The Cassius Review of Books: "Truth Restored"

[Guest]

Cassius Review of Books
Volume I, Issue II
Cassius University, 2010
Review by Darth J

To retain plausible deniability, the views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the position of Cassius University, Mormon Discussions, or the author himself.

Review of Gordon B. Hinckley, "Truth Restored: A short History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Salt Lake City: Copyright 1947 by the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Reprinted 1969). 154 pages (no footnotes or bibliography whatsoever). No original cover price; $1.00 in October 2010 at Deseret Industries Thrift Store. (Short quotes from the work reviewed have quote marks; longer quotes are in blue text.)

If you're reading this review, chances are that you have encountered many troubling issues regarding the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have pondered how those issues relate to the Church's claim of being the one, true church on Earth. You may be a member of the Church who has questioned or lost your faith. You may be a member who is struggling with "not all truth being particularly useful" when your idyllic image of your church turned out to be not quite what you always thought, and who is on the internet looking to apologists for the equivalent of continuously refinancing your loans to avoid the day when you have to make those payments that will leave you completely insolvent (spiritually speaking). Maybe you are a true believer, who will not let any facts or evidence get in the way of what you "know" with "every fiber of your being" (and since matter is largely made of empty space at the atomic level, "every fiber of your being" becomes ironically apropos in describing what you "know"). Or perhaps you are just a bystander who enjoys watching defenders of the LDS Church flail about, trying to reconcile the claims of their church with objective reality.

In any case, you've read enough of these non-faith-promoting stories about secret teenage plural brides, pantomime of Freemasonry, self-serving revelations of expediency canonized as the Doctrine and Covenants, claims of translating ancient Egyptian, and so on. I know what you really want. Enough of the naysayers and dream-slayers. Contra Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, you can handle the truth, but only for so long. It's time for that old-fashioned faith-promoting history. A history so sugar-coated that you'll get Type 2 diabetes just from picking it up. What you want is "Truth Restored," a book so obsessed with turning every trivial happenstance into a triumph, omitting any bad news while glorifying irrelevant minutiae, nursing that persecution complex, drooling over vanity church monuments and edifices, and the occasional faith-promoting blatant misrepresentation that you already know before I say it that it could only be authored by Gordon B. Hinckley.

Gordon B. Hinckley was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he wrote "Truth Restored," so I will refer to him as "Elder" instead of "President." However, one should not lose sight of the many accomplishments that Gordon B. Hinckley had aside from being a permanent public relations cheerleader for the Church. For example, there was his career as.......anyway, Gordon B. Hinckley was an apostle when he wrote this book.

As an added bonus, "Truth Restored" was published by the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, making this opus official church doctrine for those who have adopted certain apologist theorems about what constitutes "official church doctrine." We'll discuss the significance of this book's status as official church doctrine later, but here's a hint: it starts with “L” and rhymes with “amanite.”

"Truth Restored" begins with the events leading up to and including Joseph Smith's First Vision straight out of the Joseph Smith History found in the Pearl of Great Price. None of this "truth that is not useful" examining whether his mother and other family members joined the Presbyterian church in 1823 instead of 1820, no worrying about whether he was 14 or 15 or 16 or 17, no confusion about whether he was praying to know if there was a God or for forgiveness of sins or which church was true, and certainly none of these distractions about whether he saw an angel or "the Lord" or two distinct Personages. With "Truth Restored," faith-promoting history is what you expect, and faith-promoting history is what you get.

