26.5: The Michigan Prophet

James Jesse Strang presents a parallel prophet’s career to that of Joseph Smith. In some ways, a copycat of the Mormon prophet who literally attempted to succeed him despite their having had only a brief relationship, Strang also innovated on Mormon doctrine. Like Smith, he discovered a collection of ancient plates hidden in the earth and established a community of believers on the frontier that he moved to a still better frontier. But his revelations were significantly shorter and less involved than Smith’s. If Strang was less successful in matters of the spirit he was better than Smith at politics. Whereas Smith was always an outsider and his presidential run is generally regarded as a kind of self-delusion, Strang actually won political office, serving in Michigan’s nascent state legislature. More notoriously, both men preached and wrote against polygamy but ended up practicing and even promoting it and both men were assassinated by their rivals.