The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Criticism of Joseph Smith=== {{see also|Joseph Smith and the criminal justice system}} In the 1830s, the church was heavily criticized for Smith's handling of a banking failure in Kirtland, Ohio.<ref name=Brodie/>{{rp|195β196}}<ref name=RoughStone/>{{rp|328, 330, 334}} After the Mormons migrated west, there was fear and suspicion about the LDS Church's political and military power in Missouri,{{efn|Bushman noted that in [[Daviess County, Missouri]], non-Mormons "watched local government fall into the hands of people they saw as deluded fanatics".<ref name=RoughStone/>{{rp|357}}}} culminating in the [[1838 Mormon War]] and the Mormon Extermination Order (Missouri Executive Order 44) by Governor Lilburn Boggs. In the 1840s, criticism of the church included its [[theodemocracy|theocratic]] aspirations in Nauvoo, Illinois. Criticism of the practice of [[plural marriage]] and other doctrines Smith taught were published in the ''[[Nauvoo Expositor]]'' in 1844.<ref name=RoughStone/>{{rp|539}}{{efn|Historian Fawn Brodie argued that given its authors' intentions to reform the church, the paper was "extraordinarily restrained" given the explosive allegations it could have raised.<ref name=Brodie/>{{rp|374}} A prospectus for the newspaper was published on May 10, and referred to Smith as a "self-constituted monarch".<ref name=Origins/>{{rp|138}}}} After Smith took a leading role in having the paper's printing press destroyed, he was charged with treason and jailed. While he awaited trial, an angry mob stormed the jailhouse and shot him fatally.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Oaks| first1=Dallin H.| author-link=Dallin H. Oaks| title=Carthage Conspiracy, the Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith| last2=Hill| first2=Marvin S.| publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|year=1979| isbn=0-252-00762-X| location=Champaign, Illinois| page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=18HuCwAAQBAJ |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> In modern popular opinion, non-Mormons in the U.S. generally consider Smith a "charlatan, scoundrel, and heretic."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Turner |first=John G. |date=May 6, 2022 |title=Why Joseph Smith Matters |url=https://themarginaliareview.com/why-does-joseph-smith-matter/ |url-status=live |magazine=Marginalia Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817102528/https://themarginaliareview.com/why-does-joseph-smith-matter/ |archive-date=August 17, 2022}}</ref> ''[[The Book of Mormon (musical)|The Book of Mormon]]'' musical relentlessly mocks his account of the golden plates.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/transcripts/134803453 "On Broadway, A 'Mormon' Swipe At ... Everything," NPR. March 24, 2011. Accessed December 27, 2023.]</ref> In 2007, [[Christopher Hitchens]], writing in [[Slate (magazine)|Slate magazine]], lambasted Smith as a mountebank, charlatan, and fraud (and the church itself as a "ridiculous cult" and a "racket" that became a religion).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/04/god-is-not-great-mormonism-a-racket-becomes-a-religion.html|title=Mormonism: A Racket Becomes a Religion|work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|first=Christopher |last=Hitchens|author-link=Christopher Hitchens|date=April 27, 2007|access-date=December 27, 2023}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page