You might be right; But I have a LOT of MORMON data that I post; don't I.
Like this, for instance...
"Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes than he would take a sentance and it would apper in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on. But if it was not Spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was marvelous. Thus was the hol [whole] translated."---Joseph Knight's journal.
"In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us."
(History of the RLDS Church, 8 vols.(Independence, Missouri: Herald House,1951),"Last Testimony of Sister Emma [Smith Bidamon]," 3:356.
"I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, were present during the translation. . . . He [Joseph Smith] did not use the plates in translation."
---(David Whitmer,as published in the "Kansas City Journal," June 5, 1881,and reprinted in the RLDS "Journal of History", vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.
In an 1885 interview, Zenas H. Gurley, then the editor of the RLDS Saints Herald, asked Whitmer if Joseph had used his "Peep stone" to do the translation. Whitmer replied:
"... he used a stone called a "Seers stone," the "Interpreters" having been taken away from him because of transgression. The "Interpreters" were taken from Joseph after he allowed Martin Harris to carry away the 116 pages of Ms [manuscript] of the Book of Mormon as a punishment, but he was allowed to go on and translate by use of a "Seers stone" which he had, and which he placed in a hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original character appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English."
"Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say 'Written,' and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."
(Edward Stevenson, "One of the Three Witnesses,"reprinted from Deseret News, 30 Nov. 1881in Millennial Star, 44 (6 Feb. 1882): 86-87.)
In 1879, Michael Morse, Emma Smith's brother-in-law, stated:"When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon [I] had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating word after word, while the scribes Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other wrote it down."
(W.W. Blair interview with Michael Morse,Saints Herald, vol. 26, no. 12June 15, 1879, pp. 190-91.)
Joseph Smith's brother William also testified to the "face in the hat" version:"The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in the stone by the power of God"("A New Witness for Christ in America,"Francis W. Kirkham, 2:417.)
"The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret was the same manner as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, while the book of plates were at the same time hid in the woods."---Isaac Hale (Emma Smith's father's) affidavit, 1834.
“lEsie, you are a religious bigot!
You might be right; But I have a LOT of MORMON data that I post; don’t I.”
You must be a dried up shrew with no one to share your life with! Like most organized religions, Mormonism at it’s core is about controlling it’s adherents lives ( just like Marxists). All of them, far from “setting an individual free,” feed off of the weak by convincing them that unless they adhere to “their principles,” you will not have a good life and you will be shut out of whatever the “life after death” offers to the “faithful.” Then there’s always the money. The Catholic Church used to “sell indulgences.” And actually they all still do. Seeing as how you are “all up on Mormon theology,” you will probably agree that by the so-called “standards of Mormonism,” Harry Reid is an apostate. And yet there he is, supposedly a member in good standing. I’d think a lot more of the Mormons if they would excommunicate him, but people with power or money (or both) can pretty much get away with heresy without penalty. I mean, look at Nazi Pelousey. She’s pro-abortion and pro-homosexual, both of which are “mortal sins” in the Catholic church, but you don’t see anyone in that church’s hierarchy stepping up and kicking her sorry ass out.
But all that aside, I fail to understand why you are wasting your time on the Mormons? As churches go, they are a pretty benign group. I can only guess that you are a Jehovah’s Witness or some other fringe church, because they are the only one’s who go around picking fights with other people’s religions. How sad, to try and build up your own relationship with your God, buy denigrating others whose quest is just like yours.
Finally, at the end of the day, this article shouldn’t even have been posted on FR in my view. We have much more important issues before us that should be consuming our debate efforts. Something you might want to consider.