See John 15:13.

JS’s comments regarding his willingness to die to defend the religious liberty of adherents to other denominations paralleled a statement he made in a March 1839 letter, which was written while he was imprisoned in Clay County, Missouri. The sentiment reflected shifting cultural attitudes regarding religious pluralism in the United States. Previously, many Catholics and Protestants assumed that religious homogeneity was essential for a healthy society. Governments privileged established churches and persecuted dissidents. Religious violence in Europe, combined with growing religious diversity in the American colonies, led to legal and cultural changes in the early American republic that resulted in religious liberty, first for various white Protestant denominations and then gradually for Catholicism and other marginal faiths. JS’s grandfathers, Asael Smith and Solomon Mack, came of age during this cultural shift and inculcated these beliefs in their descendants. (See Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, ca. 22 Mar. 1839; Beneke, Beyond Toleration, 6–10; and Anderson, Joseph Smith’s New England Heritage, chaps. 2–5.)

Beneke, Chris. Beyond Toleration: The Religious Origins of American Pluralism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Anderson, Richard Lloyd. Joseph Smith’s New England Heritage: Influences of Grandfathers Solomon Mack and Asael Smith. Rev. ed. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2003.

TEXT: Possibly “religin”.