, for sure.
Gerrit Boy, Ohio is going to be in...
Richard A lot of townships in Ohio.
Gerrit A lot of townships there.
Richard Over a thousand there, yeah.
Gerrit Boy, and I have to pick which one? I mean, there's a lot in all of them.
Richard So guess the state with the least number that has at least one.
Gerrit That has a township, it has the least number?
Richard Yeah, so like Oklahoma has zero townships, but you know, so that doesn't count.
Gerrit But let's say... Boy, Minnesota.
Richard You could not possibly have picked a better state. What? That's the best possible state. So the smallest number of townships in the country is Rhode Island with 31.
Gerrit Yeah, I was not even very intelligent about that.
Richard No, but the most number of townships in the country is Minnesota.
Gerrit Oh, there you go. I was wrong. Exact opposite.
Richard Yeah, so 1,779 townships in Minnesota.
Gerrit So the problem is they stop having townships the further west you move. Townships are essentially... The function of townships is all done by either a city or a county.
Richard Yeah, they're managing a geographical area of people that live within those bounds. Look, Jeff wanted more township talk and we just wanted to give Jeff what...
Gerrit We're trying to give, but he also want to know who's dead and in hell, Richard.
Richard Yes, Gerrit. Kevin asks a question, by the way, transitioning into this. He asked the question, where is Gerrit's repeated fairly often, quote, I have no fear of a hell that don't exist. I believe you gave me the reference. We're going to put that in the description. I did.
Gerrit And you know what? It's a twofer because if you know that quote, and I see why Jeff wants it. He wants it because he wants to get out of it. It gets you out of any calling because it is part of the King Follett sermon.
Richard I see.
Gerrit Oh, there you go. That quote in particular is from the Wilford Woodruff version of it, as he's recording it.
Richard My favorite of the four.
Gerrit Yeah, Wilford Woodruff's got an amazing version of it. But that's where the quote comes from, that he has no fear of hellfire that doesn't exist. In fact, he says that as he's talking about the fact that we can help save our friends on the other side, all sins and blasphemy will be forgiven except for the sin against the Holy Ghost. God has made provision for every spirit in the eternal world. The spirits of our friends should be searched out and saved. So, that's one of the great quotes from Joseph Smith.
Richard Yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. All right, Gerrit, Zachary Taylor, you got 15 minutes.
Gerrit Wow, do I even have 15 minutes?
Richard I mean, we can go a little long.
Gerrit I mean, at this point, I mean, what difference does it make? So, we last left you and it was a long time ago, because we kept just doing other things, kind of like we did this episode. I spent too long talking about the Bickertonites.
Richard Well, there's a couple of things. If someone brings up Bickertonites, you're going to go.
Gerrit Yeah, that's the problem. Someone's like, well, I don't know. I mean, who even are the Cutlerites? And then three episodes later, I'm like, okay, we're done with them. But we last left you talking about how there was an attempt to create this mega California that fell apart because of politics. It's hard to believe that politics was ineffective and that people are lying and greedy and doing things for their own selves. But back in the 19th century, this happened. They were dishonest. They were just all about their own power back then. So we talked about how, you know, General Wilson, he sends back to Zachary Taylor, Hey, the Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, they've been good. And so the Mormons are trying to push ahead with their own either state government or territorial government. Well, what stops that dead in its tracks? William Smith does. William Smith is going to go to Congress and present this remonstrance is what he calls it.
Gerrit So an argument against of William Smith against the admission of Deseret into the Union, December 31st, 1849. And you know, it's a little long, but I think I'm going to read it just because you know, it demonstrates why there is a shift. And again, you're thinking, how does this tell me who's dead and in hell? Well, you know, I mean, you can be sitting there thinking about William Smith. Your petitioners respectfully represent that, whereas efforts are now being made by the Salt Lake Mormons to obtain by false representations and fallacious pretensions from the government of the United States, a state organization to be called Deseret. And whereas we believe that it would be highly detrimental to the best interests of our country to comply with their request, we do therefore respectfully petition your honorable body to provide some other way for the government of the Salt Lake Settlements.
