A Very Entertaining Thread on MD&D Right Now

[_Cylon]

Ugh. Why did I click on that link? The stupid makes my head hurt.

[_cwald]

Ugh. Why did I click on that link? The stupid makes my head hurt.

Yeah. No kidding.

[_moksha]

I now appreciate Dallin Oaks response. He embraced the white salamander and proclaimed this cute little critter had no impact on his faith. He took a leap of faith and transcended the story. In darkest day and brightest night he let no amphibian obscure his sight.

[_Drifting]

"As members of the Church, we have the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we will use our spiritual POWERS of DISCERNMENT, WE WILL NOT BE MISLED by the lies and half-truths Satan will circulate in his attempts to deceive us and to thwart the work of God." Dallin H. Oaks

In apologetic mitigation of a letter purchased by the Church from 'historian' Mark Hoffman...

"Another source of differences in the accounts of different witnesses is the different meanings that different persons attach to words. We have a vivid illustration of this in the recent media excitement about the word salamander in a letter Martin Harris is supposed to have sent to W. W. Phelps over 150 years ago. All of the scores of media stories on that subject apparently assume that the author of that letter used the word salamander in the modern sense of a 'tailed amphibian.'"

One wonders why so many writers neglected to reveal to their readers that there is another meaning of salamander, which may even have been the primary meaning in this context in the eighteen twenties. That meaning is listed second in a current edition of Webster's' New World Dictionary is a "spirit supposed to live in fire" (2d College ed. 1982, s.v. "salamander'). Modern and ancient literature contain many examples of this usage.

A spirit that is able to live in fire is a good approximation of the description Joseph Smith gave of the angel Moroni: a personage in the midst of a light, whose countenance was 'truly like lightning" and whose overall appearance "was glorious beyond description" (Joseph SmithÑHistory 1:32). As Joseph Smith wrote later, "The first sight [of this personage] was as though the house was filled with consuming fire" (History of the Church - 4:536). Since the letter purports only to be Martin Harris's interpretation of what he had heard about Joseph's experience, the use of the words white salamander and old spirit seem understandable." Dallin H. Oaks