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Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History. Edited by Roger D. Launius and Linda Thatcher. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. xiv + 402
pp. $32.50 cloth; $18.95 paper.
For those interested in Mormon history, this book of seventeen essays is fascinating because of its focus on dissent. It shows that initially dissenters were disturbed to see Joseph Smith institutionalize the church increasingly in the direction of central authority and away from congregational autonomy. Ron Romig sympathetically portrays David Whitmer, who criticized Joseph Smith for his centralizing strategy. Whitmer was also critical of the entire effort to build "Zion" in Missouri. Several people persuaded Whitmer to take on leadership of a rival LDS Church. He accepted that invitation but attracted few followers for his Church of Christ. His organization was small and essentially died with him.
Kenneth H. Winn's sympathetic essay portrays John Corrill as a person of leadership in Mormon Missouri in the late 1830s who opposed the turn to military measures. Corrill constantly sought negotiation as a method for resolving crises in Missouri and resisted the authoritarian decisiveness that was growing. His devotion to republican principles led him to hope for limits to authority and especially a separation of church and state. He was finally excommunicated and disappeared into the quietude of private life.
William McClellin was another devoted early Mormon who broke with Joseph Smith. Richard Howard's more critical essay shows McClellin was disturbed with the increasing centralizing of the church organization and distanced himself from the group. He moved from one dissenting group to another, finally rejecting the Reorganization efforts in the 1860s...