Gerrit Your petitioners know most assuredly that Salt Lake Mormonism is diametrically in opposition to the pure principles of virtue, liberty, equality, and that the rulers of the Salt Lake Church are bitter and inveterate enemies to our governments. They entertain treasonable designs against the liberties of American freeborn sons and daughters of freedom. They have elected Brigham Young, who is the president of their church, to be the governor of the proposed state of Deseret. Their intention is to unite church and state. And whilst the political power of the Roman Pontiff is passing away, this American tyrant is endeavoring to establish a new order of political popery. And he doesn't mean like the sweet smelling stuff that you put in like a little crock pot. You know, put some orange slices in there, some cinnamon. You know, this is not the popery he's talking about. He means, you know, the Catholic Pope. In the recesses of the mountains of America, we have authentic information that more than 1500 Salt Lake Mormons took the oath in the temple of God at Nauvoo.
Gerrit This is what they claim their oath was. You do solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God, his holy angels and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith on this nation and teach your children and that they will from this time, henceforth and forever, begin and carry out hostilities against this nation and to keep the same intent, a profound secret, now and forever. So help you God. That, I mean, that's a little different than some of these. That they were to essentially make war on the United States. We might mention the names of many individuals who have confessed publicly that the above oath was administered to these people. The rulers of the Salt Lake Church hypocritically pretend to venerate the name and character of the prophet Joseph Smith, that they might retain their popularity among those people who they serve, who believe that he is a true prophet. These rulers are apostates from the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which Church Joseph was a president of.
Gerrit They teach and practice polygamy. They are thereby treating the bonds of wedlock, placing themselves on a level with the brute creation. Surely your honorable body will not lend your aid to legalize adultery, fornication, incest and all manner of wickedness. I mean, look, polygamy is a lot of things. Incest, it is not. The fact that a man has two wives is not, he's not marrying his sister. That's not something that they're doing. These men have left their country for their, left for their country's good. Yeah, very, very kind way of saying that, William. They just decided they'd just leave, like there wasn't people killing them or anything. It's crazy. They left it that they might escape the punishment which their crimes invoked. They've been guilty of murders, treason, fornication, robbery, counterfeiting, swindling, blasphemy, and usurpation of power.
Gerrit Both political and ecclesiastical. We would beseech your honorable body to send an armed force to bring them back from their hiding place that they may be legally tried for some of their offenses.
Richard Is this the first time that an armed force is requested against the... I mean, obviously, I'm not counting people that aren't former members of the... I mean, people that were never members of the Church. I mean, former member of the Church...
Gerrit Thomas Ford requests the government to send the army to keep them from going because he's worried that they will go to Mexico. Because this is before the Mexican War, he's worried they'll go join Mexico.
Richard So, but I mean, like, you know, obviously, you have Boggs and, you know, Ford, and you've got, you know, bad acting characters, but people that were at one time, at one time members of the Church, I mean, this... I've got to imagine that this plays perfectly into the hands of those that hate the Church to say, here's a person, the brother of Joseph Smith that is saying this.
Gerrit It certainly carries a ton of more weight, right? So when someone says, I'm Joseph Smith's brother and Joseph Smith never taught this, right? I mean, frankly, it's what people who deny that Joseph Smith practiced polygamy, they hang their hat on things like this. You know, Emma said that Joseph never did. William Smith said that Joseph never did. So therefore he never did. And while it's difficult to reconcile those statements, I understand why it's hard. It flies in the face of the hundreds of other documents that exist, right? So as a historian, you have to determine what most likely happened. Is it more likely that Joseph Smith taught and practiced polygamy and that the documents like William Clayton's Journal that talk multiple, I mean, dozens of times about plural marriage and the marriages that Joseph is conducting and his own marriage that Joseph conducted, that that's all fraudulent and forged, that all of the statements of all the people who practiced it and learned about Nauvoo, that those are all fraudulent and forged and that every one of those affidavits are fraudulent and forged, or that the statements by a few people saying that Joseph never did it, that those are incorrect rather than the, and by the way, those are reminiscent statements.
