As a teen-ager I had jobs and paid tithing but it wasn't much. I grew up in Salt Lake and have some memories of the events but they didn't really sink in. Especially not the church aspect of the fraud. Back then anything church related was boring and was only endured when it had to be - Sunday meetings and seminary. I didn't even make through seminary, they kicked me out my Jr. year of high school. That was a win-win as far as I was concerned.
I remember the events well. Although I was always a sporadic tithe payer, the payment of money to Hofmann wasn't such a big deal, it was the fact the church bought the documents, then squirreled them away hoping no one would ever find out.
And, even more than the deception, how could Mark Hofmann, a criminal, a forger, liar, and thief deceive the 1st Presidency and Q12? Where was their power of discernment as prophets, seers, and revelators? Why would God allow them to spend consecrated tithing dollars to purchase forged documents? Oh, I guess they were just acting as "men", not acting as prophets, seers and revelators during the Hofmann transactions.
The whole thing was kept quite Hush-Hush at the time. No discussion. I didn't find out about it, and the criminal acts, until many years later. At the time, with little to no info, as a believer, I would have been supportive of the LDS Church using their $$ anyway they chose.
I was about 25-26, so yes. Tithing money was not used. They asked wealthy members to purchase the documents, then asked them to donate the papers. They also solicited special donations from the same members for the documents they actually purchased. My mission president (Wilford Cardon) was one that was asked for money and to buy documents. When things went south he was released from all of his callings and ignored. He was then asked to start the fore runner of the Perpetual Education Fund in South America (partially using his own money), and move to South America. Members that were asked for favors became pariahs until the heat dropped down.
I thought it was really strange when Dallin Oaks got up in LDS general conference and *explained* why it was perfectly natural for Joseph Smith to refer to the angel Moroni as a white salamander. What a stupid creepy back woods hill billy way for a prophet of God to carry on...
It strained reason & credibility for me. Unfortunately, I was too emotionally decimated at the time from other highly destructive MORmON related issues in my life to properly react to the situation. I have since corrected that problem. And LDS inc has scrubbed buried that talk of Oaks. FILTHY DECEITFUL LYING BASTARDS!
The Mormons are experts at keeping us busy and distracted, while covering up what they don't want us to know. Mrs. Sheets lived in our neighborhood, and everyone was too upset about her being killed, and finding out who did it, and it didn't even occur to any of us that the Mormon church had anything to do with it.
Mr. Sheets joined our regional singles group, but no one would date him. He finally found an LDS woman in Australia, who had never heard of Mark Hoffman. It took him a whole year.
I was just a teen, but I don't remember the issue of the forgery getting much if any air time. The bombing I remember and that was made out to be an event barely related to LDS inc. Hofmann was just this lone collector who'd gone mad.