Book Description

"Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of Succession" by Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. is a doctrinal book. During the summer of 1906 and continuing until the summer of 1907, a number of Reorganite ministers who were engaged in missionary work in Salt Lake City and Ogden, were greatly encouraged by one or two apostates and the local anti-"Mormon" press. Their method of proselyting was of the usual nature, a tirade of abuse and false accusation hurled at the authorities of the Church. Encouraged by the anti-"Mormon" help, they became extremely vindictive in their references to President Brigham Young and the present Church authorities. Their sermons were so bitter and malignant—which has been the character of most of their work from the beginning, in Utah—that they raised considerable protest from many respectable citizens. Even non-"Mormons" declared that in no other community would such vicious attacks be tolerated.