In October 2010, I was invited to speak at the annual ExMormon Foundation Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.
I spoke for 90 minutes on polygamy and polyandry, and Joseph Smith’s First Vision.
The Foundation has uploaded my presentation to YouTube. You can watch it below.
“Will The Real Joseph Smith Please Stand Up.”
Salt Lake City, Utah. 16 October 2010.
My grateful thanks to the Exmormon Foundation for inviting me to speak at Conference in Salt Lake City in October and also to everyone who was so kind about my presentation and my work. It was lovely to meet everyone and put many faces to some familiar names. Sorry I wasn’t able to bring more copies of my books and thank you to everyone who has subsequently purchased them from Lulu. I will offer an introductory discount for Volume 4 when it is published (in January 2011).
There is always something you forget to say, and for anyone who was there – when I was talking about Zina Huntington, I had meant to mention the method Joseph Smith used to persuade her to enter their polyandrous relationship. Whilst he had tried a direct approach twice (as I mentioned) to get her to marry him when she was a teenager, following her marriage to poor Henry Jacobs, Smith didn’t even approach her himself. He sent Zina’s brother, Dimick, to tell her that an angel with a drawn sword had stood over him and threatened to kill him unless Zina married him! That has to be the most outrageous chat-up line I have ever heard. It’s funny when you think about it, but it’s also sad that it really did happen and that she believed it… She should have said no – and that would have helped matters along! That would have been quite a novel end to Smith – the only human ever stabbed to death by an angel sent from God to do so… gullibility just isn’t a suitable word and I can’t think of one that fits the scenario at the moment.
The Foundation will upload my presentation to YouTube in a few days time once they have sequenced the PowerPoint material with the talk. I will put the sequence of links on my Home Page when they become available and the links will also appear on the Foundation website. Check back regularly if you want to see the presentation with integrated PowerPoint detail. Because such a presentation, due to the very nature and intensity of the detail, cannot include all the background references, should anyone need a specific reference to a point, please email me and I will be happy to provide it.
[Edit]. Links to the full lecture are available here.
Jim Whitefield 