Masonry and the Nauvoo Relief Society: Taking Down John Bennett

In 1840 John C Bennett moved to Nauvoo and joined the LDS church. In February of 1841 he was elected Mayor and in November became Joseph Smith's first counselor in the presidency of the church. However in March of that same year Joseph received a letter warning him of the deceitful character of John Bennett, informing them that Bennett was in fact married and had abused and cheated on his wife who recently left him but they were not legally divorced. As Bennett started to cause commotion in Nauvoo, lying to women about a secret wife system to sleep with them, this letter was held in reserve and would ultimately be used to expose him. It is important to note that this letter was from George Miller, a Master Mason in Nauvoo who had known Bennett from his previous town.

The Smith family was already well acquainted with Freemasonry as Hyrum had joined the lodge in the 1820s, their father Joseph Smith Sr was possibly a Mason as well. In December 1841 the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois signed off for a Lodge in Nauvoo to be organized. He appointed George Miller as the first Worshipful Master of the Nauvoo Lodge. John Bennett was also a Freemason but Miller's letter indicated Joseph had an ally in the local lodge and Joseph used this to his advantage. The Freemason Minutes Book indicates that both John Bennett and Hyrum Smith were both present at nearly all the frequent meetings. With both Hyrum Smith and George Miller as allies, Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon petitioned to join the Masonic lodge, I believe as part of a plot to take Bennett down from the inside. On March 15, 1842 Joseph and Sydney were accepted into the Nauvoo lodge. The letter from the Illinois Grand Master indicates that their initiation in the various degrees was to be conferred as speedily as possible.

Two days after Joseph was initiated into the Masonic Lodge, the Nauvoo Female Relief Society was formed on March 17. While Bennett's scheming picked up and more women were being deceived by him Joseph and Emma organized the women for the purpose of safeguarding them and inform them that Bennett's rumors were false and Joseph approved of no sort of spiritual wife system. Shortly after the formation of the Relief Society, a letter from Joseph Smith was read aloud in their meeting on March 31. In this letter, Joseph makes two positive references to Masonry, suggesting that the women learn to be "good Masons" and being "sufficiently skilled in Masonry as to keep as secret." Although we don't often hear of women in Masonry, female involvement is not a foreign concept. In fact, the first Female Masonic Lodge was founded in Boston at the end of the eighteenth century. Joseph’s letter seems to have two purposes, one, to put an end to Bennett exploiting the innocence of women and spreading rumors about Joseph; and two, to instruct the Relief Society in the order and secrecy of Freemasonry for the purpose of putting an end to Bennett's lies.

"Can the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo be trusted with some important matters that ought actually to belong to them to see to which men have been under the necessity of seeing to to their chagrin & mortification in order to prevent iniquitous characters from carrying their iniquity into effect such as, for instance a man who may be aspiring after power & authority and yet without principle; regardless of god, man or the Devil or the interest or welfare of men, or the virtue or innocence of women? Shall the credulity, good faith, & steadfast feelings of our Sisters for the cause of God or truth be imposed upon by believing such men because they say they have authority from Joseph or the first Presidency or any other Presidency of the church and thus with a lie in their mouth deceive & debauch the innocent under the assumption that they are authorized from these sources! May God forbid! A knowledge of some such thing having come to our ears we improve this favorable opportunity wherein so goodly number of you may be informed that no such authority ever has, ever can, or ever will be given to any man & if any man has been guilty of any such thing let him be treated with utter contempt & let the curse of God fall on his head, & let him be turned out of Society as unworthy of a place among men, & denounced as the blackest & the most unprincipled wretch & finally let him be damned. We have been informed that some unprincipled men whose names we will not mention at present have been guilty of such crimes: we do not mention their names, not knowing but what there may be some among you who are not sufficiently skilled in Masonry as to keep a secret, therefore suffice it to say there are those & we therefore warn you & forewarn you in the name of the Lord to check and destroy any faith that any innocent person may have in any such character for we don’t want any body to believe any thing as coming from us contrary to the old established morals & virtues & scriptural laws regulating the habits customs & conduct of Society unless it be by message delivered to you by our own mouth, by actual revelation & commandment. and all persons pretending to be authorized by us or having any permit or sanction from us are & will be liars & base imposters & you are authorized on the very first intimation of the kind to denounce them as such & shun​ them as the fiery flying serpents, whether they are prophets, seers, or Revelators, patriarchs, Twelve apostles, Elders, Priests. Mayors, Generals, city council aldermen, Marshall, Police, Lord Mayor or the Devil, are alike culpable & shall be damned for such evil practices; & if you yourselves adhere to any thing of the kind you, also shall be damned. Now beloved Sisters do not believe for a moment that we wish to impose upon you, we actually do know that such things have existed in the church & are​ sorry that we are obliged to make mention of any such thing & we want a stop put to them, & we want you to do your part & we will do ours for we wish to to keep the commandments of God in all things as​ given ​directly from heaven​ to us for we wish to to keep the commandments of God in all things as​ given ​directly from heaven​ to us. May God add his blessings upon your head & lead you in all the paths of virtue piety and peace that you may be an ornament unto those to whom you belong & arise up and crown them with power & by so doing you shall be crowned with honor in heaven & shall sit upon throne judging them whom you are placed in authority of over in the world and shall be judged of God for all the responsibilities that are conferred upon you. At a more convenient & appropriate season we will give you further information upon this subject. We are your humble servants in the bonds of the new & Everlasting covenant. Let that epistle be had as a private matter in your society & then we shall learn whether you are good masons. P.S. if the Lord be God serve him & if Baal then serve him."

