This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
| Not Joseph Smith’s Decision – CES Letter complains about “Joseph’s destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor that exposed his polygamy.” Did Joseph Smith really order “the destruction of the printing press (Nauvoo Expositor) that dared expose his behavior”? No. Joseph Smith did not make the decision to destroy the Nauvoo Expositor, the city council did. Joseph Smith, as mayor, simply gave the order to follow through with the city council’s decision: |
“An ordinance was passed concerning libels. The Council passed an ordinance declaring the Nauvoo Expositor a nuisance, and also issued an order to me to abate the said nuisance. I immediately ordered the Marshal to destroy it without delay.”
Legal Decision – The city council’s decision was perfectly legal, as the 14th amendment to the Constitution had not yet been passed to apply freedom of press protections to local governments. The city council was free to shut down the newspaper. After having been illegally expelled so many times from place to place, with all kinds of crimes of murder, rape, and theft inflicted upon them–including the destruction of the Mormon printing press–it should not come to a surprise that at some point the Mormons said “enough persecution.” Enough with the lies, slander, threats, and incitement of violence.
| Newspaper Incited Violence – The reason for closing the newspaper was not only polygamy. The newspaper claimed Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet, complained that he unjustly meddled in the church’s finances, lied about about controversial church teachings, and complained that Joseph Smith held too much theocratic political power. The Nauvoo Expositor was founded by anti-Mormon William Law and his group of apostates who had been disciplined “for adultery, thievery, and other crimes.” |
“Our blood boils while we refer to these blood thirsty and murderous propensities of men, or rather demons in human shape.”
(Nauvoo Expositor on Mormons)
They made specific libelous allegations and personal threats against church leaders. More dangerous than the libel, however, was the general dehumanization and threats of violence against the Mormon community. They were clearly inciting violence when they called Mormons un-Christian for speaking out against the illegal expulsion, murders, rapes, extermination, and violence they had received in Missouri. The newspaper:
- Called Joseph Smith “pernicious and diabolical… blood thirsty and murderous.”
- Alleged Joseph Smith guilty of “abominations and whoredoms… tyranny and oppression… enormities of crimes,” of circumventing the “law of the land.” Alleged Mormon missionaries were guilty of “the laws of our country” for the doctrines they preached, and called for them to have their preaching licenses revoked.
- Alleged Joseph Smith created an “inquisitorial department” within the church similar to the Catholic Church inquisition courts. They declared William Law’s excommunication “null and void.” They declared they are “resolved” to restore him into the church presidency leadership and threatened Joseph Smith: “beware lest the unjust measure you meet to your brethren, he again meeted out to you.”
- Threatened to use “weapons of our warfare” against “principalities and power” they deemed corrupt.
- Threatened the “overthrow of the Church.”
- Specifically alleged that “females” were victims of a “deep-laid and fatal scheme… with a penalty of death attached” if they refused to become “his (Joseph’s) Spiritual wife,” crushing vulnerable women and leading them to an “untimely grave… robbed of that which nothing but death can restore.”
- Mormons were being “hostile” and “at variance with the true spirit of Christianity” when they complained about the persecution and extermination order they had received in Missouri. Instead of complaining they should admit they were “amenable to the laws of the land” for the crimes they had committed to receive this punishment.
- Declared dance halls and theaters should be closed for promoting “vice and debauchery.”
- Falsely alleged “monies and property” raised by Mormons for building the temple were not “applied as the donors expected, but have been used for speculative purposes, by Joseph, to gull the saints.” False allegations the Nauvoo House was used “for other purposes” than what donors expected.
They slandered Joseph Smith as a murderer:
“We have received the last number of the “Warsaw Signal;” it is rich with anti-Mormon matter, both editorial and communicated. Among other things it contains a lengthy letter from J. H. Jackson, giving some items in relation to his connection with the “Mormon Prophet,” as also his reasons for the same. It will be perceived that many of the most dark and damnable crimes that ever darkened human character, which have hitherto been to the public, a matter of rumor and suspicion , are now reduced to indisputable facts. We have reason to believe, from our acquaintance with Mr. Jackson, and our own observation, that the statements he makes are true; and in view of these facts, we ask, in the name of heaven, where is the safety of our lives and liberties, when placed at the disposal of such heaven daring, hell deserving, God forsaken villains. Our blood boils while we refer to these blood thirsty and murderous propensities of men, or rather demons in human shape, who, not satisfied with practising their dupes upon a credulous and superstitious people, must wreak their vengeance upon any who may dare to come in contact with them. We deplore the desperate state of things to which we are necessarily brought, but, we say to our friends, “keep cool,” and the whole tale will be told. We fully believe in bringing these iniquities and enormities to light, and let the majesty of violated law, and the voice of injured innocence and contemned public opinion, speak in tones of thunder to these miscreants.”
