Joseph Musser & Post-Manifesto Polygamy (Cristina Rosetti 2 of 5)

Joseph Musser has documented Mormon fundamentalism better than nearly any other person. Dr Cristina Rosetti will discuss his post-Manifesto polygamy and his theological innovations. Check out our conversation...



https://youtu.be/huUeh2wCzmc



Don’t miss our other conversations with Cristina: https://gospeltangents.com/people/cristina-rosetti/



 



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Joseph Musser & Post Manifesto Polygamy

Cristina  01:19  Lorin Woolley takes that, and he then continues this process where he ordains other men that are called the Council of Friends. So his dad, John Wickersham Woolley: John W. Wolley, Charles Zitting, J. Lesley Broadbent, John Y. Barlow, Joseph Musser, become the men.



GT  01:37  That's five?



Cristina  01:38  Yes. And so then, when Joseph Musser is ordained, he talks about, he was like," I was ordained an apostle to the world."  It's like a...



GT  01:48  And this is in 1921?



Cristina  01:51  Joseph Musser's ordination is 1929. Joseph Musser is excommunicated in 1921. He jumped ship to the fundamentalist movement. He starts attending these meetings and starts meeting people. Very early on, I mean, Joseph Musser was smart. He kept a diary, a very thorough diary. Because of that, the early years of the movement are really told through the pen of Joseph Musser. The Woolley story is told through the pen of Joseph Musser, because Musser is keeping the meeting minutes. Musser is writing pamphlets. Very early on, when Musser really struggles financially and to hold down a job in a time when people hate polygamists, he's losing his job. That ends up being fine in a lot of ways. Because Lorin Woolley ends up telling him, "Well, your calling is to spread the movement." Because of that, Joseph Musser ends up publishing a monthly periodical, Truth Magazine. He ends up publishing a lot of pamphlets. He ends up really being a figurehead of this movement. Eventually, as members of the council die, he does become the senior member and he's the president of the priesthood at the end of his life.



GT  03:03  Okay, so 1921 is where the first Council of Friends was ordained, Is that right? Or was it 1929?



Cristina  03:12  The ordinations happen sporadically. They're not all at one time.



GT  03:18 Which Woolley was 1921?



Cristina  03:20  That's when Lorin Woolley starts telling the story.



GT  03:22  Lorin Woolley, and so then he ordains his father next?



Cristina  03:25  We don't know if his dad is the immediate next one. I know the Musser story. (Chuckling)  Musser, I think, is actually the last one in 1929.



GT  03:35  Okay, so over the next eight years...



Cristina  03:38  But Musser was also still a member of the LDS Church until 1921, which is very late for a practicing polygamist, an unapologetic polygamist, a polygamist who is still getting married to other people, to be in the church. March 1921 is late to still be going strong.



GT  04:01  Well, because I think last time we talked a little bit about him, and you told the story about how the apostles called him in.



Cristina  04:09  Yeah, in 1909.



GT  04:10  Can you tell that again?



Cristina  04:11  Yeah, he was called into a disciplinary hearing in 1909. It was in the Salt Lake Temple. It's the longest diary entry he gives. It's an interesting diary entry because he talks about how he was called into a meeting with--Rudger Clawson was there, and Anthony W. Evans was there, and Francis Lyman was there.