Unfortunately, we are also treated to the Hinckleyism of the faith-promoting misrepresentation, for which he would become famous many years later with such statements in the media as “polygamy is not doctrinal,” “there are no such things as Mormon fundamentalists,” not knowing that the Church teaches or emphasizes that God was once being a man who became exalted just like we are trying to do, or we “don’t know” why blacks could not be ordained to the priesthood prior to 1978. Having finished Chapter 1 by regurgitating the version of the First Vision that the Church has officially decided to go with, Elder Hinckley informs his readers that Joseph Smith “joined none of the churches that sought his interest.” That’s not an entirely accurate statement. Orsemus Turner, one of Joseph Smith’s cohorts in Palmyra in the 1820’s, noted that Joseph Smith got involved with the Methodists, including some amateur preaching with them, and he may have joined a Methodist church in Harmony, Pennsylvania in 1828. Whether or not he officially “joined,” he did not exactly distance himself, either, and to leave at “he never joined any church” is misleading. But never mind all this. Elder Hinckley has a story to tell.

We then move to Chapter 2, “An Angel and a Book.” Again, Elder Hinckley largely lifts the story of Moroni and the golden plates out of the canonized Pearl of Great Price account. He does add some color commentary, though, such as, “he continued to work on his father’s farm, to work for others in the area, and to associate with companions of his own age.” Elder Hinckley does not mention that Joseph’s “work for others in the area” involved using a magic rock to try to find buried treasure. This seems like an odd omission, given that apologists have told us that Joseph’s transition from using a magic rock to look for buried treasure to using the same rock to translate the “buried treasure” of the golden plates is not at all dressing up folk magic with Christian terminology, but is in fact evidence of the Lord preparing Joseph Smith to be a prophet. Since apologists have explained that Joseph Smith’s career in folk magic was a key step in preparing to be a prophet (perhaps like L. Ron Hubbard’s career as a science fiction writer “prepared” him to be the founder of Scientology), it is curious that Elder Hinckley overlooks this example of how the Lord qualifies those whom He calls.

After the standard LDS narrative about Joseph Smith spending several years going back to the Hill Cumorah to receive instruction from Moroni about obtaining the golden plates, which is not at all like a folk magic treasure guardian story, Elder Hinckley shifts into persecution gear. “No sooner was it rumored that he had the plates than efforts were made to seize them from him.” Of course, the only way it could have been “rumored” that Joseph Smith had these plates is if he went around telling people that he had them, but this is a faith-promoting history, so don’t go there. (“Don’t go there,” “Too much information,” and “Talk to the hand” went out of usage in the late 1990’s after several people were publicly tortured to death for using these phrases.) We are informed that numerous efforts were made by locals to find the golden plates that Joseph Smith was “rumored” to have and had not at all gone around blabbing about, including someone using a “diviner” to look for them (no, this particular person using a rod to find things was not Oliver Cowdery). This hint at local magical practices to find hidden treasures is about all you are going to get in “Truth Restored” on this particular subject.

In a recurring motif of “Truth Restored,” Joseph Smith finds it necessary to relocate to escape “persecution.” Joseph Smith moves to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where he had previously been “working” for “a Mr. Josiah Stoal.” Elder Hinckley neglects to mention that this “work” for Mr. Stoal was using magical devices to try to find buried treasure. And speaking of magical devices to find treasure, Elder Hinckley also makes his one and only mention of Emma Smith here when he states that Joseph had married Emma “some months prior to the time he received the plates.” Since folk magic is apparently one of those truths that is not useful, Elder Hinckley misses another opportunity to show how the Lord works. In this case, he leaves out that the seer stone told Joseph to marry Emma, anticipating the day when untold numbers of BYU students and returned missionaries would receive revelations about whom they should marry.

However, on page 15 (of this edition), Elder Hinckley provides us with a picture of reformed Egyptians characters (of course it’s the Anthon manuscript). You know; this:



It really is too bad that an official publication of the Church asserts that the Anthon manuscript is reformed Egyptian, since these characters have an uncanny similarity to something else.

