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From: steiny@idsvax.UUCP (Don Steiny)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Re: Mormons
Message-ID: <152@idsvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Jun-85 18:40:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: idsvax.152
Posted: Sat Jun  1 18:40:05 1985
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Organization: Independent Consultant - C/UNIX, Natural Language
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***

	This week's Time magazine had an article that verified 
in the authentic hand of one of the wittnesses to Joe Smith's
revelation that Joe Smith encountered a "white salamander",
not an angel.   I believe the line of the Mormon church is that
the Mormons were unfairly prosecuted.   However, Joe Smith
was once arrested for "money digging."   Joe Smith alledgedly
had "seer stone."  He would put the stone in a hat to block
out the light and the stone would become translucent.  It would
reveal to him where gold and other treasures were buried in 
the earth.  People would pay Joe a small sum (very small,
apparently) and he would tell them where to dig for treasure.
He was arrested for this and the judge concluded that Joe was
so simple minded that he acutally believed his own line and that
he could not punish him too heavily. (How would you like to have
to explain to a police officer that your name really IS Joe Smith?)

	It was this same stone that eventually pointed Joe to the
golden tablets where, inscribed (in reformed Egyptian), were 
several coda to the Old Testiment.  Now you might wonder how
Joe, who could not even write, could read reformed Egyptian.
Well, that same wonderful stone acted as translator.   Joe
spend some time, face buried in hat, reading off the translation
to his wife, who could write and wrote it down.

	I read this account in "Mormonism - Shadow or Reality," by
Gerald and Sandra Tanner.   The Tanners run a newspaper in
Salt Lake City called the "Salt Lake City Messanger."   Much of
the information was gathered from newspapers and court records of the 
time.  The Tannrs are former Mormons who have spent 
years researching the historical records of the Mormons 
and have written several books on their findings.

	The Mormons have said that the court records were 
falsified because of religious prosecution.  The new evidence
seems to bear out the court account.   

pesnta!idsvax!steiny
Don Steiny - Computational Linguistics
109 Torrey Pine Terr.  Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
(408) 425-0832