Pictured:
Obiwan
On Joseph Smith's practicing folk magic:
Obiwan wrote:When you were a kid, did you ever "hunt for treasure"? Those of us who lived in small towns certainly did, and did it often. Now, if you were a kid just discovering his "visionary" abilities, what would you try and experiment doing, especially if you lived in a small town and were not well off? Well, you might hunt for treasure. Sometimes you found something, and other times you did not. So, while anti-mormons try to portray Joseph's "money-digging" as something "evil", the real truth of the matter is quite normal, innocent, and actually "evidence" for his Prophetic Calling.
Joseph briefly was a Freemason, and held honorary titles of such, but such means nothing. Lot's of people join all kinds of different groups to learn, be a part of some common club, etc. Christians today try to make Freemasonry something "evil", but back in Joseph's day, everyone who was anyone joined the Freemasons from high to low from Christian to Jew, etc.
Did you ever have "lucky charms" such as a rabbits foot or see if you could find water with a divining rod growing up, or maybe even experiment with a Wigi board when you were a kid growing up? I did, so why couldn't have Joseph?
While Joseph didn't do the later, he was normal like anyone else..... And things like "folk magic" was common around him, mingled with Christianity, so the fact that Joseph and/or his family touched a little in that area is nothing abnormal.
On polygamy:
"Also why did polygamy just suddenly stop?"
Because man wasn't righteous enought [sic] to live it and accept it. God wasn't about to let the Church be destroyed for it, so, the world including those in the Church simply were not righteous enough to understand and/or live it.
"Why did Mormons once believe in having so many wives?"
Because it is an Eternal Law..... existing in Heaven as well.
The easist [sic] way to understand the likely reason "why" it is an Eternal Law is because there will be more righteous women in Heaven then men. But, there is no "official" reason why, simply that sometimes God gives it, and sometimes he takes it away. It's all through the Bible as well, so people who think it's something evil, simply don't know their Bibles. It is only wrong when it is not authorized of God.
I want to make another important point to you..... Only two things have "changed" in this Church that have any doctrinal basis. Those two things are Plural Marriage/Polygamy and the Priesthood. Both of those things have scriptural presidence [sic] of God giving and taking away according to His Will. Thus, the Church cannot be accused of "changing" thus that makes it false, when it's been done many times before in scripture on these very issues.
On the Church in fact teaching (including General Authorities speaking in general conference) that black people can't have the priesthood because they are descendants of Cain and are born into that lineage because they were less valiant in the war in heaven:
ALL RACES were always allowed in the Church. It is a complete lie by those who state otherwise. However, those of "African Decent" were not allowed to have the Priesthood save many exceptions to the rule, until 1978. Understand, this had nothing to do with racism, at least on the Churches side. First, all other races WERE allowed to have the Priesthood, including many who were just as black as African blacks, such in in the Islands, certain parts of the America's, etc.... There were even some "white" men who were not given the Priesthood or had it taken away because of their direct African lineage. So, when anti-mormons claim the Church was "racist", they are ignorant and liars as usual. The African race was believed to not be allowed to have the Priesthood primarily because of certain teachings in the scriptures, traditions mind you which existed outside of and long before the LDS Church came along. In fact, such teachings were often commonly used to justify slavery as well by slave owners. The "real" reason in my view for the modern ban in the Church is because the black African simply wasn't yet free until when??? Around 1978..... It is my view that God would not allow the Priesthood to be defiled by the wicked until the black man was really finally FREE....
God has His reasons for everything..... The more we actually understand his ways, rather than mans, the more we will know what His actual Church actually looks like. And this is the ONLY ONE that fits in every single aspect.....
DID YOU KNOW: The practice of slavery continued in the United States until 1978?
On reliable sources of information:
Easy as pie..... Others can expound I'm sure..... I would highly recommend you start reading places such as FAIRLDS.ORG to find out what the "real" truth on most of these issues are. You will never find the whole truth with anti-mormons. Places and books such as FAIR takes the anti-mormon argument and throws them in the trash that they are, by showing you the "whole" truth of a thing. It's easy to believe the negative sound bites and talking points of drive by anti-mormonsim, but do you want easy, or do you want the actual Truth??? Good luck.
From
the same thread:
On the Church continuing the practice of polygamy after the Manifesto and deceiving the federal government in order for Utah to obtain statehood:
Sure, there was some of that, but the Church did stop it basically immediately. Of course, some marriages were already planned, etc., so obviously you can't stop perfectly cold turkey. But, that's not some 30 years and such, get real.
On the complete lack of any evidence whatsoever that anyone in the Americas descended from Lehi's party:
As to scriptural verification, there are works out there which indicate how most identified such from the scriptures. But, such was the common interpretation, not necessarily right, at least in some cases anyway. It's simply what was commonly known and believed in past times the way body types and groups were identified, before DNA came along. There is/was a science behind identifying such groups. That's one reason why when "DNA and the Book of Mormon" stuff came around, to most LDS such was a joke. Because educated LDS already knew that most natives of the America's weren't of Jewish decent, and we had already long not been bothered by it because we knew what both the Book of Mormon and the Church and it's leaders meant on the issues, not the narrow interpretation anti's place on such.
On circular reasoning:
The Church itself IS above the men in it..... It is exactly what separates us from just any other man-made religion. There are checks and balances which allows [sic] for human imperfection, but the Church itself stands appart, because it is ran [sic] by Christ HIMSELF not men. You are trying to lump us into how other religions work..... but such is not how the Church of Christ works. And the very reason for that difference is because of the Priesthood of God and Revelation to His Prophets. And it's not that because of the Priesthood and Revelation as anti-mormons think prophets should therefore be perfect, it's that when decisions are made in relation to the "Church itself", especially when such concerns Doctrine and major Policy's, [sic] then the decisions ARE God's Will, because such is inline [sic] with Doctrine, Scripture, and Revelation.