Church History Matters

085 Mormon Fundamentalism (w/Dr. Brian Hales)

Most of the main branches of the Restoration were formed within roughly two decades of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. One clear exception, however, is the Mormon Fundamentalist movement. Here’s a little backstory: In 1890 President Wilford Woodruff issued a manifesto announcing the Church’s intention to submit to those laws recently passed and declared constitutional by the US Supreme Court forbidding plural marriage. Then in 1904, as a result of the Reed Smoot hearings before the US Senate and the national attention this brought to the continued practice of plural marriage in Utah, President Joseph F. Smith issued what is known as the “Second Manifesto,” which announced the Church’s policy to excommunicate anyone who continued to enter into new polygamous marriages. 
Yet some Church members felt that the manifestos of Presidents Woodruff and Smith were not inspired. Instead, they saw them as weak and uninspired capitulations to government demands rather than a continued courageous commitment to God’s commands in the face of persecution. Within a few decades, those who dissented against these manifestos or were excommunicated from the LDS Church for entering into additional plural marriages began to gather on the Utah/Arizona border at a place known as Short Creek. They believed in a 1912 statement by Lorin C. Woolley, who had been courier for President John Taylor, about an unpublished 1886 revelation of President Taylor wherein the Lord declared that the “New and Everlasting Covenant” had not been revoked, nor would it ever be. This was interpreted by those in this group to mean that plural marriage would never be withdrawn. They concluded therefore that President Taylor’s unpublished revelation (and their interpretation of it) overruled and superceded the first manifesto of President Woodruff in 1890 and the second manifesto of President Smith in 1904. They were staying true to this core fundamental element of Mormonism while the LDS Church was not.  
In time these Mormon Fundamentalists fragmented into various groups, including the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or FLDS Church), the Apostolic United Brethren (or AUB), the Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days, among others. 
In this episode of Church History Matters, Casey and I sit down with Dr. Brian Hales, an expert researcher and author of several books on the Mormon fundamentalist movement, to discuss this fascinating branch of the Restoration. 
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

084 A Deep-Dive Into the Community of Christ (w/ Andrew Bolton)

Among many of those Nauvoo Saints who did not choose to follow Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles into the mountains of Utah, there was an emerging hope that someone from the Smith family would step forward and begin a reorganization of the Church Joseph Smith Jr. had established. In 1851 a soft reorganization began and built up to that culminating moment of 1860 when the eldest son of Joseph and Emma Smith, Joseph Smith III, stepped forward at the age of 28 and was ordained president of what they referred to then as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or RLDS Church. Over time their method of succession in their presidency developed upon a different set of criteria than that of their Utah-based cousins, as did many of their practices, policies, programs, and governing principles. In 2001 the name of the RLDS Church was changed to Community of Christ, and today this is the second largest branch of the Restoration movement. 
In this episode of Church History Matters, Casey and Scott sit down with Andrew Bolton, a friend and member of the Community of Christ who served in their Council of Twelve Apostles from 2007 to 2016. Together we take a deep dive into the details of how succession works in this movement, while also considering some key similarities and differences between our two Restoration branches today.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

083 A Deep-Dive Into the "Bickertonite" Movement (w/Josh Gehly)

Following the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844, Sidney Rigdon, who had been Joseph’s 1st Counselor, made the claim to Church members in Nauvoo that he was the rightful successor to lead the Church as its guardian. After his falling out with the Twelve apostles, Sidney left Nauvoo and travelled to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania where he built up a church there separate and apart from the Church Brigham Young and the Twelve led to Utah. And, today, the only branch of the Restoration that claims its right of succession from Joseph Smith through Sidney Rigdon is The Church of Jesus Christ, also sometimes referred to as the “Bickertonites.” The Church of Jesus Christ is headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania and is the third largest branch of the Restoration movement today.
On this episode of Church History Matters, Casey sits down with Josh Gehly, a friend and ordained Evangelist in The Church of Jesus Christ, to take a deep dive into the details of this movement.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

082 A Deep-Dive Into the LDS Strangite Movement (w/ Dr. Kyle Beshears)

Who was James J. Strang? And why were his claims so appealing to so many of those Latter-day Saints who did not follow Brigham Young and Twelve after the succession crisis of 1844? Why did his movement experience so much initial success but then dissipate so quickly? Some have made strong comparisons between James Strang and Joseph Smith, but how accurate are these comparisons really? 
On this episode of Church History Matters, we sit down with Dr. Kyle Beshears, a friend and expert researcher on the Strangite branch of the Restoration, to take a deep dive into the details of this movement.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

