Text 5005, 103 rader
Skriven 2009-04-20 23:35:38 av Ed Hulett (1:123/789.0)
   Kommentar till text 4996 av God Dan (1:138/666.0)
Ärende: Net Mail
================
God Dan -> Ed Hulett wrote:
 ->> On 20 Apr 09  13:07:52, Ed Hulett got back to God Dan
 ->> Re: Net Mail

 EH>>> You are the one working from a position of ignorance. Belief has
 EH>>> nothing to do with religion. Belief is a state of mind.

 GD>> You believe in the words of a convicted con man.

 EH>> You don't have the full story and you refuse to learn.

 GD> Your founder is a convicted con man. His conviction had nothing at
 GD> all to do with your cult's beliefs because he was cinvicted *before*
 GD> he started his religion.

Here, read this:

Background to the trial

In the spring of 1825 Josiah Stowell visited with Joseph Smith "on account of
havin
heard that he possessed certain keys, by which he could discern things
invisible to
the natural eye." Josiah Stowell wanted Joseph to help him in his quest to find
treasure in an ancient silver mine. Joseph was reluctant, but Stowell persuaded
Joseph
to come by offering high wages. According to trial documents, Stowell says
Joseph,
using a seer stone, "Looked through stone and described Josiah Stowell's house
and out
houses, while at Palmyra at Sampson Stowell's correctly, that he had told about
a painted
tree with a man's hand painted upon it by means of said stone."

Joseph and his father traveled to southern New York in November of 1825. This
was after
the crops were harvested and Joseph had finished his visit to the Hill Cumorah
that year.
They participated with Stowell and the company of workers in digging for the
mine for less
than a month. Finally Joseph persuaded him to stop. "After laboring for the old
gentleman
about a month, without success, Joseph prevailed upon him to cease his
operations."

Joseph continued to work in the area for Stowell and others. He boarded at the
home of Isaac
Hale and met Emma Hale, who was one "treasure" he got out of the enterprise.

What is the 1826 trial?

In March of the next year, Stowell's sons or nephew (depending on which account
you follow)
brought charges against Joseph and he was taken before Justice Neely. The
supposed trial
record came from Miss Pearsall. "The record of the examination was torn from
Neely's docket
book by his niece, Emily Persall, and taken to Utah when she went to serve as a
missionary
under Episcopalian bishop Daniel S. Tuttle." This will be identified as the
Pearsall
account although Neely possessed it after her death. It is interesting that the
first published
version of this record didn't appear until after Miss Pearsall had died.

William D. Purple took notes at the trial and tells us, "In February, 1826, the
sons of Mr. Stowell,
....were greatly incensed against Smith, ...saw that the youthful seer had
unlimited control over the
illusions of their sire... They caused the arrest of Smith as a vagrant,
without visible means of livelihood."

Whereas the Pearsall account says: "Warrant issued upon oath of Peter G.
Bridgman, [Josiah Stowell's nephew]
who informed that one Joseph Smith of Bainbridge was a disorderly person and an
imposter...brought before
court March 20, 1826"

So, we have what has been called "The 1826 Trial of Joseph Smith", even though
the records show that this
wasn't actually a trial. For many years LDS scholars Francis Kirkham, Hugh
Nibley and others expressed
serious doubts that such a trial had even taken place.

---------------

Go to http://tinyurl.com/dloys6 to read the entire article.

Ed

-- 
"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is
to fill the world with fools." --Herbert Spencer

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under
the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
 --Thomas Jefferson

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