2009 BYU Summer Seminar Symposium: Parley and Orson Pratt and Nineteenth-Century Mormon Thought

Parley and Orson Pratt and Nineteenth-Century Mormon Thought
Public Symposium at Brigham Young University
Sponsored by the Mormon Scholars Foundation
July 2, 2009
B092 of the Joseph F. Smith Building at BYU

In the tradition of Richard Bushman’s summer seminars on Joseph Smith and early Mormonism, eight graduate students, under the direction of Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow, have studied the writings of Orson and Parley Pratt and will be presenting their research at this symposium. The seminar has been hosted by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

10:00 Terryl Givens, University of Richmond, Introduction
10:10 Ryan Tobler, University of Chicago, “Parley Pratt and Evolving Views of the American Republic in Early Mormonism”
10:40 Jordan Watkins, University of Nevada-Las Vegas: “’All of One Species’: Parley P. Pratt and the Evolution of Early Mormon Conceptions of Theosis”
11:10 Christopher Blythe, Utah State University: “Spiritual Gifts and Mormon Identity in the Nineteenth Century”
11:40 Loyd Ericson, Claremont Graduate School: “’The Great Grand Executor’: The Development of the Holy Spirit in the Thought of Orson and Parley Pratt” Intermission for Lunch
1:30 Musical Interlude: Songs of Parley P. Pratt, Liz and Katie Davis (descendants of Parley Pratt and accomplished cellist and fiddler with the folk musical group FiddleSticks)
1:45 Adriane Rodrigues, University of Minas Gerais: “Parley Pratt’s ‘Mighty Pen’ and Satire”
2:15 Benjamin Park, University of Edinburgh: “’Here was an End of Mysticism’: Divine Embodiment, Human Corporality, and the Pratt Brothers”
2:45 Joseph Spencer, San Jose State University: “’A Wellcome Messenger’: The Development of Parley P. Pratt’s Theology of Death”
3:15 Trevan Hatch, Baltimore Hebrew University: “Remembering the Chosen: The Gathering of the Jews and the Tribes of Israel in the Minds of Parley and Orson Pratt”

Parley P. Pratt is a direct ancestor of Mitt Romney. Parley's brother, Orson, were two of the earliest "apostles" in the Mormon church in the 1830s thru 1850s. Parley Pratt had a dozen wives and 35 children.

His brother, Orson Pratt called both Jesus Christ and God the Father polygamists: "...the great Messiah who was the founder of the Christian religion, was a polygamist,... the Messiah chose to take upon himself his seed; and by marrying many honorable wives himself, show to all future generations that he approbated the plurality of Wives...God the Father had a plurality of wives....the Son followed the example of his Father, and became the great Bridegroom to whom kings' daughters and many honorable Wives were to be married. We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well in time;..." (Orson Pratt, The Seer, 1853, p. 172)

Orson Pratt's view of Catholics & Protestants? "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness." (Pratt, The Seer, p.255)

As for his brother Parley, according to one Web site: Parley P. Pratt was sent to explore a southern route from Utah to California in 1849. He reached San Francisco from Los Angeles in the summer of 1851, remaining there until June, 1855. He was a fanatical defender of polygamy after its open proclamation, challenging debate on the subject in San Francisco, and issuing circulars calling on the people to repent as "the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you." While in San Francisco, Pratt induced the wife of Hector H. McLean, a custom-house official, the mother of three children, to accept the Mormon faith and to elope with him to Utah...The children were sent to her parents in Louisiana by their father, and there she sometime later obtained them, after pretending that she had abandoned the Mormon belief. When McLean learned of this he went East, and traced his wife and Pratt to Houston, Texas, and thence to Fort Gibson, near Van Buren, Arkansas. There he had Pratt arrested, but there seemed to be no law under which he could be held. As soon as Pratt was released, he left the place on horseback. McLean, who had found letters from Pratt to his wife at Fort Gibson which increased his feeling against the man, followed him on horseback for eight miles, and then, overtaking him, shot him so that he died in two hours. Source: http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topic_parleyppratt.html

Jon Krakauer, in his book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, also covers this Pratt connection -- which may have been a key instigation for the Mountain Meadows Massacre...in 1857, Lds executed 120 members of the Fancher party in Southern Utah...the Fancher party was largely from Arkansas, where Pratt was killed.

According to Krakauer's book (Anchor Books, NY, 2003-2004), "Although Eleanor [McLean] remained legally married to Hector McLean, in Deseret Brigham [Young] sealed her to Parley Pratt for time and eternity, making her the twelth of the apostle's plural wives." (p. 218)

While it's true McLean was separated from her husband, Brigham wouldn't have cared if Eleanor McLean was already -- and still married -- and neither would have Parley Pratt. After all, the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, married 10-11 wives in a short span in the early 1840s -- still-married wives. (Many of their husbands had been conveniently sent on mission trips).

During those “Nixon” days, your Prophet and your church were definitely racists. I’d be careful throwing dirt there, you might find yourself awfully dirty.

I don’t doubt one bit that Billy Graham was sinful in some ways, we all are, but the entire LDS, both leaders AND doctrine were (to use your own word) anti-black.

Billy Graham was a great man in Christ. He brought the message of Christianity to hundreds of thousands of people personally. Way more than Joseph Smith did personally convert to his phoney anti-christian religion, or Brigham Young or Tommy Monson. Even combined, I doubt that those men coverted as many people to the anti-christianity of Mormonism than Billy Graham brought the message of Christ.

Orson Pratt (September 19, 1811 – October 3, 1881) was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement

and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

A true servant of God will never teach a false doctrine. He will never deny new revelation. He never will tell you that the canon of scripture is full, or that the New Testament is the last revelation ever intended to be given to man.

All the modern christian churches have no more authority to preach, baptize, or administer any other ordinance of the gospel than the idolatrous Hindoos have.

Each atom of the Holy Spirit is intelligent, and like all other matter has solidity, form, and size, and occupies space.

God is a spirit. A spirit is as much matter as oxygen or hydrogen.

God the Father and God the Son cannot be everywhere present; indeed they cannot be even in two places at the same instant: but God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent - it extends through all space, with all other matter.

I was ordained one of the standing High Council in Zion, under the hands of President Joseph Smith.

It is a grievous sin in the sight of God for any man to presume to baptize, unless God has authorized him by new revelation to baptize in his name.

It was seldom that I attended any religious meetings, as my parents had not much faith in and were never so unfortunate as to unite themselves with any of the religious sects.

On the 1st day of December, 1830, I was confirmed, and in accordance with the word of the Lord I was ordained an Elder under the hands of the Prophet.

The Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is a material being.

--Orson Pratt

Gee, I didn’t see anything about the Baptist Cult there.

Just wait; some thin-skinned MORMON will post some scandalous about, like what their Glorious Leader had said in the past...

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/17#17

17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother,

“I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.”

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