I saw this on the BYU channel, but missed the part on why people did this to him.
2007-08-07 03:07:23 · 9 answers · asked by Unknown 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
General persecution
Today it would be a hate crime.
D
2007-08-07 08:10:56 · answer #1 · answered by Dionysus 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
In this case, Smith penchant for flirtng with the 'ladies' of all ages was beginning to wear thin. When Smith was staying at this particular house, a mob, mostly made up of recent converts to the church, rushed the house to find him in the bed with the two teenage twins. They didn't ask what he was doing (probably just sitting on the bed), but took him out, tried to make him drink poison (and chipped his tooth), tarred and feathered him, and was going to castrate him on the spot until the doctor decided it would be a bad idea.
Smiths year old child was knocked out of his bed/crib during the struggle and onto the snow outside, and died a few months later.
This was the kind of frontier justice that was evident at the time. Unfortunately it was not very well founded, as it was based on rumors, but Smith's proximity to the two girls was enough to put the mob 'over the top'.
It wasn't persecution about the message he was preaching, but more of his obvious thing with women.
2007-08-07 11:16:06 · answer #2 · answered by Dances with Poultry 5 · 0⤊ 6⤋
Hatred. He preached with authority, which made him a target. Jesus was threatened with stoning for the same reasons.
On the occasion portrayed in Kirkland, the mob was lead by a man named Ryder who said Joseph was a false prophet because he misspelled his name.
2007-08-07 10:09:48 · answer #3 · answered by Isolde 7 · 8⤊ 1⤋
There are no factual accounts of Smith being "tarred and feathered," though it certainly would have been appropriate for that era. He had a penchant for sending his male followers out of town on long trips, then forcing their wives to "marry" him. There was a lot of reason for uprising.
What's truly amazing is that there are those who still follow his precepts - those living in Colorado City and practicing polygamy. Others who still claim he was their first "prophet" and belong to the Salt Lake City version of Mormonism, are stuck in an evil cult, never having studied their organization's real history.
And he wasn't shot because he "believed differently than Christians." He was shot because he smuggled a gun into the Carthage jail and attempted to kill others. He had been jailed for being a law-breaking charlatan.
2007-08-07 10:19:18 · answer #4 · answered by Devoted1 7 · 1⤊ 7⤋
Same reason he was murdered. He believed differently than Christians.
2007-08-07 10:14:50 · answer #5 · answered by Jack P 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Same reason David Koresh was toasted.
2007-08-07 10:11:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋
They were singing "I don't want to be a chicken....".
But he kept interrupting the song with "But I do"
So they tarred and feathered him.
2007-08-07 10:12:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 5⤋
Because thats what happens to fools who think they are prophets.
2007-08-07 15:04:46 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
He was a quack an the hateful did their thing
2007-08-07 10:13:27 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