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REVIEWS Mormon Static REVIEWS Mormon Static Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon David Whitmer, a very important History. Edited by Roger D. Launius early supporter of Joseph Smith, Jr., and Linda Thatcher (Urbana: Univer- and one of the three witnesses of the sity of Illinois Press, 1994). Book of Mormon, could not support Reviewed by J. Boyer Jarvis, Pro- Smith's inclinations to combine gov- fessor of Communication Emeritus, ernmental and ecclesiastical power. University of Utah. John Corrill became a prominent church leader in Missouri during the IN THEIR INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 1830s, but he "would never surrender editors Roger Launius and Linda his private judgment to the authority Thatcher provide an informative over- of prophetic rule" (48). view of the nature of religious dissent, William E. McLellin was bap- particularly in the history of Mormon- tized a Mormon at Independence on ism. They note that Joseph Smith, Jr., 20 August 1831 and ordained an elder was himself a dissenter who, soon af- four days later. Before long he became ter he had organized the Mormon an antagonist of Joseph Smith in Kirk- church, was obliged to contend with land and was excommunicated on 3 challenges to his authority. As the edi- December 1832. Soon thereafter he tors remark, "The irony of the tor- was reinstated. In the summer of 1835, menter becoming the tormented, within Mormonism, is too rich to be ignored" (4). after he had become an apostle, he was disfellowshipped but restored on The introductory essay is fol- 25 September 1835, "without a clear lowed by seventeen separately writ- ten accounts of individuals who, in reconciliation" (79). Finally in 1838 he one way or another, disagreed with was excommunicated at Far West, Joseph Smith or with subsequent au- Missouri. thorities of the Church of Jesus Christ Francis Gladden Bishop, greatly of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City) or influenced by the religious revivals of the Reorganized Church of Jesus the 1820s in western New York, was Christ of Latter Day Saints (Indepen- seventeen when he experienced the dence, Missouri). All of the essays in- first of several important visions. cluded were prepared for original Bishop's revelations soon resulted in publication in this book. doctrinal friction with the prophet Jo- The first eight essays deal with seph and other church authorities. In individuals who were part of the early the spring of 1842 he was excommuni- period of Mormon history, between cated by the Nauvoo Stake High 1830 and 1844. The names of some of Council. In the summer of 1864 he ar- those individuals are well known to rived in Salt Lake City and returned to most, if not all, present-day Mormons. the Mormon church. 178 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought James Colin Brewster was a Mormonism, Post, until his death in young boy when his parents joined 1879, made repeated, obviously un- the Mormon church in the early 1830s. successful, efforts "to sway Joseph He was only ten years old when he Smith III, leader of the Reorganized "received his inaugural spiritual man- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day ifestation" (121). Brewster's revela- Saints, to Rigdon's side" (180). tions were a threat to Joseph Smith's The ninth essay is focused on the authority, and in November 1837 the family of James and Alice Dove, who high council in Kirkland disfellow- "were baptized by William Clayton on shipped him "and any of his followers July 22, 1849, at Bulwell, Nottingham, who would not denounce him" (122). England" (197). The Dove family ar- William B. Smith was an active rived in Salt Lake City in late 1856. Be- participant in the founding of the fore long they were disappointed with Mormon church. At the age of twenty- Mormon society, especially polygamy. three he was ordained an apostle. They were attracted to the reform When his older brothers, Hyrum and movement led by Joseph Morris. After Joseph, were killed, he believed he Morris was killed in a confrontation was entitled to assume the patriarchal with a territorial posse in June 1862, authority that had been bestowed on the Doves fled to Nevada and then to his father, Joseph Smith, Sr., and then California. From their Church of the passed on to his brother Hyrum. On First Born in San Francisco, the Doves 24 May 1845 Brigham Young ordained struggled to keep the Morrisite move- William Smith as "Patriarch to the ment alive. By 1910 it had faded away. whole church" (144), but opposition The next three essays describe the from other apostles, especially John dissent in Utah of three remarkable in- Taylor, soon developed, and William dividuals who found themselves at Smith stayed behind when the Brigham- odds with the highest Mormon au- ites migrated to Utah. Eventually Will- thorities. iam Smith joined the Reorganized Henry W. Lawrence was a success- church, with which he had an uneasy ful merchant in Salt Lake City by the relationship until his death in 1893. early 1860s, and periodically during Alpheus Cutler was an early con- that decade he accompanied Brigham vert to Mormonism. He became a Young on visits to settlements through- member of the prophet Joseph's elite out the territory. Lawrence was a gen- inner circle, and after the prophet's erous supporter of various Mormon death he agreed to follow the leader- church enterprises and one of the ship of the Council of Twelve Apos- founders of ZCMI. In 1869 he joined tles. However, in Iowa in the late the Godbeites, and in December of 1840s he became engaged in a serious that year he was excommunicated "on and prolonged dispute with council a charge of general apostasy" (224). president Orson Hyde, and in 1851 Frank J. Cannon, son of George Q. Cutler was excommunicated. Cannon, was a successful journalist Stephen Post, an 1835 convert to who early in 1905, at the age of forty- the Mormon faith, eventually ac- six, "publicly declared that he no cepted Sidney Rigdon as the rightful longer believed in the divinity of the successor to Joseph Smith, Jr. As a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day committed champion of Rigdonite Saints" (241). Frank J. Cannon was.
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