The Fracturing of the Latter Day Saint Movement#
Week 1 — Before the Fracture#
Nauvoo, Illinois, 1844#
- population rivalling Chicago’s
- its own city charter, its own militia — the Nauvoo Legion
- Joseph Smith: mayor, lieutenant general, prophet, and (from January 1844) candidate for President of the United States
One man, four unrelated kinds of authority.
“Where is our safety? In the Priesthood.”
— attributed to Joseph Smith, 1844
Four bodies with a claim#
- the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
- the Council of Fifty
- the surviving First Presidency
- Sidney Rigdon, sole remaining counselor
None of them had ever had to settle who outranked whom. That question had never been asked while Smith was alive to answer it himself.
Two secrets#
- plural marriage, practised since the early 1840s, denied in public
- the fullness of temple ordinances, given only to the Twelve in a closed room in May 1844
Both become points of dispute the moment Smith is no longer alive to settle them.
The framework#
vacuum → claim → pivot → response
Every splinter group this semester gets run through these four moves.
Before week 2#
- read a primary-source-depth account of Carthage Jail, June 27, 1844
- pick a splinter group to track all semester
- bring one specific detail from its founding story