In our final conversation with Barbara Jones Brown, we’ll talk about who was most culpable for the massacre. Was it John D. Lee, Brigham Young, or militia leaders in Iron County? Barbara: [Brigham Young] starts to come to believe that John D Lee and Isaac Haight we’re involved. Now at this time, he doesn’t have civil authority. He just has
The day after approximately 100 immigrants from Arkansas were killed, Mormon leaders in Iron County got together to discuss how to explain the deaths. Barbara Jones Brown tells how leaders dealt with Brigham Young’s message to leave the immigrants alone, and how they decided to blame the Indians for the atrocity. Barbara: On the day after the massacre Haight and
What precipitated the Mountain Meadows Massacre? In my conversation with Barbara Jones Brown, I learned something very interesting. It turns out that Mormons were stealing cattle from California-bound immigrants! Was this part of Brigham Young’s strategy to send a message to Washington that immigration was unsafe? It seems that Brigham Young was encouraging Mormons (and Indians) to steal immigrant cattle!
20 years before the Mountain Meadows Massacre, 17 Mormons were killed in Haun’s Mill, Missouri. And just four months earlier, Parley P. Pratt, a beloved Mormon apostle was killed May 13, 1857 in Arkansas. Just a few months after Pratt’s death, around 100 immigrants from Arkansas were killed. Is it true that Mormons sought revenge for the Haun’s Mill and
Mark Hofmann tried to create evidence of the Spalding Conspiracy. There has long been a theory that Book of Mormon was plagiarized from a manuscript originally written by Solomon Spaulding (or Spalding.) The problem with the theory is that there was never a connection between Joseph Smith and Solomon Spaulding—until Mark Hofmann came up with a document. Steve Mayfield talks
A lead scroll was found at Lee’s Ferry in Arizona, now known as the Dead Lee Scroll. What is it exactly? Steve: Well, one of the documents or artifacts that came up in 2002 was a lead plate they found down in Lee’s Ferry and it’s been given the nickname of Dead Lee Scroll. Will Bagley gave it that name.
[paypal-donation] We’re concluding our conversation with Dr. Jonathan Stapley. We’re talking about sealings, especially child to parent sealings, such as born in the covenant. In early Mormonism, these bonds were considered permanent (as Dr. Bill Smith mentioned.) John D. Lee was sealed as an adopted son of Brigham Young, but Lee also participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. What is
The United States were grappling with the Civil Rights Movement during the tumultuous 1960s. In our next conversation with Matt Harris, we will talk about key events in the 1960s that affect the LDS Church’s teaching about race and how the Civil Rights Movement impacted the Mormon Church. We will even learn that Elder Brown predicted to end ban in
[paypal-donation] Happy New Year. I’m your host of Gospel Tangents, Rick Bennett. We’re counting down the Top 20 Moments that were most surprising moments in 2017 here on Gospel Tangents. I’ve learned a lot over this year. 1. Let’s start with some scoops! Paul Reeve told me he participated in writing the Gospel Topics Essay on Race and the Priesthood
