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Better than Ezra
S6E32 · The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - #8 Ezra Booth Part 3
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Standard of Truth · Season 6 · Episode 32 · 1:09:28

The Great Apostate Hall of Shame - #8 Ezra Booth Part 3

Booth's first published attack on the Church accused Joseph of settling an argument about whether a live fish makes a bucket of water heavier by declaring the answer 'by the Spirit.'

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The question ·

Why did Ezra Booth leave the Church, and what did he do after he left?

Richard

After joking that the band Better Than Ezra outranks Ezra Booth, the hosts talk missionary sons, robberies in Peru and old blue planners. Then Gerrit picks up Booth's story: he travels to Missouri in 1831, is disappointed by Independence, and comes back an apostate who, according to Church history, had wanted the power to smite unbelievers. Booth teams up with Symonds Ryder to pull converts in Hiram back out of the Church, and the Ohio Star publishes his letters to Ira Eddy, calling Mormonism a deliberate deception and a contagious disease. Gerrit points out the flaw in the critics' case: if only ignorant people became Mormons, why did Bible experts like Booth, Ryder and Sidney Rigdon join?

Who comes upEzra BoothSymonds RyderIra EddyJoseph SmithSidney RigdonJohn Johnson
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Better than Ezra

Gerrit ranks the band Better Than Ezra above Ezra Booth and recalls a Norm Macdonald joke.

