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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!aecom!diaz
From: diaz@aecom.UUCP (Daniel Diaz)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian,net.religion
Subject: Terrorism and the Book of Mormon
Message-ID: <1953@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 17:00:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: aecom.1953
Posted: Thu Oct 17 17:00:24 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Oct-85 21:33:25 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 34
Xref: linus net.religion.christian:1421 net.religion:7602

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The New York Times (10.17.85,p.17) reported on the attempted
murder of Mormon researcher Mark Hofmann with a car bomb. He
was attempting to acquire a letter (purportedly written by an
early Latter-Day Saint follower) which is supposed to shed some
light on the origins of the LDS movement in general and in
particular the golden plates the Book of Mormon is supposed to
have been translated from:

	"The church maintains that Smith translated the
	gold plates by divine inspiration after receiving
	them in upstate New York from an angel named Moroni...

	The letter describes how Smith found the plates
	using a "seer stone," but initially was denied
	possession by an "old spirit" that transformed
	itself from a white salamander."

Now it is entirely possible that some opponent of the Mormon
church is attempting to frame its followers through this
bombing and the one that killed two other letter-hunters
on Tuesday.

The more frightening possibility is that some over-zealous
LDS member(s) is(are) attempting to quench the open debate on
religious matters which all who profess Christianity should
welcome. If they exist, such bombing zealots are potentially
of greater embarassment to the Mormon church than the contention
that their founder engaged in folk magic and treasure hunting.

       Dan Diaz, Department of Biochemistry
                 Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York
       diaz @ aecom  {..philabs!aecom!diaz}