The newspaper was clearly inciting violence. There had already been sixteen recent acts of mob violence due to incendiary newspapers, and violence was already brewing because of the Nauvoo Expositor‘s first edition. It only made it to one edition and already they were very incendiary. If left to continue, mob violence was surely imminent. The fact that William Law and his apostates whipped up mobs and assassinated Joseph Smith soon after the destruction of the printing press shows that this fear was soundly rooted.
CES Letter Logical Fallacies
| Falsehood | CES Letter says “Joseph’s destruction” of the newspaper “started the chain of events that led to Joseph’s death.” This is not really fair to say. Yes, the anti-Mormon mobs were angry that their incendiary newspaper was shut down and that they murdered Joseph Smith soon after, but Joseph Smith’s actions did not start this chain of events. William Law did. CES Letter says the newspaper “dared expose his behavior,” and thus implicitly accepts the false allegations that the newspaper made against Joseph Smith and Mormon members. |
| Repetition | CES Letter repeats this argument on p. 33. Redundancy: “Joseph’s destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor… which printing press destruction” |
| Affirming The Consequent | CES Letter says the events at Carthage resulted from his destroying the expose of his polygamy, suggesting that the polygamy allegations were correct because the printing press was destroyed after alleging them. |
| Non Sequitur | If Nauvoo’s city council was wrong to order the newspaper shut down for inciting violence, why did the “chain of events” lead to those people murdering Joseph Smith and inflicting massive violence upon Mormons? Doesn’t that instead show that they were right? It’s like saying Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is proof that he was wrong to fight the Civil War, or that Christ’s crucifixion was proof that He was guilty of their accusations against him. |
| Etymological Fallacy | The LDS semantics are unusual, and it is easy for CES Letter to just lump everything together as “marriage.” |
In the general anti-Mormon community, we see the same kind of modus operandi today. Anti-Mormons allege financial misdeeds in the church like the Nauvoo Expositor did. They allege preying on young women like the Nauvoo Expositor did. They allege a church inquisition group like the Nauvoo Expositor did. On and on and on. The same rhetoric never changes, it just updates through the years. I find the similar accusations and similar logic remarkable, considering how dehumanizing and incendiary the Nauvoo Expositor was. They called Joseph Smith a non-human, a “demon in human shape.” It doesn’t get more dehumanizing than that. Then, they said Mormons deserved the genocidal extermination order they received in Missouri. It is very telling that today’s anti-Mormons defend this newspaper and follow the same modus operandi. I find it interesting that they imply Joseph Smith’s assassination was justified.
This is where the rhetoric of today’s anti-Mormons becomes truly dangerous. We are talking about dehumanizing propaganda, instigation of mob violence, justifying the murder of a man sitting harmlessly in jail, justifying intolerance and persecution, and justifying the genocide of an entire religious group.
We are talking about the greatest kind of evil the world has ever seen, and we see which side anti-Mormons fall on, which modus operandi they adopt.
Big Lie Tactic – In the polygamy arguments, CES Letter approaches marriage from our modern society’s definition, ignore all historical context, and perpetuate the big lie that eternal sealings in the temple were the same as a civil marriage with a physical relationship. If Joseph Smith was a prophet, why did he violate women’s rights? Well, he didn’t! But people are much more likely to believe CES Letter‘s string of illogic because they connected the dots out on their own, subconsciously. They are also more likely to believe the evidences for that deduction, which in this case are falsehoods. One lie leads to another. Why do so many “pro-equality” activists, good progressives who say people should be free to marry whoever they love, condemn Mormons for their history with polygamy? The same anti-Mormons who attack us for the old history of polygamy also endorse “progressive” ideas about marriage and love. Shouldn’t polygamy be on their list of marriages that deserve equality? Well yes, it should, and this is why anti-Mormons spin polygamy as something that coerces and manipulates women into subjugation. Lately, this narrative has become evens easier as there really are crazy cults that actually do victimize young girls and force people to marry, criminals like Warren Jeffs.  This is why the previous narrative about women being victimized is so important, and why this argument’s narrative about suppressing freedom of speech is so important. As we can see with the Nauvoo Expositor, opponents in the media have trumpeted this narrative since the beginning. In the 1800’s, American newspapers were putting out story after story about how women in Utah were treated as “slaves.” It led to the federal government for the first time registering all marriages, controlling the definition of marriage, and jailing Mormons who did not fit that definition. Still today, Mormons are persecuted as some kind of oppressive patriarchy that victimized women. This narrative gives opponents justification for attacking Mormons while claiming to be “pro-equality.” The key component is the claim that men are victimizing women. This frame of ‘predator versus victim’ leads us to a Marxist ideology. Marxism is