Week 10 Lab: Who Owns Being the True Church

The 1894 Temple Lot lawsuit, where legal ownership and theological legitimacy turned out to be different questions

26 April 2027

Before the lab#

Read a summary of Church of Christ (Temple Lot) v. Reorganized Church, decided in 1894, over the Temple Lot property in Independence, Missouri.

In the lab#

A federal court had to decide which church legally counted as Joseph Smith’s original organization, for property-title purposes — and found a narrow, procedural answer that settled who owned a plot of land without settling, or attempting to settle, who was theologically correct. We use the case to separate two questions this course has been treating together: legal legitimacy, and doctrinal legitimacy.

Afterwards#

Nothing due. This distinction is worth a paragraph in your final project if your map includes any group that went to court.