His Big Ticket?

Speaking of Joseph Smith, President Gordon B. Hinckley has said, "The instrument in this work of God was a boy whose mind was not cluttered by the philosophies of men. That mind was fresh and without schooling in the traditions of the day." ("The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith," Ensign, Nov. 2002, pg 80)

Blatantly false. Joe Smith is a known glass-looker and treasure-digger, two common "traditions of (his) day". His mind not cluttered by the philosophies of men? Then why did Joe practice folk magic with seer stones and divination rods? This is more lies that those white guy Mormons tell about the beginnings of Mormonism and Joe Smith. They whitewash, 'sanitize', hideaway the truth so that unknowing people will be deceived into joining their church thinking it's all "'pure' and delightsome." What really pisses me off is that everybody uses the stories of Joe Smith to prove that he's a prophet and the church is true -but the stories they're telling aren't true!! When you look at the truth, Joe is just another kid in the burned-over district who got caught up in all this folk magic and revivalism. The only difference between him and the others is that his religion is still around today -can that be considered proof of Christ's true church? I think not!

Speaking of the revivalism in upstate/western New York, the LDS' version of the story is that "there were many different churches and Joseph didn't know which one to join" and that's when he supposedly prayed to God for wisdom and received the "First Vision". Okay, so at 14 (1820), Joe prays and God tells him "none of them are correct"...5 or 6 years later (1826) he is in court on accusations of swindling Josiah Stowell out of money by pretending to see in a stone the location of treasure buried by Spaniards and Indians [native Americans] (to which JS admitted he did pretend)....a year later (1827) he elopes with Emma Hale because of her father Isaac's disapproval of Joe and his treasure-digging....after a few months they finally go see Isaac where Joe promises to end his treasure-seeking ways...ONE MONTH LATER, Joe claims to have found the golden plates containing the writing of the ancient inhabitants of this land....one year later (1828) Joe joins the Methodist church to which Emma belongs. Hmm....then he begins 'translating' the Book of Mormon by use of his seer stone. You know, it looks to me like a boy caught up in the fanaticism in his area was looking for his "big break" and finally found it in a little story about some golden plates and revelations from God.