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am curious so I went to what I believe is possibly the gold standard ( no pun intended) for the Mormons, their own scriptures.

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Well you are wrong in THAT assumption right there. Most of Mormon doctrine contradicts the Book of Mormon. LDS doctrine comes from a variety of sources, not just the BoM (or even the D&C).

Because the BoM was written before most LDS theology developed, first and second because Smith plagiarized the Bible. BTW, the two verses are stolen from the Bible.

The BOM also says they pray to Jesus, but ask a Mormon (any Mormon) if they are to pray to Jesus.

If you do not believe that Jesus is the **literal** son of God the Father in the same sense as any human is to their father, then how can you call your self Christian?

It's a “Word made Flesh” belief. What do you think Jesus was made of, huh?, thin air, magical Spirit?

You call yourselves Christian? UNBELIEVABLE!

Wintertime, I'd suggest you read as much as you can about the events leading up to publication of the Nauvoo Expositor; its contents; and of course the destruction of the Expositor which began the string of events the culminated in Joseph Smith's death.

Read from a variety of sources.

One of the things the Expositor accused Smith of doing, of course, was engaging in polygamy. Which Smith and other LDS leaders were doing, but denied publicly until 1852.

However, the newspaper also claimed that Joseph Smith had led the Mormons away from the Book of Mormon by teaching Celestial Marriage and doctrines that were not in the Book of Mormon. There was a lot of angst in the early Mormon church (and people leaving the church and being excommunicated for complaining) because almost immediately after the Book of Mormon was published it became virtually irrelevant because Smith started creating doctrines that added to or superceded the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon prohibits polygamy; Doctrines & Covenants 132 requires it.

Mormon doctrine comes from Doctrines & Covenants and other sources, not the Book of Mormon.