Is Emma Smith a Cautionary Tale or Role Model?

As a young man in the church, I grew up in a ward and stake that did an amazing job of highlighting the many righteous male role models. Heroes in every sense of the word from both scriptures and church history. Willard Richards, Nephi, Ammon, Alma, Dan Jones, and Gordon B. Hinckley to name a few. But beyond just role models, we also have a litany of cautionary tales, examples of people who were extremely faithful but then failed to endure to the end. Such as King David, Oliver Cowdrey, Thomas B. Marsh, and Sidney Rigdon.

The key difference between a role model and a cautionary tale is the cautionary tale did not endure to the end. They serve as a warning or caution not to repeat the same mistakes. Otherwise, both have amazing aspects of their life worthy of emulation. Take for example David v. Goliath. This story has been used for literally thousands of years to teach people to stand up against our fears. But almost always we are then warned about David’s fall and are cautioned not to repeat his mistakes. (Hence the cautionary part of his tale).

Growing up, role models and cautionary tales were repeatedly used to either show “this is the way” or warn “that is a pitfall.” Whereas Jesus is the perfect role model, as mortals we seek examples of other mortals. We want to see others with similar capacities and circumstances who are trying to follow Christ. This is why Russell M. Nelson’s Oct. 1997 talk “Spiritual Capacity” is all based on his role model, Gordon B. Hinckley.

In the Church, we have very little issue looking at a man’s actions and sizing their example up as either a role model or a cautionary tale (or just a flat-out bad example). No one is teaching the young men “Be like Sidney Rigdon” or “Be like Thomas B. Marsh.” We all simply look at the facts and realize that their examples are not ones to be held up. And instead use role models like Nephi or the Stripling Warriors. But when it comes to the women in Church history, Emma Smith specifically, suddenly everything gets thrown out the window. The line between role models and cautionary tales is blurred by Satan’s lies regarding Matthew 7:1 instilling a desire to “not judge” Emma rather than the correct understanding that we are to “judge righteous judgment.“ (For an in-depth breakdown of this lie about Matt. 7:1 see 3 Scriptures Satan LOVES to Quote)

Emma Smith: Cautionary Tale or Rightoues Role Model?

First and foremost, I need to emphasize, that it is NEVER righteous to pass final judgment on someone. I am NOT trying to do so with Sister Emma. But as Dallin H. Oaks taught, “We must, of course, make judgments every day in the exercise of our moral agency, but we must be careful that our judgments of people are intermediate and not final. Thus, our Savior’s teachings contain many commandments we cannot keep without making intermediate judgments of people: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine” (Matt. 7:6); “Beware of false prophets. … Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:15–16); and “Go ye out from among the wicked” (D&C 38:42).” (Ensign Aug. 1999)

When we look at Emma’s life there is an easy division point, pre-martyrdom and post-martyrdom. I want to take a brief look at pre-martyrdom first. In the pre-martyrdom portion of her life, Emma Smith was an amazing role model for women in the Church. She stood faithfully by Joseph through trials we cannot even begin to understand. She singlehandedly saved the Inspired Version of the Bible (JST) by putting the pages in her coat while fleeing Missouri in the dead of winter over the frozen Mississippi. She was the first President of the Relief Society. She was an amazing wife, mother, and helpmate to Joseph. Of her during this phase of life, the Lord even gave Doctrine and Covenants 25 to Joseph Smith calling her “an Elect Lady.” This section is basically the manual on how to be a righteous woman in Zion, but also contains a warning about the need to endure to the end.

If the story ended there, Emma Smith would be the best role model in the Church for women. But it does not. When Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered in Carthage Jail it seems like something in Emma broke. When Brigham Young opted to travel west with the Saints Emma declined to go. When Brigham asked her for the manuscript of the Inspired Version of the Bible she refused to give it to him claiming it was her personal inheritance (This is why we lost the JST from the Church for over 100 years). This was not the only church property Emma claimed as her inheritance, because many things were in Joseph’s name, Brigham had no option but to let her have it. The Church is incorporated as the ‘Corporation of the Presiding Bishopric’ to ensure no other wife of a prophet or apostle could ever repeat what Emma did.

