Interpreting Interpreter: Prophetic Aspirations

This post is a summary of the article “Aftermath of the Martyrdom: Aspirants to the Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Smith” by R. Jean Addams in Volume 62 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. All of the Interpreting Interpreter articles may be seen at https://interpreterfoundation.org/category/summaries/. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/.

The Takeaway

Addams provides a useful summary of several of the prophetic movements that stemmed from the church as restored by Joseph, including those starting before or after Joseph’s martyrdom, briefly outlining their histories and key doctrinal differences.

The Summary

In this article, R. Jean Addams summarizes a number of the most important individuals that separated—from what was the recently-restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—to form their own prophetic movements (which Addams terms “expressions”). This summary includes a comparison of how those different expressions viewed key doctrinal issues, the reasons why members chose to follow specific aspirants, as well as the people and historical events that characterized the formation of each expression, organized as follows:

Doctrinal Issues:

- Outlining the common doctrinal elements that undergird all expressions, including the use of Joseph Smith’s revelations as scripture, with the majority asserting the historicity of the Book of Mormon and many using portions of the Doctrine and Covenants. Many allow for the reception of new published revelations by leaders or others in the church.

- Considerations regarding admitting members and the withdrawal of that membership, with many expressions continuing to recognize baptisms performed within other expressions.

- The conferral of priesthood offices and keys following separation from the original church.

- Concepts related to gathering Zion, with the location of the gathering varying among the expressions, with emphasis on the temple lot in Independence.

Reasons for Following/Rejecting:

- Issues of authority, with each of the main aspirants having some claim (dubious or otherwise) to the authority to lead the church.

- The belief that the church had been rejected among many of the aspirants.

- Baptism for the dead, the practice having its roots in the early periods of the modern church, was continued by several of the expressions, with the practice acknowledged by the RLDS expression and adopted by James Strang and Alpheus Cutler.

- The endowment and other temple ordinances, with the practice continued by Brigham Young, but with forms of it also instituted by James Strang, Lyman Wight, and Alpheus Cutler.

- Polygamy, likely the most common reason for rejecting Joseph and/or Brigham’s leadership, was a hinge point for a number of expressions, with some alternately accepting and rejecting it over time.

Aspirants and Expressions (including those before, during, and after the events surrounding the martyrdom in 1844):

- Wycam Clark, who separated with a small group in Kirtland in early 1831, calling themselves the Pure Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The group dissolved later that same year.

- Warren Parrish, who, along with several members of the Quorum of the Twelve, left to form the Church of Christ in the aftermath of the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society in 1837. The church stopped functioning in 1838.

- George Hinkle, a colonel in the Missouri state militia who betrayed Joseph and the saints in Far West, formed an expression in 1840 named "The Church of Jesus Christ, the Bride the Lamb’s Wife", that merged in 1845 with the church later founded by Sidney Rigdon.

- William Law, a former counselor in the First Presidency and a primary participant in the Nauvoo Expositor, formed an expression named The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which dissolved shortly after the martyrdom.

- Sidney Rigdon, who had begun to be sidelined as a member of the First Presidency in 1842, lost the initial challenge of leadership to Brigham Young in the wake of the martyrdom. He then went on to organize a church, the Church of Christ, which dissolved, reformed, and dissolved again in the decades after 1844.

- Brigham Young, who led the Quorum of the Twelve at the time of the martyrdom, argued at the conference on August 8, 1844 that "his knees [had never] faltered". This, along with accounts of the miraculous reception of Joseph’s mantle, led to "an almost universal affirmative vote" for Brigham to lead the church, eventually establishing it in the Salt Lake Basin.

- James Strang, who converted just a few months before the martyrdom, claimed to receive a letter from Joseph dated days before his death naming him as successor. On his arrival in Nauvoo, Strang was able to convince a number of important leaders to follow him to a new gathering place for the saints in Wisconsin (later moved to Beaver Island, MI where he was crowned “King” by his followers).

