The Book of Mormon[1] is one of the sacred texts of the Latter Day Saint movement, regarded by Latter Day Saints as divinely revealed, and named after the prophet?historian Mormon who, according to the
text, compiled most of the book. It was published by the founder of the movement, Joseph Smith Jr., in March 1830 in Palmyra, New York, USA. Its purpose, as stated on its title page, “is to show the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord has done for their fathers” and to convince “Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself to all nations.”[2]
Joseph Smith, Jr. said the book was a translation of golden plates. He said that the angel Moroni told him the plates were buried in a hill near his home (which he later called the
Hill Cumorah). He said the translation was made through the power of God with aid of the Urim and Thummim, which were with the plates. During the production of the work Smith obtained the affidavits of Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses who testified they saw the plates. These affidavits are published as part of the book. When the book was complete, he said he returned the plates to the angel Moroni.
NEW YORK TIMES December 29th, 1912: “Museum Walls Proclaim Fraud Of Mormon Prophet — Sacred Books Claimed to Have Been Given Divinely to the First Prophet Are Shown to be Taken from Old Egyptian Originals, Their Translation Being a Work of the Imagination.”
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EXCERPT FROM BEYOND MORMONISM: AN ELDER’S STORY:
The most incredible example of Mormon ability to overlook error, in my opinion, is the tremendous number of changes that have been made in the Book of Mormon.The Book of Mormon was ostensibly translated from gold plates Joseph Smith found through the direction of the angel Moroni. The Book of Mormon has been heralded as the most perfect book ever written. Mormon leadership continually affirms that it has never at any time been changed. President Joseph Fielding Smith said that only
“sons of Belial” would assert that there have been thousands of changes on the Book of Mormon (The Improvement Era, December 1961, pp. 294-295).
The fact is, there have been thousands of changes in the Book of Mormon. Many are important doctrinal changes. Anyone who wants to prove to himself that the Book of Mormon has been extensively altered can easily do so. All he has to do is examine the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon and compare it to the latest edition.
The Book of Mormon borrows copiously from the Bible. More than eighteen chapters of Isaiah are contained in it. And hundreds of parallels exist between the Book of Mormon and the New Testament, so much that Mark Twain quipped that the Book of Mormon “seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament” (Roughing It, p. 110).
The most telling proof of plagiarism is the fact that the author of the Book of Mormon copied the King James Version verbatim right down to the style of print. When the translators of the KJV translated from Hebrew to English in the Old Testament, they added clarifying words, italicizing them to let the reader know they were not in the original text. The author of the Book of Mormon apparently did not realize this. Consequently, in the hundreds of verbatim passages from the Bible, the Book of Mormon includes the italicized words.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jim Spencer was a Mormon Elder for ten years. He was an honor student at Mormon college and served in virtually every auxiliary of the Church. He and his wife, Margaretta, were married in the Mormon temple in 1966. Jim taught Gospel doctrine Classes in the Church for five years. After a number of years however, Jim began to be troubled by nagging questions:
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NEW YORK TIMES: “When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to Battlefield Earth, a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a Scientologist. A spokesman said later it was one of Mr. Romney’s favorite novels. “I’m not in favor of his religion by any means,” Mr. Romney, a Mormon, said. “But he wrote a book called Battlefield Earth that was a very fun science-fiction book.”
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The Cartoon The Mormon Church Doesn’t Want You To See
MORMONISM AND BLACK PEOPLE: “You see some classes of the human family that are BLACK, UNCOUTH,
UNCOMELY, DISAGREEABLE and LOW in their habits, WILD, and seemingly DEPRIVED OF NEARLY ALL THE BLESSINGS OF THE INTELLIGENCE that is generally bestowed upon mankind. The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been KILLED, and THAT WOULD HAVE PUT A TERMINATION TO THAT LINE OF HUMAN BEINGS. This was not to be, and the Lord put A MARK upon him, which is THE FLAT NOSE AND BLACK SKIN. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race — that they should be the “servants of servants;” and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree.” — LDS “Prophet” Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 290, 1859, emphasis added.
