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From: mikei@hammer.UUCP (Michael IsBell)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian,net.religion
Subject: Re: Terrorism and the Book of Mormon
Message-ID: <1577@hammer.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Oct-85 14:01:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: hammer.1577
Posted: Tue Oct 22 14:01:15 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Oct-85 07:16:48 EDT
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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}

I personally find your proposed possibilities equally chilling,
but neither likely.  There are "frightening" possibilities which
exist for virtually any situation. Speculation as an exercise by
the police to discover the scope of the crime and the players
involved has utilitarian value. To incite prejudice and finger
pointing with the speculation is to quench the openness which
all who profess Christianity should welcome. Caution in our
comments is the order of the day in a situation like this. (This
is not net.politics. (-: )

Good old fashioned greed and revenge are more likely candidates
for motive than religious zeal/insanity. The amounts of money
involved ($40K for the "salamander letter" alone and $500K+ for
the M'Lellin collection) make me wonder if I ought to scrounge
great-grandmother's attic for old letters, etc.


-- 

Michael IsBell
..!tektronix!tekecs!mikei
MS 61-215
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Wilsonville, Oregon 97070
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