[Guest]

Then it’s straight ahead with the official narrative about Martin Harris and the Church’s official version of what occurred between him and Professor Anthon. And it’s the standard story of Oliver Cowdery coming to help, with no mention of Oliver’s prowess as a rodsman, and then on to the testimony of the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses. The testimony of the Three Witnesses in particular is meant to be extremely impressive, which is probably why Elder Hinckley does not mention David Whitmer later telling people that if they believe his testimony of the Book of Mormon, they should also believe his testimony that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet. Nor, of course, is there any mention of Martin Harris seeing Jesus in the form of a deer and that he walked and talked with Bambi Jesus for a couple of miles, nor of Martin Harris talking about trying to dig up a moving stone box on the Hill Cumorah with the same conviction that he talked about seeing the angel and the golden plates.

In fact, it may be easier just to talk about what isn’t in “Truth Restored.” This would include events such as:

--Zion’s Camp
--the Mountain Meadows Massacre (but would you expect it to be in this book?)
--any mention of Joseph Smith practicing polygamy
--Michael Chandler, the mummies, the papyrus, or the Pearl of Great Price

Surprisingly, Elder Hinckley never tells us what “truth” was “restored,” either. There is the standard narrative of John the Baptist restoring the Aaronic priesthood, as well as the story about Peter, James, and John bringing back the Melchizedek priesthood. As to the latter, we are not told the date when this happened, since we don’t know the date of one of the most important events in world history even though we do know the dates of things like John the Baptist and Elijah restoring priesthood keys. It’s almost like the Peter, James, and John story evolved later as Joseph Smith’s theology evolved, but I digress. As mentioned above, nothing about the Pearl of Great Price, no eternal progression (perhaps even then Elder Hinckley wasn’t sure if we really teach or emphasize that), no eternal families. Reading “Truth Restored,” Mormonism apparently consists of believing in Jesus, the Book of Mormon, getting baptized, and the Word of Wisdom. And being persecuted.

Persecution is discussed constantly through the book, from neighbors in New York trying to get the golden plates, to “mobocracy” in Ohio and Missouri, to Carthage, to the Saints leaving Illinois, to whining about the Reed Smoot senate hearings. But the reasons for which Mormons were persecuted is always vague, and this appears to be by design. Those who are familiar with Mormons know all too well about the persecution complex, but the Mormon persecution complex is much more than the race-baiting of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, or any other group that uses complaints of “discrimination” whenever you don’t like the hand that life dealt you. Mormons, and I mean True Believer Mormons here, generally believe that persecution is evidence that the Church is true. People disputing the Church’s truth claims and/or genuinely not liking the political or social stances taken by the Church are in the mind of a TBM indicative of Satan trying to stop the Lord’s work. Thus, much like TBM’s themselves, “Truth Restored” repeatedly makes the conclusory statement of “persecution” for both real, unlawful violence and for disputing the claims of the Church and its founder. This is why any call for looking at the social or political reasons why Mormons and their neighbors usually did not get along for the better part of the 19th century is seen as ratifying the unjust mob violence that happened. It is not enough just to be a victim; the early Mormons need to have been persecuted specifically for their substantive religious beliefs to fit the narrative of Satan working through his proxies to fight against the Saints.

“Truth Restored” takes this neurosis and runs with it; claiming, for example, that Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants was the basis for mob violence: “Such teachings flying in the face of traditional Christianity, were bound to stir the indignation of the intolerant.” This statement is followed by a summary of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon being attacked by a mob in the middle of the night in March 1832. In other words, according to “Truth Restored,” Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered as a direct and proximate result of his teaching the three degrees of glory (Elder Hinckley does not mention whether Emanuel Swedenborg was ever tarred and feathered just because he said that there were three degrees of glory in heaven). The implication of Mormons’ religious beliefs being the ultimate motive for this persecution, as opposed to political and social conflict, is preceded by a passive-aggressive straw man slam on traditional Christians. Summarizing the vision of the three degrees of glory, Elder Hinckley notes that, “Men in the hereafter shall not be arbitrarily assigned to heaven or hell.” Just which Christian denomination teaches that God’s sending a person to heaven or hell is purely arbitrary, Elder Hinckley does not say.

