Since the BOM was dreamt up by JS, I realized the today that the motivation, attitude and behavior of the villains in the BOM came from his own heart. It was not just limited to prophesying about himself in 2nd Nephi, it was about himself.

He WAS, Gadianton, Korihor, Sherem, Noah, Laman, Amulon, Amlici, Zeezrom...

This is a list of villonous themes and doctrines taught in the BOM (from the top of my head, I a sure there a lots more) that JS actually believed, taught in secret and lived by (BOM exact quotes in quotation marks):

leading people into the wilderness becuase you are upset that the goverment won't let you proclaim yourself king

taking young maidens against their will, obsession with mentioning that "which is most precious" was taken by force and no one could stop them.

inciting war and rumors of war

delusions of grandeur

Boasting to be greater than Christ

secret combinations

eat drink and be marry

Lots of wicked brothers are murdered while trying to help or fight against the leader

"there is no god"

"ye cannot know of things you do not see"

teachers should be popular and supported by the people

Taking oaths of vengence against the leader of the country and doing so in secret rituals

real believers should never ask for proof or they will be struck down by God

sending men out to recruit others, a constant theme.

breaking off from the established government to start your own, becuase they wanted so fornicate, drink and steal

there are no real consequences for sin

The kingmen (people in power who lust for the leader's power) are destroyed...unless they "yielded"

He uses a very interesting term so and so gained by "his fraud"

the commandments are just scare tactics

public lies about being good and moral while desiring money, sex and power...getting others to go along in public setting, even obtaining false affidavits to deceive.

"to usurp power and authority over (the people)...to keep them down, even as it were in bondage, that ye may glut yourselves with the labors of their hands"

"enjoy your rights and priviledges and that which is your own"

claiming that angels appeared to him, but it was satan instead

stealing money from others based on their faith

believing in Christ is "foolish and vain hope"

taxing others to submission for personal gain

teaching a changing god

obsession with treasure (hidden, cursed, lost, magical, endless)

religion is "the effect of a frenzied mind"

cycle of pride and humiliation

confusing that god is one person or 3 people

ordering people to build ornate temples with altars

"no man can know of anything which is to come" (this is Korihor's main teaching...and apparently Hinkley's)

I know the BOM pretty well, as well as its doctrines and characters but I have never realized that Joseph Smith left such an idelible view of what what in his heart from a young age. The more I think about this the more it become so clear that JS wrote the BOM based on native america folkrore, pirate tales of hidden trasure that he read growing up, stuff he ripped off from contemporaries and, as I mentioned above the desires of his dark and greedy heart.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2013 10:02AM by erictheex.

You're spot on! A narcissists journal.

It wasn't difficult for him to write about himself at all.

Narcisist to the death.

I think that we focus so much on the anacronisms, the language issues, the changes, the archeology...that we missed the ugly thumbprint he left on the book that EXACTLY matches what history is now revealing about his character.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2013 10:04AM by erictheex.

Yes, eric, so true. One time I was talking with my idiot father about urban gang problems, and he said: "The Book of Mormon warns us of Gadianton Robbers with hand signs."

And I knew I was fucked.

Acquantances of the Smith family said JS loved novels about pirates and that his hero was Captain Kidd. See http://mormonthink.com/grant11.htm

Stephen Burroughs was another one of his favorites:
http://northwesthistory.blogspot.com/2008/07/bring-me-head-of-stephen-burroughs.html
Burroughs is expelled from Dartmouth for pranks, enlists as a sailor on a privateer in the Revolution, dabbles in counterfeiting, is imprisoned at and escapes from Castle Island prison in Boston Harbor, impersonates a minister, seduces school girls, and gets involved in an early censorship dispute on Long Island, and takes part in the Yazoo land fraud in Georgia. Burroughs embodies a host of contradictions. His Memoirs were an early national best-seller, going through something like 30 editions before the Civil War.

True, of the villains, ..but also the Hero's! Take Nephi the main hero, he was a first rate criminal! 1.Breaking and entering 2. Grand theft 3.Murder 4. kidnapping... sheesh and Gawd said; "isn't it better that one man perish"... isn't that what Caiapus the high priest said about Jesus?
Then Alma, what a bully, what he did to Korihor (the only smart one in the whole book) because he chose not to believe in something that may happen in the future!
And how about Captain Moroni, he threatened to turn his army against his own people if they did not keep his supply lines going!
If this is the example of the type of people we should aspire to be like... ouch, it is no wonder that they have created the Danites, the Mountain Meadows..
and now mostly Bullying... and would anyone be surprised if the organization did have a "secret police"?