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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. It's great to be back. Thanks for having me back. In preparation for this episode about Ezra Booth. We just listened to the Better Than Ezra song, Good, and I feel like it really put us in the right frame of mind to discuss early anti-Mormonism.
Gerrit Well, I feel like if we're rating things that are better than Ezra Booth, it's a lot of things. They stack on top of one another.
Richard It is good. You told a joke that you saw in Saturday Night Live. So now Better Than Ezra, that song came out in 93, 93, 96, it was really the anthem of our youth, Gerrit.
Gerrit The number of times that I was driving in my Geostorm with Better Than Ezra blasting.
Richard There was a joke on Saturday Night Live. I can't remember.
Gerrit You just said it.
Richard It was Dennis Miller.
Gerrit It might have been Norm McDonald, actually. It was the same era. It was probably Norm McDonald. We could go look it up. We'll get the correct research. Right where the song is super popular. They're not a one-hit wonder, but obviously Better Than Ezra isn't. They aren't listed in the top 10 of 20th century bands by most charts. Now we're going to have some angry Better Than Ezra fans email it.
Richard It was Norm McDonald.
Gerrit It was Norm McDonald. Yes, it was Norm McDonald. He makes a joke about how popular they are because it was right when they hit their biggest popular thing. Then he says, not everyone's happy with the new band, something like that. One of their detractors, unhappy with them, Ezra. The picture is a picture of a guy named Ezra.
Richard That's funny. That's a good one. We jumping straight into the Phebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag so that we can get to Ezra. The first email comes to us from Jana. My premium subscriber friend, Katie, let me know about your entertaining podcast. I was at her birthday dinner last November when she was gifted a premium subscription and a video message from Dr. Dirkmaat, yes.
Gerrit I recall doing this, yes. I was asked if I would say happy birthday.
Richard Yes, I believe that it's $1,000 on Cameo. I think that's your going rate. Is that right?
Gerrit I tried to get on Cameo and they said, we only do celebrities.
Richard Yeah. Who do you think you are?
Gerrit Cameo that is willing to have to let people on there who have been stand-ins in, you know, WWE wrestling ringside commercials, but not, not anyone else. So yeah, that's pretty funny. I actually haven't ever looked into Cameo. The idea that someone would pay even a cent to listen to me is not, I don't think so.
Richard It's stunning every day to just even to contemplate. I knew your podcast must be, she was ecstatic and it's hard to excite her. I knew your podcast must be worth listening to. And that's how I got hooked. The fact that y'all can spout church facts as Dr. LeDuc can reference rappers from my childhood or in this case, Better Than Ezra and bring in fun with numbers. The reason I wanted to read this is more fun with numbers.
Gerrit People cry out, don't they?
Richard They do. Oh, it's because numbers are so much fun. Making yourselves crack up, yourselves crack up is absolutely makes my day. Thanks again for the sacrifices to produce free content. Jana, never stop laughing. Don't stop believing or laughing. Well, that's cool.
Gerrit We're not everybody's cup of tea because we are at times jovial and we've played around with the format. I mean, we've tried the NPR format, it didn't do as well in testing, but did much better for people who use us as a sleep aid, where we're just like, thank you for joining us on the Standard of Truth podcast. My guest today is Dr. Richard LeDuc. They're always putting an emphasis on the wrong place.
Richard It actually reminds me that I need to give the access to the mission. We have some new missionaries in our ward, and I need to give them some access. And I brought up the Sleep Aid piece, especially to condemn to repeat it for missionaries. I'll have to add them here while I'm thinking about it.
Gerrit And if you're wondering, we have both people sometimes ask about, well, why is there premium and why is there free? I mean, so early on in our podcasting days, when just Rachel's mom, my mom, and frankly, Richard's mom, there were just three moms that were listening, and people would say, hey, is there any way, because it's very expensive. This is not, it's not cheap when you don't have a, you know, a patron paying for things to host these things, to put them out. And people were trying to donate, hey, can I donate money to help keep you guys on the air? My guess is they would have donated much more to take us off of the air, but they, but they did, they started with, can we, and, and so we, we, we kind of felt like, well, I don't, I don't want to just take a donation and give someone nothing. So what if we create another podcast?
Gerrit We'll call it a premium one. We'll do some American history. We'll do some focused church history stuff. And that way, if someone wants to donate to help keep us on the air, that we can, they can at least get something for it. And, and so that's why the, but, but from early, from an early age, when we were dangled on our father's knees, we said, you know what? Uh, well, a lot of the stuff that we did, especially with Joseph Smith and the restoration on the premium side, that kind of goes through the apostasy. This is important stuff for missionaries. And so we, we give all the content to the missionaries for free. If people send us their missionary email, their missionary.org email, we add them to a Google Drive so that they can access, so they can access the, the, the content while they're on their mission, because you have very limited access with your, your Android phone as, as Kai, who's in the MTC right now, is, is letting me know.
Gerrit I always have a fear. Do you have this fear, Richard, that when you send your kids on their mission, that they're going to come back, you know, having spent two years engrossed in an Android device, and that that, that's what they're going to want when they get back. Did Andrew come, did Andrew come back from Spain, going, all right, I need a Samsung?
Richard I think when Andrew got off the plane and came through security, before he hugged his mother, he threw his Android phone in the trash.
Gerrit Okay. Well, I didn't ask you about Rigdon, because his phone was stolen so many times in Peru that he, he was just, he didn't even get familiar with it. Yeah.
Richard He was one of my favorite things because he got robbed quite a bit. And I know I'm laughing at the idea of my son getting robbed quite a bit, but many of his robberies were humorous. The one time he was decked in the back of the head when he was also being robbed is my second favorite only to win only being robbed at gunpoint, which is my favorite. And then OLI was being robbed at knife point.
Gerrit But you know what, he didn't the one time he didn't even see the gun. And I feel like that.
Richard Well, he saw the gun. He didn't see the knife.
Gerrit All right. If someone says I have a knife. If you're going to lie about having a weapon, why wouldn't you lie about having the gun?
Richard Yeah. Yeah. It's already your finger in your pocket anyway. What are you doing?
Gerrit I'm pretty sure my brother, when he was in Costa Rica, he probably doesn't want me to tell this story. But I'm pretty sure he punched a robber. Did he? Yeah. Some guy was trying to steal something out of his backpack, and he turned around and swung and decked the guy. Now, Dallas, he's like 6'4, 6'5.
Intro He's a big guy, yeah.
Gerrit Yeah. He's large in stature as Dirkmaat and LeDucs are want to be. I'm pretty sure whoever was robbing Rigdon, knife or not, was probably in the neighborhood of 5'2. Rigdon probably could have taken it.
Richard Yeah. What is he, the center on Peru's national basketball team? 5'2. Get out of here with 5'2.
Gerrit Well, Kai going to the Philippines, going to Puerto Princesa, I think we looked up the average male height on the island was like 5'2. That's Kai 6'7.
Richard Well, so what was funny about, that's going to be great. I can't wait for the pictures coming home from that. But for Rigdon, it was funny because he did have his phone stolen several times. And he would tell me, he's like, yeah, this is ridiculous. I have to use a pen and a notepad.
Gerrit You're like, yeah, like every missionary who ever did before you.
Richard Yeah, that's exactly what I did. It was hilarious.
Gerrit Do you ever go through your old blue planners and look at them?
Richard I always wrote down in the margins, funny things that I would hear people say. And it's a riot. Like, I've gone through it a couple of times and I'm like, oh my gosh, just some of the funniest stuff.
Gerrit So I didn't keep notes like that. And I've gone through them once, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 years ago, went through them. It was the most depressing thing that I'd done in a long time, because my blue planners were essentially tracking appointment, didn't answer door, tracking, didn't answer door, tracking anti-Mormons, tracking. I mean, just, it was just a non-stop cavalcade of failure.
Richard That's hilarious. No, it just is funny to me that my son was doing missionary work the same way I was doing missionary work, but only after being robbed. Yeah. I thought that was classic.
