View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 2

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{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 2
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"
|T=[[../../|One Nation Under Gods]]
|A=Richard Abanes
|<=[[../Chapter 1|Claims made in "Chapter 1: Vagabond Visionaries"]]
|>=[[../Chapter 3|Claims made in "Chapter 3: From Profit to Prophet"]]
}}
{{ChartOneNationUnderGodsChapter2}}		
<onlyinclude> 
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 2
|H=Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 23 (HB) - The author states that "LDS documents" are "strangely silent" about Joseph Smith's activities between 1820 and 1823
|L2=Response to claim: 25 - The author states that Moroni claimed that the golden plates were "buried in the hill Cumorah, just outside the village of Manchester"
|L3=Response to claim: 25 - The author states that the angel that appeared to Joseph was originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"
|L4=Response to claim: 25, 492n17 (HB) 490n17 (PB) - "Obviously, if the angel in Smith's room spoke about Moroni, then he certainly could not have been Moroni"
|L5=Response to claim: 26, 492n19-20 (HB) - Oliver Cowdery said that the First Vision took place in 1823 when Joseph was in his 17th year
|L6=Response to claim: 26, 492n21 (HB) - Joseph's brother William associated Moroni's visit with a revival
|L7=Response to claim: 27, 493n23 (HB) - George A. Smith merged the First Vision and Moroni's visit
|L8=Response to claim: 27, 493n24 (HB) - Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, said that the First Vision was of the angel in 1823
|L9=Response to claim: 27 (HB) - The author claims that Joseph engaged in "ritual magic and divination"
|L10=Response to claim: 28 (HB) - Joseph Smith was a "money digger"
|L11=Response to claim: 28 (HB) - Joseph used a "peep stone" to search for buried treasure
|L12=Response to claim: 29, 494n30 (HB) - Joseph's father was a "firm believer" in witchcraft and the supernatural
|L13=Response to claim: 29, 494-5n33-34 (HB) - Martin Harris said that Joseph was associated with a company of money diggers
|L14=Response to claim: 29, 495n36 (HB) - Joshua Stafford said that Joseph's family "told marvelous stories about ghosts, hob-goblins, caverns, and various other mysterious matters"
|L15=Response to claim: 30, 495n38 (HB) - William Stafford stated that Joseph used a seer stone to see "the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient dress"
|L16=Response to claim: 30, 495n40 (HB) - Joseph Capron stated that Joseph encouraged others to participate in money digging in order to obtain wealth
|L17=Response to claim: 31, 495n42 (HB) - William Stafford stated that Joseph believed that the state of the moon determined the best time to obtain treasures
|L18=Response to claim: 33, 495n48 (HB) - Joshua Stafford said that Joseph showed him a piece of wood from a box of money that had "mysteriously moved back into the hill"
|L19=Response to claim: 36 (HB) - The author states that Joseph Smith adapted Masonic rituals for the temple endowment
|L20=Response to claim: 40 (HB) - Does the Book of Mormon denounce Freemasonry by condemning "secret combinations," "secret signs," and "secret oaths"?
}}
</onlyinclude>	

==Response to claim: 23 (HB) - The author states that "LDS documents" are "strangely silent" about Joseph Smith's activities between 1820 and 1823==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author states that "LDS documents" are "strangely silent" about Joseph Smith's activities between 1820 and 1823.
|authorsources=<br>
#Author's opinion. 
}}
{{propaganda|Just how much documentation does the author think exists on the activities of a 14 to 17-year-old farm boy living on the frontier during this period? The Church didn't even exist during this time, therefore there would be no "LDS documents."
}}
[[One Nation Under Gods#Absurd claims|Absurd claims]]

==Response to claim: 25 - The author states that Moroni claimed that the golden plates were "buried in the hill Cumorah, just outside the village of Manchester"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author states that Moroni claimed that the golden plates were "buried in the hill Cumorah, just outside the village of Manchester."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{misinformation|The hill near Joseph's home was ''not'' called Cumorah by the angel Moroni, nor was it named Cumorah at the time that Joseph received the plates. The name ''Cumorah'' was applied later, ''as a result'' of Joseph finding the plates there.
}}

