Bill Shepard is an amazing Mormon historian, and a former president of the John Whitmer Historical Association. He is also a Strangite. In our first conversation with Bill, we will get acquainted with him, and learn more about these other Mormons, & James Strang, a prophet many of you may not have heard of.
GT: Welcome to Gospel Tangents. I’m excited to have an amazing historian and I’m going to start this a little bit differently. But, first of all, could you tell us who you are?
Bill: Bill Shepard, I’m a life-long Strangite. Maybe more importantly, I’m a historian.
GT: Yes. You were the president of the John Whitmer Historical Association.
Bill: In 2008, yes. We had John Whitmer [Conference] at Voree, Wisconsin or Burlington, Wisconsin. We had a nice turnout of people, including Mike Quinn and Roger Launius.
GT: So, you’ve been doing this for a long time. You’ve got a really awesome book. Do you want to show the camera? Your book was published in 1977![1]
Bill: This was basically intended to get out the positive things about James J. Strang and his teachings. It basically [tells] why the other Mormons sects are not correct. So if I would redo it, I would redo it a lot more professionally at this point in time. But it does have the positive things showing James J. Strang’s teachings. I think they’re quite significant.
GT: Well, let’s do a few things here. I don’t normally do this but tell me the name of your church because I think a lot of my listeners will be very surprised to hear the name of your church.
Bill: It’s actually the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite). We had to put the appendage on. We couldn’t use the term Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for obvious reasons.
GT: In fact, I think the only difference between your church name and my church name is I have a lowercase d, and you’ve got a capital D with no hyphen.
Bill: Right.
GT: We have a hyphen, lowercase. So that’s pretty funny. So would you call yourself a Mormon?
Bill: Oh, very definitely. We are asked many times, just like the LDS Church or Utah Mormons are asked, “Are you Christians?” [We have the] same problem, same identification, same basic goals. Strangites accept Joseph Smith certainly. They break, of course, with the transition to the Twelve Apostles into Brigham Young. So there was a critical period there when Joseph Smith died in that the Brighamite church did not have a prophet. Now the Strangites claimed that an angel had appeared to [James J. Strang] at the time that Joseph Smith was martyred and ordained him to be a prophet. It’s interesting to think that in this early period, the Strangites had a song by John Hardy. It wasn’t theirs, but it was “A Church Without a Prophet is not a church for me.”
GT: Oh, wow.
Bill: Of course, at that point in time until the 27th of December, 1847 the Brighamite church reorganized with Brigham Young as a prophet as their head.
[1] The book is called “James J. Strang: Teachings of a Mormon Prophet.” It is out of print and can be hard to find at a reasonable price.
We will learn more about Strangite beliefs. Following James Strang’s prophetic call, he sought to gather people to his movement. Strang’s Mormon missions included trips to Kirtland, Ohio, home of the temple, and he tried to gather people to Wisconsin as the new promised land. Historian Bill Shepard will describe more about these missions by James Strang.
Bill: Strang is going to go to Kirtland, I think in September of 1846. They’re going to sweep Kirtland. The people are going to join him. They established a High Council of Presidency over there. Strang has keys to the temple, and so everything looks rosy.
GT: Oh, wow. So he was really making inroads in Kirtland.
Bill: Yes, in Kirtland and in the east, wherever he would go. [For] the Mormons, this fit the bill, because this was primitive Mormonism. Strang, in my view, unwisely dealt with some people that had been malcontents in Joseph’s church which was disastrous for his cause: John C. Bennett, William E. McLellin, George J. Adams, William Smith. So, in retrospect I would think he would look back and say, “Oh, why did I do this?”
GT: Martin Harris, didn’t he join with Strang for a while?
Bill: That triumphant mission of Strang out east, the three witnesses and most of the eight witnesses–now I realize that some of them would be dead–but they acknowledged Strang. They acknowledged him. So for a brief instant, and I would say it’s very short, Strang is going to make these grandiose [claims.] He is attracting a lot of people.
GT: People who didn’t like Brigham Young and polygamy.
Bill: Right. Exactly, and secret societies. Any of that. Many of them do not gather out to Voree, however. They choose to give their allegiance from a distance. Several things happened. One thing happened, I look at the picture, and the person did him the most damage was William E. McLellin. William E. McClellan had been cut off in 1837.
Were you aware of Strang’s early missionary successes? What do you know about Strangites?
Wheat & Tares 
I’d like to know what he taught that made him “Prophetic” in the eyes of others.I know he had the Voree plates’ translation but I’ve never read through them.
Very interesting interview. I’m enjoying Bill Shepard’s sympathetic take.