Gerrit Are they more accurate than journals that are kept at the time? And that's the reason why historians can always say, look, I get it, there's people saying he never taught it. And there's a bunch of people saying that he did. But also here's a journal where Joseph's performing the ceremony. So probably he did since the journal's authentic, right? So, but William Smith is gonna carry that kind of weight. I'm Joseph Smith's brother. Now, if Latter-day Saints are well aware that William Smith was crosswise with Joseph multiple times in his life. In fact, even got in the fistfight with Joseph at one point. And, you know, he was just, he was a hot headed individual. So as they go on in this, he says, their governor, Brigham Young, openly declared at various times before large congregations, both in Nauvoo and at Council Bluffs, that those who went to California should tow the mark, that is obey him, or they should be circumcised across the throat, meaning they'd have their throats cut.
Gerrit So as they go on in this, he says, their governor, Brigham Young, openly declared at various times before large congregations, both in Nauvoo and at Council Bluffs, that those who went to California should toe the mark, that is obey him, or they should be circumcised across the throat, meaning they'd have their throats cut. He hired men to assassinate the lawful president of the church, namely William Smith, the brother of Joseph Smith, in order that he might, with greater facility, usurp the office of president of the church. Now, of course, he provides no evidence for this. Given the fact that essentially nobody follows William Smith into a paper bag, why Brigham Young would have to have William Smith killed in order to claim that he's the leader of the church. So here's one of the most stunning things about this.
Gerrit William Smith is going to make the allegation that Brigham Young is currently sending assassins to kill him, which, of course, they are really bad at their job, right? Because it's one of the funniest aspects of anti-Brigham Young, anti-Mormonism in the early Utah period. Every single negative thing is attributed to Brigham Young. And then at the same time, he's terrible at all of it, right? Yeah, he's trying to kill everybody. He's, you know, he's murdering this person. He's going to send assassins to kill William Smith. Did William Smith get killed by assassins? No, but you know he's doing it. So he's just really bad at it. So he has unlimited power in Utah. He just is incapable of wielding it in any way that benefits himself. I mean, it's one of those really odd things. In fact, you know, Brigham Young will even say, if I had half the power that in this territory that people claim I did, I wouldn't have all these apostates leaving the church.
Gerrit I mean, you'd have to demonstrate where these apostates are being murdered for the fact that they're leaving. Of course, there are individual incidents. So someone might point to like, say, the Morrisites. They're an apostate group in 1860, where Morris takes a bunch of people with him up to a commune. And when people try to leave, cause they decide he's not, you know, the next big prophet, he tries to prevent them. And then actually steals some property. And so the non Latter-day Saint justice of the Supreme Court of Utah territory at the time, orders the territorial militia to go arrest Morris and him and some of his followers fight back. So someone did it like, yeah, well, Brigham Young had Morris killed, except that Brigham Young wasn't the governor at the time. And the person who signed the order, John Fitch Kinney was not a Latter-day Saint. So yeah, I mean, but the most hypocritical aspect of this, and we're probably completely out of time, but the most hypocritical aspect of this is a few years after this, after Brigham Young is supposedly desperately trying to murder William Smith, guess who writes Brigham Young a letter begging to be let back into the quorum of the 12?
Gerrit William Smith. Now that I would say is pretty odd behavior from someone who's constantly, and I mean, I'm pretty sure, you know, Salman Rushdie isn't writing, you know, to Iran saying, hey guys, is there anyone who can be friends? I just really want to move back there. That's what I most want to do is move to Tehran. Is that fine? It demonstrates, you know, at minimum, what he's saying is a giant exaggeration with no evidence. But really what it demonstrates to this historian is that he was just lying altogether. He didn't just three years later decide that his life didn't matter. So he was going to write to Brigham Young and ask to come back. And look, Brigham Young is actually willing, I mean, he's willing for anyone to come back. He's just not willing for someone to come back and be placed back into the quorum of the 12. I mean, look, you saw Luke Johnson come back, but he just didn't go back into his original place in the quorum of the 12.
