Seems to me HJ turning from treasure digger into a holy man happened rather suddenly.

Was Rigdon's religious zealotry the catalyst or did Joe's friends and family put him up to it?

I'm fairly sure he didn't think it up on his own as he never seemed to have an original thought.

My speculation is rather not that Rigdon put him up to it, but rather that Rigdon's aspirations hit a nerve with ole Joey, planting ideas and "visions". He was the catalyst, and from there Joe used him and Sydney used Joe.

I think that he just fell into it. I suspect that he said something ridiculous that was taken seriously. Then, he was just smart enough to recognize that the poor people around him would actually fall for his nonsense. So he went all out after it.

His whole life, as far as I can tell, was spent looking for a scam that he could get away with. And inventing a religion with himself as the great prophet was the one that succeeded. I'd guess that he was absolutely amazed when he first realized that it would work.

Then, sadly, he started to take himself seriously.

Yes^^ I thought this was brilliantly laid out in 'the Book of Mormon' with elder green. The parallels were spot on in my opinion.

I think you fell into it. He was too lazy to write the novel he wanted to write, so he came up with a wild story to get his friend to write it out while he dictated. That went over so well he just decided to see how far he could push it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2015 04:13PM by thingsithink.

I don't imagine it's hard for a good con man to realize that a con protected by the first amendment is better than one that will bring the law down.