But it does not end there. Emma then denied Joseph’s practice of Plural Marriage claiming that Brigham Young was lying about its origins and that Joseph never had another wife other than her. Furthermore, in 1860 when the RLDS Church was founded Emma supported the creation of the RLDS Church and became a prominent member. It is important to note that she did NOT get rebaptized as they viewed her original baptism from 1830 as valid, meaning that they believed they were restoring the true Church and that Brigham Young and the Utah Saints were apostates. The RLDS Church then sent missionaries to reclaim the lost Utah Saints. These missionaries came to expose Brigham Young’s lies about Plural marriage and bring the Utah Saints back to Emma and Joseph III and the RLDS Church. Literal textbook apostasy.

When one views both the PRE and POST martyrdom Emma your heart breaks for what she went through, but it is clear. She is not a role model of one who endured to the end. She is a cautionary tale of one who was Elect who then had a fall from grace. Now, I hope in God’s plan there is grace for Emma. Considering all that she went through. Perhaps she had her calling and election made sure, and will still be exalted despite her post-martyrdom actions. But even if that is the case, her actions dictate that we do not hold them up as a role model to the Church but as a cautionary and heartbreaking tale of apostasy.

Mary Fielding Smith: A Righteous Role Model.

Now let’s compare Mary Fielding Smith’s example. Pre-martyrdom Mary and Emma had many similar experiences. Both were elect ladies, both were married to the Joint Keyholders of this last dispensation. One to Joseph and the other to Hyrum who jointly holds the keys (See #4 in “5 Things You Did NOT Know About Hyrum Smith The Patriarch“), Both women endured the trials of Missouri and had their husbands taken from them and imprisoned in Liberty Jail. And both had young children when their husbands sealed their testimonies with their blood at Carthage.

But what happened next is as different from night to day. When Brigham Young declared that the Saints needed to go West to Zion, Mary Fielding Smith became unstoppable in her quest to get her family to Zion. When Cornelius Peter Lott, the captain of the wagon train, suggested she would slow them down, and that she should stay behind, she insisted she would not slow them down and would get to Utah before Lott and without any of his help. She arrived in Utah on September 23, 1848, a day before Lott.

When in her poverty in Utah she attempted to pay tithing her bishop. He told her that she was too poor to tithe and had already done enough at which she rebuked him saying “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Would you deny me a blessing? … I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it.” (As quoted by Joseph F. Smith CR: Apr. 1900, pp 48). She did everything in her power to ensure her family would enjoy the gospel. She died less than 10 years after arriving in Utah. I like the way the July 2011 Ensign remembered her, “Mary Fielding Smith remained faithful to the end of her life.”

By every metric available, Mary Fielding Smith is a role model. When the going got tough, she endured. When her husband died and she felt abandoned by God, she doubled down on her covenant commitment to follow the Prophet and got her family to Zion, despite reasonable excuses that would’ve allowed her to stay with Emma. (For an amazing 20-minute mini-documentary on Mary Fielding Smith see “KSL’s History Of The Saints: Mary Fielding Smith“)

A Comparison of Fruit

In the context of judging other people, Jesus taught his disciples “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matt 7:16) So let us look at the fruits of the examples left by these women.

Emma Smith: When Brigham Young led the Saints to Utah, Emma and Joseph’s children stayed in Nauvoo. After Lucy died, Emma was repeatedly asked to come west. She repeatedly refused. It was not until 1956, over 100 years later, that Gracia Jones was baptized into the Church. As the great-great-granddaughter of Joseph and Emma, she was the first descendant of Joseph and Emma Smith to join the church and not apostatize. Her life mission since joining the Church has been to teach the lost history of Joseph and Emma to their descendants. (For her story see this Deseret News article). Think about that, the fruits of Emma’s refusal to follow the prophet Brigham Young (even if she had PTSD or other factors causing the Lord to not hold her accountable in the eternities) the costs were extracted out of her children to the third and fourth generations. Truly that is a cautionary tale!

