Posted on 05/26/2009 12:59:59 PM PDT by svcw
snip....... "Mormon Connections to Lincoln-Era Springfield." .......snip
Thanks!
Also dozens of link to other interesting stories.
FYI, the very first article I ever published was called “The Mormon Connection: Lincoln, the Saints, and the Crisis of Equality,” in Western Humanities Review back in the 1970s.
“Before coming to Springfield I had never heard of the word ‘embiggens’.”
“Why not? It is a perfectly cromulent word.”
It took aim in 1856 at what it labeled as the "twin relics of barbarism." And what were those <"twin relics?" (Slavery and polygamy)
And what group had been accelerating polygamy throughout the 1850s despite prohibitions against it in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon, and in its initial "scripture" called the Book of Commandments? (The lds)
Andreasen said, “especially since Abraham Lincoln’s world was also part of the world of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.”
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I hope this guy is merely saying that they were contemporaries...
President Lincoln born 1809, Sheep Stealer Smith born 1805...
and not that they were equal in importance or historical terms...
I don’t know, sometimes I have a hard time following lds logic.
I did find the link to this page interesting. It was on the right hand side bar of the lds - Lincoln link.
http://mormontimes.com/studies_doctrine/church_history/?id=7916
Abraham Lincoln Vs. Joseph Smith, Jr.:
Lincoln:
signed the emancipation proclamation in 1865...
Smith?
Question asked of Smith: "Are the Mormons abolitionists?" Answer: "No...we do not believe in setting the negroes free." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 120...which an LDS "prophet"/great nephew thought worthy to include in 1938)
Lincoln:
"If God wills that it [mighty scourge of war] continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifthy years of unrequited toiil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"
Smith?
"Elder Hyde inquired the situation of the negro. I replied, they came into the world slaves, mentally and physically. Change their situation with the whites, and they would be like them...Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization." (Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 269-270)
[Uh, anybody want to tell those who mainline on every word out of Joseph Smith's mouth that the "species" of blacks is...simply put...humankind!]
Lincoln:
"It is a very strange thing, and not solvable by any moral law that I know of, that if a man loses his horse, the whole country will turn out to help hang the thief; but if a man but a shade or two darker than I am is himself stolen, the very same crowd will hang the one who aids in restoring him to liberty. Such are the inconsistencies of slavery, where a horse is more sacred than a man; and...if one man chooses to make a slave of another, no third man shall be allowed to object." (Abraham Lincoln, "The 'Lost' Speech' at Bloomington," 1856)
Smith?
(Oh, and BTW, Smith and ALL True-Believing Mormons believe these following words to not just be Smith's mere opinion or commentary, but is very "scripture" uttered by the Mormon "god"):
"...we do not believe it right to interfere with bond-servants,
neither preach the gospel to,
nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters,
nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life,
thereby jeopardizing the lives of men;
such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust,
and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude. (Lds "scripture," Doctrine & Covenants, 134:12, as "revealed" to Joseph Smith by the Mormon "god," Aug. 17, 1835)
So, for Smith, anybody preaching the gospel to slaves -- minus their "Master's" wishes (and no, I'm not speaking of Jesus as Lord & Master...for to Smith, whites were "masters" of slaves -- not Jesus)...
...or baptizing them minus their "mastuh's" wishes...
...was actually engaging in what he called "unjust...interference."
(I mean, after all, says Smith, we wouldn't want any "slave" or sex slave to become "dissatisfied with their situations in this life..." would we?)
What's just as bad for contemporary Mormons, is...
..if they believe Smith to be a true "prophet" of God...
...if this was indeed a "revelation" from the Mormon god,
...then they are equally bound to it!
If a trafficker holds a child or teen in bondage as a slave-prostitute,
...and doesn't want this child/teen to receive the gospel,
...then the Mormon ethical claim is that to give the gospel to such a child or teen is actually "unjust."
(I guess can't tell you how inflamed that makes me feel...and that I'm glad we all can buy into a small portion of the righteous indignation held by our Lord, Savior, and Loving Master, Jesus Christ)
Is there anything Lincoln isn’t? Now he is a gay, black, latino, cross-dressing Mormon.
And here I thought all these years he was a Christian, white guy born in Kentucky, public ed I guess.
Placemark bump.
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