The following is a manifesto from “The Utah Magazine“, which would later be renamed The Salt Lake Tribune. This manifesto was written by Elias Lacy Thomas Harrison and William Samuel Godbe, and announced the creation of the Godbeite movement and its basic principles.
Inasmuch as a great variety of rumors have been started with reference to our views concerning the past and future of “Mormonism,” we feel that our interests, as well as our duty to the public, require us to make a plain statement of the circumstances which have led to our present relations to the Church, and the reasons that have guided our course in relation to the articles we have published in the UTAH MAGAZINE.
For some years past we have felt that a great encroachment of power was being made by the ruling Priesthood of our Church, beyond that allowed by the spirit and genius of the Gospel. We also have perceived that a steady and constant decline was taking place in the manifestation of the spiritual gifts, as well as in the spirituality of our system as a while, and that as a Church we were fast running into a state of the most complete materialism. We felt that the working out of our system was small and insignificant compared with the grandeur of the programme as announced by Joseph Smith. The broad and liberal system which, in the earnestness of our souls, we had embraced so many years ago, with its grand and universalian invitation to men of every creed and nation to come to Zion for a home in our midst, was being practically ignored, and in the stead thereof was being built up a wall of bitterness and hate between ourselves and the rest of the world.The constant growth of such principles as these, and the certainty that under such conditions Mormonism could never fulfil that great destiny of salvation to the world, for which we had prayed and labored, gave us great pain. But, feeling assured of the divinity of our system in its origin, and fearful lest we should ignorantly oppose the will of God as manifested through his servants, we tried from time to time, to close our eyes to the facts before us, and sought earnestly by every kind of argument to convince ourselves that we were wrong. We contained thus vainly striving to reconcile ourselves to the inconsistencies around us, until the facts forced themselves so overwhelmingly upon our minds, that we were driven from every stronghold and reluctantly compelled to admit the truth of these convictions.
During all these times we sought earnestly for light from above, ouur first and last prayer being that we might never be allowed to oppose the truth, and earnestly, and continually examined ourselves to see whether pride, selfishness, self-will, or any impurity of thought or deed, prevented our seeing the wisdom of President Young’s measures, or receiving a testimony of their divinity. At last the light came, and by the voice of angelic beings accompanied by most holy influences – and other evidences that witnessed to all our faculties that their communications were authorized of God – we were, each of us, given personally to know that, notwithstanding some misconceptions and extremes wisely permitted to accommodate it to the weakness of mankind, “Mormonism” was inaugurated by the heavens for a great and divine purpose; its main object being the gathering of an inspirational people, believing in continuous revelations, who, with such channels opened up, could at any period be moulded to any purpose the Heavens might desire; and out of whom, with these opportunities for divine communication, could be developed the grandest, and the noblest civilization the world had ever seen. We also learned that the evils we had seen in the Church truly did exist; but that they would pass away before the light of a clearer and greater day of revelation and inspiration which was about to dawn upon our system.
At the same time we learned that President Young was truly called by the direct providences of God to preside over our people; that he was inspired to lead them to these mountains; and, that, so far as his personal bias and character permitted, he had been, from time to time, influenced for the good of this people; but that his course in building up a despotic priestly rule in the Church was contrary to the will of the Heavens. We further learned that it was contrary to the laws of divine communication, and impossible for Heavenly beings to influence him or any other man against his will, or to enlighten such of the Priesthood associated with him, so long as they entirely surrendered their judgment and will into his keeping. On which account other channels for communication would be obtained and opened up to the people.