Mary Fielding Smith: the wife of Hyrum led her family across the great plains while her son Joseph F. Smith who was only 9 drove one of the wagons to Utah. Because of the courage of Mary Fielding Smith, Hyrum has a rich legacy of descendants who have carried on the kingdom. Including two Prophets, his son Joseph F. Smith, and his grandson Joseph Fielding Smith. And two Apostles, Hyrum’s grandson Hyrum M. Smith and Hyrum M. Smith’s grandson M. Russell Ballard (great-great-grandson to Hyrum). Four of the six church patriarchs were also descendants of Hyrum, including the late Elder Eldred G. Smith. In the June 2000 Ensign, it was estimated that 6,000 of Hyrum’s descendants had served full-time missions. (One wonders how many more have served in the last nearly quarter century). In that Ensign article, M. Russell Ballard taught, “Upon the family of Hyrum Smith has rested a great responsibility of the carrying on of this great work.” Truly that is a role model!

Plural Marriage

Beyond the fruit of their children look at what their examples say. Both women struggled with plural marriage. Mary Fielding Smith clung to truth, gained a testimony of the practice, and followed the prophet to Zion. Ultimately, enduring to the End. Whereas Emma rejected the practice of plural marriage, lied about its origins, rejected the prophet Brigham Young, and left the Church aka apostized.

Ask yourself: “Which of these two women is a role model of what to do with struggles about the prior practice of plural marriage?” Mary Fielding Smith! Is it any shock that there is a growing trend of women who have idolized Emma that now advocating her old plural marriage lies, and are also rejecting the prophetic keys? Just like Emma? This is the danger of Emma’s cautionary tale being held up as a role model.

An Apostles Testimony:

Reviewing the post-martyrdom examples, actions, and fruits of these two women a stark and sad picture is painted. I can’t think of a better way to describe how I feel about this situation than the words of Elder Melvin J. Ballard. In General Conference shortly after the death of Joseph F. Smith. He declared:

“I do not wish to say one disparaging word of Emma Smith, the wife of the Prophet, for she went through much affliction, and much did she do for the comfort of the Prophet and the building up of the work of God; but the blow that fell upon her in the death of her husband, and the weakness of the flesh exhibited in that hour, were more than she had the courage to endure, and so she faltered, she weakened, and fell by the wayside, and took her children off with her.

I have thought of what a tremendous influence the example of these two mothers has had. On the one hand Emma has turned all the posterity of the Prophet through herself and the Prophet away from the Church — aliens to the truth that God has revealed and established; while Mary Fielding Smith turned at the very fountain of that stream the posterity of her illustrious husband, Hyrum Smith. into the channels of the Church, into the truth; and here they stand a mighty host, increasing, and will continue to grow as the generations come.

When the president was taken away, in the imaginations of my own mind by the enlightenment of the Spirit of God that came to me, I saw President Joseph F. Smith received on the other side. Tongue can not tell the joy that was in Hyrum Smith’s heart when he received his beloved son, Joseph F. Smith. Joy beyond expression was in the heart of Hyrum Smith when his true, tried, noble, and God-fearing wife, the inspiration, the protection of her son Joseph Fielding — came to him. I thought of it in contrast to the feelings of the Prophet when his son and his wife Emma came. His must have been a sorrowful greeting.

All honor to Mary Fielding Smith, the mother of the boy Joseph F. [Smith], who, in his tender years turned him right, led him into the paths of truth, started him on the way.” (CR: Apr. 1919, pp 70)

Therefore What?

Now that we have reviewed, briefly, the lives of Emma and Mary Fielding Smith I hope you have a greater desire to study Doctrine and Covenants 25. I hope that you have a desire to be like Emma and Mary pre-martyrdom. But I hope that in the furnace of your deepest afflictions, you will let Emma be a cautionary tale of what not following the prophet can cost, and let Mary Fielding Smith be an example of the blessings of choosing to endure to the end. I hope that you will have a greater desire to study out the women in Church history, both to find the cautionary tales, but also the amazing role models of following Christ, keeping covenants, and obeying the prophets.

There are SO many righteous role models for Latter-day Saint Women: Eliza R. Snow, Louisa Barnes Pratt, Emmeline B. Wells, Lucy Mack Smith, Camila Kimball, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, Zina D. H. Young to just name a few. That is not even including many amazing living role models like Wendy Nelson, Emily Belle Freeman, Camille N. Johnson, Tracy Y. Browning, Tamara W. Runia, Kristin M. Yee, and more.

As Latter-day Saints, we have a rich heritage of faithfulness. Let us seek out and uphold appropriate role models in following Christ. Let us also observe the cautionary tales from our history! Let us glean from their examples while striving to avoid their pitfalls.

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