Episode 23: Missouri, Bloody Missouri

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:03)
We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn all men in the name of Jesus Christ to come on us no more forever.
For from this hour, we will bear it no more.
Our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity. The man or the set of men who attempts it does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination. For we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us. For we will carry the seed of war to their own houses and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed. Remember it then, all men.
Sydney Rigdon, July 4th, 1838

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:50)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:52)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:53)
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** (1:21)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:26)
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** (1:34)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:17)
Thanks for watching! Ever had one of those days where you're in the middle of something crappy only to end up in something worse? Come on, you know what I'm talking about. You're cleaning the bathroom when one of your kids pokes their head through the door and tells you that the littlest one has not just puked everywhere, but all over the new carpet. Ever had that happen? Great, then you're gonna be in the perfect mindset for today. I want you to rewind your memories back to what seems like a decade ago to this episode on the end of the Kirtland Safety Society. You will remember that by the end of 1837, Kirtland is basically imploded.
What's wild is that it was not that long after the dedication of the temple in 1836 and the high water spiritual marks of angels and visions and all of that.
Oh, the mighty morms, how they have fallen.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:49)
The good ladies and dudes at the Joseph Smith Papers Project were nice enough to summarize this growing legal smelliness going on in Kirtland. They note that Joseph Smith was involved in no less than 22 different lawsuits during the second half of 1837 22, I got audited once last year and it sucked. So 22 lawsuits, no thank you. Not interested in that level of nonsense.
Joseph and company had gone to some, let's say drastic measures. They had mortgaged Grandmother Temple there in Kirtland to try and fix their very large level of debts, for example. In 1837, in September, they tried to renegotiate all of their accounts with Eastern creditors. And I know, it sounds like a crappy late night commercial.
Having a hard time paying for all that hard tech and molasses candy? Call now, I mean right now, using a homemade envelope to unpaved roads and cholera debt solutions.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:42)
Things didn't get any better. That's kind of why our last episode recorded in Kirtland even exists. The financial situation deteriorated and people got pissed and started talking back. Several dozen people were excommunicated and the mood got even uglier. These weren't just anybody's. Martin Harris gets the boot, as well as Luke Johnson and John Boynton. For those keeping score at home, that would be the last remaining of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon and two apostles.
No small thing. Remember how fascinated people were when a 70 got excommunicated just a few years ago? Well, this was big news, big, big news. Joseph Smith started feeling the heat and the result was a revelation.
Three revelations, actually.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:44)
The first one of these three would be very odd if we didn't know the context. Joseph Smith and company were gathered at the Peter French farm in Kirtland, and were kind of wondering out loud about the process for bringing the president of the church before a church court. Now, why in the world are they wondering about this?
Well, you see, all these dudes that had been excommunicated were not just about to take their medicine. They formed their own church, and they were actively trying to have Joseph Smith removed because they saw him as a fallen prophet now. And this revelation was pretty slick. The answer they got was that one single high council couldn't make churchwide decisions. In other words, the high council there in Kirtland couldn't excommunicate Joseph Smith. It had to be the council in Zion, i.e. Missouri, i.e. located 800 miles away from the dissenters.