For the life of me I dont understand that at the end, why, when it seemed the end was near, didnt js think to himself, "hey! I just might die over this scam I have pulled" and just come clean and maybe live a little longer? What really messes me up also is that I have two brothers that I love very much and would not jeopardize their lives also. Most brothers are close and for hyrum not to have not seen through this is kinda weird, there must have been all kinds of red flags and for hyrum. Myself would have been saying, Hey Joe, our tit is in the ringer, time to bail! Im not going to die over this

Up to that point, Smith had successfully weasled out of every difficult circumstance he found himself in. He was egotistical enough to believe he could do it again.

I am sorry he was killed as he was on the road to self-destruction anyway. I think if he had survived Mormonism would have imploded in his lifetime and people I love would not be abused by its successor today.

Joseph had no intention of dying. He had sent for help to protect him while in jail but it never came. He had guns smuggled in for protection. He had used his charisma and lying abilities to get himself out of countless pickles in the past and he was full of himself as he had crowed himself King.

Sound like a guy that was planning on dying to you?

All evidence is against every single word that Holland spat out his mouth at GC on the subject. Holland would have got his butt handed to him if he would have done what he did in church in the real would, but church isn’t the real world is it?

All that crap about going like a lamb to the slaughter was made up BS after the fact to promote martyrdom in a man who did not deserve it.

oops



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2011 03:10PM by AmIDarkNow?.

It was just the family business, and no one did it better than JS.

JS was a narcissist who didn't really worry about anyone else much beyond how he could use them at the moment.

Anyone with an ounce of sense, whom enjoys reading science fiction knows that Scientology is science fiction for a profit.

But does that stop the organization from existing?

Yes, NORMAL people would just give up and do what's best for their family, but narcissistic power hungry types do not. Just look at dictators around the world like Moammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein and so forth.

These people do NOT want to admit wrong doing or give up their power. Even if that means putting themselves and their families in danger.

I think we can find many examples from our own time to explain Smith's destructive behavior. But one thing I would add is that I think Smith actually BELIEVED his fraud. I think that somehow in his mind he really believed that the whole business about seeing God and angels and getting the BoM and all the rest was true. Perhaps on some intellectual level he knew it was all a hoax but in his emotional/psychological self he honestly believed all the hokum he preached. As so many have pointed out, Smith was narcissistic and this denial of reality is a part of the package.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2011 03:53PM by nebularry.

to sit down and without doing any new research, write a doctoral dissertation on his life. I disagree with your opinion that he believed his fraud but I am very curious as to what evidence you think points to him believing it. Please share your evidences?

He didn't expect to die. But he knew he really stepped into the shit when he ordered the Expositor destroyed. He couldn't really side step or two step that one. The stuff they printed, or were going to print, was true and it blew the skirt up on Smith and his activities with the ladies.

In the beginning the Smiths were poverty stricken dirt farmers. Joe learned early on that superstitious people would give him money for validating their superstitions. He started small, ran a few cons, and through trial and error he gradually made it into something much bigger and more successful.

Members of the family, including Emma, knew well where the money came from, and they also knew they did not have Joe's charisma and talent for making that kind of money by themselves. By the time you get to the Nauvoo level with several thousand "contributors," expansive real estate, political office, control of the banks, exploitation of women for sexual purposes, and the kind of absolute power that Mormons have come to honor, it's not something you just "give up."

Exactly! This was a lifestyle that the family lived. The fraud of religion was just the biggest money maker, but his whole lifestyle was lie based.

As the old saying by John Dalberg-Acton goes, "All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." People tend to get worse with the power they got. Smith is no exception.