Gerrit Well, so anyway, we make the podcast available for missionaries, you know, gratis, both sides of the podcast. They have ability to access it. And, you know, you'd be surprised the number of people that will come up to me and they'll say, hey, you do that podcast, right? Like, yeah, like, oh man. Yeah, my son loved that when he was on his mission. He's home now. Oh, does he listen now? Oh no, no, no. He only listens because he was on his mission. As Rigdon once said, when you have nothing better to do, it's okay. It's okay.
Richard Well, this next email comes to us with some missionary access requests. My daughter is serving in the Winnipeg Canada mission. Her email is X. I told her about the podcast before she left and that missionaries can request access to the episodes. She didn't show much interest. She was preparing to leave. After four months of living in the never-ending plains of Central Canada, she's now interested in listening to the podcast. I've told her you guys are funny and the topics are interesting. I'm sure she's taking my opinion of funny and interesting with a gigantic grain of salt. Please don't disappoint. That's all we know how to do. I've actually told quite a few people about your podcast. I'm going to strengthen my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith to keep up the good work. Colin, so thank you.
Gerrit You read that part where we help strengthen testimonies really fast, but really slow down on how terrible the podcast was. I feel like pacing we need to work on.
Richard Yeah, I'll work on my iambic pentameter.
Gerrit Well, so speaking of missionaries, let's talk about Ezra Booth.
Richard Very good.
Gerrit So when last we left you, we were talking about, we actually shared the raging sentiments of a Freemason Methodist who was so angry that the person who had been persecuting fellow Methodists for being Freemasons had just become a Mormonite. And we talked a little bit about that. Well, let's dive a little bit into what Ezra Booth actually does with his apostasy. Let me read from the, let me read from what the account in the history of the church is about Ezra Booth and what happened with him. So we know that Ezra Booth is going to be, he's going to go with Joseph. He's called on the mission to go to Missouri.
Gerrit He's part of that great conference where we talked about that last episode where, where their people were being ordained to the high priesthood. And he's going to travel down to, to Zion be incredibly disappointed. I mean, we have some listeners in Kansas City. In fact, I just did a, I just did a fireside for a steak Zoom wise in Kansas City for a youth trek, I believe. And I got to tell you, if there's, if there's anything that 14 year olds want, it's to listen to a historian talk to them about documents. That is, boy, they, they get all kinds of excited. It's, it's, it's, it's either, you know, you know, an iPhone or listening to a historian. But Western Missouri in 1831 is a huge disappointment for some of the people who go there, because this is where God is going to build the city of Zion and they get to Jackson County and you know, it doesn't have the same number of barbecue places then as it does now.
Gerrit It is a dirty gambling town on the very edge of, of Western civilization for, for, for America. It's, it's the furthest west of the states that have already been established. I mean, you have one person who, who discusses, you know, just how lacking in religion the people were. They were so lacking in religion that the only way that you could tell it was Sunday was that the gambling halls and saloons were more busy than they were on other days of the week. So, I mean, it does not lend itself to, wow. Yeah, new Jerusalem dropping out of heaven. I mean, if you ever go to Jerusalem, right? You go there and you got the giant wall surrounding the city. You know, Solomon the Magnificent builds this wall around it during the Turkish occupation of the Holy Land.
Gerrit And it's easy to see, like, yeah, I could see, this is the city of God, you know. You go to Kansas City, or what would later become Kansas City, in the summer of 1831. And you know what? First of all, this is the first problem. You're in Jackson County, Missouri, in August, the first of August, not the end of August, where there's a chance it might be cool. No, no, first week of August. I'm pretty sure they had a heat dome. And so tons of mosquitoes. It's super, super, super hot. The very few people who live there are the dregs of society. And Joseph was like, yeah, I had a revelation. This is where the new Jerusalem will be built, where Jesus will return. And one of the people who's very stymied by that is Ezra Booth. Now, even though he's seen all of these miracles.
Gerrit So to the manuscript history of the church. About this time, and this is the he's talking about the 12th of September. So this is when Joseph returns back to Kirtland from Missouri. It's when Joseph moves to Hiram, Ohio. About this time, Ezra Booth came out as an apostate. He came into the church upon seeing a person healed of an infirmity of many years standing. He had been a Methodist priest for some time previous to his embracing the gospel. As developed in the Book of Mormon and upon his admission into the church, he was ordained an elder. As will be seen by the foregoing revelations, he went up to Missouri as a companion of Elder Isaac Morley. But when he actually learned, when he actually learned that faith, humility, patience, and tribulation were before the blessing, and that God brought low before the exalted, that instead of the Saviors granting him power to smite men and to make them believe as he said he wanted, he wanted God to do him.
Gerrit So apparently, at least according to this source, Ezra Booth wanted the ability to strike people who rejected the gospel. Interestingly, we do get a significant number of missionaries who will email in asking about dusting of their feet.
Richard That is funny.
Gerrit I feel like there's like two times in your life you care about the dusting of feet, and both of them are on your mission.
Richard The number of times, yeah. I don't know that I've ever heard about it since returning from my mission, but on my mission every other day. Southern California, Wisconsin, ripe for feet dusting.
Gerrit Yeah. The idea like, oh, I mean, have I told the story about the dusting of the feet? I'm sure I have.
Richard I can't remember. Maybe.
Gerrit Now you're thinking, please, Gerrit, please don't tell a story that you dusted your feet.
Richard Well, I love the idea because missionaries just wanted to strike down with great vengeance, people that have rejected their message. It's like that.
Gerrit It is interesting. I mean, look, when you are constantly being yelled at, please, everyone serve a mission, but when you're constantly being yelled at, when you're constantly being told you're gonna go to hell, when you're constantly being told that Joseph Smith's a false prophet, there are times that the angels of your better nature are muted and you find yourself, wanting some kind of of recommends. Well, I was in Marshfield, Wisconsin, which if you don't know where that is, go find the middle of Wisconsin and then look where there's no one living and that's where Marshfield, Wisconsin is. You know, it was a town of like maybe 20,000 people, you know, but nothing really near it at all. So it's in the middle of nowhere. And not a lot of street contacting in Wisconsin for various reasons.
Gerrit People there are not big walkers, especially six months out of the year when it's below zero. So all we could do was knock on doors. Well, we legitimately knocked on every single door. I was there for four or five months and legitimately knocked on every single door in the town. Every single door. Well, what happens when you've already knocked on every door and with your new companion, you start going through and knocking on doors again, is you start to remember who's behind the door. I mean, you'd think with, you know, 10,000 doors you've knocked on, that you wouldn't remember. Oh no, you remember some of them. Well, one of them, we had knocked on this door of this Jehovah's Witness lady. And we had a nice long conversation, certainly not in her house, no one ever invited us in.
Gerrit So we would talk on the porch if we were lucky. And you know, I like meeting Jehovah's Witnesses because I can always build a relationship of trust with them by saying, you know, everyone thinks we're a cult too. And, but especially, you know, Jehovah's Witnesses believe in annihilationism, which is the coolest sounding doctrine that there is.
Richard Yeah, that's pretty good.
Gerrit Of doctrines, yeah. It's, you know, I mean, super irrigation is close, but annihilationism is, I mean, that's, that sounds like, you know, like Megatron came up with that as his plan to attack the Autobots. That's what it sounds like. But this belief is, you know, it's really a belief of mercy. It's the idea that you actually don't actually have a soul, that what you have is the breath of life, that God breathes life into you. That's what the Bible says. God breathes life into Adam. And so what happens when you die is you just, you don't exist. Soul sleep is what some people will call it. You don't exist. So if you're evil, it's not like you go to an eternal hell where you burn forever. You just don't exist anymore. And in the resurrection, those who are righteous will have the breath of life, the breath of God breathed back into them.