==Response to claim: 25 - The author states that the angel that appeared to Joseph was originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author states that the angel that appeared to Joseph was originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"
|authorsources=<br>
#Oliver Cowdery, ''Times and Seasons, April 15, 1842, vol. 3, no. 12, 753.
*1851 edition of the ''Pearl of Great Price'', p. 41.
*Joseph Smith ''1832 History'' cited in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'' vol. 1, 29-30.
}}
{{misinformation|This was a scribal error that was propagated into a number of other sources.
}}
{{CrossRef:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=55}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith originally identify the angel that visited him as "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"?}}
{{:Question: Which sources mention Nephi as the angelic visitor who told Joseph Smith about the gold plates?}}
{{:Question: Are there sources which identify the angel that visited Joseph as "Moroni" that date prior to the "Nephi" error?}}

==Response to claim: 25, 492n17 (HB) 490n17 (PB) - "Obviously, if the angel in Smith's room spoke ''about'' Moroni, then he certainly could not have ''been'' Moroni"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
{{AuthorQuote|Obviously, if the angel in Smith's room spoke ''about'' Moroni, then he certainly could not have ''been'' Moroni.}}
|authorsources=<br>
#Jessee, vol. 1, 393.
}}
{{misinformation|The book is referring to Joseph's 1832 account, in which he states: 
<blockquote>
"an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me by name and he said the Lord had forgiven me my sins and he revealed unto me that in the Town of Manchester Ontario County N.Y. there was plates of gold upon which there was engravings which was engraven by Maroni & his fathers the servants of the living God in ancient days and deposited by the commandments of God and kept by the power thereof and that I should go and get them."
</blockquote>
Note that Joseph is not citing Moroni's words&mdash;he is describing a summary of the event that happened. In other words, this passage does not indicate that Moroni referred to himself in the third person.
The endnote states that Orson Pratt simply called Moroni "an Angel of God" in 1840, and that this somehow proves that the name "Moroni" was not known. However, the name "Moroni" was published in a number of sources prior to 1840, including the anti-Mormon work ''Mormonism Unvailed'' in 1834.
}}

==Response to claim: 26, 492n19-20 (HB) - Oliver Cowdery said that the First Vision took place in 1823 when Joseph was in his 17th year==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Oliver Cowdery said that the First Vision took place in 1823 when Joseph was in his 17th year.
|authorsources=<br>
*Oliver Cowdery, "Letter III," ''Messenger and Advocate'', December 1834, vol. 1, no. 3, 41-43.
*Oliver Cowdery, "Letter IV," ''Messenger and Advocate'', February 1835, vol. 1, no. 5, 77-80.
}}
{{disinformation|This is nonsense. Oliver Cowdery's history of the Church began talking of the religious excitement leading up to the First Vision, but in the next installment, published two months later, Oliver advances Joseph's age from 14 to 17 and skips the First Vision. He instead describes the visit of the angel Moroni. Critics of the Church conflate the two installments to infer that the First Vision was of an angel.
}}
{{CrossRef:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=34}}
{{:Question: Did Oliver Cowdery state that Joseph did not know if a "supreme being" existed in 1823?}}
{{:Question: What criticisms are related to Oliver Cowdery's 1834-1835 history of the Church?}}

==Response to claim: 26, 492n21 (HB) - Joseph's brother William associated Moroni's visit with a revival==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph's brother William associated Moroni's visit with a revival
|authorsources=<br>
#William Smith, ''William Smith on Mormonism'' cited in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, 494.
}}
{{misinformation|William Smith mixes up the events of the First Vision and Moroni's visit, well ''after'' Joseph had published his official account of these events. William even acknowledges that Joseph's published history is more accurate than his own recollection.
}}
{{CrossRef:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=35}}
{{:Question: Did William Smith claim that a religious revival led to the Joseph's "first vision" of an angel in 1823?}}

==Response to claim: 27, 493n23 (HB) - George A. Smith merged the First Vision and Moroni's visit==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
George A. Smith merged the First Vision and Moroni's visit
|authorsources=<br>
#George A. Smith, [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_12/The_Sacrament,_etc. ''Journal of Discourses'',  vol. 12, 334]. (November 15, 1863)
}}
{{propaganda|The author ignores clear evidence that George A. Smith was aware of the details of the First Vision, and the fact that the term "angel" could also be applied to Deity.
}}
{{CrossRef:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=35}}
{{:Question: Was George A. Smith unaware that the Father and Son appeared to Joseph Smith during the First Vision?}}
{{:Question:Is there anything wrong with early Church leaders using the term "angel" to refer to Jesus Christ?}}