With this understanding came instructions that it was our duty to remain in the Church so long as the policy of the Presiding Priesthood would allow us the privilege, and at the same time our duty to throw out through the MAGAZINE such advanced truths as would elevate the people and prepare them for the changes at hand. Two motives prompted us to this. One was that as men, independent of the question of divinity, it was our duty to strive for the liberties and advancement of our fellows, and the other, that the will of the Heavens demanded it. We well knew that we should have to fight through a thousand obstacles; that calumny and falsehood would be unsparingly used against us, and that the ruling Priesthood would bring the whole of its gigantic organization to bear, both in public and in private, to crush the MAGAZINE and its sentiments out of existence; and more than all, we knew that but few of the people for whom we were laboring, would – for some time at least – appreciate our motives. There was, however, but one course for men of truth, and that was to face the whole. And thus we have struggled through, regardless of consequences, and expect to do so until we see truth and liberty triumphant.
We were also instructed to respect the illegitimate exercise of President Young’s authority, and that there might be no righteous cause against us, to sustain it until he should tread upon the last vestige of liberty, and attempt to abolish all rights of thought and speech within the Church.This he has now done. For daring mildly, and respectfully, to reason upon the inconsistencies of some of his propositions he has deprived us of our fellowship and standing in the Church, and thus with his own hand has dissolved our allegiance to him. He has declared that his will is supreme and omnipotent in the CHurch, and that it shall be unquestioningly obeyed; and that to oppose any of his measure shall be deemed apostasy, and punished by excommunication.
The proper time having now arrived, we are at liberty to bear our message to the members of our church and the world at large. We, therefore announce to them that a great and Divine Movement is at hand, when the Church will find a second birth, and commence a new era in her career. She will return to her true order – the guidance of Prophets, Seers, and Revelators, the administration of Angels, and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Having learned the evils of one-man power, she will never again surrender her liberties into human keeping. She will disentangle her hands from alliance with Commerce and the Civil power, and move onward to her true destiny – to be the Great and Spiritual and Intellectual power of the earth.
The Movement will be accompanied by manifestations of divine power. The Holy Spirit in the hearts of the Saints throughout the Church will bear witness to its truth. “Israel” in all their abidings, will hear and recognize the voice of the “True Shepherd.”
Up to this moment we have started no organization, having hitherto no authority to do so. As to the question whom God will raise up to lead this people, we will say, in the first place, that the Movement will never develop any one man in whom will be centered all the intelligence and wisdom of the people. In this sense there is no “Coming Man,” there are, however, MANY Coming Men. Light, Truth, Wisdom, and Revelation will, and should be, reflected by the whole body of the Church, as well as by its head. While there must be, of necessity, an Executive, or presiding head, man-worship of every degree must pass away, and men learn to look with greater reverence to principles than to those who present them. As to whom this head will be, it is not our business to say, further than that God will produce the proper man in due time. It is sufficient for us to know that it will be neither of us. Of this great Movement – far greater than ourselves – we are but the forerunners. We are but as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” Our is a preparatory mission, and it is our work to arouse the people, and by reasoning, teaching, and enlightenment, prepare them for a new order of things. We have no personal cause to establish. We do not pretend to be Seers, nor to possess any wonderful or marvelous gifts. We make no claims to any distinction further than that, in the providence of God, it has been our privilege to be made acquainted with some great truths which it is our duty to make known.
It may be asked by what right we presume to interfere in matters appertaining to the Presiding Priesthood of the Church. We reply: by the simple right that every man has to utter a truth, – the same right that the boy Samuel had to deliver his simple message to the Lord’s servant, the Great Presiding High Priest of Israel. And finally, by the right which the Heavens reserve to themselves, to speak whenever and by whomsoever they please.
As to how many of the present authorities, or leading men, will, or will not work into the new order of things, it is not our business here to inquire. This will depend entirely on the extent to which they suspend a hasty judgment, seek divine guidance, and lay themselves open to the reception of light. To the extent to which they, or any other persons, will lay aside prejudice, and place themselves at the feet of the Truth, determined to accept any principle, however strange or new, which their judgments shall endorse and which God shall bear witness to, God in their whole beings, intellectually and spiritually, shall bear witness that light has come and that a divine influence accompanies the Movement. The words, the voice, and the spirit of Jesus shall be felt in it, speaking to the hearts of the yearning souls of the children of Zion.
