Episode 12: Crazy For Kirtland

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:00)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:02)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:03)
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** (0:31)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:36)
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** (0:44)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:07)
After a quick period as a teenager in New York, not quite sure what it was, Mormonism settled down and got a job in Kirtland. You can make a solid case that Mormonism becomes Mormonism during this period, sort of puberty for Mormonism. They start keeping records, structure settles in and theology unfolds. Maybe their voice changes a little bit.
But before becoming a respectable adult in Ohio, Mormonism had to go through its angsty college years. We talked earlier about the transition from New York to the two centers of power, the headquarters in Ohio and a sometimes troublesome outpost in Missouri. Let's dig a little more.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:57)
The most influential episode in the beginnings of Kirtland was the missionary group including Oliver Cowdery and Parley P. Pratt passing through Ohio. They had great success in converting a group all at once and was highlighted by the baptism of Sidney Rigdon.
And as what happened over and over through the coming years, a new convert immediately enters Joseph Smith's inner circle and begins influencing the course of Mormonism. Sometimes, this pattern leads to a long, fruitful association. Rigdon is a good example, Oliver Cowdery is a good example. However, this pattern sometimes backfires spectacularly.
See John C. Bennett. Rigdon, after his baptism, wanted to meet Joseph Smith and headed off immediately for New York. Once there, the Bible Revision Project really takes on some momentum. Don't worry, we'll get back to that because it's extremely interesting. But early Kirtland, what's happening on the ground?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:44)
Okay, anyone out there ever seen the show Arrested Development? And if you haven't, you should see it. There's this great episode where the family is having a Valentine's Day party at Lucille and George's, and they have all this momentum, they get excited, and they start yelling, speech, speech, speech, and then it stops, and no one knows what to say or what's coming next. Early Kirtland is like this. There's this initial burst of excitement, everybody's gathering, they're going to build stuff.
Then what?
What now? Now, the missionaries arrive in Kirtland on November 2nd, 1831, and are gone within three weeks.
It was a particularly interesting setting because there was a loose organization already in place among the new converts to Mormonism. A group heavily influenced by prominent seeker leader Alexander Campbell had settled around Kirtland, usually called the Family.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:33)
The early 1830s were a time of communal experiments all over the place.
Curiously, I found several were started by Scottish-born reformers that relocate to America. In addition to Alexander Campbell, one of the more exotic ones of these was Robert Owen. Intending to try and improve the conditions of working people, which was a big concern for many of these reformers, he sets up this initial community at New Harmony, Indiana, to start what he called, quote, a new moral world. Then another Owenite community starts in Ravenna, Ohio, which is very close to Kirtland. And the family there would definitely have heard of Owen and their ideas. As historian Mark Staker noted, quote, economic cooperation was at the heart of Owen's reforms, close quote. I found this great. Their symbol was the bee.
Robert Owen declared, quote, he is the most moral bee which creates the most honey and consumes the least of it, close quote. That's a man after Brigham Young's heart.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:25)
And listen, I think about these early movements a lot because now in the work that I do, I get to interact with a lot of what the outside world would call cults and what I would call Mormon groups, right? So I get to see this and I have talked to people who have been in and out of like three or four movements and some of them are what I would call a cult, very culty, you know, weird rituals, dangerous rituals, abusive things to loosely formed religious organizations that speak to this. And I'm often wondering why, like what's happening, but it's really easy for me to understand in my mind these movements. And I love this story of these folks in Kirtland. There's something about the area still if you go today that it's, there's sort of a magic in the air. So these seekers looked to the Book of Acts in the New Testament for their mission statement. Chapter 2 describes a group of quote, one accord in which quote, all that believed were together and had all things in common and sold their positions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need, end quote.