This morning, I came across the following article that did make me laugh:
Fanaticism.—A
Mormon paper, printed at Nauvoo, the metropolis of the Mormon empire, scouts
Miller's prophecies as a humbug, and expresses great surprise at the rapid growth
of fanaticism in this country! This is decidedly rich! Yet it cannot be doubted
that even Mormonism is left in the back-ground by some of the fanatical
vagaries of the day. What, for example, can be more supremely ridiculous than
the conceit of the Shakers at New Lebanon, which they have put forth in a pamphlet,
"dedicated to the various religious sects, and especially to the Jews and
Roman Catholics," gravely setting forth that the departed spirits of
various individuals—among whom are Washington, Penn, Stephen Girard, Pope Pius,
Queen Anne, Mary Queen of Scots, Mahomet, Saint Patrick and Tyrone Power (the
player who was lost lately in the steamship President.)—have returned to the
earth, and taken possession of the bodies of various members of the Shaker
denomination? Yet this monstrous fable is deliberately published to the world.
All these various characters speak of their actions and emotions while on
earth, and of their state and employments after death! The author of the pamphlet,
however, does not tell us what has become of the souls of the Shakers themselves,
whose bodies have been thus violently seized upon by shadows from the land of
spirits! Justly may even a Mormon, therefore, reproach us with the
growth of fanaticism! (“Fanaticism,”
Lynchburg Virginian 21, no. 104 [July 21, 1843]: 3)
TL;DR: If the Mormons think something is fanaticism, you can bet your bottom dollar it sure is fanaticism! 🤣
