Apologette
05-29-2016, 05:33 PM
Joseph Smith, like many cult leaders, lived off the backs, sweat and credulousness of his followers. This posting from Ex-Mormon website exposes Smith's method of supporting himself and his family:
"The Law of Consecration had been introduced by 1831 which started out as a ***he. Money donated on surplus. This turned into a tax on joining to a continual tax on interest or surplus goods, to becoming eventually everything you owned being signed over to Joseph's church.
As for Joseph, he used the LDS coffers as his own funds. He "borrowed" nearly $100,000 (millions in today's money) to fund his general store(s) which failed. He leveraged the future earnings of the church for more money. He tried to start a steam boat company. He tried a get rich quick scheme that was the Kirtland bank Safety Society. He tried his hand at real estate. And eventually he landed on running a hotel/bar out of his home. (To be fair, the bar was technically in the name of Porter Rockwell); however, that wasn't really profitable. There are other rumors of trying to muscle in on an occasional inheritance or two in the name of polygamy."
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/27leka/question_how_did_joseph_smith_earn_his_living/
"The Law of Consecration had been introduced by 1831 which started out as a ***he. Money donated on surplus. This turned into a tax on joining to a continual tax on interest or surplus goods, to becoming eventually everything you owned being signed over to Joseph's church.
As for Joseph, he used the LDS coffers as his own funds. He "borrowed" nearly $100,000 (millions in today's money) to fund his general store(s) which failed. He leveraged the future earnings of the church for more money. He tried to start a steam boat company. He tried a get rich quick scheme that was the Kirtland bank Safety Society. He tried his hand at real estate. And eventually he landed on running a hotel/bar out of his home. (To be fair, the bar was technically in the name of Porter Rockwell); however, that wasn't really profitable. There are other rumors of trying to muscle in on an occasional inheritance or two in the name of polygamy."
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/27leka/question_how_did_joseph_smith_earn_his_living/