Gerrit And they'll be resurrected and be happy. So it really is a doctrine that develops as a means of trying to mitigate eternal suffering because you just don't exist. So you don't know that there's suffering. And so I was always, whenever I met a Jehovah's Witness, we could always talk about it. I appreciate the fact that you're trying to find a way to make it so that God is more just. Let me tell you about what, and we can have a conversation. So we had a long conversation. She of course didn't want to have anything really to do with us, but it was nice and it was cordial. Well, cut back to second time going through knocking on the doors. There was a crazy guy living in Marshfield who would sometimes walk up to the missionaries and in a, I'm guessing alcohol and drug induced haze, start attacking them. We had seen him a couple of times. One time he told us that he was Jesus.
Gerrit I mean, you wouldn't think that Jesus would come back in a dirty Packers sweatshirt. But maybe, I mean, that's like the old Colin Ray song, what if Jesus comes back like that?
Richard What's he going to come back as? Like a Buccaneers fan?
Gerrit Like what would you explain? He's clearly going to go to the team that's owned by the people. He's not going to be part of corporate America. Come on. Anyway, this guy, we were walking down the street, this guy came up and just started screaming and yelling at us. I'm sure he was having some kind of mental episode delusional fit, but he was making very threatening things. Like he told my companion he was going to hit him. You know what I mean? So it was a little uncomfortable.
Richard Was he exchanging money outside of the temple or anything?
Gerrit Yeah. My companion, yeah. He was selling doves for sacrifice. The next thing you know.
Richard Again, I side with the gentleman.
Gerrit Anyway, this guy is yelling at us. Right as things are a little hairy, we're standing right outside this woman's house, and I know it's her house because three months earlier, we had this conversation with her and she told us she wasn't interested. And while we're talking, all of a sudden, I hear this high-pitched scream, and it's this lady, and she's yelling out the door, ah, just dust your feet off on them, elders. Just dust your feet off on them. Just screaming. Top of her lungs, just dust your feet off on them. So, I mean, she had our back. She had our back.
Richard From a distance.
Gerrit Yeah, from a distance, and, you know, clearly believed in the dusting of feet from the Bible. But I appreciated that. That was my first entrance into interfaith dialogue. Anyway, so apparently Ezra Booth wants to have the power to harm people who reach the gospel. At least, that's what this is saying. He found that he must become all things to all men, that he might peradventure save some, and that too by all diligence, by perils of sea and land. As was in the case of the days of Jesus, which appears in the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, he said, Verily, verily, I say to you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. And so it was with Booth. And when he was disappointed by his own evil heart, he turned away, and said before, and as said before, became an apostate, and wrote a series of letters, which by their coloring, falsity, and vain calculations to overthrow the work of the Lord, exposed his weakness, wickedness, and folly, and left him a monument of his own shame for the world to wonder at.
Gerrit Great Apostate Hall of Shame?
Richard Yeah, that's pretty good.
Gerrit Right there, how about that? Well, he's not the only one who makes commentary on this. The history of the disciples, this is the history of the disciples of Christ in the Western Reserve, makes a big conversation about this. Now, of course, Ezra Booth was a Methodist, but he was friends with Simon's Rider. Right. So we talked a little bit about Simon's Rider. I don't know that Simon's Rider is going to make our great, he's OLI probably. Did you have Simon's Rider anywhere?
Richard I don't think that I did. I don't think he made that.
Gerrit I feel like it's like an even greater insult to Simon's Rider, that not only are we not spelling his name right, but also he doesn't even make the outside look again of great apostates.
Richard Yeah. It's like, you know what? We appreciate all of the hard anti-work that you did, but not in the top 20.
Gerrit I like the idea of us having an interview with anti-Mormons from the past, and them trying to convince us that they deserve to be in the top 12. They're like, guys, guys, guys, did you not read the tract I wrote? Look, we read it, but I mean, basically you borrowed everything you said from Velasquez Hurlbut. I mean, you got to, what were you bringing that was new? Like it's a job interview. Maybe he could negotiate with us. Ezra Booth, you know, is like, eight, I deserve at least to be a six. Look, Ezra, we have lots of people who thought you should even be in there. You know, I think you should be happy with eight. I like the idea of it's kind of like an oral exam where they're trying to justify why they deserve to. Did you have that in your PhD? Did you have to do oral exams?
Richard No, we didn't have any oral exams.
Gerrit They were all written. Yeah, so in history PhD, it's very common that you have both written and then oral exams. So you do a written thing, but then you also do an oral exam where essentially these people of your committee get together and then ask you questions about history that they don't think that you'll know to try to keep you from getting your PhD.
Richard Well, that's what my dissertation defense was.
Gerrit Yeah. So it's similar to a dissertation defense only this time, you're not actually defending what you've researched. It's just an oral exam on like, you sit down and one of the members of the committee is like, why don't you tell me all that you know about the historiography and available sources surrounding the Smoot-Hawley tariff, and you're supposed to just spout it off.
Richard And they wrote like three papers on it, and no one knows more about it than them, and then they ask you the very-
Gerrit Always they ask the question of like, it'd be like me getting someone in one of those and being like, so why don't you tell us what each and every source on the translation of the Book of Mormon is, when they were written and evaluate them. They're like, I'm getting a PhD in 20th century history.
Intro What is this?
Richard That's funny.
Gerrit Anyway, so in his history, talking about the disciples of Christ, he brings up Ezra Booth, and he says, Ezra Booth became a convert and elder in May 1831. Coming to Hiram in the same month, he attended church, and at the conclusion of elder Ryder's sermon, so he went to, so he became a Mormon, went to the disciples of Christ Church, listens to Simon's Ryder give his sermon, and then saw and obtained permission to make an address in which he stated in strong, clear language of impassioned enthusiasm, the grounds of his new faith, and the inspiring hopes which it gave him. A deep impression was made upon the minds of many who heard him. Elder Ryder was himself staggered, and lest happily he should be found to fight against God, he sat in silence, neither approving nor disapproving.
Gerrit Determined, however, to know the truth and to follow wherever it might lead, he made a journey to Kirtland and heard for himself. On his return, he seemed for a short time to have rejected the claims of Mormonism, but in the month of June, he read in a newspaper an account of the destruction of Peking and China, and he remembered that six weeks before, a young Mormon girl predicted the destruction of that city. Shortly after this, he openly professed his adhesion to the Mormon faith, but he and Ezra Booth, who were the most intimate of friends, promised that they would faithfully aid each other in discerning the truth or the falsity of this new doctrine. Booth was soon commissioned to go to Missouri to explore the new land of promise and delay the foundations of the new Zion. Ryder was informed that by special revelation, he had been appointed and commissioned an elder of the Mormon church. And then this is where you get the story of his name being misspelled, right? Simon's Ryder. When his commission came, he found his name misspelled. Was the Holy Spirit so fallible as to fail, even at orthography?
