Vince Staples' excellent new interview with the reliably hilarious Ziwe is out and several clips from it are going viral across social media. One particular moment from the chat featured Staples dropping some knowledge on the founding of Mormonism.
Below, we take a closer look at Vince’s summation of John Smith and company, including somewhat accurate recollections of his violent end and the fervor that followed.
What did Vince Staples say about Mormonism?
“I don’t think billionaires should exist, but it’s not their fault,” Staples, whose Netflix series recently rolled out its second season, told Ziwe. “I think we need to get back to the revolt, we need to get back to pulling people out of their house, killing them, taking their wealth. Like they did the guy who started Mormonism.”
Asked to elaborate further, Vince obliged.
“Once upon a time there was a man named John Smith,” he said. “He was a pedophile. To justify his pedophilia, he decided to have multiple wives. He said he got a message from God in a tree. I think that’s a fact. Brigham Young was working with the government. It’s like Judas and the Black Messiah, but in Utah. He told on John Smith. He was arrested for some charge that’s going against the government and then they murdered him in Philadelphia, dragged him and his family out and killed him in the street. Now, Brigham Young has a university and he is the father of Mormonism.”
What actually happened?
Joseph Smith, credited as the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, was killed by a mob alongside his brother in Illinois in 1844. At the time, Joseph, i.e., not John (who was Joseph's uncle), was set to stand trial on treason-related charges.
Brigham Young, who does indeed have a university named after him, later became president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a.k.a. the Mormon Church. Alleged first-hand accounts say that Young adopted “the sound” and “voice” of Joseph Smith when addressing followers on the topic of who should step up in Joseph’s place during an 1844 speech.
In the ensuing years, pop culture at large has remained enamored with the story of Mormonism’s founding, and subsequent controversies. In 2022, for example, Andrew Garfield starred in Under the Banner of Heaven, a miniseries adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction book of the same name. The story explored fundamentalism, murder, and more.
Meanwhile, if you’re wondering if there was ever a full-fledged Mormon war, there was.