A year or two ago I read Vickie Cleverley Speek’s book, “God Has Made Us a Kingdom: James Strang and the Midwest Mormons.” I enjoyed it and was struck by the scale of Strang’s initial success. While I’d been made aware of him during my time growing up as a member of the Utah-based LDS Church, the impression I took away was that Strangites were just a minor splinter group. I hadn’t realized just how well Strang did for a time.
My other impression from that book, which your guest touched on, is how Strang quickly repeated some of Joseph Smith’s mistakes, including who he let into his inner-circle. He also instituted polygamy, and ruffling the political/economic feathers of local people. A bit of an oversimplification on my part, but I came away feeling Strang’s reign was a reenactment of Nauvoo on fast forward. Initial triumph leading to crash and burn.
Andy, In my next episode, we will talk about Strang’s translation of the Voree Plates, which was apparently dug up by non-Mormons and shown to the world (unlike the golden plates which the world did not see.) He also translated the Plates of Laban which is called the “Book of the Law of the Lord.” Besides the 10 Commandments, it contains other writings the Strangites hold sacred. (It was given and taken away by an angel.) It seems clear to me that Strang tried his best to imitate Joseph, and those attracted to angels, gold plates, and revelation would have been quite attracted to Strang.
Yes Jake, I agree with your crash and burn comment. There were so many similarities with James and Joseph. In some ways (as we will learn next week) the Strangites were persecuted as severely as the Utah pioneers. It really is striking to see how many similarities there are between the two groups.
Years ago (40+) I read a book about groups in the US who lived communally (basically the united order). I recognized many names from Mormonism among these groups. Did Strang maintain this principle and might some of those groups have been Strangites? Or were they just smaller independent groups that did not move West?
When I read about James Strang I’m reminded about something that has always disturbed me: why was there no obvious succession plan in place in the early Church? Why did so many people (Strang, Rigdon, Young. the Smiths) feel like they were entitled to lead the Church after JS? It’s so interesting how strict we are about every little practice and procedure in the Church (as if the Lord wants it that way) yet we had no idea who was going to take over after Joseph Smith? That sounds like a man-made organization, not one that is being lead by God. Maybe I’m missing something.
Charlene, I expect Strang tried to implement consecration, though Bill and I didn’t address that topic specifically. I think they do not practice it any more. Many Strangites converted to the RLDS Church, and the RLDS Church is viewed as a much bigger threat to Strangism than the LDS Church.
Joshua, it is interesting that Strang didn’t appoint a successor when he died either. He felt angelic ordination is the only way to call a prophet and since nobody claimed an angelic visitation, there has been no new prophet since Strang.
D. Michael Quinn describes seven or so “succession plans” that could be taken from Joseph’s proclamations or actions. They seem, to me, to be more based on reactions to circumstances and personalities than actual theology or earnest planning.
Frankly, I don’t think Joseph was very serious about succession because he hoped it would be a long way off. He was young. Even though constantly plagued with money problems, he was floating a pretty nice lifestyle and accumulating significant property. He commanded one of the largest armies on the continent, controlled the politics of the most powerful city in the region, and had a following that rivaled any of his contemporaries in the country. And, he was doing alright with the ladies.
I think most days Joseph was living his vision as if it would never end – with no serious plans for when it would.
As a standard LDS member, I still can’t help but find this passage extremely telling:
Section 124:58 And as I said unto Abraham concerning the kindreds of the earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph: In thee and in thy seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed.
Now we know that in Gen 26:3-5 God established the covenent line from Abraham down through Jacob because Jacob get’s Abraham’s blessing and so we know to watch Jacob’s children for continuance as opposed to Esau or Ishmael or any other offspring. (That’s how I interpret it, others can completely disagree and I’ll see that as a valid point)
So back to D&C 124, that makes me think, we probably should have been watching Joseph’s seed if we believe that was a real revelation. Now I know the rest of the section goes on to talk about the Nauvoo house but the promise is still made.
Now, I’m not going to jump ship and join the COC but I still find it interesting.
Joseph Smith left neither revelation nor documentation that specifically stated how succession would take place. Strang, Young, joseph 3rd, and Rigdon all had evidences that supported their positions.
All groups connected to Mormonism share a belief in Joseph’s calling as a Prophet, and the Book of Mormon. Beyond that, every group, with the exception of the main LDS organization and its breakaways, hold the theory of Joseph as a fallen prophet. The period in which it happened is as varied as the groups.
I don’t recall seeing a Strangite Church in the Independence Missouri area. Was there ever one? Most groups still acknowledge the significance of the Center Place.
I don’t think every group holds Joseph as a fallen prophet. I don’t think Strangites have ever made an appearance in Independence. Their main 2 locations are Voree, Wisconsin and Beaver Island, Michigan.