Gerrit Beginning with this challenge, his strong incisive mind and honest heart, he's getting a lot of love here because he's a disciple of Christ minister forever because he's a disciple of Christ history. So part of the point of this is how do you explain how he ever became a Mormon? It was very temporary. He barely believed, basically, like they're trying to say. His strong incisive mind and honest heart were brought back to the task of reexamining the ground in which he stood. His friend Booth had been passing through a similar experience on his pilgrimage to Missouri. And when they met about the 1st of September, 1831, the 1st question which sprang from the lips of each was, how is your faith? And the 1st look into each other's faces gave the answer that the spell of enchantment was broken. The delusion was ended. They turned from the dreams that they had followed for a few months and found more than ever before that the religion of the New Testament was the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Gerrit A large number of the citizens of Hiram had given in their adhesion to the doctrines of Smith and Rigdon, but the efforts of Rider and Booth went far to stay the tide and led back those who had been swept away in its current. So Booth is going to, he's going to apostatize and in his apostasy, he is going to, he's going to clearly speak to try to bring people back out of the church. We actually have the minutes of his excommunication, or at least before the conference of the church. This is the 6th of September, 1831. Minutes of a conference held in Nelson, Portage County, Ohio, September 6, 1831. Elders present, Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Christian Whitmer, Sydney Rigdon, Sylvester Parker. Upon testimony satisfactory to this conference, it was voted that Ezra Booth be silenced from preaching as an elder in this church.
Gerrit So it's almost immediately when they get back that Booth is going to start doing this. Now, look, lots of people apostatize, even prominent former Methodist ministers, but why are we trumping him all the way up to eight? I think that's the question.
Intro It's what Richard's question is.
Richard Yeah, it was my question for the past two episodes, yes.
Gerrit Yeah, and we're not going to answer it this episode. We'll run out of time.
Richard Or for Carter on Ezra Booth?
Gerrit I mean, don't we want to cover some of the things that he taught?
Richard Well, you said that some of the things that some of his letters were very verbose.
Gerrit I mean, all of them are relatively verbose. But he contacts local newspapers to let them know of his apostasy. So, for instance, one of the local Ohio newspapers, we understand, this is from October 4th of 1831, we understand that both Mr. Booth and Rider, two Methodist ministers, although Rider is not a Methodist minister at that point, who a few months ago joined the Mormon standard and followed the infatuated Joe Smith to Missouri, have recently returned to this section of the country and that at the late camp meeting at Shalersville in this county, they made a public renunciation of the Mormon faith. So we already know he is now publicly, so he didn't just leave and go away quietly into the night. Booth is now publicly going around denouncing the fact that he ever became a Mormon.
Gerrit In the Ohio Star, which is going to publish a series of his letters, they foreshadow the publishing of his letters by saying this, we shall commence next week. Oh, the title of this, by the way, is Mormonism. We shall commence next week with the publication of several numbers on the subject of Mormonism, being an exposition of that delusion by the Reverend Mr. Booth, who, as many of our readers are aware, about a year since embraced their faith, but has recently become convinced of their hypocrisy and has publicly withdrawn from them. The numbers of Mr. Booth bear the impress of honesty, sincerity and deep repentance. So let's see what Ezra Booth has to say. So he publishes these letters, a series of letters in the Ohio Star newspaper. They are letters that are written to a fellow Methodist preacher by the name of Ira Eddy.
Gerrit Ira Eddy, Dear Sir, I receive yours of the second and heartily thank you for the favor. It revives afresh in my recollection the scenes of past year upon the remembrance of which I dwell with a mixture of pleasurable and painful sensation. I arrived at my home on the first of the present month, so in September. I arrived at my home on the first of September. Having finished my tour of the West, since which time the scenes and events and the history of my life for the last few months have passed in review before my mind, you are not, it is probable, ignorant of the designs of my most singular and romantic undertaking. Sufficient to say, it was for the purpose of exploring the, and he has this in, he has this in parentheses, I mean in italics, the promised land. Laying the foundation for the city of Zion and placing the cornerstone of the temple of God, a journey of a thousand miles to the West has taught me far more abundantly than I should probably have learned from any other source.
Gerrit It has taught me quite beyond my former knowledge, the imbecility of human nature and especially my own weakness. It has unfolded in its proper character a delusion to which I had fallen victim and taught me the humiliating truth that I was exerting the powers of both my mind and body and sacrificing my time and property to build up a system of delusion almost unparalleled in the annals of the world. If God be a god of consistency and wisdom, I know now Mormonism to be a delusion. And this knowledge has brought upon the testimony of my senses. In proclaiming it, I'm aware I proclaim my own misfortune. But in doing it, I remove a burden from my mind and discharge a duty as humbling to myself as it may be profitable to others. You've heard the story of my wanderings and was induced to believe that I had been visited with a species of mental derangement and therefore had given me up as one among those friends of early association who in lapse of time would be as though they had not existed.
Gerrit Now these are in quotes. So apparently the letter that Ira Eddy wrote to him said, I was induced to believe that you'd been visited with a species of mental derangement. This is a very common response to people embracing the church. Again, the earliest anti-Mormonism is just making fun of what Mormons believe. They say he's got gold plates. They say an angel's appeared to him. They say they've got another book of scripture. Only a moron or an idiot could possibly believe that. Well, but Ezra Booth is not a moron or an idiot. As you can tell from the letter, he's quite articulate. He's an educated Methodist minister. So how do you explain an educated, well-meaning Christian, how do you explain that they become a Mormon? You can see that one of the primary ways they do it is by using this terminology of delusion and mental disorder, that mental derangement.
Gerrit So the reason why you became a Mormon is the same reason why that guy in that Packers sweatshirt wanted to hit my companion, because you're crazy. So crazy people do crazy things, and that's the reason why you wanted to do it. Well, as he goes on, you had concluded that a magic charm of delusion and falsehood had so wrapped its sable mantle around me as to exclude the light and truth and to secure me a devoted slave. But thanks be to God, the spell is dissipated and the captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed and not die in the pit. On our arrival in the western part of the state of Missouri, the place of our destination, we discovered that prophecy and visions had failed, or rather had proved false. This fact was so notorious and the evidence so clear that no one could mistake it, so much so that Mr. Rigdon himself said that Joseph's vision was a bad thing.
Gerrit This was glossed over apparently to the satisfaction of most persons present, but not fully to my own. It excited a suspicion that some things were not right and prepared for my mind for the investigation for a variety of circumstances which occurred during my residence there, and indeed to review the whole subject of its commencement from that time. My opportunities for a thorough examination were far greater than they could have been had I remained at home, and therefore I do not regret making that journey, though I sincerely regret the cause of it. Since my return, I have had several interviews with Mr. Smith, Rigdon and Cowdery, and the various shifts and turns to which they have resorted in order to obviate objections and difficulties, produced in my mind additional evidence that there is nothing else than a deeply laid plan of craft and deception. So here he's making the claim that the leaders of the church are not deluded.
Gerrit So members are deluded, but the leaders have a plan to deceive people, and that's what this is. Very good, very good, obviously. The relation in which Smith stands in the church is that he is the prophet, seer, and revelator and translator, and when he speaks by the Spirit, or says he knows a thing by the communication of the Spirit, it is received as coming directly from the mouth of the Lord. So, so what? That's awesome. Ezra Booth is giving us an 1831 statement of how the members treated the revelations Joseph Smith received, as though it's coming from the mouth of the Lord. So that's, thank you, Ezra Booth.
Intro Yeah, I appreciate it.
Gerrit Yeah. When he says he knows of a thing to be so, thus it must stand without controversy. A question is agitated between two elders of the church, whether or not a bucket of water will become heavier by putting a living fish in it. Much is said by each of the disputants and when at length Smith decides the negative by saying, I know by the spirit that it will be no heavier. Any person who chooses may easily ascertain the actual experiment, whether the problem was influenced on this decision by a true or false spirit. It makes this ridiculous claim, right? That Joseph is, yeah, I mean, if you were arguing about whether or not a bucket of water would get heavier by putting something in it, Joseph could tell you that it doesn't by the spirit. And it's like, okay, dude, yeah. I wonder why we don't have any other sources that say that. It is not my design at this time to enter into the particulars of the evidence upon which my renunciation of Mormon has been astounded. The evidence is derived from the various sources and it is clear and full and the conviction produces at least in my mind is irresistible.
