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From: jonw@tekmdp.UUCP (Jonathan White)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Mormon mobs
Message-ID: <2173@tekmdp.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Aug-83 11:57:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekmdp.2173
Posted: Mon Aug 29 11:57:28 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Aug-83 08:27:44 EDT
Lines: 23

I would like to further respond to J.D. Jensen's query about why the original
witnesses (or anyone else who might have been in on the Mormon hoax) didn't
blow the whistle on the whole charade after leaving the church.  The following
quote comes from a book entitled "Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?" by
Cowdrey, Scales, and Davis.  This quote pertains to Sidney Rigdon, who many
believe to be the mastermind behind the Mormon hoax, and who left the church
shortly after Joseph Smith was killed.

"A careful study of the function of the Danites in Mormonism gives us another
reason for understanding Rigdon's reluctance to come forward with the truth
even after he left the Mormon Church.  According to careful research, it has
been determined that the Danites existed to punish and murder those people
(Mormon and non-Mormon) who were injurious to the fledgling church.  Rigdon
himself said, according to Mrs. Nancy Alexander (who lived next to the Smith
family and knew Rigdon very well), that he knew of the Danite activities.  She
said, 'I heard Sidney Rigdon lecture in Kirtland after he left the Mormons. 
He said many Mormons who knew their secrets and left them were followed and
murdered...' (given in Mentor, Ohio, and now in possession of the Chicago
Historical Society)."

							Jon White
							Tektronix
							Aloha, Ore