“Now WE ARE GENEROUS WITH THE NEGRO. WE ARE WILLING that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I WOULD BE WILLING to LET every Negro DRIVE A CADILLAC IF THEY COULD AFFORD IT. I WOULD BE WILLING that they have all the advantages they can get out of life in the world. BUT LET THEM ENJOY THESE THINGS AMONG THEMSELVES.” — “Apostle” Mark E. Petersen, “Race Problems As They Affect The Church,” Address delivered at Brigham Young University, August 27, 1954
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SALT LAKE CITY WEEKLY: “Church President Joseph Fielding Smith had been famously quoted in a 1963 article in Look magazine as saying: “I would not want you to believe that we bear any animosity toward the Negro. ‘Darkies’ are wonderful people, and they have their place in our church.”
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AND THEN A MIRACLE: In the wake of civil legislation across the world and anti-racism campaigns against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in America came an incredible revelation on June 9, 1978, from the Mormon President, Spencer W. Kimball, who announced that he had received a revelation which signaled the end of the Church’s ban on blacks’ acceptance into the priesthood. Until then, the Church had pontificated that blacks would never hold priesthood in the church because they bore the “Mark of Cain” and had been born through this lineage as a punishment for their failures in the pre-existence. According to Mormon scriptures, when Cain rebelled and rose to slay his brother Abel, God cast him away from His face and cursed him to be a vagabond and a fugitive. He identified him with black skin. A Mormon book called “Pearl of Great Price” — Moses 6:40, states that, “I the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”
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BLACKS AND MORMONS: In a surprise move felt by some to be prompted by controversy generated by Mitt Romney‘s presidential bid, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are preparing to release a statement clarifying Mormon doctrine on race. The statement, entitled “A Proclamation on the Seed of Cain”, will “put the myth of Mormon racism to bed once and for all”, stated church spokesman I. Bray Forluker. The text of the statement, composed by both the LDS First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is as follows:
“Our Father in heaven is the father of all peoples and all races. Because of this, as prophets and apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we solemnly declare that racism, and racial discrimination in any form, has no place in the hearts, minds, or actions, of Latter-day saints, or any people anywhere. We therefore reject any insinuation that as a church we continue to subscribe to the
personal opinions to the contrary of past church leaders, often expressed over a century ago. We encourage Latter-day Saints to remember that we have a living prophet today, and that we follow him, not past prophets.
“More specifically, there is ongoing concern about the church’s theological stance on the matter of those of African descent. We wish to be clear: negroes, as the seed of Cain, are not to be discriminated against in any way, shape, or form. We ESPECIALLY insist upon this in the matter of church leadership positions; and anyone who looks at a photograph of the faces of all the men in our quorums of the seventy, our quorum of the twelve, and our First Presidency, will be able to sense our seriousness about this issue.
“While some of our caucasian members may continue to take pride in the fact that in the pre-existence, we fought valiantly against Lucifer and his minions, while our negro brethren did not, we solemnly declare that any such feeling of pride is entirely unwarranted. Perhaps our dark friends in Jesus’s pre-existent army were only doing the best they could with what psychological and emotional traits they had, which may have included a tendency to panic under pressure and an inability to plan for the future; we therefore have no right to judge them ‘unworthy’, any more than we would a handicapped person for not being as capable as a normal, real person. After all, every army needs cooks, janitors, and sanitation workers, even, from what we believe, pre-existent ones of spirit. We must leave the judgment to the Lord.
“We remind the world that the very musically talented Gladys Knight, a negress, has joined our church, and that basketball superstar Karl Malone, also of the seed of Cain, while not a member of our church, resided in Salt Lake City for many years. We also consented to allow those with the curse of Cain to receive all our church ordinances, and even trust them to officiate in church, a full TWENTY NINE years ago. We think these three facts say everything that needs to be said about our church’s commitment to colored people. We therefore request that members of the media ensure that their
representations of our church’s doctrines and attitudes on race be accurate.”
“Yours in Christ,
“The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve”
[pictured, above left, AKA The All-White Guys]
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RECOVERY FROM MORMONISM: “A site for those who are Questioning their faith in the Mormon Church And for those who need support As they transition their lives to a normal life.”
THE OSMONDS: Crazy Horses