Here's a shot heard 'round the world that Mormons would rather have have their earplugs for: Joseph Smith died in a gun battle without the benefits of his God garments. Yes, that's right. In the process of abandoning his self-created polygamy problem, Smith bit the dust while not wearing his magic underwear.
Let's examine his fateful decision (or not, depending on how much stock one puts in the alleged magical power of Mormon underwear to ward off close-quarter gunfire) to chuck his sacred underwear.
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--Joseph Smith was Shot Out of a Jail Window as a Fallen, Godless, Garmentless Prophet
For faithful Mormons, that is no doubt a bitter bullet to swallow, but so declared two eventual Mormon Church presidents. Both Brigham Young and Joseph F. Smith essentially condemned Smith for being uninspired in choosing to leave polygamy and his garments behind before he headed off to his death at Carthage Jail.
Excommunicated Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn reports that "Brigham Young told a general conference of Mormons in Utah that 'Joseph was worn out with it [multi-wifing], but as to his denying any such thing, I never knew that he denied the doctrine of polygamy.' Then Young acknowledged, 'Some have said that he did, But I do not believe he ever did.' Most significant is Young's admission that Smith had wearied of plural marriaage. Although Young declined to say he knew Smith had abandoned or denied polygamy, he merely said with uncharacteristic reserve that he never personally heared Smith deny the 'doctrine of polygamy' even though 'some have said that he did.'"
Earth to Kolob: Smith's own actions prove he did.
Quinn continues to unmask the "prophet" Joseph:
"Smith removed his own endowment 'robe' or garment before he went to Carthage Jail and told those with him to do likewise. His nephew Joseph F. Smith later explained, 'When Willard Richards was solicited [by Smith] to do the same, he declined, and it seems little less than marvelous that he was preserved without so much as a bullet piercing his garments.'"
Smith was, it seems, making all kinds of bad (including deadly) decisions because he had tumbled, stumbled and bumbled from grace.
On that point, Quinn notes that Young regarded Smith's death at Carthage as having been avoidable, blaming it on Smith's failure to follow God:
"Brigham Young explained in a published sermon that Smith's martyrdom at Carthage, Illinois, was unnecessary:
"[Quoting Young]: 'If Joseph Smith, Jr., the Prophet, had followed the Spirit of revelation in him, he never would have gone to Carthage . . . and never for one moment did he say that he had one particle of light in him after he started back . . . to give himself up in Nauvoo. This he did through the persuasion of others. I want you to understand that . . . . But if Joseph had followed the revelations in him he would have followed the shepherd instead of the shepherd's following the sheep.'"
Quinn adds that such "accounts . . . claim that Smith lost the spirit of God during the last days of his life."
Ouch.
(D. Michael Quinn, "The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power" [Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1994], pp. 145-47; see also: "The Mormon Temple As a Lasting Relic of Polygamy," at:
http://www.i4m.com/think/temples/temple_legacy.htm; and "Joseph Smith--the Work and the Glory," at:
http://www.i4m.com/think/history/fallen_prophet.htm)
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--Mormon Spin on Why Joseph Smith Showed Up at Carthage Minus His Protective Underwear: The Weather Was Too Hot
As some promoters of Mormon "art" attempt to explain the dilemma facing the to-wear-or-not-to-wear Smith:
" . . . [T]he fact [is] that Joseph Smith (as well as Hyrum and John Taylor) did not wear temple garments under his clothes while in Carthage Jail. The reason for this choice was debated by some of the highest authorities of the Church in the aftermath of the murders, as reflected in a journal entry describing a general priesthood meeting, over which Heber C. Kimball presided, held on December 21, 1845:
"'Elder John Taylor confirmed the saying that Joseph and Hyrum and himself were without their robes in the jail at Carthage, while Doctor Richards had his on, but corrected the idea that some had, that they had taken them off through fear. W. W. Phelps said Joseph told him one day about that time, that he had laid aside his garment on account of the hot weather.
"'Elder [Heber C.] Kimball said word came to him and to all the Twelve about that time to lay aside their garments, and take them to pieces, or cut them up so that they could not be found.'"
