80 years ago today - Apr 22, 1943

[Joseph Fielding Smith]

On Thursday night the 22nd I again met with a group of young people who are contaminated with the teachings of Joseph Musser who was excommunicated from the Church for immoral practices under the guise of plural marriage. He now puts forth the claim that The Presidents of the Church since John Taylor are really Presidents of the Church, but that they have been stripped of the keys of the Priesthood and that he, Musser holds them, as they were conferred by President John Taylor upon Lorin Woolley and gave them to Joseph Musser. How anyone can possibly be so foolish as to accept such a rediculous [sic] statement is hard to see, but when men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, there is little that can be done about it. While the arguments of these people were all answered and they were silenced, yet they maintain what they claim, 'open minds' and want to investigate all things. The truth is that they have closed their minds definitely and wilfully against the truth. I warned them and told them if they continued in their course they would be absolutely without excuse in the judgment, and my garments are clean so far as they are concerned. This they acknowledged.

[Joseph Fielding Smith, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]

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