081 Who Are the Strangites, the Josephites, and the Bickertonites?

After the succession crisis of 1844, not every member of the Church chose to sustain and follow Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And many of these members eventually formed or joined alternative restoration movements which became separate, distinct, and independent churches from one another. In fact, over the last 180 years there have actually been hundreds of Churches that have branched off from the same Joseph Smith-era restoration trunk. 
Today on Church History Matters, for reasons we will explain, Casey and I have chosen to consider three such Restoration branches—namely, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (or Strangites); the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (or Josephites), today known as the Community of Christ; and the Church of Jesus Christ (or Bickertonites). Our focus will be primarily on the question of how succession has developed and works today in each of these movements. 
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

080 What If All the Apostles Died At Once? Succession Q&R with Dr. Daniel C. Peterson

In the unlikely event that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve all died simultaneously, how would that affect succession? In this hypothetical worst-case scenario, would the keys of the kingdom be lost? And, if an apostle came down with a debilitating health problem, is there any precedent for making him an emeritus apostle? 
And speaking of apostles, is there a set procedure in calling them, or does the method vary from Church president to president? Also, sometimes in the Church people speak of a special requirement for a man to become an apostle—the phrase “sure” or “special” witness of Christ comes up a lot. What’s true? Must a man have personally seen Jesus Christ in order to be fully considered an apostle?
On this episode of Church History Matters Casey and I are joined by a special guest, Dr. Daniel C. Peterson, to help us answer these and other great questions related to succession. 
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

079 What If the Church President Can't Serve Due to Poor Health?

Between the presidencies of Lorenzo Snow in 1898 and Russell M. Nelson today, there have been a few key clarifications relative to the inner workings of Church government at the level of the Church presidency. And on today’s episode of Church History Matters we want to talk about them! The first of these clarifications deals with the confusion introduced during Joseph F. Smith’s presidency surrounding the role and position of the presiding Church Patriarch within the Church’s hierarchy. The second is regarding the important question about who can serve in the First Presidency? Is it entirely the prerogative of the President of the Church to choose who serves as his counselors, or are there constraints in place which he must abide by when doing so? And the third clarification deals with what happens when you have a Church president who is incapacitated due to poor health, and therefore cannot actively lead the Church? To what degree can his counselors lead the Church without him? And what, if any, restraints are there to their authority in this circumstance?  
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

078 A Young Apostle Questions Succession By Seniority

From the history we’ve covered in this series so far, we know that the succession plan of having the most senior apostle become the next Church president took time to develop and wasn’t fully fleshed out in Joseph Smith’s lifetime. In fact, it was during the decades of President Brigham Young’s presidency that this plan was ultimately finalized … well, mostly. It turns out that prior to President John Taylor’s death, there was one young apostle who challenged this plan of succession one last time. 
In this episode of Church History Matters we walk through this history and talk about how apostle Wilford Woodruff settled this issue once and for all. We’ll also talk about the sacred experience Lorenzo Snow had after Wilford Woodruff’s passing which established the pattern we follow today of reorganizing the First Presidency immediately after a Church president’s death.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

077 The Two Orsons and the Question of Succession

Who is next in line to become the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Today this is not a difficult question. It is well understood that whoever is the next most senior apostle to the current Church president will be the next president, should he live long enough. The singular issue is seniority. It all boils down to seniority. So, what determines seniority among the apostles? Again, today there is a ready answer to this question. But it was not always so. 
In fact, in this episode of Church History Matters, we walk through the winding path of how criteria for seniority in the apostleship has changed significantly from Joseph Smith’s day to our own. And we’ll talk about how Church presidents have responded to difficult seniority questions, such as, If two men are ordained apostles on the same day, who is the senior apostle? And, if a man is ordained an apostle but  never becomes a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, how is his seniority determined? Or say two men were ordained apostles, the one sometime before the other, but then the man ordained second becomes a member of the Quorum of the Twelve ahead of the man ordained before him. Which of the two men has seniority over the other? Or how, if at all, is a man’s seniority affected if he is an apostle who leaves the Church or is excommunicated for a time, but is then reinstated back into the Quorum of the Twelve? 
While these may seem like very technical questions, they have come from real-life circumstances. And the decisions made about each scenario have determined, more than once, who has become president of the Church. 
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

076 The Contested Reorganization of the First Presidency in 1847

Shortly after the Nauvoo Saints voted on August 8, 1844 to sustain the Twelve Apostles as the new leaders of Church, Sidney Rigdon was excommunicated (for reasons we will discuss in this episode). Then for more than three years, between 1844 and 1847, Brigham Young and the Twelve led the Church as a group of equals. Together they oversaw the completion of the Nauvoo temple and organized an exodus out of the United States. 
Yet after leading a vanguard company to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, Brigham Young became concerned about the Twelve collectively leading the Church and became persuaded (for reasons we will discuss) that it was time to reorganize the First Presidency. But his proposal was not uncontested by the Twelve. And so, in a spirited series of debates, with Orson Pratt leading the opposition, Brigham Young ultimately persuaded the majority of the Twelve to reestablish the First Presidency, which officially took place on 27 December 1847 at the Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
In this episode of Church History Matters, we dig into the intriguing details of all of this. 
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/