("Carthage Jail," under "Images of the Restoration," at:
http://www.imagesoftherestoration.org/blog/?p=12)
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--In Reality, a Guilt-Ridden, Death-Fearin' Joseph Smith Abandoned His Not-So-Magic Garments Because He Finally Abandoned His Poisonous Doctrine of Polygamy
Smith could see the writing on the wall and tried to cover his godlessly-garmentless backside by turning his back on the "divine" doctrine of polygamy itself.
Too late.
A desperate Smith not only eventually and ostensibly abandoned his devotion to polygamy, he went so far as to ash-can the original copy of his polygamy "revelation." To be sure, Smith not only ended up disavowing polygamy (at least privately), he sought to destroy all evidence of it that he could (at least that which was committed to paper).
For a sex fiend like Smith, that must have been quite the sacrifice.
Commenting on Smith's last days alive, Quinn writes:
"Smith was, in fact, willing to destroy the original manuscript of the 1843 polygamy revelation. Based on 'many (some of whom are now living)' in Utah, Joseph F. Smith wrote that the prophet [Joseph Smith] 'consented for her [Emma Smith] to burn the paper containing the original copy of the revelation.' An obscure 1853 publication also reported that the original text of the polygamy revelation 'by Joseph Smith's command was burned.'"
(Quinn, "Origins of Power," p. 147)
In his frenzy to sweep evidence of polygamy under the rug and out of sight in order to save his own skin, Smith admitted to his anti-multi-wifery wife Emma that plural marriage was going to destroy the Mormon Church if it was not abandoned.
Quinn writes:
"In her only post-1844 admission of her husband's polygamous arrangements, Emma Smith remembered that the prophet did more than consent to the revelation's destruction. She told William E. McLellin in 1847 that it was Smith himself, not she, who burned the original manuscript of the revelation. According to her 1847 account, while alone in their Mansion House bedroom, Smith 'told her that the doctrine and practice of polygamy was going to ruin the church' and then he burned the revelation. . . .
"[William] Clayton's diary shows just before the prophet returned to Emma [that night], he told his secretary to burn the Council of Fifty's minutes. It makes sense that while he was alone with her the night of 23 June 1844, only hours before surrendering for trial, he directed his attention to destroying the written evidence of polygamy."
Of Smith's realization that polygamy was Mormonism's most threatening enemy, Quinn further notes:
"Emma Smith remembered that the prophet did more than consent to the revelation's destruction. According to her 1847 account, while alone in their Mansion House bedroom, Smith 'told her that the doctrine and practice of polygamy was going to ruin the church' and then he burned the revelation. Clayton's diary shows just before the prophet returned to Emma [that night], he told his secretary to burn the Council of Fifty's minutes. It makes sense that while he was alone with her the night of 23 June 1844, only hours before surrendering for trial, he directed his attention to destroying the written evidence of polygamy."
(ibid., p. 147)
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--Joseph Smith Not Only Got Rid of His Own Garments, He Told Elements of His High Command to Lose Theirs, Too
Again, Quinn:
"In the last days of his life, Smith seemed ready to turn his back on all the secret developments of Nauvoo and abandon what he had taught as sacred for years. . . .
"Smith had . . . given orders for members of the Quorum of the Anointed at Nauvoo to destroy their endowment 'garments.' Levi Richards had entered the Anointed Quorum in December 1843. His wife reminisced that the mob asked William Law to describe the endowment garments and robes. 'The order came that in every habitation where any of the endowment clothes were found, [it] would [mean] death,' she wrote. Therefore, the members of the Anointed Quorum began 'to tear to pieces the garments, etc.' . . .
"But Smith's orders for destruction of the garments extend beyond Law's threat in Illinois. Heber C. Kimball said Smith sent word to the apostles on the East coast to destroy their garments they had received in the endowment since 1842."
Quinn adds that while "[Smith's] willingness to destroy the endowment garment and the minutes of the Council of Fifty was not necessarily his abandoment of the endowment and Council of Fifty[,] . . . his instructions allow such a conclusion."
Ya think?