- Lyman Wight, ordained an apostle in 1841, he claimed that Joseph had asked him to search for a new gathering place for the Saints in Texas, which he did following the martyrdom with Brigham’s reluctant approval, leading a company of 150 to a place called Zodiac south of Fredericksberg. Brigham sent representatives in 1848 to try to persuade them to return to the main body of saints, but Wight demurred and was disfellowshipped later that year. After a failed merger with the followers of William Smith and a series of moves within Texas, the expression dissolved upon Wight’s death in 1858.

- William Smith, Joseph’s youngest brother, apostle, and recently ordained Patriarch, claimed leadership via lineal descent, was excommunicated 1845 after he distributed a pamphlet to that effect, After initial support for James Strang, William started his own church in 1847 and combined with a group led by Isaac Sheen based in Kentucky in 1849. This arrangement ended in 1851 due to William’s practice of polygamy, and the expression had all but dissolved by the time William joined the RLDS church in 1878.

- Granville Hedrick, who joined the original church in 1843, led an effort to merge several isolated branches in Illinois—collectively termed the Crow Creek Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ (of Latter day Saints), eventually renamed to the Church of Christ—that hadn’t had contact with the Brigham Young-led church since its exodus. They eventually resolved to return to Missouri, purchasing a portion of the temple lot.

- Jason W. Briggs & Zenos H. Gurley Sr., both of whom came to reject the leadership of Brigham Young in 1846, first joining with Strang, then, William Smith, but separated from both due to polygamy, working in 1852 to consolidate branches in Wisconsin and Illinois into a church called the New Organization. This group tried in 1856 to convince Joseph Smith III to join their movement, but were initially unsuccessful.

- Alpheus Cutler, having been earlier assigned by Joseph to take the gospel to Native American tribes, was allowed to do so in 1848 by Brigham Young. After limited success, Cutler refused to return to the Salt Lake valley, and was excommunicated in 1851, afterwards working to convince his converts that he should lead the church based on his position in the pre-martyrdom Council of Fifty. He took these followers to Manti, Iowa, who, after his death, moved to Minnesota in 1864 and to Independence in 1928.

- Joseph Smith III, age 11 at the time of the martyrdom, underwent pressures to join other expressions, and was influenced by an 1853 manifestation that placed before him a choice between “notoriety” and “peace”. After struggling with financial and personal issues, he resolved to join with the New Organization in 1859, eventually forming the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

- William Bickerton, an early disciple of Sidney Rigdon and his post-martyrdom church, William joined with the Brigham Young-led church in 1851, but left it within a year after learning about polygamy, gaining converts for his own congregation in Pennsylvania, generally referred to as the Church of Jesus Christ, with some eventually moving to Zion Valley in Kansas to preach to Indigenous tribes in the southwest U.S. He died in 1905, and the church remains headquartered in Pennsylvania.

Addams concludes by emphasizing the need for tolerance, forgiveness, and understanding between members of the various expressions, quoting Gordon B. Hinckley as follows, “May God help us to be a little kinder, showing forth greater forbearance, to be more forgiving…to lay aside old grudges and nurture them no more.”

The Reflection

I found this article to be a fascinating high-level look at a portion of church history I hadn’t often considered. I’d heard of Strang and his exploits, for instance, but hadn’t realized just how recently he’d converted before trying to claim leadership after the martyrdom. It makes me wonder about (1) Strang’s own personal charisma, which I imagine had to be considerable, (2) the degree to which so many had to struggle with both Rigdon and the very idea of polygamy, and (3) how much those at Nauvoo hungered for a prophet in the style of Joseph to come to sweep them away once again in spiritual fervor. Under those circumstances, it wouldn’t surprise me that some would prefer a prophet they didn’t know to the ones they knew intimately.

So many times our ears itch for some new thing—we tire of familiar spiritual voices and, even when done in a spirit of earnest truth-seeking, end up following a new path. Recognizing those tendencies in ourselves could perhaps encourage us to adopt the stance of forbearance and forgiveness suggested by Addams. So many members of these expressions showed the same faith and devotion as those who crossed the plains to Salt Lake. Even as we affirm the priesthood keys held by President Nelson and the current Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that’s a form of faith that deserves recognition, and that recognition is much easier to give when you have some understanding of the history that bred it. Addams does well in laying out the breadcrumbs of that history for those with the time and interest to follow them.

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