Something I found interesting was the last line of Joseph’s letter to the Relief Society, “P.S. if the Lord be God serve him & if Baal then serve him.” At first this concerned me, and I thought why would Joseph even consider serving Baal? Does this come from Masonic influence? But a quick Google search brought up a verbatim match to the words declared by Elijah as he battled the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings 18:19-40. In short, Elijah puts an ox on the altar as a burnt offering and covers it in water, the Lord provides the fire and it burns by the power of God. This was Joseph's "Hail Mary" to prove he was innocent of Bennett's lies, and he fully believed God was going to provide a miracle like he did for Elijah. Joseph declared as boldly as Elijah, that the truth would prevail and God would show his power by revealing Bennett as a deceiver and finally clear his name of any involvement in spiritual wifery.

1 Kings 18:

19 Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

20 So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

33 And he put the wood in order and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.

37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”

40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

On May 11, 1842 John Bennett was disfellowshipped from the LDS church, but he plead that Joseph keep the details of his misbehavior quiet as to not break his mother's heart. Joseph agreed. A week later, when Hyrum Smith learned that Bennett had been telling his victims he would give them medicine for abortion in case of a pregnancy, Hyrum again threatened to publicize his crimes. That same day, Bennett resigned as Mayor of Nauvoo and confessed his sins to the Masonic Lodge and soon left Nauvoo, so Joseph and Hyrum let him go quietly. However in June, after the attempted assassination of Governor Boggs, Bennett began slandering Joseph's name in the Sangamo Journal, suggesting he was responsible for the assassination attempt. After giving Bennett the grace he asked for in staying quiet about his crimes, only to have his name slandered yet again, Joseph had had enough. In an effort to clear his own name, he published all the details of Bennett's deceptions so the public would be wary of his lying nature. Joseph used all his resources to publish a compelling list of testimonies against Bennett's character. On July 1 these testimonies were published in the Times and Seasons along with the March 1840 letter from the Mason George Miller. Miller also included an additional witness against Bennett in the newspaper column. (Times and Seasons pages 839-842). Shortly after this, Bennett was officially expelled from the Masonic Lodge. The next week, the Nauvoo Female Relief Society presented a petition to restore Joseph's good character and denounce all of Bennett's lies, signed by over 800 members of the Relief Society. The women of the Relief Society had been good Masons in doing their part to expose John Bennett. After this time it appears Joseph was not so involved with the Masonic Lodge, minute books indicate he did not attend meetings frequently.

Some theorize the evidences proving Joseph's involvement in Masonry are forgeries by John Bennett or Brigham Young and gang. Many While it is wise to question and investigate if a document could be a forgery, we must be open to the proof of their authenticity. Please note that all of the sources linked here are contemporary documents with no evidence of tampering. There are many authentic contemporary documents from numerous people confirming Joseph joined the lodge in March 1842, they are discussed in this episode of 132 Problems with Cheryl Bruno. As always in our research, let's keep an open mind and explore the possibilities of why Joseph may have joined the Masonic Lodge.