And here let us say the object of this Movement will be to preserve, and not to destroy our system. In consequence of the undue exercise of priestly authority, the elements of resistance and division are now silently working in the overwrought but suppressed feelings of our people. It requires but little more exertion of such arbitrary power to rend asunder the ties which bind us, and scatter us to the four winds. Nothing can save us but the raising of a platform combining liberty of thought and action with all the ancient beauties of our faith – one upon which we can unite. In this way alone can we preserve our existence as a people, – and for this the Heavens have provided.
We will now give a general outline of what we understand will be the governing principles and policy which will characterize the Movement when established.
The Church thenceforth will be known as the CHURCH OF ZION.
The ordinances and principles of the Gospel will remain intact as at present.
The Spiritual gifts will be encouraged in all their forms of manifestation.
The great truth will be emphatically proclaimed, that no priesthood or standing in the church, or ordinances of any kind, in and of themselves, elevate the possessor, or obtain for him any distinction in the sight of God. All outward forms import as they are in their place, will be considered only as means for our advancement in purity, goodness, and intelligence. Apart from which object it will be understood that they have no power or value.The whole purpose of the gospel being the elevation of man’s nature, all its organizations or requirements will be held, therefore, to be but means to that end.
Inasmuch as men cannot labor with all the energies of their souls, or work with dignity and influence, unless their hearts are fully engaged in their operations, the Movement will oppose the principle of sending men on missions where they are destitute of the spirit of such mission or calling.
On the subject of funds it will be understood that the Church was not instituted as a machine for raising money, and that all wealth which the Church cannot obtain without oppressing its people it will be better without. It will be taught that God has no special object in requiring Tithing, only so far as it tends to the promulgation of truth, the relief of the poor, or the promotion of public improvements. The doctrine will be that Tithing was instituted for man and not man for the Tithing. The Movement will also maintain that the Church’s funds are the people’s property, and should be regularly accounted for to them; and, further, that the control thereof should belong to the Presiding Bishop, acting under a board of Trustees, elected by the people, and not to the Presidency of the Church, whose minds should be left free to attend to higher duties. Tithing will consist of a tenth of one’s increase, or, a tenth of all clear profits, obtained over and above the amount possessed the previous year. Or, in other words, Tithing should be a tenth of the interest (or GAIN) obtained by labor or means, or both, annually, and not a tenth of one’s entire labor, or, the results of labor, as at present understood and enforced. Thus throwing the weight of Tithing mainly on the rich, and lightening the burdens of the poor.
The prominence and influence once enjoyed by the Twelve and other quorums will be revived, and the policy will be to repress the principle by which any one quorum has hitherto been made to possess the sole voice in matters, and the entire conduct of the Church.
All quorums of the Church will be understood simply as organizations for a transaction of its business and the promulgation of its principles, and not as vehicles for promoting any set of men above their fellows. The First Presidency of the Church will be recognized as its Executive, who should be chief representatives of the spirit and inspirations of all its quorums – reflecting not only their own light but the garnered wisdom of the whole people. The first and last lesson to be learned by every quorum will be that neither head nor foot can say to the other, – “I have no need of thee.”
The Priesthood will present itself before the world simply as an institution for teaching and propagating truth. It will throw aside all pretensions to dictatorial power, and leave men’s professions, their employment, and the entire control of their talents and means to themselves. It will seek to promote the individuality of every man to the utmost. Instead of trying to force the conceptions of one man’s brain, or those of twenty, into the million, it will recognize the God, the light and truth that is in the souls of all men, and seek only to develop it and guide it to its true end.
The Church will enlarge her creed so that she can become the nursing mother of millions instead of the controller of a few. So long as men obey the initiatory ordinances of the Gospel and live pure lives, the Church will find a place for them within her borders, whether they can accept one additional principle of truth or a thousand. Like Nature, which rejects nothing from her domain, but, from the rudest to the grandest organism, controls all with the same hand, so will the Church embrace all intelligences within her operations, accepting them as they are, and leading them up to God.