To be fair, though, Elder Hinckley does at one point allow that there may have been a social/political component to the early Saints being persecuted. On pages 56-57, he says that

One situation which received emphasis was the fact that most of the Mormons were from the eastern states, while Missouri was linked with the South as a pro-slave state. In effect the Mormons were different from the old settlers, and the result was antagonism.

These two sentences conclude Elder Hinckley’s allowing anything other than purely religious motives for the locals in any area not getting along with the influx of Mormon settlers.

After implying that D&C 76 was the proximate cause of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon being tarred and feathered, Elder Hinckley discusses some of the doctrines that were unique to Mormonism. This discussion consists of a grand total of: Joseph Smith’s prophecy about the Civil War, the Word of Wisdom, which he calls an “unusual document” (“unusual” unless you are familiar with health ideas in vogue in the early 19th century), eight being the age at which people are eligible to be baptized, the School of the Prophets, and the various offices into which the church bureaucracy is organized. That’s it. That’s what Elder Hinckley provides as unique doctrines of Mormonism. Then it’s back to the story.

Gordon B. Hinckley always seemed to be preoccupied with the building of monuments to Mormonism. For example, he gushed about the extreme makeover of the Hotel Utah into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, including the 9-foot marble statue of Joseph Smith that he called “heroic in size.” Nor let us forget President Hinckley’s pride in the Conference Center, with its rooftop arboretum that by the way is leaking all kinds of water into the structure (source: confidential) and its oak pulpit from President Hinckley’s own tree, or the list of monuments for even relatively trivial things like Cove Fort, or the birthday extravaganza held for President Hinckley at the Tabernacle (thus proving once and for all that we definitely do not worship the prophet).

Yet despite this Roman general-like preoccupation with monuments and personal veneration for which Gordon B. Hinckley was known, it is still surprising that in a book about the restoration of the Gospel that says one total sentence about Emma Smith and NOTHING about eternal families or the Pearl of Great Price, “Truth Restored” does include the following:

--Pages 48-52 are about the architectural magnificence of the Kirtland Temple and the Pentecost-like experience confirming that the Lord agreed that it was a nice building;
--Page 55 and most of page 56 are about Joseph Smith’s grand city planning for the city of Zion in Missouri (which hopefullythe machines will never find);
--Page 61 has a picture of the modern Visitors’ Center in Independence, Missouri;
--Pages 71-76 include a couple of sentences about baptisms for the dead and then bask in the architectural wonder of the Nauvoo Temple and the praise heaped upon Joseph Smith and his followers by some of the visitors to Nauvoo;
--Page 95 shows us the Mormon Battalion monument at the Utah State Capitol;
--On pages 101-102, we learn about the monument to Mormon pioneers that the LDS Church erected at Winter Quarters “in heroic size”;
--Pages 114-115 tell us about and show us a picture of Seagull Monument at Temple Square;
--Pages 121-122 quote the praise Mormons have received for their colonizing the Great Basin;
--Page 125 shows us a picture of a monument to pioneers pulling a handcart;
--Pages 134-135 are about the marvel of the Salt Lake Tabernacle;
--Oddly enough, there is only a brief mention of the Salt Lake Temple;
--During the time that Joseph F. Smith was President of the Church, “Scores of beautiful buildings were erected, including three temples;”
--The final pages, 153-154, list sundry monuments to Mormonism such as the “striking shaft of marble, a monolith thirty-eight and one-half feet high” at Joseph Smith’s birthplace in Sharon, Vermont; the”imposing monument” in “heroic size” that is “[c]rowning the Hill Cumorah,” another mention of the Winter Quarters monument, and the “This is the Place” monument at Emigration Canyon.

This is not to say that these things are not worthy of remembrance to those of Mormon heritage, but the prioritizing is indeed curious. The entire book is 154 pages, says not one single word about important events in Mormonism like Zion’s Camp, the “Abraham” papyri, the Book of Moses or the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible, eternal marriage, etc., etc., but goes on and on about these glorious structures to celebrate Mormonism. In a moment, you’ll also see that while an important part of LDS and U.S. history, the story of the Mormon pioneers is obsessed over quite a bit, too.

