A possible source of Joseph Smith's ideas?

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stuck
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A possible source of Joseph Smith's ideas?

Post by stuck » Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:21 pm

I was watching the history of Christianity on a great courses lecture and they spoke about Munster's rebellion which sounded a lot like what Joseph Smith did. Here is a link to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnster_rebellion

Arcturus
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Re: A possible source of Joseph Smith's ideas?

Post by Arcturus » Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:20 pm

I could be wrong, but I think Dan Carlin did an episode on this in his Hard Core History podcast - Prophets of Doom if I recall. Very fascinating history and fascinating parallels with Mormonism. Also shows how crazy religion can be and the damage it can do.

Rather than a possible source, maybe this is just how religious abuse/fanaticism manifests across groups. It’s also a fun exercise to map the parallels between Scientology and Mormonism. Hubbard and Smith have a lot of crazy similarities...
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annotatedbom
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Re: A possible source of Joseph Smith's ideas?

Post by annotatedbom » Tue Dec 31, 2019 9:59 am

Arcturus wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:20 pm
I could be wrong, but I think Dan Carlin did an episode on this in his Hard Core History podcast - Prophets of Doom if I recall. Very fascinating history and fascinating parallels with Mormonism. Also shows how crazy religion can be and the damage it can do.

Rather than a possible source, maybe this is just how religious abuse/fanaticism manifests across groups. It’s also a fun exercise to map the parallels between Scientology and Mormonism. Hubbard and Smith have a lot of crazy similarities...
Wow! I listened to that Hard Core History episode not too long after it came out--at least long enough ago that it was still free (looks like that episode costs $1.99 to listen to now). It was amazing (as every episode of that podcast I've listened to has been). I was visiting non-Mormon friends and family in another state right after listening to that episode, and I probably bored them silly talking about the Anabaptists.

And like you, if I had to bet, I'd wager that rather than a possible source for Smith's ideas, it seems more likely that Smith's hunger for power and control organically led to these similarities between Mormonism and the Anabaptists.

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