Salt Sermon - Definition and Overview

An oration delivered on June 17, 1838 by Mormon leader, Sidney Rigdon, against Mormon dissenters. Rigdon was first councilor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and spokesman for Joseph Smith Jr.. The dissenters included Book of Mormon witnesses Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and John Whitmer, and other leaders including W.W. Phelps.

According to Rigdon, the dissenters were like the "salt" spoken of by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (see Matthew 5:13): "If the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." This was interpretted by the dissenters as a threat to leave Caldwell County, Missouri.

Two days after Rigdon preached the Salt Sermon, 80 Latter Day Saints signed a statement (the so-called Danite Manifesto) warning the dissenters to "depart, or a more fatal calamity shall befall you." The dissenters and their families subsequently fled the county. Their stories helped stir up anti-Mormon feeling in northwestern Missouri and contributed to the outbreak of the Mormon War.

The Salt Sermon is often confused with Rigdon's July 4th Oration.

References

• D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, 1994.