drumdude wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 11:42 pm
MG 2.0 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 10:47 pm
appreciate the goodness and spiritual power these men possess.
A picture tells a thousand words. They have no power of discernment, and they're not prophets. If there were ever a time for a prophet to use their superpowers, Hoffman was it. Lives were literally at stake, and were lost over it.
Mark-Hoffman.jpg
Which was very sad. I found it difficult at the time to see/look at that picture also. I along with I’m sure many others asked themselves why didn’t God put a stop to something so heinous and evil?
From the church’s Gospel Library app:
Hofmann deceived not only Church leaders and historians with his forgeries but also his family and friends, archivists and librarians, and other experts. The Church acquired several documents from him, and his forgeries became the subject of both scholarly inquiry and public discussion.
The greatest tragedies connected to the Hofmann forgeries are the deaths of Kathy Sheets and Steven Christensen. The forgeries also posed challenges to the work of manuscript and book collectors and dealers, historians, and archivists. While police investigation linked Hofmann to numerous forgeries, his networks of trade made it difficult to trace the extent and location of his work. Twelve years after the bombings, for example, a document believed by experts to be a genuine Emily Dickinson poem was linked to Hofmann. False assumptions inspired by Hofmann documents or citations that eventually lead back to his fabricated evidence still distort some depictions of Latter-day Saint history.
Since the 1980s the Church has published extensively on its early history, helping to foster a greater understanding of some of the obscure historical episodes that Hofmann exploited in his forgeries to shed a negative light on the Church. Church historians and archivists have also exercised increased vigilance in corroborating claims of document provenance and historical context with other evidence. The publication and digitization of Joseph Smith’s papers and many other important document collections has helped broaden the base from which to evaluate new discoveries.
There was some good that came from this unfortunate episode.
One thing that became rather obvious was that church leaders on a day to day basis don’t inquire of the Lord on every subject and every detail. They make business decisions mainly upon their own judgement and common sense. Which results in the same thing that happens with other business leaders. They can at times be off track or mistaken.
Joseph Smith and Co. didn’t fare so well with the Kirkland Safety Society. But it wasn’t the end of the restoration. And that same restoration continues today.
I suppose this is getting off topic, but I wanted to make a comment on this photograph from church history. Every picture tells a story, and this one is no exception.
I wonder if Nephi might have also made some errors in judgement along the way? If so, did that stop the Lehite expedition to the promised land?
We sure have a tendency to put people on pedestals. And to some degree I suppose that’s warranted.
The mantle is far greater than the intellect. The proof is in the pudding.
Would to God that we were all as gifted and intelligent as the folks here at DiscussMormonism!
Regards,
MG