The unity which the Church will aim for, will be the unity of oneness in all great principles of truth. It will seek to harmonize the sentiments of mankind, leaving all free to follow the bent of their organization, and to work out their own individuality, instead of aiming to direct their action in the petty details of life. This is the unity and harmony manifested in the Universe, in which all elements are united in obeying great general laws, while each manifests its peculiar qualities in its own way. This, therefore, is God’s unity, and life and intelligence can be controlled on no other principle. All other unity is the soulless unity of the drill sergeant, and as destructive of human intelligence as it is beneath the aims of a God.
All religions will be recognized as having been wisely developed in the providences of God to meet the various conditions of the different races and classes of mankind.
It will be understood that any creed which is above the understanding of a man cannot be divine to him, while a lower creed, which comes within his conceptions of what is divine, will touch his heart and develop more good in his nature. All creeds, therefore, will be respected in Zion as fulfilling a great and a useful mission in God’s hand.
In the wide creed of this Divine Movement, Zion’s motto will be: “Charity for all.” She will view the wicked or corrupt as men morally diseased, that simply need to be cured. She will ascribe all wickedness to ignorance, false education, unfortunate surroundings, and more than all to inherent tendencies to good or evil derived from parentage at birth. While she will teach that all are responsible for making the best use of such intelligence and perceptions of good as they do possess, she will content that tendencies to good or evil are not equally strong in all men – that with some, it is far easier to do right than it is for others, and that the wicked should be viewed as the unfortunate, who require more love and care than “those that are whole and need not a physician.”
The policy of the Movement will be to make Zion, that place, of all others on the face of the earth, where mere differences of creed has the least power to separate man from his fellow man. Zion’s policy will be to abolish all distinctions which build up hatred and division in the hearts of men, and to draw all men so near to her that she can reach their affections and do them good. The term “Gentile” will, therefore, pass away. Entrenched in the strength of the broadest, most liberal, and most philosophical principles the world has ever known, and backed by the invisible influences of a higher world, she will fear no rivalry, and need no petty external arrangements to shield her from the influence of inferior faiths, or from intermixture with the bad. All wholesale measures for separation and non-association between classes and creeds are artificial, and require, as we well know, the watchman and the inquisitor to keep them going – and then they fail. There is no true safeguard from corruption but that of higher education and intelligence. The good and the pure, the intellectually and spiritually developed, need no division between themselves and the ignorant and depraved. Their own natures and higher conditions are a sufficient division and protection.
All trading or social relations with people, in or out of the Church, will decide themselves upon grounds of acquaintance, experience, and individual judgment. All wholesale prohibitions of classes or creeds, commercially or religiously, are opposed to the spirit of the age and must cease.
On the great question of Civil rule, the Movement will recognize the National Government as supreme in its sphere. It will, therefore, practically sustain its laws and seek, by constitutional means, to change those which it considers opposed to religious or civil liberty.
Another point in the Movement will be to place the practice of plural marriage on the highest grounds. It will only maintain or encourage it so far as it is practiced within the highest conditions of purity, delicacy, and refinement. It will assert that pure affection on all sides can alone sanctify this or any other kind of marriage. It will, therefore, oppose all marriage from a cold sense of religious duty, as it will all marriage for the mere accumulation of families.
It will teach the high principles – the strict laws and conditions which alone can render this order of life successful and then leave it – like the question of being called to preach the gospel – to every man’s light and institutions to determine when, or whether, it will be right in his case or not.
Above all things, the Movement will strongly assert the necessity of the highest appreciation of woman, and of her highest development and culture, as the only basis of a high civilization.
The foregoing, constitutes in brief, a general outline of the policy and character of the coming institutions, which are about to be inaugurated. To our judgment, the principles referred to speak for themselves. If any do not appear to do so, we ask all to suspend a hasty judgment until we shall further explain or amplify through the columns of our paper. We will here say, however, that the principles enumerated are but the very simplest elements of a grand chain of truths which will widen illimitably as the Movement progresses.