After discussing the building of the Kirtland Temple, Elder Hinckley actually does talk about the Kirtland Safety Society disaster—kind of. He explains that “a bank was formed in Kirtland, among whose officers were authorities of the Church.” Well, that’s one way of putting it. And he does say that when the bank failed, as did other institutions at the time, some members of the Church lost their money and also their faith, which led to “a dark period in the history of Mormonism.” That’s about as far as he is willing to go, though. (Incidentally, I attribute the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society to ineptitude, not deliberate Bernie Madoff-style tactics).

[Guest]

Then comes more persecution, so it’s off to Missouri---and more persecution. As mentioned above, the social/political tensions between Mormons and their semi-civilized (my words, not Hinckley’s) neighbors in Missouri is glossed over quickly, and we are again treated to the suggestion that this violence and tension, which in no way is excusable, was entirely because of religious belief. In this reviewer’s opinion, examining the root causes for this persecution is no more justifying it than investigating a murder case means the police are blaming the victim. But persecution is hinted at as a sign that the Church is true, so Elder Hinckley spends numerous pages talking about mobocracy without explaining why it was so universal wherever the Mormons went (nor whether part of the problem may have been that the half-literate hillbillies they kept running into were simply intolerant in general). As any mention of Mormons also fighting with their neighbors would detract from the story, Elder Hinckley omits any discussion of the Danites, the Mormon War (other than talking about the threats and loss of property suffered by the Mormons), or anything like that.

And then we’re into Nauvoo. Special mention is made of missionaries being sent to England (Gordon B. Hinckley went on a mission to England, coincidentally), and the official church publication that is “Truth Restored” explains on page 69 that the Millenial Star in Great Britain was an official church periodical. That’s unfortunate for apologists who want that not to be the case, since the Millenial Star was quite explicit during Brigham Young’s tenure that Adam is God the Father, making it official church doctrine by being published in an official church publication.

“An unusual mission undertaken during this period was that of Orson Hyde.” Yes, Elder Hinckley, that was indeed unusual. I sure hope that the Church took care of Orson Hyde’s wife while he was conveniently on another continent.

Chapter 8 is entitled, “The Martyrs.” It begins with mild outrage that Porter Rockwell was accused of trying to off Lilburn Boggs just because the Avenging Angel had reasons to be a suspect.. This outrage is interesting because a few pages later, this official church publication accuses Thomas Ford of being complicit in the murder of Joseph Smith. From page 86:

The law had not punished the murderers; the governor had apparently connived with them.

Foreshadowing the circumstances of Joseph Smith’s death, Elder Hinckley brings up John C. Bennett as one who “added to the smoldering fire of hatred.” Elder Hinckley does not say what specifically Bennett did, but someone who advocated spiritual wifery as Dr. Bennett did is clearly an apostate and caught up with carnal lusts. Thank heavens this abominable notion was countered by the actions of true prophets---like, you know, Joseph Smith.

I am sure that even the casual follower of Mormonism knows that we’re now going to hear about “a libelous sheet called the Nauvoo Expositor.” Since libel means the publication of a defamatory statement that is false, maybe someone could explain what facts alleged in the Expositor were false. Well, that discussion is not going to be had in “Truth Restored.” Nor is there going to be much said about William Law other than he was “nefarious.” As I said at the start, we are talking about sugar-coated faith-promoting history here, so just never you mind that Joseph Smith tried to get William Law’s wife to enter a polyandrous marriage.

The next several pages give the standard Sunday School account of how Joseph Smith was murdered, and since using a gun to defend yourself is not consistent with voluntarily giving up one’s life, we needn’t bother in this book with details like that.

