Was Emma Smith an 'elect lady'?

[Hemidakota]

By Tad Walch

Deseret News

Friday, Nov. 07, 2008

SNIPPET: Emma Smith left no journals and precious few letters for historians to plumb, but the long and daunting list of hardships suffered by the wife of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ultimately humbled one church historian.

Article Link: MormonTimes - Was Emma Smith an 'elect lady'?

[applepansy]

Wonderful Article.

thank you,

applepansy

[Hemidakota]

In my latter years, I've come to understand Emma and what she went through. I am thankful for those who took the time to research out her life and write about those trials she went through. I thought it was a wonderful article also.

[Palerider]

wow.....good article.....:)

[Kyra]

Great article, thank you! I have the deepest respect and admiration for Emma Smith, she's my role model, I can't think of a more amazing person to try to be like. I love reading about her, so this artice kind of made my day!

[Elphaba]

First, let me say that Emma was unequivaclly an "Elect Lady." Her life is full of great happiness and great pain, but she always kept going, and to the day she died, she showed great compassion as she took care of the people she showered with love.

While the majority of the article describes Emma accurately, there are three things I find questionable. However, it's important to keep in my Black may have addressed them in her book. My comments are based solely on the news article.

Emma Smith left no journals and precious few letters for historians to plumb, but the long and daunting list of hardships suffered by the wife of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ultimately humbled one church historian.

"As a younger professor, I could just go at Emma for different flaws I saw in her life," eminent Brigham Young University church history professor Susan Easton Black said Thursday during a lecture sponsored by the university's Women's Research Institute.

Then Black took on a book project about the wife of Joseph Smith.

"As I have gotten older, I have had more than one occasion to feel humble and to repent of what I have said.

This confuses me. Her book about Joseph is copyrighted August 2007; therefore, if her explanation of discovering Emma is accurate, it means she only did so within the last year or so.

There are a number of resources detailing Emma’s contributions to the Church that were written long before 2007. In fact, Newell and Avery’s “Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith,“ written in 1996, is the seminal biography of Emma, and clearly demonstrates what an indomitable woman she was.

I would think anyone interested in Mormon history would have read ME, but it sounds like Black did not. Perhaps she did once she started to comprehend the real Emma. But if she didn‘t, this makes no sense to me.

The 5-foot-9 woman Joseph described as "large-boned" had a dowery [sic] of one cow when she eloped with him in 1827.

I have never heard, or read, of any dowry offered to Joseph,much less a cow.

This is another issue that makes no sense to me. Emma’s father, Isaac, practically hated Joseph; in fact, Joseph had asked Isaac twice for Emma’s hand, and both times he refused.

On January 18, 1827, Joseph showed up at Emma’s while her father was away, and that same day he proposed, Emma accepted, and they eloped. Their marriage was so hasty, Emma had not even knowm that morning she would be married by that night. They then went to Manchester, NY to live with Joseph’s family.

The following August, Emma wrote to her father asking if she could take her property from home, consisting of clothing, furniture, and cows.“

From a February 2001 Ensign article, “Joseph Smith’s Susquehanna Days,” Larry C. Porte writes:

Isaac responded that “her property was safe, and at her disposal..“

Peter Ingersoll, a neighbor of the Smiths, was hired to take them to Pennsylvania to pick up Emma’s things, and return them to Manchester. Peter said that as they drove into the yard, Father Hale came out in an agitated state and amidst a “flood of tears” confronted Joseph for having “carried away” his daughter.

However, before their return to Manchester, Isaac asked Joseph to move to Harmony and said he “would assist him getting into business.”

Emma did retrieve her things, and since she already owned cows, plural, it doesn't make sense "one" would be a dowry.

I will continue looking for the dowry reference, but it is nowhere in the sources I’ve looked at. If someone has a reference, I would appreciate it if you would list it here.

Emma's heartaches didn't end there, Black said. Emma remarried three years later, but her second husband, Lewis Bidemon, would cause more pain. He had a child with a mistress in Nauvoo, . . . .“

It is true Bidemon had a child as Black describes above. However, Emma’s marriage to Bidamon was far from painful; rather, they got along well and enjoyed each other immensely. Even after his affair, they were very solicitous of one another.

The fact that Emma agreed to take in his four-year-old son to raise as her own, indicates Emma’s probable acceptance of his affair. It also demonstrates her huge capacity for love. She even hired the boy’s mother

to work in her house, so she could be close to her son.

Growing up the Church, her marriage to Bidamon was always spoken about as if it were painful, or even a tragedy. Brigham Young wsa particularly prone to hyperbole when talking about Emma's marriage, and it his legacy that we have not understood Emma's happiness after Joseph was murdered.

Black did not discuss polygamy in her lecture.

I’m willing to give Black the benefit of the doubt, and assume she accurately includes, the horrible pain Emma experienced because of Joseph’s polygamy.

If Black has not included this chapter in Emma’s life, the book is essentially worthless. That is how important it is to a biography of Emma.

Emma’s contributions to, and sacrifices for, the Church were boundless. She believed in Joseph completely, and was a driving force in the Church’s existence and survival. In fact, Emma was the person Joseph took with him when he was finally allowed to take the plates from the Hill Cumorah.