Before closing, we will refer to another matter. Having written somewhat on the subject of the Spiritualities of our religion, some, who do not appear to recognize the very views which they held when they first entered the Church – so strangely are we altered as a people – have charged us with believing in Spiritualism. Our platform in relation to that system will be found in an article entitled “Spiritualism and Priesthood,” published in the last number of this Magazine. To make the case still plainer we will state wherein we particularly differ with that system.
Let none be startled, for, in the first place, we do not believe that spiritual manifestations are the work of the devil. We view all rappings, tippings, planchettes, etc., as the lowest possible form of communication with the invisible world, all of which order of communications possess no more force, authority, wickedness or goodness, than the same communications would have from the same individuals were the present in the flesh. The simple fact about them being that they are not specially authorized by the authorities of the spiritual world, but not necessarily wicked on that account. They are, however, a far lower phase of manifestations and truths than those inspirations which come through the channel of the Controlling Powers, or the Holy Priesthood. The beings who give them belong mainly to the lower realms of spiritual life, and who have never entered into the higher truths of celestial existence, hence they know little or nothing of that wonderful system of Divine organization for the preservation and promulgation of light and truth through the realms of space. With all its ignorance of many great truths, Spiritualism possesses some good points, not the least of which is, that it is that system by which, in the hands of Divine Providence, from five to ten millions of people have been made to believe in the realities of another life, and thus, so far, have been prepared for higher truths.
On the other hand, as the MAGAZINE has abundantly manifested, there is a great difference between our doctrines and those of Spiritualism as any child in “Mormonism” ought to know.
For instance: we believe in a Priesthood or an organized system of Divine authority extending into the Spiritual world; without exception Spiritualists reject this doctrine.
We believe in the necessity of the gathering of an inspirational people and the building up of a Zion as a center of light and truth to the whole earth – they do not.
We believe in the divine mission of Joseph Smith; they do not.
We believe in Plural Marriage; they are utterly opposed to it.
These points – and they are far from all – form broad lines of division between our principles and those of Spiritualism. We leave them to the judgment of the reader. At the same time if Spiritualism, or any form of belief, now or hereafter, presents a truth, we shall, at all times, admit it. We are ashamed of no truth, and will battle for the bright points of all creeds as much as for our own.
We now submit our case to the public. To the intelligent mind, God is seen in all that is natural, simple, and heavenly in its character. What amount of light and truth we possess, this announcement, and our past and future articles in the MAGAZINE will best show – and each must decide for himself. We exhort all to be calm and judge dispassionately, and look for light to its great fountain, and a testimony will spring up in their minds that God is moving for the blessing and redemption of His people.
We shall seek to take that course which will give no cause for reproach. But all may wake up their minds to this fact, and no course we can take will be allowed to be right by such as are interested in silencing our voices. If we speak boldly and bluntly, we shall be charged with being defiant and malicious. If we speak mildly and kindly, we shall be said to be hypocritical. If we reason, we shall be guilty of sophistry – we shall be wrong anyway. A tree, however, is known by its fruits, and an impure fountain will not send forth pure water, and, trusting in God, we shall fearlessly await the trial.
And now let us say, a Revolution is at our doors; not one of bloodshed or strife; but a peaceful revolution of ideas. An intellectual battle has to be fought, and Truth will prevail, but Moderation and Kindness must be the battle cry. The object of the Movement will be that a more Heavenly Zion may be established, the spirit of Jesus must, therefore, govern all, or our great object will be defeated. Insults, taunts, ridicule, and false accusations will, of course, prevail, but they must not be on our side. Let us dispel darkness with light, harshness with kindness, and move calmly on. And, as sure as tomorrow’s sun will rise, the light will break, the truth will go forth in its majesty, and thousands of voices will soon echo our testimony.
E.L.T. Harrison
W.S. Godbe