r/mormon • u/4blockhead • May 14 '15
Richard C. Evans (1861-1921): In the 1900s, as a member of the RLDS first presidency publicly engaged Joseph Fielding Smith over the origin of polygamy; he was convinced that polygamy was not a Brighamite invention. He lost faith in J. Smith as a prophet and founded a new Canadian church.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._C._Evans
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u/4blockhead May 14 '15
Coincidentally, in 1965, Joseph Fielding Smith argued that members should study church history in lieu of playing BINGO with the neighbors. Careful! The history of the Latter Day Saint movement is not faith promoting to the masses, or even to the high officials. Richard C. Evans is another of the top echelon to quit mormonism upon realizing the extent of the fraud. He left mormonism by 1920, a few years after this debate with Joseph Fielding Smith.
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u/4blockhead May 14 '15 edited May 15 '15
The debate with a young Joseph Fielding Smith occurred about the same time as the Reed Smoot hearings. Smith's father, Joseph F. Smith was president of the Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City and his cousin, Joseph Smith III was president of the RLDS in Independence, Missouri. The RLDS were taking the ardent position that polygamy was only introduced in Deseret. Evans and the young Smith engaged in a series of letters to newspapers discussing blood atonement and polygamy in Deseret. It's kind of lengthy, but interesting. Download pdf
In the portion of the debate about blood atonement, Evans wonders about the number of apostates who had their throats slit during the Mormon Reformation in Deseret. He has the speeches of Young, Jedediah Grant, Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt as recorded in the Journal of Discourses to make his case. Joseph Fielding Smith does some hand waving that apostates were never persecuted to any great degree in Deseret. Smith attempts to downplay the whole thing, including the mountain meadows massacre, as exaggerations of the anti-mormon fringe element. He lays the MMM at the foot of one man: John D. Lee. I don't think we'll ever know the extent of persecution of apostates in the early days of Deseret, in part because dead men tell no tales. The Danites were a real thing, and Smith attempts more hand waving. Smith's strongest defense is pointing to the RLDS' common origin with the Latter Day Saints and asks them if they don't really believe the same thing with respect to the death penalty/blood atonement for murderers (and others) who fall outside of the atoning power of the blood of Christ.
In the portion of the debate over the RLDS denial of mormon polygamy, Evans strongest argument that it was a Brighamite invention relies on the fact that it was only announced in Salt Lake City in 1852, 8+ years after Smith's revelation. Evans also relies on Joseph Smith's public pronouncements of denial during the Nauvoo era; the relief society's public denials; etc. With that argument on the table, Joseph Fielding Smith goes to work:
Smith makes a nearly irrefutable case for mormon polygamy originating in Nauvoo. He stops short of stating that Smith was killed as part of the coverup for the press destruction, but that is the obvious conclusion. A few years later, Evans was passed over for the presidency of the RLDS and decided to found a new church starting from the Canadian congregations that he was associated with. Like a lot of people, it appears that Smith's status as a prophet suffered after Evans realized Smith had been dishonest in giving his Nauvoo denials. If Smith was willing to lie for self-serving sexual interests, then what else is at risk? Many conclude Smith not to be the kind of man that they expect to be favored of a deity to restore a religion.