Welcome to the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Garrett Dirkmont,

where we explore the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

and gain rare historical insights into how a young farm boy was able to establish a new church

and grow it by way of visions,

manifestations, and miracles.

Welcome to the Standard of Truth podcast. I'm your host Garrett Dirkmont, and I'm joined by

my friend Richard Leduke.

Hello. In this week's podcast, we want to discuss some of the early antagonists to Joseph Smith. So Garrett, what are or who are some of the early antagonists to Joseph Smith

and kind of what's their approach? Well, really, I mean, it's kind of like get in line, right?

I mean, if you're asking who is antagonistic towards Joseph Smith early or late, it's essentially everyone.

But if we want to talk about what are some of the ways in which people attack the things that he had to say?

I mean, that's kind of a different question.

There are different methods that people employed to try to undercut the claims

that Joseph Smith was making. And they range anywhere from just simply saying, well, that sounds

crazy to attacking Joseph Smith's character personally. And, you know, those aren't exactly the same thing.

I mean, there's a pretty big difference between your friend, you know, telling you

a story that you don't believe and you thinking that your friend is a drug dealer who

kills people.

Those aren't the same thing, right?

That there's a level of credulity in between those two areas. So,

uh, I want to, to start off early on. And again, this is in no way comprehensive. Like,

like literally everything else we've done on the podcast, no matter how much it sounds like we're

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