jpseph smith is a pretty fascinating character in his own right. good luck getting mormons to talk about his past tho the area he grew up in in western nys at that time was gripped with insane religious fervor, and thanks to us laws protecting freedom of worship and all the various religious groups who had immigrated here, there were just dozens and dozens of small town lone wolf preachers in every town and village, all preaching totally different shit. sometimes without even an actual institution to back them guy grew up wandering around listening to all of it, even following a few briefly, then joined the masons, then decided it was time to start his own cult. to me that always sounded like a very spiritually cynical person, but then he actually did do pretty good by his own people and his death was a literal conspiracy is there any help for a widows son, etc
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