2003-9-22 05:56:00
Thanks for the kind words, Susan
Thought I would make a few clarifying remarks about Oliver Cowdery. In his own writings he makes it sound like the church was following an evil path by asking him to keep his commitment to not sell his lands in Missouri. It was not a case of taking away his right to private property, but a case of cooperation with a group effort. A corresponding situation would be something like this.
We have the right to freedom of speech, but suppose you were in a group who owned some land of importance. There is an enemy who wants the land and would do anything to get it. There is a technical error on the title which if known by the enemy would give him power to confiscate it.
Now it is true that you have freedom of speech, but does this give you the right to betray the group and tell the enemy the secret?
Legally, yes, morally no.
Oliver had the legal right to sell his property but by doing so he betrayed the group purpose which was to hold on to as much land in Missouri as possible so they could maintain a large enough stake in it to eventually get it back for all.
As it was so many followed Oliver's lead and sold their land that the case for redeeming the titles for the ones who did not sell was not strong enough for any group follow through to be made.
Even today a number of titles could be challenged because of the few who did not sell, but not enough members cooperated with the plan to make redemption of the land a possibility.
Oliver was not excommunicated by Joseph Smith, but by a high council acting on its own. Joseph was dealing with other major problems and was fighting just to maintain his position in the church.
Even so, Oliver seemed to blame Joseph for his excommunication.
After things settled down Joseph wrote Oliver twice inviting him to come back, but he did not respond.
Finally, after Joseph's death Oliver did come back in, apparently attracted by the idea of becoming first elder in the Church. He got sickly and died a short time later, however.
I put contact lenses in my dog's eyes. They had little pictures of cats on them. Then I took one out and he ran around in circles. Steven Wright
Copyright 2003 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved