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He established a church based on alleged divine revelations given him by God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and other angelic/divine visionaries. Flaws and contradictions define it. Adherents claim challenging them is heresy.
"The 'Book of Mormon' consists of sixteen books, professing to be written by as many different prophets. In it over three hundred passages of the Christian Bible are found, stolen without credit.""Polygamy has no foundation either in the principle of faith promulgated by Joseph Smith and the founders of the Mormon gospel."
Brigham Young initiated the practice. He produced a document. He claimed it was a revelation given Smith. It allegedly commanded him to enter into polygamy. No such revelation existed.
After Young died, church governance changed. America grew up and expanded. Mormons no longer lived "entrenched beyond the reach of the government whose laws they violate"."
US President James Garfield campaigned against "Mormon infamy." So did his successor Chester Arthur. He called Mormonism "an evil calling out loudly for reform."
"(T)he black outrage of Mormonism cannot continue unmolested many years longer. The people are awakening and crying out for justice against it".""When it is hurled to ruin there will fall the most monstrous structure of fraud and infamy cemented by the blood of sacrifice ever reared in the history of the world and a creed of lust that transforms a vast stretch of our continent into a community of prostitution, and physical and mental debasement will become the by-word for iniquity it is still a triumphant monument to."
Mormonism today officially rejects polygamy. Thousands, however, still practice it.
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