Sorry, laguna. Clinical is right. It really comes down to what happened AFTER Joseph was killed. Before he died, Jospeh prophesied that the church would one day be forced to the regions of the Rocky Mtns. Emma and family knew this, yet they decided to stay behind. Everything comes down to agency, laguna. There are plenty of examples of people in the Bible and Book of Mormon that knew something to be right and had "proof". Yet they made choices that contradicted that proof. Laman and Lemuel for example in the Book of Mormon. They both saw angels and heard the voice of God. Yet they made their own choices to leave their family after Lehi (a prophet of God) died and reject what they had been taught.

The fact that the chasm is closing between these two great families is heartwarming and is happy news.

Lori: You could be right. No one knows for sure. I have always been taught what we DO in this mortal life does matter, we need to endure to the end, and that God is no respector of persons. In D&C 25:2 it clearly implies that Emma must remain faithful to receive the blessings of this revelation as an elect lady. Indeed, this is the case with all blessings we are promised. The last 35 years of Emma's life were not "faithful" years, it seems to me.

She refused to follow Pres. Young and the Quorum of the Twelve to Utah, she left the Church and then helped start the new RLDS Church installing her son Jos. Smith III as the president, she married a non-Mormon, all of her (and Joseph's) five children left the Mormon Church--including Joseph Smith's only daughter the adopted Julia Murdock, who would eventually become a Catholic. Had Julia's faithful father John known what would happen, he undoubtedly never would have allowed Emma to adopt Julia. Emma also had great influence over Joseph Smith's sisters--Katherine and Lucy, who also left the Church.

I agree that it is not for us to render eternal judgement on anyone, including apostates of the Church, which Emma was certainly one.

My love and respect for Joseph Smith, Jr. the prophet is such that I would NOT dare speak against or judge any of his loved ones. I would not hang my head in shame in the future as he stands united with his loved ones before the church and next to Christ.

All the troubles of the world seem to go back to disagreements between two people, and those who take those disagreements on themselves. How would the world be different if Isaac and Ishmael had both been righteouos?

I'm sure everyone has an opinion within the LDS community concerning the chasm that has existed. However, I think I do understand that our judgements are inappropriate. Emma made some interesting decisions, but I have never had to walk in her moccasins, so I can't judge. As I understand it, we are to to forgive everyone. Judgement is in the hands of a loving God that sees the whole picture. The most appropriate comment made concerning this rift between the families was that concerning Jacob and Esau. Those families have fought and killed one another for centuries--and they don't even remember why! The middle east and Ireland are good examples as to why we shouldn't carry on these sad wars by teaching our children to hate. Watch young children play together sometime--they don't realize they are to hate another child--until someone teaches them how to hate. Grudges are cankers to families that only heal when we watch and learn from the little children how to, "Love One Another."

Over there in that dry creek bed, I found a couple of Shoshone arrowheads.

My family too went along with the Brighams and Youngs out to the Great Salt Lake area, and many of them died along the way- in Iowa, in fact. They faced the same hardships that the prophets faced. Yet I don't hear any whining from any of the decendants about who was what or what was where- nor any judgement calls because someone stayed behind or someone decided to cross the vast prairies to what amounts to an even greater desert. Religion is a personal matter, and our judgements come from those much higher than us. Who among you is so righteous that you can "cast the first stone"?
I'm tickled pink that 2 families have begun to heal a long standing rift, and may many blessings rain down on you now for making such an effort. It wouldn't matter to me which families they were- I'm just glad to see it happening, at long last. Bad blood is never a good thing.
In our troubled world today, anything that shows a strong, positive, unified family front is a terrific example to our children, and should be encouraged.
Grandma B is right- kids don't learn to hate until they are taught to hate. Learn from your children, and your children just may learn something from you.

Pass on the Peace!
Another decsendant of Those who Crossed

my daghters name is Emma Young-Smith so named with no knowledge of above coincidence. P.S. I am also not amused by the Young side of the family coincidental rift eerie