all about protecting victims from the predators. Marxists think the biggest miracle about mankind is that we evolved to the top of the food chain without ever becoming predators of other animals. Economically, Marxists protect working classes from a predator class. Marxism is all about protecting the vulnerable from those seeking unequal advantage–and all about keeping people weak in order to keep them reliant on a benevolent dictator for safety. A major part of Marxism is the deconstruction of masculinity. They seek to pick positive masculine traits that propagate the ideology, such as the gusto to fight for the cause, and eliminate “toxic masculine” traits such as the desire to marry and have children in a traditional family. They think traditional families are evil because men contribute labor to the economy while women are “subjugated” as mothers and do not perform labor. The ideal for Marxists is a state where men and women are completely equal working bees and children are grown and raised by the benevolent dictator state. Nobody is preying on anybody. See also: CES Letter Marxist Contradiction Strategy Marl Marx used the exact same argument that CES Letter is using here. In the book Dominion and Wealth: A Critical Analysis of Karl Marx’s Theory of Commercial Law by D.C. Kline, we read the story of Christians manipulating women into marriage using threats: “On the way to the church, he informed her that if she did not marry him immediately, he would blow his brains out. They went through the form of a marriage ceremony, which she later attempted to invalidate on the ground that she acted under duress. The court rejected her claim, feeling that the facts did not reveal the existence of duress.” CES Letter wants us to believe Mormons were manipulating and victimizing women in the same way as this Marxist narrative. The narrative that women are coerced into marriage because of Christianity comes straight from Karl Marx, and it is nothing but an attack on the traditional family. CES Letter‘s appeal to emotion is not only about attacking the church. It is about replacing the testimony of a gospel with… something else. Marxists believe females are oppressed by men in a giant class struggle that hinders their economic output. Polygamy in the Mormon church was problem for Marxists because the higher law of eternal marriage is the perfect example of “inequality” that Marxists hate. CES Letter can get away with this Big Lie because it is the consensus among so many fake scholars that Joseph Smith had carnal relations with girls, and because it takes so long to actually investigate the evidence. People are too lazy to actually look through all the historical documents. Even mainstream church apologists are beaten down by all of the accusations and have give way to the big lie. They are too tired defending against it. They let CESLetter get away with the lie that Joseph Smith “married” underage girls, as we understand the definition of marriage today which involves sexual relations. Even if you don’t believe the allegations, just this association frames Joseph Smith as a creep. See also: CES Letter Marxist Contradiction Strategy Contradiction Strategy – CES Letter gives a few bits of incorrect leading evidence; the reader connects to dots in their mind; and CES Letter pushes it to a sweeping generalization. If Joseph Smith was a prophet, why did he manipulate women into having carnal relations with him? People are much more likely to believe CES Letter‘s string of illogic because they connected the dots out on their own, subconsciously, even if they don’t agree with it at first. They are also more likely to believe the evidences for that deduction, which in this case are falsehoods. We could see the intellectual tricks and sophistry CES Letter used to portray Joseph Smith as a fraud in their arguments about the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. Well, even if that were all true and he were a fraud, so what? Aren’t Mormons still nice people who make the world a better place? The powerful thing with these polygamy arguments is that CES Letter tells you why Mormonism is still evil: it victimizes girls. It matters because Joseph Smith was a creep who preyed on women. This is easy rhetoric for them to push, as the internet is filled with all kinds of false rumors about Mormon polygamy and because the fake news media labels modern-day polygamist cultists as “Mormon”. It is easy to just repeat claims over and over, not give any evidence, and make the issue personal through manipulative repetition. Total Hypocrisy From Anti-Mormons – Yet, in the Soviet Union the minimum age of marriage was 16! And age 15 was considered old enough and were quite common. By age 25 Russian girls were considered “old maids.” So Marxists really have no reason to complain about Joseph Smith even if the phony allegation were true! According to Marxist law, he didn’t do anything wrong–even if they were earthly marriages, which they weren’t. Therefore, any Socialist-leaning anti-Mormon is a total hypocrite when he complains about Joseph Smith’s polygamy. They are only pushing the rhetoric to attack the Mormon traditional family and smear Joseph Smith’s character. This argument appeals to the universal value of free speech. It appeals to the heart of the United States constitution, implying that Mormons were violating the most basic laws of the land. Of course, that isn’t true. The truth is Mormons were having their most basic freedoms violated on a routine basis. Meanwhile, the top leaders of today’s anti-Mormon community are trying to have Mormon leaders arrested because of their religious beliefs. Some things never change, do they? |
