Lucy Harris
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010) |
Lucy Harris (née Harris) (1792–1836) was the wife of Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.
Contents |
[edit] Life
Lucy and Martin were first cousins. They were married on March 27, 1808, in Palmyra, New York.
Early on during the translation of the Book of Mormon Lucy became frustrated with Martin (and skeptical of Joseph Smith, Jr.) because of how much her husband was helping Smith with the translation of the Book of Mormon. In order to convince Lucy that they were translating an ancient book of scripture, Martin Harris asked Joseph Smith, Jr. to let him borrow the first 116 pages of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Smith said that these pages of the translation of the Book of Mormon were a translation from the Book of Lehi. At Harris' insistence (and despite Smith saying he was warned not to by the Lord) Smith reluctantly loaned the pages to Harris. The manuscript was subsequently lost, and a variety of theories as to its disappearance have arisen. Some Mormons believe that Lucy hid them from Joseph Smith, Jr, gave them to friends, disposed of them in some way or that they were stolen from the Harris's house. Others believe that she hid the pages on purpose to see if Joseph Smith could replicate what he previously "read" off the golden plates.
When Harris approached Smith and told him what happened, the latter became angry and left to go and pray. When he returned, he said God appeared to him in a vision and told him to not retranslate the portion of the Golden Plates the 116 pages were taken from. Instead, the material would be replaced with Nephi's Abridgment of his father's record.[1][2]
In part due to their continued disagreement over the legitimacy of Joseph Smith and the golden plates, and because of the loss of his farm, which he had mortgaged to publish the Book of Mormon,[3] Harris and his wife separated. Lucy Harris was described by Lucy Mack Smith as a woman of "irascible temper," but Harris may also have abused her. Lucy Harris also suggested that her husband may have committed adultery with a neighboring "Mrs. Haggart."[4][5]
[edit] In popular culture
- Lucy Harris is portrayed to in the comedy series South Park in an episode "All About the Mormons?" which shows her talking her husband into hiding Smith's original manuscript. She is shown as a skeptic of Joseph Smith Jr, eliciting the only break from the chorus's "Joseph Smith was called a prophet, dum dum dum dum dum." theme with "Lucy Harris smart smart smart, Martin Harris dumb."[6]
- Author Christopher Hitchens uses the Lucy Harris story as proof that Joseph Smith was not a prophet, and that Smith was therefore a fraud, in his book God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.[7]
Both the Hitchens and South Park references were based on Fawn Brodie's biography No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith,[citation needed] which first asserted the claim that Lucy Harris stole the manuscript.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ "The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints section 3". http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/3.
- ^ "The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints section 10". http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/10.
- ^ In March 2007, Russell Martin Harris, great-great-grandson of Martin Harris, gave a leather wallet, said to have been the one that carried Harris's money to the printer, to the LDS Church so that the wallet could be displayed at the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City. AP story.
- ^ Lucy Mack Smith, 1853, in EMD 1: 367; "Lucy Harris statement," in EMD, 2: 34-36: "In one of his fits of rage he struck me with the butt end of a whip, which I think had been used for driving oxen, and was about the size of my thumb, and three or four feet long. He beat me on the head four or five times, and the next day turned me out of doors twice, and beat me in a shameful manner....Whether the Mormon religion be true or false, I leave the world to judge, for its effects upon Martin Harris have been to make hi more cross, turbulent and abusive to me."
- ^ In March 1830, a revelation from Smith warned Harris not to "covet thy neighbor's wife." D&C 19: 25.
- ^ Parker, Trey (2003-11-19). "All About The Mormons Transcript". The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb). Fox/South Park Studios. http://www.imsdb.com/transcripts/South-Park-All-About-The-Mormons.html. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- ^ Exclusive excerpts from Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine[unreliable source?]
- ^ Brodie, Fawn M. K. (1971). No man knows my history: the life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. Knopf. pp. 54. ISBN 9780394469676.
[edit] External links
- Mormonism: A Racket Becomes a Religion, by Christopher Hitchens
- Mormonism Unveiled: Testimonies of Abigail Harris and Lucy Harris (Martin Harris' wife)
 |
This article related to the Latter Day Saint movement is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This biography of a United States religious figure is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
