Comments about ‘MormonTimes.com: Tarring and feathering taught Prophet he was vulnerable to violence’

Hot tar? Are you sure.

Tarrimng and Feathering used the wheel tar from wagons back then. It was cold but stuck really well to skin.

Point 2: In an earlier article people sarcastically said that the two missionaries in Australia that were attacked should have beenm protected by God. I think they were because of the car that showed up to stop them from being killed.
The same thing with Joseph Smith. He wasn't killed either, but the two babies died from exposure on that night a short time later.

Read the bible some time... many prophets have been killed.
So perhaps there is more that is hapening here then many of you can see.

All of the historic research on this matter, shows that it would have been cold tar. Being tarred and feathered with hot tar would have been the exception, not the rule in Joseph's time.

We need to clarify that it was cold tar. This story about hot tar has been circulating around the Church for a long time and it is not accurate. It was COLD TAR.

Enjoyed the article. However, you should have discussed the real reason Joseph was tarred and feathered that night. We should not be ashamed of the early Church history. It is always best to let the facts speak for themselves.

The Johnson brothers were the older brothers of one of Joseph's wives.
Cold tar is likely what was used.
Did those mobsters really get baptized? I hadn't heard that before.

The "rest of the story" on the WHY he was tarred and feathered is the part we never hear....but it is like that with so much of church history as it is presented to us. If I told you the why this comment would likely be censored and not posted.

We do need to hear the both sides to each story.
We only hear one side when the entire truth is needed. Typically these things were a reaction to something else that occurred. We never seem to hear what that initial action was.
Violence is hardly ever justified but usually there was justification for some action.

You conspiracy theorists are so funny. The why was because of fear and hatred. Violence is violence. No one should have to go through violent attacks of this nature regardless of the so called whys. Just because you disagree with a person's beliefs, it doesn't give you the right or the moral high ground to enact violent vengeance. Wrong is wrong whether done under the guise of one religion or another; one political party or another; one philosophy or another. No one in their right mind claims everything done by the early or present day church members is right. However, they did not and do not deserve to be treated with violence for their beliefs.

O.K. all you big shots who know everything lets HEAR your VERSION of why he was tarred and feathered ! What absolutly horrible thing did he do to deserve this kind of treatment from such RESPECTABLE men? In the article it just said that some (I think the number was 3 were baptised - I don't think that it ment the mobsters - but I have heard that in other things that I have read)

It says..."many others in the mob. With my flesh all scarified and defaced, I preached to the congregation as usual, and in the afternoon of the same day baptized three individuals."
Staker says that the Prophet's account holds up well.
Sounds to me like the tar was hot. I believe in the account from his mother she mentions the burns from the tar. There is nothing that goes on today that compares to what the Prophet Joseph endured. Why the tarring??? Because he claimed to be the Prophet and was hounded until they ended his life at Carthage.
Read people....read! This knowledge brings us closer to knowing the mission of this man.

re: Related
The Johnsons had houseguests in the early 1830s and the Johnson brothers didn't like how close they were to their sister.

Jessica, Agree, and More info - The article states some reasons toward the end. If you have facts or sources stating other reasons, please post them along with your sources (perhaps Agree could think of a way to say it in a civil manner so it doesn't get censored, as he fears it will).

Related - The article doesn't say the mobsters got baptized. It just says Joseph "baptized three individuals."

Uhhh, we do read. That is why we KNOW the rest of these stories.

A lot of people here seem pretty confident about the temperature of the tar used. So how do you know so well, were you there? Did you talk to these people to find out specifically why they assaulted Joseph Smith. Or are you supposing that theoretical consensus translates to reality.

I'm guessing that nobody here was actually there, including professional historians, so it might be better to just accept the fact that we don't know everything and quit impugning people for not understanding unknowable facts the same way you don't understand unknowable facts.

Try your best to to just explain it all away.

I always heard that people had to do very bad things to get themselves tared and feathered. So what did Joseph Smith do that was so bad that he should have been tared and feathered?

If we all read, "Rough Stone Rolling" By Richard Bushman, we could all understand what Joseph Smith went through. The Book is the best account written of the American prophet, with hands down the most research.

Did this event have anything to do with the Kirtland Banking Society (or non-banking Society)? This area of Ohio was experiencing a financial crunch due to real estate specualtion and other financial problems at the time (sound familiar?). Had these people lost money in the bank (or non-bank as they later named it so that the Ohio regulators wouldn't get after them)?

Have you ever tried to do anything with cold tar? Sort of sits there like a hard lump.

There is no conspiracy theory bone in my body. I stand by my comment. We (LDS people) routinely are uniformed on our own history due to our inability to "be curious"...the information is out there!

The Tar and Feather incident came quite a few years before the Kirtland Bank Crisis, which occurred in 1837. The incident with the mob occurred in 1831 or 32, I can't remember off the top of my head.