Last summer, I received a notification on my phone that my name was mentioned on Facebook. Of course, I was curious and clicked the link. Turns out, my friend mentioned that I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ (colloquially referred to as the “Bickertonites”). She also indicated that I recently wrote a biography of William Bickerton, one of the major claimants to Joseph Smith’s prophetic mantle after his untimely murder in 1844. I was happy to see that my new book, “William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet” (Signature Books, 2018) was receiving attention.
But I wondered why.