Gerrit You are not aware of the nature of this deception and the spirit that uniformly attends it, nor can you ever know it unless you yield to its influence and by experience, learn what it is to fall under its power. Again, this discussion of this as though it's like almost a magic, right, that you'll notice he doesn't mention at all in this that he'd watch someone get healed, right? He doesn't start off with, yeah, I saw a couple of miracles. I saw the evil spirits being cast out. No, no, he doesn't. I was just under this magic delusion, yeah, but Elsa Johnson's arm's still working, right, Ezra? I notice you didn't say anything about that. Very, very interesting. There was probably never a better plan suited to lead the sinner and the conscientious when in an unguarded hour, they listen to its fatal insinuations.
Gerrit So this plan, because again, it's a plan, there's not a better plan suited to lead the sinner and the conscientious. The plan is so ingeniously contrived, having for its aim one principal point, the establishment of a society in Missouri, over which the contrivers of this delusive system are to possess the most unlimited and despotic sway. To accomplish this, the elders of the church, by commandment given in Missouri, of which I was both an eye and an ear witness, are to go forth to preach Mormonism to every creature. And now, said Mr. Rigdon, the Lord has set us our stint no matter how soon we perform it, for when this is done, he will make his second appearance. I do in sincerity and in trust in deep humility return unfeigned gratitude to the God of infinite mercy, who in condescension to my weakness by peculiar train of providences, brought me to the light, enabled me to see the hidden things of darkness, and delivered me from the snare of the fowler and from the contagious pestilence which threatened my entire destruction.
Gerrit So now Mormonism is being compared to a disease. It spreads. It's a contagion. The scenes of the past few months are so different from all the others of my life that they are in truth to me as a dream when one awaketh. Had my fall affected only myself, my reflections would be far less painful than they are now. But to know that whatever influence I may have possessed has been exerted to draw others into the delusion from which they may not so soon be extricated, it is to me a source of sorrow and deep regret. They are at this moment the object of my greatest anxiety and commiseration. I crave their forgiveness and assure them that they will ever have an interest in my addresses to the throne of grace. It shall be my endeavor to undo as far as possible what I have done in this case, and also to prevent the spread of a delusion pernicious in its influence, destructive in its consequence of the body and soul to the present and eternal interests of men.
Gerrit I am through restoring mercy and grace as in former years, though unworthily yet affectionately yours in Christ, Ezra Booth. So that's his first letter. As you said, they are somewhat verbose. Any idea how many letters he writes?
Richard Uh, yeah, jeez, I'm going to say five.
Gerrit Nine.
Richard Ah. Ah.
Gerrit No, I don't know that we'll read all nine. Although Ezra Booth part 11.
Richard Each letter, its own part, its own episode. I mean, is he just writing different letters to different places, or is he trying to explain things in a different way of how he was deceived?
Gerrit Well, so he makes essentially a systemic attack on the beliefs of the church in these letters. And it's the first sustained, comprehensive attack of the church that's put in public circulation by a former member.
Richard Is the attack in similar vein to that letter, or does he start attacking it from a scriptural basis, or it's all kind of...
Gerrit Yeah, I mean, look, he's kind of emotional, so he does repeat some things, for sure. But he does try to address the specifics of the faith, and then he tries to kind of character-assassinate the various leaders of the church. So he's going to spend a lot of time mocking Martin Harris, right, because he's one of the Three Witnesses and one of the people that's preaching about the church. So, I mean, we have time here. Let's go through part of two. I won't read all of it.
Richard So that does seem to be the modus operandi here for is to attack the character of every, of all of the people. That seemed to be the way to go.
Gerrit When you start off by saying that Mormonism is a carefully designed ruse, right? So you're not saying that Joseph Smith is deceived. You're saying that Joseph and Oliver and Martin concocted a scheme whereby to deceive other people. This is a very different. I mean, there are people who will make claims that Joseph is just, you know, a deluded idiot. That's not what Booth is saying. He is saying that this is deliberate and decisive and it's orchestrated. Now, of course, not telling people that he saw Joseph heal somebody. That kind of, we have multiple accounts. We even have that account from the disciples of Christ who are talking about it, right?
Gerrit But that's not what he spends on. So let's read part. I'm not going to read all of his letters. But in his second letter, written a week later, so these are all published. They're all written to Ira Eddy, this Methodist minister. They are then circulated in this newspaper, while other newspapers then pick up these letters. So part of the reason why this matters is that as far away as New York, people are responding to these letters. So for instance, in a Maine newspaper, Maine, December of 1831, what does it reprint? The Mormon Delusion. Ezra Booth of Nelson, Portage County, Ohio, who was lately a zealous member of the new sect of fanatics called Mormonites, which has lately sprung up in the West, but who has now renounced his error in giving an account in a series of letters published in the Ohio Star of what he heard and saw while he remained connected with that society.
Gerrit We give below a part of one of his letters. It may seem strange to some that such a miserable delusion can spread in any part of this country, but they who best understand the character of the population in those districts, which are only partially supplied with an evangelical ministry, will not be much surprised. If greater efforts are not made to diffuse learning and religion in the West, we may soon expect to see the Mormonites or some other fanatics equally insane, counting their disciples by the thousands. So again, look, condemned to repeat it when it comes to anti-Mormonism, this newspaper, and they're copying this from the New York Observer, this New York newspaper is opining. You know the reason why people were able to be led away to join Mormonism?
Gerrit Again, this is 1831, because we don't have enough pastors, we don't have enough preachers in Ohio, because Ohio is this new country, this new area, and so people are biblically illiterate. If only they knew their Bible, they wouldn't join the Mormon Church. So, I mean, how often have you heard that as an argument about why people become Mormons?
Richard Well, I mean, I heard it of myself all the time, of like, assuming that I've never read the Bible, or assuming that if I only knew what was in the Bible, then I wouldn't believe the things that I believe, versus the fact that-
Gerrit My favorite exchange on my mission for that was when there was a pastor who was attacking us, which, you know, at least they're talking to you, and telling us that we're gonna burn in hell, and that we worshiped a false Jesus. He was trying to quote some passages from the Bible, but he couldn't quite remember where they were. So he had said, the only reason why you believe this is you don't know your Bible. You haven't read the Bible. And he was trying to come up with a verse, but like kind of lost his train of thought for a second. And I quoted to him the verse from the Bible that he was looking for. And I said, and again, this is not what I'm telling people to do.
Richard But I said, it does feel good though, right?
Gerrit It, boy, it felt really, cause he had spent probably 10 minutes tongue lashing us saying, you don't know the holy word of God. If you knew the Bible, you wouldn't believe the Book of Mormon could be the word of God. You've been deceived. You've never even read it. Have you even read the Bible? And I said, you know, I'd said, well, yes, you know, no, you haven't actually read the Bible. If you'd read it, you would know that Joseph Smith's a liar and he's going on and on. And so then he gets to this part of his little harangue where he's trying to quote and he was kind of stumbling over it. He's like, I mean, it says, and I quoted to him the verse he was looking for from memory, telling him where it was. And I said, but I guess I need to read the Bible, right?
Richard Oh, boy.