(ibid., pp. 145-46)
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--The Garment Noose Tightens
Smith was desperate to save himself and was therefore doing all he could in his prophetless power to shed rather than end up dead.
Hence, the underwear tossing.
Besides the claim of Brigham Young and Joseph F. Smith that Joseph Smith discarded his garments as personal penance for polygamy, several of his closest cohorts noted for the record that Smith had come to criticize polygamy and to rue the day he started doing it.
Abandon one "divine" doctrine and you're sure to abandon others. Indeed, that's the history of Mormonism in a nutshell.
Author Eric N. Davis, in his book, "House of Cards: One Man's Journey Through the World of Mormonism, Magic and Murders," lays out why Smith decided to take his chances and lay aside his garments--even though one of his fellow jail buddies decided, when push came to shove, to leave his own on:
" . . . [T]he miraculous tale of Willard Richards escaping [death at Carthage] without so much as 'a hole in his robe' is simply Mormon propaganda for the use of temple garments. According to a few early accounts of the martyrdom, prior to their incarceration at Carthage, Smith was regretting his 'commandment' of polygamy in the Church, and felt unworthy of his temple covenants. He removed his garments, and asked all of his cellmates to do the same. Willard Richards was supposedly the only one who refused to comply with Smith's request. Then as a result of Richards wearing his garments, he was providentially saved from injury in the attack. This story was later repeated by several Church leaders, including Heber J. Grant in 1907, and is the basis for the 'magic underwear' myth.
"In reality, although Richards was indeed unharmed, several shots did tear through his clothing. Two things spared willard Richards from injury, and neither of them had anything to do with a miracle. First, the mob wasn't conerned with Richards. They wanted Joseph and Hyrum. Richards was just an accessory to Mormonism. Second, Richards was standing behind the door throughout the entire gunfight, and was never caught in the middle of the crossfire. It was only a few stray bullets that managed to reach his clothing."
(Eric N. Davis, "House of Cards: One Man's Faith Through the World of Mormonism, Magic and Murders" [Bloomington, Indiana: Author House, 2010], p. 294, at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=FyG7vA8p9n8C&pg=PA294&lpg=PA294&dq=jonrcarver+unharmed&source=bl&ots=OSLGtjJYLr&sig=JB56NCtvnJ7v39KnabR1QsPl3l8&hl=en&ei=6zcdTqeQJeiy0AG0_PXCBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=jonrcarver%20unharmed&f=false)
Ironically, it was not until a garment-free Joseph Smith got blown away at Carthage that Mormons started believing in the supposed magical protective power of their temple underwear--thanks to garment-garbed Willard Richards' survival. Until Smith ate lead, Mormons didn't believe garments could physically save them from harm:
"Garments were not originally believed to provide any physicial protection. However, this idea came about by the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in the jail at Carthage, Illinois. Neither Joseph, Hyrum, nor John Taylor had been wearing their garments. Willard Richards, who had been wearing his garments, escaped unscathed in the attack."
("Mormon Underwear Garments," at:
http://www.i4m.com/think/temples/mormon-garments.htm)
As one observer summed it up:
". . . Joseph went to Carthage without any garments on [and got himself killed] . . . .
"D&C 134:2 . . . explains that Richards went [away] unharmed." [Quinn describes that scriptural passage as a 'tribute to the preservation of Willard Richards during the attack on Carthage Jail'}.
"This is where the rumor started that the garments SUPPOSEDLY protect you from physical harm, too, though this is simply a traditional myth founded upon the true story of Willard Richards being the only one unharmed and superstitiously attributed to his being the only one who rebelled against the prophet's command and wore his garments anyway.
"Moral of the story of Willard Richards: Apparently we believe that God will sometimes reward us for disobeying the prophet."
("Joseph Smith Ordered Destruction of the Garments (& How the 'Magic Underwear' Myth Began," original emphasis; and Quinn, "Origins of Power," p. 146)
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--Joseph Smith Destroys the Garment Myth
Try as hard as Joseph Smith tried to rid himself of his Mormon secret underwear in order to save his own hide, in the end he still took it in the shorts.
"Is there no help for the ungarmented son?"
Apparently not.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2014 11:01PM by steve benson.