![\"James](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2019\/09\/Resized_20190910_133814.jpg\")
<\/a>(Photo kindly provided by James Jordan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I\u2019ve long had a particular interest in the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. \u00a0(The Interpreter Foundation\u2019s Witnesses<\/em> film project is an obvious outgrowth of that interest.) \u00a0Accordingly, I also have an interest in criticisms<\/em> of the Witnesses. \u00a0This interest forms the background of a column that I published in the Deseret News<\/em> back on 9 June 2011:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Though little remembered today, James Jesse Strang campaigned seriously to lead the LDS Church<\/a> after Joseph Smith\u2019s 1844 assassination.<\/span><\/p>\n When the general membership rejected the obscure new convert\u2019s claim that a secret letter had appointed him as Joseph Smith\u2019s successor, Strang started his own sect, ultimately headquartered on Beaver Island, Mich. Like Joseph, he eventually claimed to have translated ancient metal plates and provided 11 corroborating eyewitnesses.<\/span><\/p>\n By 1856, when he himself was murdered, he had several thousand followers, including members of Joseph Smith\u2019s family, former apostles and Book of Mormon witnesses.<\/span><\/p>\n That some Book of Mormon witnesses credited Strang argues for their sincerity, incidentally: Had they been knowing perpetrators of a fraud with Joseph Smith, they would likely have been far more skeptical of Strang.<\/span><\/p>\n But does the fact that Strang had witnesses like Joseph\u2019s mean that, for consistency\u2019s sake, modern believers in Mormonism must either accept Strang\u2019s claims or reject both Joseph and Strang?<\/span><\/p>\n No. Because the two sets of witnesses and their experiences were very different.<\/span><\/p>\n The two sets of inscribed plates that Strang claimed to have found in Wisconsin and Michigan beginning in 1845 almost certainly existed. Milo Quaife\u2019s early, standard biography of Strang reflects that, while Strang\u2019s angelic visitations \u201cmay have had only a subjective existence in the brain of the man who reported them, the metallic plates possessed a very material objective reality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And they were almost certainly forgeries.<\/span><\/p>\n The first set, the three \u201cVoree\u201d or \u201cRajah Manchou\u201d plates, were dug up by four \u201cwitnesses\u201d whom Strang had taken to the plates\u2019 burial place. Illustrated and inscribed on both sides, the Rajah Manchou plates were roughly 1.5 by 2.75 inches in size \u2014 small enough to fit in the palm of a hand or to carry in a pocket.<\/span><\/p>\n Among the many who saw them was Stephen Post, who reported that they were brass and, indeed, that they resembled the French brass used in familiar kitchen kettles. \u201cWith all the faith & confidence that I could exercise,\u201d he wrote, \u201call that I could realize was that Strang made the plates himself, or at least that it was possible that he made them.\u201d One source reports that most of the four witnesses to the Rajah Manchou plates ultimately repudiated their testimonies.<\/span><\/p>\n The 18 \u201cPlates of Laban,\u201d likewise of brass and each about 7.5 by 9 inches, were first mentioned in 1849 and were seen by seven witnesses in 1851. These witnesses\u2019 testimony was published as a preface to \u201cThe Book of the Law of the Lord,\u201d which Strang said he derived from the \u201cPlates of Laban.\u201d (He appears to have begun the \u201ctranslation\u201d at least as early as April 1849. An 84-page version appeared in 1851; by 1856, it had reached 350 pages.) Strang\u2019s witnesses report seeing the plates, but mention nothing miraculous. Nor did Strang supply any additional supporting testimony comparable to that of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the witnesses to the \u201cPlates of Laban,\u201d Samuel P. Bacon, eventually denied the inspiration of Strang\u2019s movement and denounced it as mere \u201chuman invention.\u201d Another, Samuel Graham, later claimed that he had actually assisted Strang in the creation of the plates.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe can hardly escape the conclusion,\u201d writes Quaife, \u201cthat Strang knowingly fabricated and planted them for the purpose of duping his credulous followers\u201d and, accordingly, that \u201cStrang\u2019s prophetic career was a false and impudent imposture.\u201d A more recent biographer, Roger Van Noord, concludes that \u201cbased on the evidence, it is probable that Strang \u2014 or someone under his direction \u2014 manufactured the letter of appointment and the brass plates to support his claim to be a prophet and to sell land at Voree. If this scenario is correct, Strang\u2019s advocacy of himself as a prophet was more than suspect, but no psychological delusion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Thus, Strang\u2019s plates were much less numerous than those of the Book of Mormon, his witnesses saw nothing supernatural and his translation required the better part of a decade rather than a little more than two months. (Quite unlike the semi-literate Joseph Smith, Strang was well-read. He had been an editor and lawyer before his involvement with Mormonism.) Perhaps most strikingly, unlike the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, some (at least) of Strang\u2019s witnesses later denied their testimonies.