Gerrit Yeah, that was, yeah, that was, that was, that was, yeah, look, I am not a good person. I am not advocating that this is not, this is not a missionary training video. I shouldn't have said that. But I'll tell you what, when I did say that, he stopped. And when, yeah, that is, that is there. I mean, so you know, you know, how can you, so he shifted, right? Because his argument was, the only reason why any of these Mormon missionaries are out preaching at all is none of them have ever read the Bible. And if any of them read the Bible, they wouldn't be deceived. So now what do you do when you find out that they have read the Bible? What, what do you do that? I mean, even this commentary from the New York Observer. If the argument is, the reason why people are becoming Mormons is they don't know the Bible, we need to get more preachers out there.
Gerrit Why did Ezra Booth become a Mormon? The entire point of your story is that Ezra Booth was a Mormon and then apostatized. Well, Ezra Booth is a Methodist minister. He knows the Bible backward and forward. If the argument is, only people who don't know the Bible become Mormons, well, then why are people who really, really, really knowing the Bible, like Sidney Rigdon and Simon's Rider and Ezra Booth, why are they joining the church? But you'll notice how quickly it shifts. It shifts even in this little article from people who are idiots because they haven't read the Bible to fanatics equally insane. So, so it's not, now it's not, it started off with we've got to educate people better. It ended off with the people who become Mormons are legitimately crazy.
Gerrit So, but this is, they are not sound people.
Richard You mentioned this before though, like, like Eber Howe, this was kind of, it was easier to do until it was his wife, right? Like that.
Gerrit It's easy to claim that people are just stupid and uneducated until someone that you love and respect, who's not stupid and not uneducated, says it, right? I mean, then you have to come up with a different argument. And part of what Booth is going to be doing in his letters is trying to undermine the basis of the Latter-day Saint faith. Now, one way he's going to do this, in a way that will be, again, relatively unfamiliar to Latter-day Saints, the idea that Jesus is coming and that he is coming soon, and that there needs to be a city of Zion built before he comes is a central part of Latter-day Saint faith in 1831. Many people join the church on the basis of the city of Zion going to be built. And so he's going to spend a lot of time, like he did in the first letter, attacking that idea of the city of Zion because it is an outlier and it's something so many of the members believe in and look to.
Gerrit Well, we're basically out of time. Let me read part of this just so I can... Richard's tapping his watch and he's shaking his head back and forth and he's looking very disappointed.
Richard Like my grandfather in sacrament meeting that's gone over. I'm holding up my keys and I'm shaking them at Gerrit.
Gerrit He's shaking the keys.
Richard I have to go.
Gerrit So he's going to attack the Book of Mormon and the Revelations. This system to some carries the face of plausibility and appears under an imposing form. It claims the Bible for its patron and proffers the restoration of an apostolic church with all of the gifts and graces with which the primitive saints were endowed. Now notice again, Booth is doing us a favor here because you actually will have people, you'll have anti-Mormons today, right now, say, well, Joseph only later claimed that they got authority from the apostles. And that's, it wasn't, it didn't actually happen. It was like 1835 before he even started talking about it, except according to Ezra Booth, who's saying that it's the restoration of the apostolic church in 1831, right? So I do love the fact when anti-Mormons self-own, right?
Gerrit When they, when they think they're making this argument, that's just so incredible. But in the, in the process of making the argument, they actually provide evidence for us. I mean, it's like, it's like Isaac Hale attacking Joseph as he tells us that he lifted the box that the plates were in. Thank you, Isaac Hale. I appreciate the fact that you are confirming beyond any doubt that Joseph has something. So all the people who later come along and say, no, Joseph just lied and said that he had plates. He never had anything. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, he clearly has something, doesn't he, Isaac Hale? Because you lifted it. So thank you, Isaac Hale. I appreciate the self-own. Um, but, but there's actually some really cool parts that we pick up from Ezra Booth in his frantic denunciations. Let me finish this paragraph and then we'll go. I know everyone has to go. I get it.
Gerrit I know that no one wants to listen. The missionaries who are listening don't want to listen. The Richard doesn't want to listen. That my mom doesn't want to listen. It is called the fullness of the gospel of Jesus, fullness of the gospel to both Jew and Gentile. That's, that's from the Book of Mormon, right? It is the fullness of the gospel of the both Jew and Gentile. And it is the test by which every man's faith is to be tried. Judgments are denounced against the sinners of this generation, or in other words, all who reject the Book of Mormon are threatened with eternal damnation. Great promises are made to such as embrace it. Signs and wonder are to attend them such as the healing the sick and the blind to be made to see and the lame to walk and they will receive an everlasting inheritance in the land of Missouri where the Savior will make his second appearance. At which place the foundation of the Temple of God and the city of Zion have recently been laid and are soon to be built. It is also said to be a city of refuge, a safe asylum when the storms of vengeance shall pour upon the earth that those who reject the Book of Mormon shall be swept off as with a bosom of destruction.
Gerrit Then shall the riches of the Gentiles be consecrated under the Mormonites and they shall have lands and cattle in abundance and shall possess gold and silver and all the treasure of their enemies. Notice again, he references the fact, well, they're supposedly supposed to be signs that follow the believers. But doesn't tell anyone, I witnessed Joseph Smith heal somebody. The whole reason I'm a member of the church or was is I watched Joseph Smith heal a family friend. I saw it. Why doesn't he say that, do you think?
Richard I mean, I mean, because, because then there's, it is interesting why he wouldn't say that the devil was in it or something, right?
Gerrit Something, right? I mean, he's now, you know, second letter in here and has said, oh yeah, I was deceived, but hasn't told anyone how is it. To me, it suggests that there's still a part of him that doesn't have an explanation. I mean, I mean, you think about it. If you have a friend, a family friend who has an arm that is crippled, that does not work and you've known her for years and it does not work.
Richard So, and again, he knows the Johnson family.
Gerrit He's friends with the Johnson. He sat up with Father Johnson reading the Book of Mormon when they first got it. He is very good friends with them. And he watches Elsa Johnson have her arm healed by the power of the Holy Priesthood by the Prophet Joseph Smith. And that's what causes him to convert. But he is now two letters in and hasn't told anyone that he saw that. I find that interesting. And you know what else I find it? Another example of, you know, when we're talking about great apostates, I'm always, I guess I'm not surprised. I'm always offended. What's the word I'm looking for? When people I know who leave the church, try to pretend that they never actually felt the spirit.
Richard Right.
Gerrit I had a friend who apostatized and I mean, there was some adultery involved and you know, as one is want to do.
Richard Want to do, yeah.
Gerrit Yeah, as one is want. And I, years later after he apostatized, you know, was having a conversation with him and he said something to me to the effect of, you know, I just, I just never ever actually believe, you know, I never really felt the spirit and I, I called him out on it. I said, well, I think you're a liar. It was like, what? And I was like, I have dozens of letters from you when we were on our missions, where you are bearing your testimony, where you're telling me about miracles that you have seen and experienced, where you are certain that the church is true. Don't tell me you never believed and you never felt anything, because you know what that means? It means you're a liar then, or you're a liar now, but either way, you're a liar. It was some tough love and...
Richard Was he also looking for an anti-verse, but couldn't find it when you quoted it to him?
Gerrit I feel like this episode has demonstrated that I'm not a good person and I'm not a good friend.
Richard Well, Joseph was a merciful man.
Gerrit But I will not. Anyway, thanks so much for joining us.
Intro And in music news, number one on the college charts this summer was Better Than Ezra. And at number two, Ezra. 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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Well, I feel like if we're rating things that are better than Ezra Booth, it's a lot of things.

