Happy birthday to a martyr for pedophilia and plural marriage, John Taylor. Born in England, Taylor was a religious enthusiast from youth, converting to Methodism at 16, and being appointed a lay preacher a year later. Shortly thereafter, he got a message from the hereafter and felt a calling to preach in America. At age twenty-four he emigrated to Canada. Taylor and his wife first came in contact with the Church of the Latter Day Saints in 1836. After the couples baptism into the church, they were active in preaching and the organization of the church in Upper Canada. They then moved to Far West, Missouri, where Taylor was ordained an apostle on December 19, 1838. The next year, Taylor and some of his fellow apostles served missions in Britain. While there, Taylor preached in Liverpool and was responsible for Mormon preaching in Ireland and the Isle of Man. Taylor returned to Nauvoo, Illinois to serve as a city councilman, a chaplain, a colonel, a newspaper editor, and a judge advocate for the Nauvoo Legion. In 1844, Taylor was with church founder Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, and fellow apostle Willard Richards in the Carthage, Illinois jail when the Smiths were killed by a mob. Taylor was severely wounded in the conflict. His myth says his life was spared when a musket ball directed towards his chest was stopped by a pocket watch which he was carrying at the time. In 1846, most Latter-day Saints followed Brigham Young into territory then controlled by Mexico, while Taylor went to England to resolve problems in church leadership there. On his return, he and Pratt led more Latter-day Saints, a group of about 1500, to the Salt Lake Valley, where Young and the others had settled. Taylor applied for and was granted United States citizenship in 1849. That same year he was appointed an associate judge in the provisional State of Deseret. He later served in the Utah territorial legislature from 1853. Taylor was elected Speaker of the House for five consecutive sessions, beginning in 1857. In 1852, he wrote a small book, The Government of God, in which he compared and contrasted the secular and ecclesiastical political systems. From 1868 to 1870 Taylor served as a probate judge of Utah County, Utah. He also served as superintendent of schools for Utah Territory beginning in 1876. Taylor served as president of two missions of the LDS Church. In 1849, he began missionary work in France and was the first church mission president in the country. Following Brigham Youngs death in 1877, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles governed the church, with John Taylor as the quorums president, selected Taylor to became the third president of the church in 1880. In 1882, the United States Congress enacted the Edmunds Act, which declared polygamy to be a felony. Hundreds of Mormon men and women were arrested and imprisoned for continuing to practice plural marriage. Taylor had followed Joseph Smiths teachings on polygamy, and had at least seven wives. He is known to have fathered 34 children. Taylor moved in with his sister Agnes to avoid prosecution and to avoid showing preference to any one of his families. However, by 1885, he and his counselors were forced to withdraw from public view to live in the underground; they were frequently on the move to avoid arrest. In 1885, during his last public sermon, Taylor remarked, I would like to obey and place myself in subjection to every law of man. What then? Am I to disobey the law of God? Has any man a right to control my conscience, or your conscience? ... No man has a right to do it. In 1887, the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds–Tucker Act, which abolished womens suffrage in Utah Territory, forced wives to testify against their husbands, disincorporated the LDS Church, dismantled the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, abolished the Nauvoo Legion, and provided that LDS Church property in excess of $50,000 would be forfeited to the United States. For two-and-a-half years, Taylor presided over the church from exile. During this time, he is said to have received the 1886 Revelation. Photographs of the original document exist, which restated the permanence of the New and Everlasting Covenant, which some consider to be referring directly to the practice of plural marriage; the validity of this revelation is rejected by the LDS Church but it is used by Mormon fundamentalists to justify the continued practice of polygamy. Among those at his death bed was Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr, who claimed he was made Taylors successor and thus was the fourth President of the Mormon Church. When Alma died in 1951, he passed the leadership of the community on to his son Joel LeBaron. The next year, according to their theology, the insertion of under god into the pledge of allegiance made Joal, as Gods vicar, absolute ruler of US. Joel eventually incorporated the community as the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times in Salt Lake City, Utah. Joels younger brother, Ervil LeBaron, was his second in command during the early years of the churchs existence, until he murdered him for the leadership and went on a killing spree against false prophets. Back to Taylor, he is reported to have had a marvelous singing voice. At the request of Hyrum Smith, he twice sang the song A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief in Carthage Jail just before the Smith brothers murder. Taylor wrote the lyrics to several hymns, some of which are still used by the LDS Church, among them Ive Seen Fire, Ive seen Rain on the Apocalypses, and Youve Got a Friend (In Jesus) Oops! Sorry. Wrong Taylor! youtube/watch?v=A5ScjX6q_Qc
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 20:27:17 +0000
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