My dear friends,
I felt it was time to go back and read, again, the CES Letter.

On page 11 of the CES Letter, Jeremy cites a reference entitled, "Mormonism: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress...Biography of its founders and History of its church." If you click on the link for this book in the CES Letter, you can download the entire book as a pdf.

Written by a contemporary of "Joe Smith" named Pomeroy Tucker, the book is a scathing expose of Joe, his minions, and the entire Smith family. Just a couple of examples:

1. Regarding the first edition of the BoM...
"Mr. Thurlow Weed,
of the Anti-Masonic Inquirer at Rochester, from
whom they met a similar repulse. Mr. Weed's own
words in regard to the manuscript and the printing
proposal are : " After reading a few chapters, . it seemed such a jumble of unintelligible absurdities, that we refused the work, advising [Martin] Harris not to mortgage his farm and beggar his family."

2. Regarding the character of young Joe...
"At this period in the life and career of Joseph
Smith, Jr., or " Joe Smith," as he was universally
named, and the Smith family, they were popularly regarded as an illiterate, whiskey-drinking, shiftless, irreligious race of people—the first named, the chief subject
of this biography, being unanimously voted the
laziest and most worthless of the generation. From
the age of twelve to twenty years he is distinctly remembered as a dull-eyed, flaxen-haired, prevaricating
boy—noted only for his indolent and vagabondish
character, and his habits of exaggeration and untruthfulness."

Ouch!

3. More about the young Joe and his personality...
"He could utter the most palpable exaggeration or marvelous
absurdity with the utmost apparent gravity.
He nevertheless evidenced the rapid development of a
thinking, plodding, evil-brewing mental composition —largely given to inventions of low cunning, schemes
of mischief and deception, and false and mysterious
pretensions."

Sound like a future cult leader to you?

4. Regarding Joe's early dalliances in "glass-looking"...
"...few persons were sufficiently stolid to listen to these silly pretensions,
for they were only of a piece with Joe's habitual
extravagances of assertion."

"...Joe's habitual extravagances of assertion"! Hahahahaha!!


Seriously, folks, you should consider reading this biography of Ol' Joe written by a contemporary and not blindingly whitewashed by TSCC.

Your buddy,
edzachery

Nice.
I've seen most of it before, and for all but "true believers," it's a picture of old Joe they haven't seen before.

One little caution, though...

The guy I fired because he'd lock his office door and masturbate at lunchtime a few years ago has some really nasty things to say about ME -- even though I'm a great boss and a prince of a fellow.

See the point? :)

If it was at lunchtime, what was the problem? Some guys need 5 minutes, others a whole hour. Geesh.

Hey EDZ, it's great to see you posting! For what it's worth, I've thought about you and your home situation quite a bit, and tried to send positively vibes your way. I hope that things are better for you. Your posts always reflect the polish of a thoughtful man. I'll check out the biography. Big bro hugs! The Boner.

I just saw your beer post. Fuck yeah, Bro!!!

We are told by LDS leaders to read the BoM over and over again--when you finish it, start all over again. There was a talk once about how one's personal copy of the BoM should have a tattered and worn appearance. Of course, we all know that this is just bullshit, only how one indoctrinates oneself. My own DW is one of these, often with a BoM in the passenger door pocket for long trips. But my point is, we should read and re-read the CES letter, too. Not for indoctrination purposes, but to be able to have all of Jeremy's thoughtful questions right in our palm, to ask them whenever confronted by Mormons spouting nonsense. If we challenge people to answer the questions, they will certainly be unable to do so, and it may bear fruit.