GerritBanter

I tried to get on Cameo and they said, we only do celebrities.

GerritBanter

I mean, just, it was just a non-stop cavalcade of failure.

GerritBanter

You read that part where we help strengthen testimonies really fast, but really slow down on how terrible the podcast was.

GerritBanter

I feel like there's like two times in your life you care about the dusting of feet, and both of them are on your mission.

GerritBanter

Ezra Booth is giving us an 1831 statement of how the members treated the revelations Joseph Smith received, as though it's coming from the mouth of the Lord.

GerritInsight

It's easy to claim that people are just stupid and uneducated until someone that you love and respect, who's not stupid and not uneducated, says it, right?

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So I do love the fact when anti-Mormons self-own, right?

GerritBanter

It means you're a liar then, or you're a liar now, but either way, you're a liar.

GerritInsight

I feel like this episode has demonstrated that I'm not a good person and I'm not a good friend.

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More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
Only people who don't know the Bible become Latter-day Saints.
Joseph only started claiming to restore the apostolic church years later, around 1835.
People who leave often say they never really felt the Spirit.
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

Ezra Booth joined after seeing John Johnson's wife healed, was disappointed by frontier Missouri, and came home in September 1831 ready to pull others out with him.

Booth's letters never mention the healing that converted him. When someone tells their story of leaving, notice what they leave out.

Critics in 1831 said only the biblically illiterate became Mormons, but Bible experts like Booth, Ryder and Rigdon joined, and the argument quickly turned to calling converts crazy.

Even angry critics sometimes confirm things for us: Booth shows that in 1831 members received Joseph's revelations as the Lord's own words and believed the apostolic church had been restored.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Better Than EzraThe hosts warm up with the 1990s band, Gerrit remembers blasting it in his Geo Storm, the crack research staff confirms the Norm Macdonald joke, and the outro lands the punchline (0:47, 1:41, 2:37, 1:08:50).
Why is Booth number eight?Richard's question for the past two episodes still goes unanswered, and Booth negotiates for sixth in an imagined job interview (37:09, 30:07).
Gerrit on CameoRichard pegs his going rate at $1,000, but Cameo only takes celebrities (3:33, 3:38).
The NPR formatIt tested poorly but did well with listeners who use the show as a sleep aid (5:06).
The audience: three momsEarly on only Rachel's mom, Gerrit's mom and Richard's mom were listening (6:06, 1:03:42).
Robbed in PeruRigdon's phone was stolen so often he had to use a pen and notepad like every missionary before him (8:56, 10:48).
Blue plannersRichard's are full of funny quotes; Gerrit's are a non-stop cavalcade of failure (11:12, 11:32).
Marshfield, WisconsinEvery door knocked twice, a man in a Packers sweatshirt who said he was Jesus, and a Jehovah's Witness who said to dust their feet (21:07, 25:51, 26:55).
AnnihilationismThe coolest-sounding doctrine, like something Megatron would plan (23:16, 23:41).
Shaking the keysRichard taps his watch and shakes his keys at Gerrit like his grandfather in sacrament meeting (1:01:19, 1:01:32).
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
Jackson County in August 1831 through the eyes of the first Saints to arrive, and why some were disappointed (15:06).
Symonds Ryder's short time in the Church, from the Peking prophecy to the misspelled commission (33:34).
All nine of Booth's letters to Ira Eddy and how far newspapers reprinted them (50:36).
Hostile witnesses who accidentally confirm the story, from Isaac Hale lifting the box to Booth's apostolic church (1:02:42).
SOT Litner · S6E32.