<\/span><\/p>\n The contrasts work very much in Joseph Smith\u2019s favor.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For obscure reasons, this nine-year-old column has suddenly come into prominence as a parade example of my supposed contempt for religious views that differ from mine. \u00a0James J. Strang still has a few hundred followers<\/a> today and one of them has recently taken rather angry exception to what I wrote back in 2011. \u00a0Unsurprisingly, a small chorus of my most implacable critics, seeing his criticism, has now joined in as enthusiastic back-up singers.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n My \u201cStrangite\u201d critic says that my column is inaccurate. \u00a0That\u2019s conceivable, I suppose. \u00a0I don\u2019t pretend to expertise on James Strang, nor even to any particular interest in him or his movement (let alone any ill-will or malice toward it), so I relied, in writing the column, on the best scholarship that I knew. \u00a0I went, for example, to Milo Quaife\u2019s\u00a0The Kingdom of Saint James:\u00a0<\/em>A Narrative of the Mormons<\/em> (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1930).<\/span>\u00a0 Quaife (1880-1959) was a historian of Michigan and the Great Lakes region who taught at Wayne State University and the University of Detroit and directed the Wisconsin State Historical Society. \u00a0I also consulted Roger Van Noord\u2019s King of Beaver Island: The Life and Assassination of James Jesse Strang<\/em> (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988). \u00a0Van Noord is a journalist and biographer based in Wisconsin. \u00a0My friend James Allen, who formerly served as assistant historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> and as Lemuel H. Redd Professor of Western History at Brigham Young University, reviewed Van Noord\u2019s Strang biography in 1991. \u00a0 It\u00a0\u201cbrings admirable balance\u201d<\/a> to its subject, he said. \u00a0Contrary to my \u201cStrangite\u201d critic\u2019s claim, I didn\u2019t<\/em> pick \u201cthe worst quotes from scholars.\u201d \u00a0I didn\u2019t<\/em> cherry pick offensive lines. \u00a0I simply chose passages that were relevant to my point \u2014 which was focused on defending the claims of the Book of Mormon Witnesses \u2014 from reputable scholars on the subject.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, if there is better scholarship on James Jesse Strang of which I should be aware, I\u2019ll be sure to have a look at it before I write on the topic again \u2014 which, honestly, I may or may not ever do. \u00a0Of academic disputes, obviously, there is no end.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What most fascinates me, though, is the fact that my little column above is now\u00a0being described as \u201cbigoted,\u201d \u201ca hit job,\u201d \u201cunkind,\u201d \u201cpurposely hateful,\u201d \u201ccarefully orchestrated,\u201d \u201cdesigned to malign,\u201d \u201cmean-spirited,\u201d a \u201cone-sided hit piece,\u201d \u201cdeceit,\u201d \u201cbilious,\u201d \u201ca one-sided hit job,\u201d \u201cdeception,\u201d \u201cdisrespectful,\u201d \u201cbullying,\u201d \u201clying,\u201d an act of \u201chate,\u201d \u201cspiteful,\u201d \u201cmean,\u201d \u201cnasty,\u201d \u201cdesperate,\u201d using the \u201ctactics\u201d of a \u201cpolitical hack,\u201d and a perfect illustration of how I \u201cjust [don\u2019t] give a damn\u201d about \u201ccollateral damage\u201d or the \u201cfeelings\u201d of others.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This column of mine is the kind of thing that, if only they were aware of it and recognized it for the evil thing that it is, would impel the leaders of Brigham Young University and of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to condemn me and the editors of the Deseret News<\/em> to cast me out in righteous disgust.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Well, the column is there for you to read, if you choose. \u00a0Feel free to form your own judgment.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve long had a particular interest in the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. \u00a0(The Interpreter Foundation\u2019s Witnesses film project is an obvious outgrowth of that interest.) \u00a0Accordingly, I also have an interest in criticisms of the Witnesses. \u00a0This interest forms the background of a column that I published in the Deseret News […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[259,12920,12917,380,1615,12935,12932,12914,12926,12923,12929,921],"class_list":["post-86119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-of-mormon-witnesses","tag-james-jesse-strang","tag-james-strang","tag-joseph-smith","tag-plates","tag-plates-of-laban","tag-rajah-manchou","tag-strang","tag-strangism","tag-strangite","tag-voree","tag-witnesses"],"yoast_head":"\n