The King Follet Discourse

[Moksha]

This sermon in which Joseph Smith fed a multitude of 20,000 with a few loaves, fish, and fry sauce was really something. LDS TV has made a super special presentation of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itg7asMppaE&t=5s

[Philo Sofee]

I thought the comments section were interesting... thanks for the link. People are not just swooning anymore when Mormonism presents its "best light" to the world, but are pushing back. It's a Brave New World for Mormons on the Internet...

[Moksha]

I imagine producing programs like this puts a smile on the face of KSL executives because they can point to it as a reason to get a salary bump.

[Philo Sofee]

I imagine producing programs like this puts a smile on the face of KSL executives because they can point to it as a reason to get a salary bump.

Or a demotion...

[Moksha]

Right after the Discourse came the events that lead to Joseph's death in Carthage, Illinois.

Wonder what would have happened if Joseph Smith had refrained from ordering the Nauvoo Expositor press destroyed? He would not have been taken to Carthage at that time, but unless he went full Trump and vehemently denied the truth, the jig was up for Joseph, Brigham, and the Traveling Quorum of Apostles as far as polygamy goes.

Could the Church sustain the lie that polygamy was not being practiced? Would the Illinois Department of Child Protection come to question the 14-year-olds: Nancy Winchester and Helen Mar Kimball? Would Joseph and Brigham have spent time in the Jolliet prison facility? Could Joseph and Brigham convert their fellow convicts to the LDS Church?

[Wonhyo]

Right after the Discourse came the events that lead to Joseph's death in Carthage, Illinois.

Wonder what would have happened if Joseph Smith had refrained from ordering the Nauvoo Expositor press destroyed? He would not have been taken to Carthage at that time, but unless he went full Trump and vehemently denied the truth, the jig was up for Joseph, Brigham, and the Traveling Quorum of Apostles as far as polygamy goes.

Could the Church sustain the lie that polygamy was not being practiced? Would the Illinois Department of Child Protection come to question the 14-year-olds: Nancy Winchester and Helen Mar Kimball? Would Joseph and Brigham have spent time in the Jolliet prison facility? Could Joseph and Brigham convert their fellow convicts to the LDS Church?

Interesting things to to ponder...

What would have happened if King Follet had not died and Joseph had not been asked to speak at his funeral? The material recorded in the sermon must have been developing in Joseph's mind for a while. Would he have had an opportunity as large as the funeral to unload that material? I suppose it's possible, after all, Joseph gave the "Sermon in the Grove" a couple of months later in June 1844, just about ten days before he died, which reviewed some of the same topics from King Follet and cryptically expanded on a few points.

Without the King Follet sermon, would there have been a Sermon in the Grove? Would these topics have been the meat of a recorded revelation later added to the Doctrine & Covenants? Without these two non-canonical discourses, what would Mormon eschatology look like today?

The cynical me wants to say that this hypothetical version of Mormonism today would resemble the Community of Christ more than the Salt Lake-based LD$, Inc. The practical me wants to admit that what happened is exactly what needed to happen, for good or for ill, and perhaps for both.