E57: TFYFI Sense

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:12)
Polygamy? Check. Gigantic Masonic Lodge? Check. Secret Temple Rites? Check. Block Voting? Check. habeas corpus, home court advantage? Check again.
Theocracy in the middle of America? How about a big fat check?
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:35)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:36)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:04)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:09)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:17)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
You may not agree with what Joseph Smith was doing in Nauvoo, but you have to admit he was keeping it real. And by real, we mean real entertain. There's a reason, friend of the podcast, Ben Park wrote a book about Nauvoo, not Missouri. Nauvoo is 17 kinds of sexy. Don't give me that look, you know what I mean.
For years, one of the most exotic topics was the shadowy, the kingdom of God and his laws, with the keys and power thereof, and judgment in the hands of his servants, Amen, Christ. Okay, fine, we'll use this more common name, the Council of Fifty.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:10)
Boring.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:11)
Everyone wanted to talk about that. That was super fascinating. Part of the exoticness was the records of the council were under lock and key, literally.
One of the most concrete lessons we have learned is that the longer a source is kept under wraps, the juicier it becomes. Now, thanks to the publication of the complete Nauvoo era minutes, we have a much better idea of what this group actually was and what it represented.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:35)
I know you're probably already bracing yourselves for it, but let's back up for a minute. We need to do a quick review of the development of Mormon organizations to put the Council of Fifty in context. Everything we've been talking about has led us up to this, but you still need some more context. The first couple of years of Mormonism, early times, it was loving, hippie communes, fairly egalitarian. There were specific offices such as teacher, elder, etc. but they weren't really cohesive things yet. What's really fun is when you go to Kirtland, they have all those like little initials up on the podium, and people think they know what they mean, but no one knows actually for sure.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:14)
Didn't help that they kept stealing the letters.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:17)
Yeah, it was kind of a loosey-goosey situation as far as organization goes, which is funny, because the organization that I grew up in, the mainstream LDS, is very focused on ordinations and offices and principles and yada yada boring priesthood stuff.
So that's the early days. And then you have in 1832, the first presidency is created, clearly marking out the highest echelon of leadership. Three years later, we get the quorum of the 12 and the first two quorums of 70s. Quorums of the offices that were created earlier, like teachers, start to become a little bit more structured. So again, think of it as Plato being sort of shaped into this shape. Obviously, with all the chaos that goes on in the next few years, not much goes on in Tel Navu. They were a little busy in Missouri with other things.
Something in the water in 1842 got the organizational juices flowing again, though, because that's when things go and ramp up.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:10)
Boom, boom, boom. We have the mass installation of a bunch of masons who hold meetings, then the anointed quorum and the Relief Society. There were a lot of things getting started that year, like plural marriages, for example. By the time 1844 rolls around, there's just a whole lot going down in Navu.
Internal dissent is really ratcheting up, external concern over the growing power and chaos in Navu is getting kicked up to fever pitch and just for kicks, a presidential campaign is rolled out like we talked about recently. Then in March, Joseph Smith says, man, we haven't had a new group for a while. What about a secret council that is the actual kingdom of God on earth?
Sounds like a good idea. It sounds like it comes out of left field and honestly, it kind of does, but there were definitely earlier events that played into it. As the Joseph Smith papers dudes point out, the council had many antecedents, including the Latter-day Saints experiences in and expulsions from Ohio and Missouri in the 1830s, the long-time interest of the Latter-day Saints in American Indians, the West and the Rocky Mountains, and the Saints interpretations of biblical prophecies and Joseph Smiths revelations.