I am Ryan McKnight.

I'm Kara Santa Maria.

I am Christopher Smith.

Hi, I'm Andrew Torres.

This is Naked Mormonism.

The Serial Mormon History Podcast.

The work of building an empire is a vast undertaking requiring a lot of resources. Joseph Smith was in the business

of empire building since day one of his church organizing. By and large, the Mormon people

stood behind their divine leader in these empire undertakings. Joe was able to successfully drain

many of his followers of everything they

own for the purpose of building Zion, the kingdom of God on earth. There wasn't just a business

undertaking, but the greatest mission any group of people had ever been commissioned to carry out

in all of human history. The Mormons were literally building the kingdom of God for Christ

to reign from a throne upon his second coming. Constructing this Mormon Empire had many

moving parts, and all of those moving parts required lubrication in the form of money. Many Navu

public works projects had been started without ever reaching completion

to return on that initial investment. The Navu Canal project, the manufacturing district,

the shipping port on the Mississippi River, and a dozen other projects all drained resources

from the Mormons without ever giving anything back.

But there were other projects which were moving along, but not quickly enough.

One of the main projects was becoming an absolute black hole of Mormon resources.

That was the Navu House.

...