Gerrit He came back, he became a bishop, you know, a faithful member of the church. But William Smith is essentially demanding that he be made the church patriarch and that he be placed back in the quorum of the 12. And, you know, Brigham Young's not, you know, in the, why don't you make demands on where you get to be in the church mood? I mean, it's, he clearly doesn't have a truly repentant spirit, but this is also right after he's done this, which causes so many problems for the Latter-day Saints. Anyway, he goes on and says, he was foiled in his various attempts to take away the life of this true and lineal successor of the presidency, who now has the privilege of informing your honorable body of the political intrigues and tyrannical designs of these wicked men. He has robbed and plundered President William Smith. Entering into his house, he even took the last of his bedding, his children's clothes, his horses, wagons, amounting to some $1,800 worth of property. Brigham Young also swindled President William Smith out of a printing establishment, including press types, et cetera, real estate in the state of Ohio.
Gerrit He has also carried out a system of robbery and oppression towards the mother and widow of the Prophet Joseph Smith. This is something, of course, that Lucy doesn't say, but hey, you know, we'll just say that she said it. This is the character of the man who's the political and ecclesiastical governor of the Salt Lake Colony. This is the man who stated publicly in Nauvoo that none should live to come back from California to tell any tales. We have no reference to that anywhere. It's just he's literally just saying words to you. But in a country that's so filled with anti-Mormonism, you don't have to have evidence. This is the man that told his followers that they should not do military duty for the United States and afterwards sold 500 men to the United States. So now he's attacking the Mormon battalion. So you're claiming that Brigham Young told them that they couldn't serve in the military and yet actually the only reason they served is because Brigham Young said you should serve. I mean, it's a very, he and his Confederates swindled these men and their families out of their bounty money and spent it on riotous living with their harlots.
Gerrit Look, this is clearly demonstrably false. The cries of the widows and fatherless are ascending up to heaven day and night in consequence of the oppression of these men. The Salt Lake settlement is like Sodom and Gomorrah. Many of the inhabitants would rejoice if they could extricate themselves from their miseries, cruelties, oppression and degradation in which they are placed by the stratagems and deceit of their taskmasters. Lend, lend your aid, O rulers of Republican America. Save the helpless females of the Salt Lake territory from a life of misery, degradation, vice. Many of them have been flagrantly deceived by false pretenses of these sacerdotal hypocrites. Saving the rising generation of that land from being trained up in such a sink of corruption, blasphemy and treason, this is the prayer and petition of the true and lineal presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray William Smith and Isaac Sheen.
Gerrit Isaac Sheen. Only a few weeks later, Isaac Sheen will actually send a remonstrance against William Smith that William Smith is a false prophet as their little organization collapses. But this is read before the Congress and it's not just read. The Committee on the Territories orders it to be printed. And so it gets circulated. And so it ends up on the desk of Zachary Taylor. So we will talk about the fallout from that on our next episode, or probably not, probably as long as Christy Corners exists, we're going to get like 10 minutes on this. I'm really, really, really hoping that BYU pulls it out. It would be the greatest thing of my entire life if BYU can get a win at Texas Tech. It would be like my marriage to Angie, slightly below it, BYU beating Texas Tech, and then below that, my kids being born.
Gerrit So that's where we're placing this. Yeah, but just a reminder to everybody, please go to one of the Hug Hess locations. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Say that you're there for Sweetwater Rescue and help get some of your fellow Latter-day Saints to the temple. And remember that Angie and I will be at the Centerville location on Saturday, getting lunch there, a little late lunch, two o'clock, maybe early dinner. Maybe I'll be, maybe I'll just do like a Hobbit thing and I'll get lunch and dinner at the same time and just be in third breakfast by then. But thank you so much for joining us.
Intro Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth Podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard LeDuc. If you know of anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. Until next time.