Another interesting omission from “Truth Restored” is any acknowledgment of any kind of the existence of several branches of Mormonism besides the LDS one that all claim to be the continuation of the church started by Joseph Smith. In fact, while “Truth Restored” is greatly concerned with monuments and (as we will soon see) all sorts of trivia about the pioneers, the following from page 85 is the entire discussion of the succession crisis in 1844:

Joseph had bestowed the keys of authority upon the apostles, with Brigham Young at their head, and the people sustained them in this capacity, although there was some confusion for a time.

Take that, RLDS! (And Strangites. And Bickeronites. And Temple Lot.)

So now, with the self-evident fact that Brigham Young was Joseph Smith’s obvious successor, it is time to leave Nauvoo and “find a place where they might worship God according to the dictates of conscience” (i.e., practice polygamy). (The RLDS, Strangites, Bickeronites, etc. were not compelled to leave the territorial United States, but discussing this would require acknowledging that such groups even exist. So never mind.)

Considering the striking omissions from church history in “Truth Restored,” it is a wonder that the pioneer saga takes up pages 87 to 110. For a book that leaves out key LDS history like the Book of Abraham, it seems sort of bizarre that Elder Hinckley elects to share so much minutiae and trivia about the pioneers. Not that these things could not be interesting or important in a book about the pioneers, but what a strange focus for a general overview of LDS history. I do think it is interesting to hear about the brass band the pioneers had with them, or the wooden odometer they invented, or a list of the livestock one pioneer company had (I’m not kidding; it’s on page 116), or whole page excerpts from a pioneer diary. But in a general introduction to the Church’s version of its history that has a total of one sentence about Emma Smith and nothing about Elijah restoring the sealing power?

The story of the LDS Church being established in the Salt Lake Valley involves an account of how Heber C. Kimball prophesied that goods would be sold in Salt Lake City for less than the cost in New York or St. Louis, which was fulfilled when merchants with articles to sell to California gold rushers arrived and found that other merchants beat them by sailing around Cape Horn, so they had to unload their stuff at a discount in Salt Lake. And the various missionary efforts, including Parley P. Pratt presiding (excuse the alliteration) over a mission in England in which 21,000 people were baptized. Also, the Golden Spike, which is more Utah/U.S. history than Mormon history per se, but the history of Utah and the Mormons are intertwined, so whatever. You know, since Elder Hinckley conflates all these worldly things with “the Church is true,” maybe he could have had some interesting stories about the start of Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institute, but no.

Then the Utah War happens and Brigham Young dies. Right about now, one might ask whether Elder Hinckley’s official church publication ever even mentions polygamy. Actually, it does, in Chapter 13. We are told that the doctrine was announced by Joseph Smith in 1842 (and that’s as far as it gets in associating Joseph Smith with polygamy) but not taught publicly until 1852---which would suggest a more likely motive for destroying the Nauvoo Expositor if there was any discussion beyond labeling it “a libelous sheet.” “Truth Restored” asserts that, “Indications point to the fact that as a rule the children of polygamous marriages were superior physically and mentally.” Since there are no footnotes or references at all in “Truth Restored,” we must accept this claim at face value. We are also told that “only about three percent of the families were involved“ with polygamy. If that is so, then something seems amiss when Elder Hinckley states on page 141 that under the Edmunds-Tucker Act, “Thousands of Mormons were disfranchised.” Remember, he is talking about 1887, long before the LDS Church had 13 million theoretical members. So if only about three percent amounts to “thousands,” something appears to be inconsistent in the accounting. This official church publication also indicates that the Edmunds-Tucker Act “was considered unconstitutional by many people in the nation, and generally by the Mormons.” I for one find it comforting to see the Church stand on its principles that it is unconstitutional to decide by popular vote who has the right to marry.

Unfortunately, the discussion of polygamy ends with one of those faith-promoting misrepresentations: the Manifesto issued by Wilford Woodruff in 1890 ended polygamy, and, “Since that time the Church has neither practiced nor sanctioned such marriage.” Except that it did, for another 14 years, requiring another manifesto by Joseph F. Smith.