I just love this woman.

Elphaba

[Prodigal_Son]

I, too, feel folks are too quick to condemn Emma. None of us living can begin to comprehend her life's trials. Folks claim she left the church; I say she give it everything she had.

She and Lucy Mack Smith BOTH stayed in Nauvoo - and were dear friends till Mother Smith's death...

This poor woman's legacy gets dragged through the mud by so many of those who ought to revere her.

[FlaviusHambonius]

I'ts beyond me how anyone could condemn Emma for all of these years. Why would people do that?

Is it because of her supposed unfaithfulness or lack of enduring to the end because she stayed behind while Brigham and the bulk of the saints left for the westward trek?

To those people I would say get off of your self-rightous horses and please come back down to good old mother earth, simply for the fact that I seriously doubt that many of us could endure the hardships this woman went through.

Unlike Mrs. Black I will not omit the issue of polygamy--whether you believe it was ordained of God or a man made doctrine of Joseph's--could you imagine having to deal with the fact that your husband is married to 33 other woman--that alone would turn you into an absolute mental case--and a heartbroken one at that.

If the church reinstituted polygamy, how many of you stalwart women of the church, believing in modern revelation would jump into that can of worms? How many stalwart men of the church would embrace it?

Not many people can say they walked in Emma's shoes, except perhaps some early Mormon Pioneer women, regarding hardship after hardship, plus a thing called polygamy.

One last thing. I notice in the article that Mrs. Black brings up Joseph and Emma's sealing and the Patriarchal blessing from Joseph Sr. She seems to insinuate that Joseph and Emma will be together in the Kingdom. I know that this is probably just her perceptions and ideas or beliefs and I am fine with that--but what is the official church stance on that--given if she joined the reorganized church--then she is considered an apostate--correct? That would be breaking the sealing vow, would it not?

If Joseph and Emma are reunited in the afterlife (and I beleive they will) it just goes to show that others who were not faithfull--still have hope in being reunited--correct?

Or will it be as the church teachings suggest? Broken Temple vows = no exaltation.

Edited November 9, 2008 by FlaviusHambonius

[rayhale]

Was Emma an elect lady? She stayed with Joseph though thick and thin; she stayed with him long after most everyone had left, including some apostles, yet in the end she stayed when the command was to move on.

Was David a good person, or a bad person? He was the Lord’s anointed, he was king over the house of Judah, and unanimously chosen king by all the tribes of Israel, yet he lusted after Bathsheba, and then killed Uriah to have her.

Was Moses a great prophet? He led the Israelites out of Israel; got the Ten Commandments from the hand of God, yet because of his sins, he was not able to see the Promised Land.

Noah, with his wife and children built the Ark, got animals on it, and by doing so saved all land life, yet according to Genesis 9:21 he got drunk, was he good or bad?

I think people immortalize people, remembering what they want, and forgetting what they don’t want to remember. Everyone sins, even prophets. I like the story of David, he committed a huge sin, he tried to repent for the rest of his life, in some of the Psalms you can ‘hear’ his torture, his story gives a realism to the scriptures that stories of people doing what is right ALL the time, never breaking any commandment, like the story of the City of Enoch does not do.

Most Christians remember David only for killing Uriah, yet most Jews remember David for uniting Israel. This just shows how different people can have two different views on the same person.

[slabbing]

Emma Smith's story is a perfect example of how judgment must be reserved for the Lord. So many events, so many details, so many emotions - many of which, we don't really know, nor is it our place to try and know. There is much to be learned from her faithfulness, though, no doubt.

[Kyra]

One last thing. I notice in the article that Mrs. Black brings up Joseph and Emma's sealing and the Patriarchal blessing from Joseph Sr. She seems to insinuate that Joseph and Emma will be together in the Kingdom. I know that this is probably just her perceptions and ideas or beliefs and I am fine with that--but what is the official church stance on that--given if she joined the reorganized church--then she is considered an apostate--correct? That would be breaking the sealing vow, would it not?

If Joseph and Emma are reunited in the afterlife (and I beleive they will) it just goes to show that others who were not faithfull--still have hope in being reunited--correct?

Or will it be as the church teachings suggest? Broken Temple vows = no exaltation.

As for considering Emma an apostate, I think you're right. But I've always believed that after everything she went through, she probably had some sort of nervous breakdown. This is just speculation on my part, so please don't think I have anything to back me up. I'm just thinking how I would feel in her shoes. Losing 6 children would be hard enough, but add in everything else that she went through and it would make sense if that's what happened. I also feel that we will be judged according to our circumstances. I agree with prodigal_son...she literally gave the church everything she had. The Lord knows her mind, she sacrificed more than most of us can even imagine and I do believe that she has been reunited with Joseph.

I don't know if you have ever read the book Emma and Joseph: Their Divine Mission by Gracia N. Jones, but it's a beautiful book. Here's a paragraph from it:

In February 1879, seventy-four-year-old Emma was asked by Joseph III and Alexander to relate her early experiences. No one realized at the time that her answers would stand as the only formal record and her last earthly testimony pertaining to the work of the restoration of the church. In this interview she affirmed, "I know Mormonism to be the truth; and believe the Church to have been established by divine direction."