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So I think what that demonstrates is that as human beings, we can never be satisfied.

GerritBanter

Why did you gain four pounds? I was getting a lot of people to the temple. It was a lot of people.

GerritBanter

And if a teacher is like, oh, am I getting that right? I always just say yes, even if they're not.

GerritBanter

But God, of course, knows things before we know them. That's the best part about believing in God.

GerritInsight

You've got to, sure, the teacher has a lesson plan. You've got to be the lesson plan's now you.

GerritBanter

Man, you have a conversation about how much you love the Book of Mormon and you're going to have a four hour conversation with them about the parts of the Book of Mormon you love the most.

GerritInsight

They've completely centered their life on the Book of Mormon.

GerritInsight

It's hard to believe that politics was ineffective and that people are lying and greedy and doing things for their own selves. But back in the 19th century, this happened.

GerritBanter

So he has unlimited power in Utah. He just is incapable of wielding it in any way that benefits himself.

GerritBanter

It would be like my marriage to Angie, slightly below it, BYU beating Texas Tech, and then below that, my kids being born.

GerritBanter

More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
Joseph Smith's brother William said the Church in Utah taught treason and invented polygamy, so it must be true.
Reminiscent denials by Emma and William Smith prove Joseph never practiced plural marriage.
The Book of Mormon forbids plural marriage under all circumstances.
Take it to classReady to use in a lesson or a talk.

Take it to class

Ready to copy into a lesson or a text

D&C 125 drew the Saints closer to Nauvoo in 1841, when nothing suggested Illinois would turn on them; the outlying settlements were hit hardest later.

In August 1841 Joseph announced the Twelve would stand next to the First Presidency and help run the Church in Nauvoo, after bearing "the burden of the heat of the day."

With members of other Restoration churches, start with what you share: a four-hour conversation about the parts of the Book of Mormon you love most.

William Smith's 1849 remonstrance against Deseret carried weight because of his name, not his evidence, and Congress printed it anyway.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Dead and in Hell seriesPart 4: multi-part series get mocked when unfinished and missed when they stop (0:56); Jeff asks who's dead and in hell, 'Never' (29:26); at last, William Smith's remonstrance, with fallout 'on our next episode, or probably not' (56:10, 1:12:19).
Kristy's CornerRichard pulls up the transcript in Sunday School (10:01); the new jingle debuts (14:06); stand up like it's a Quaker meeting and become the lesson plan (24:32, 24:59); Jeff got banished to Primary (27:40).
TownshipsThe Yinzers cry out for more townships; Minnesota has 1,779 and Rhode Island 31 (30:40, 52:17, 52:42).
Lead with the King Follett sermonJeff plans to get out of Primary by having his students quote it (28:38, 29:12); Kevin's hell quote is from Wilford Woodruff's version, a twofer (53:24).
Robbed in MissouriRichard only has one pair of glasses since the Arrowhead parking lot, and a ward member says he looks like Moe Greene from The Godfather (7:16, 7:58).
Elder Abel and the MTC district leader keyWill Parker, headed to Jacksonville, step straight into AP? Did he get the MTC district leader key? (25:59, 26:48)
Betting odds with a conscienceBYU is an 11-point underdog at Texas Tech, 'not saying you should check your wagers against multiple sportsbooks'; Gerrit prays like Mormon for the Nephites (12:54, 13:14).
There Was No DirkmaasGerrit's fantasy team name; an earlier one was 'the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked' (11:58, 12:07).
Jobless RobGerrit's elders quorum president asked six people to teach, and all six showed up (28:06).
It always comes back to politics'It's hard to believe that politics was ineffective... But back in the 19th century, this happened' (55:01).
The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown MailbagSend Gerrit and Richard your question.

The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag

Your question could be next week’s episode
Questions from Litners drive a lot of episodes. Send yours. If it makes the show, Richard reads it on air.
Go deeperWhere to read more.

Go deeper

Deep dives the episode points toward
The August 1841 Nauvoo conference minutes and how the Twelve moved from a traveling high council to leaders in Nauvoo (22:19).
William Bickerton, Sidney Rigdon's commune and how the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) formed (37:12).
Read the King Follett sermon in Wilford Woodruff's account alongside the other three (53:41).
William Smith's remonstrance, Isaac Sheen's later remonstrance against him, and how Congress handled petitions about Deseret (1:12:19).
The Morrisites and why Brigham Young wasn't the one who ordered the militia out (1:06:32).
SOT Litner · S5E46.