Saturday 12 November 2011

Did Joseph Smith write the winner's 2012 presidential platform?

so, that was kinda too easy. i mean, there is a ton i need to digest in that platform, but the fact that a prophet of God wrote a presidential platform. it seems like if you actually believed the guy was a prophet, you'd drop whatever you had and pick his up, right?

so, i'm going to do some study of this amazing document that i've only just now skimmed once. but there are some interesting articles already written about Joseph Smith's run.

here are some of the links i found most interesting. (i just googled ... there is more than one would think, since most don't know this happened... like me):
In broader terms, the lecture will discuss Joseph Smith's political views as well as his decision to run for President of the United States in 1844. “I will discuss the various possible reasons Joseph Smith decided to run for President but, more importantly, focus on the Constitutional issue of states’ rights,” says Allen. South Carolina Senator Calhoun was one of the government officials Smith met with during his 1840 visit to Washington, D.C. After explaining the plight of the Mormons who had lost so many rights and possessions in Missouri, Calhoun and others told him the federal government could not intervene in an issue involving states' rights, and thus help the saints.
In his lecture, Professor Allen will describe Joseph Smith's platform as presidential candidate and how his proposals resided within the mainstream of the period's political debates. The professor asserts that Smith's campaign anticipated the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868.
there is way way way more. turns out there are a host of professors out there debating and fighting over these questions. i say we have a mormon debate. i want to hear mormons debate the theology and then see how the candidates match up to the theology.

i'm hoping people will analyze this for realz. i will try, but i'm not a political scientist, so i don't really know how one does all that. i'm just going to try and distill it assuming that his point of view at its core, is correct. that it is based on correct principles.

thoughts?

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