Religious Freedom at the Pulpit

During the Nauvoo years of the Church, Joseph Smith encouraged the Saints to listen to and respect traveling ministers from other faiths. Joseph believed that all had a right to believe however they wanted and gave ministers ample time at LDS pulpits to explain their beliefs. True or false, did this practice continue once the Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley?

Yesterday’s answer:

C)   Native American

The following from the autobiography of Jesse Crosby reminiscing his days while living on his father’s farm in western New York:

“Many others followed the example, and a branch of the Church was organized [1838]. The Holy Ghost was poured out insomuch that many were healed of their infirmities, and prophesied, some saw visions, others spoke in different languages by the gift and power of God as on the day of Pentecost. The language or dialect of various tribes of the American Indians was spoken, and that too by persons who had never spoken with an Indian in their lives. I will own, that though I believed, I was astonished, but will add that I have since traveled among various tribes of Indians in the central and uncultivated parts of America and have recognized not only the language, but the gesture and very manner in which it was spoken.

   “One may inquire why it was that the spirit of God dictated these individuals to speak in the language of these wandering outcasts. Oh! here is the mystery that the world hath not seen. These are a remnant of Israel, the descendants of Joseph, and heirs to the promises made to their fathers; see Book of Mormon.”

Autobiography of Jesse W. Crosby, Typescript, Harold B. Lee

Library, Brigham Young University; http://www.boap.org/

John Corrill sheds additional light on the subject

“I attended several meetings, one of which was the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, which, I thought, would give me a good opportunity to detect their hypocrisy. The meeting lasted all night, and such a meeting I never attended before. They administered the sacrament, and laid on hands, after which I heard them prophesy and speak in tongues unknown to me. Persons in the room, who took no part with them, declared, from the knowledge they had of the Indian languages, that the tongues spoken were regular Indian dialects, which I was also informed, on inquiry, the persons who spoke had never learned. I watched closely and examined carefully, every movement of the meeting, and after exhausting all my powers to find the deception, I was obliged to acknowledge, in my own mind that the meeting had been inspired by some supernatural agency. The next day I returned home, satisfied that the evil reports were not true, and spent about six weeks more in the further investigation of the subject.”

John Corrill, A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (Commonly Called Mormons, Including an Account of their Doctrine and Discipline, with the Reasons of the Author for Leaving the Church) (St. Louis, n.p., 1839).