Spencer W. McBride is an associate managing historian of the Joseph Smith Papers Project and the author of Pulpit and Nation. He has written about the evolving role of religion in American politics for the Washington Post and the Deseret News. He is the creator and host of The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast.
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By the election year of 1844, Joseph Smith, the controversial founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had amassed a national following of some 25,000 believers. In less than twenty years, Smith had helped transform the American religio... SEE MORE