Latter Day Saint militarism peaked in Nauvoo with the 5,000-strong Nauvoo Legion under the command of Lt. General Joseph Smith Jr. Militarism also appears to be correlated with patriarchy and in Nauvoo included both the beginning of polygamy and resistance to it by women led by Emma Smith through the Women’s Relief Society. This paper argues that, perhaps influenced more by his mother Emma than his father, Joseph III laid the foundations in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) of a possible peace church as he and others reacted against the militarism and polygamy of Nauvoo. This paper analyzes the Reorganization/Community of Christ’s difficult journey to embrace both the equal role of women and the pursuit of peace.

Andrew Bolton