Next, Lorenzo Snow is the prophet, who taught that the drought in St. George that was not at all part of the normal climate cycle in the southwestern desert happened because people were not paying tithing, and that if they did pay tithing it would eventually rain---because tithing had been paid, and not because it was part of the normal climate cycle in the southwestern desert. Joseph F. Smith has some difficulties as prophet, though, because of those Reed Smoot hearings. Not to say that this whole matter was handled in the most fair and reasonable way by Congress, but you know, Reed Smoot was part of a church that left the United States and came to loggerheads with the government for illegally practicing polygamy. And while Elder Hinckley takes umbrage at the skepticism directed toward President Smith at those hearings, this was after all a man who was a polygamist himself, having become one after originally marrying his 16 year-old cousin.

Joseph F. Smith was followed by Heber J. Grant, whose great accomplishments we can infer from “Truth Restored” were giving away books to people and getting excited about the sugar beet industry (which actually was important to Utah’s economy, by the way), then George Albert Smith, who liked Boy Scouts (don’t take that statement out of context), and then David O. McKay, who was dynamic and traveled to lots of places. And with a reminder about the many magnificent monuments the Church has, our narrative ends.

[_Darth J]

This review promised earlier that there was something in this official church publication about what you might have guessed are Lamanites. And what does this official church publication say about Lamanites?

Page 36: “In October [1830] the four men [Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, Peter Whitmer, Parley P. Pratt] left their families and set out on foot. Near the city of Buffalo [New York] they met with members of the Catteraugus tribe of Indians to whom they told the story of the Book of Mormon, setting forth that it contained a history of their forefathers.”

Page 38 has this picture:



with the following caption: “Joseph Smith tells a group of Indians the story of their progenitors as found in the Book of Mormon.”

Page 127: “Respect for the natives arose out of the Book of Mormon. This volume declares that the Indians are descendants of Israel. Their progenitors are known in that volume as the Lamanites, and, in a prophetic vein, the book speaks of a hopeful future for these people.”

As “Truth Restored” is an official church publication, I am grateful for this clarity on the Church’s official position on who the Lamanites are.

In summary, “Truth Restored” is an official feel-good summary of the history of the LDS Church and its four-fold mission: the Book of Mormon; telling people to believe in Jesus because nobody did before Joseph Smith; building monuments; and being persecuted. If you need some rest from the criticisms and stark reality of Mormon history and would like some light, escapist reading, then you will not go wrong with “Truth Restored.”

[_bcspace]

It really is too bad that an official publication of the Church asserts that the Anthon manuscript is reformed Egyptian, since these characters have an uncanny similarity to something else.

Like the glyphs of Otolum?

[_Yahoo Bot]

Must be tough for you to make salient points in a persuasive and concise fashion. Typical lawyer.

[_Darth J]

Must be tough for you to make salient points in a persuasive and concise fashion. Typical lawyer.

That's right, Bob. I write things on this message board just as if they were legal briefs.

[Guest]

Hi there professor J,

What a fantastic contribution to our humble little publication. I've only got through about a third of this review so far -- I do plan on finishing -- but I had to comment on one problem.

The intended audience of this book is just learning algebra and you seem to expect them to know calculus. Milk before meat, professor. Once we learn calculus, we realize that the teachings in Algebra were totally wrong, yet, we had to learn them anyway in order to get to Calculus -- oh wait, that isn't right at all. lol, sorry! Looks like you're right Professor! Only a cult would insist on offering milk past the expiration date and hiding the meat; hoping no one would ever find out it's on the bottom shelf in the fridge.

[_Darth J]

It really is too bad that an official publication of the Church asserts that the Anthon manuscript is reformed Egyptian, since these characters have an uncanny similarity to something else.

Like the glyphs of Otolum?

Goodness me! I wonder if anyone ever thought of that?

[_bcspace]

Like the glyphs of Otolum?

Goodness me! I wonder if anyone ever thought of that?

It's pretty old news. I think it was BH Roberts who reminded us of it.