[webboy45]

According to the Navoo Charter (which was granted by the Illinois legislature)Joseph Smith's actions were both legal and proper process. Joseph went before two different non-Mormon Judges who both found no fault in his actions. The non-Mormons said they had additional charges to bring against Joseph, and the judge said he would hear them the next day.

They were not prisoners; the sheriff offered to let them stay in the jail, feeling that they would be safer there than in a hotel.

Yes, Joseph was a martyr.

[ejonesie22]

Oh webby, they saw you coming a mile away...

Ole Joe mas as much a martyr as he was a prophet...

Good luck on the white horse bit...

[svcw]

Sunday School lesson number one: mormon revisionist history - the alleged martyr Joseph Smith.

[Scoutmaster]

Before you say that Joseph Smith's actions were legal and proper process, I'd suggest that you read an attempt by LDS Apostle Dallin H. Oaks to defend the destruction of the Expositor. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, was an attorney and wrote a law review article in which he attempted to defend it - but even in doing so, he had to admit that it was probably illegal and that Law and the other publishers could have sued.

Try Oaks, Dallin H. "The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor." Utah Law Review 9 (Winter 1965):862-903.

Also, don't forget that Nauvoo was given its charter for political reasons. The Mormons voted as a block. Granting that Charter was a good way to lock up the Mormon vote. I don't think those who granted it expected Smith to develop a theocracy with a large military and a judicial system in which non-Mormons couldn't receive justice within Nauvoo, where Mormon leaders couldn't be punished, and where one man was the law.

That's history. As for theology, if you're LDS, Community of Christ, or any other sect that traces its origins back to Joseph Smith's original Church of Christ, I respect your right to your theological beliefs.