==Response to claim: 27, 493n24 (HB) - Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, said that the First Vision was of the angel in 1823==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, said that the First Vision was of the angel in 1823.
|authorsources=<br>
#Lucy Mack Smith, "Preliminary Manuscript" of ''Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for many Generations'', cited in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, 289-291.
}}
{{misinformation|Lucy Mack Smith's 1831 letter does NOT say that her son's first heavenly visitation was from an angel: Her letter contains an easily recognizable First Vision storyline fragment.
}}
[[../../Use of sources/Lucy and the angel|Lucy and the angel]]
{{CrossRef:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=35}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith's mother say that the First Vision was of an "angel"?}}

==Response to claim: 27 (HB) - The author claims that Joseph engaged in "ritual magic and divination"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author claims that Joseph engaged in "ritual magic and divination."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|The author is simply making this up.
}}
*[[../../Presentism|Presentism]]
*{{CrossRef:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=45, 351n144}}
{{:Question: Were Joseph Smith's spiritual experiences originally products of magic and the occult?}}
{{:Question: What is the distinction between belief in "folk magic" and a religious belief in the supernatural?}}
{{:Question: What were the attitudes of Joseph Smith and his contemporaries toward "magic"?}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith and his contemporaries believe in supernatural entities with real power?}}

==Response to claim: 28 (HB) - Joseph Smith was a "money digger"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph Smith was a "money digger"
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|Joseph may have continued to be involved in "money digging," however, the author wishes to emphasize this over any other labors that Joseph performed on the farm or for others.
}}
[[../../Presentism|Presentism]]
{{CrossRef:Abanes:Becoming Gods|pages=24}}
{{:Question: Was Joseph Smith's participation in "money digging" as a youth a blot on his character?}}

==Response to claim: 28 (HB) - Joseph used a "peep stone" to search for buried treasure==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph used a "peep stone" to search for buried treasure.
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{information|Joseph used several stones to locate lost objects, or search for treasure.
}}
{{:Question: How did Joseph use his seer stones as a youth?}}

==Response to claim: 29, 494n30 (HB) - Joseph's father was a "firm believer" in witchcraft and the supernatural==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph's father was a "firm believer" in witchcraft and the supernatural.
|authorsources=<br>
#
}}
*[[../../Presentism|Presentism]]
|authorsources=<br>
#Fayette Lapham, "Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, Forty Years Ago. His Account of the Finding of the Sacred Plates," ''Historical Magazine (May 1870) cited in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1 458.
}}
{{propaganda|This claim is based upon a very questionable recollection of something that Fayette Lapham claimed in 1870 that he was told by Joseph Smith, Sr. forty years earlier.
}}
{{:Question: Was Joseph Smith, Sr. a believer in witchcraft and the supernatural?}}

==Response to claim: 29, 494-5n33-34 (HB) - Martin Harris said that Joseph was associated with a company of money diggers==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Martin Harris said that Joseph was associated with a company of money diggers.
|authorsources=<br>
*Brooke, 362, endnote #2
*Martin Harris, "Mormonism-No. II", ''Tiffany's Monthly'', August 1859, vol. 5, 164.
}}
{{information|Here's what Martin Harris said:
<blockquote>
Joseph said the angel told him he must quit the company of the money-diggers. That there were wicked men among them. He must have no more to do with them. He must not lie, nor swear, nor steal. He told him to go and look in the spectacles, and he would show him the man that would assist him. That he did so, and he saw myself, Martin Harris, standing before him. That struck me with surprise. I told him I wished him to be very careful about these things. 'Well,' said he, 'I saw you standing before me as plainly as I do now.' I said, if it is the devil's work I will have nothing to do with it; but if it is the Lord's, you can have all the money necessary to bring it before the world. He said the angel told him, that the plates must be translated, printed and sent before the world. I said, Joseph, you know my doctrine, that cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man, and maketh flesh his arm; and we know that the devil is to have great power in the latter days to deceive if possible the very elect; and I don't know that you are one of the elect. Now you must not blame me for not taking your word. If the Lord will show me that it is his work, you can have all the money you want. "While at Mr. Smith's I hefted the plates, and I knew from the heft that they were lead or gold, and I knew that Joseph [ 169 ]had not credit enough to buy so much lead. I left Mr. Smith's about eleven o'clock and went home. I retired to my bedroom and prayed God to show me concerning these things, and I covenanted that if it was his work and he would show me so, I would put forth my best ability to bring it before the world. He then showed me that it was his work, and that it was designed to bring in the fullness of his gospel to the gentiles to fulfill his word, that the first shall be last and the last first. He showed this to me by the still small voice spoken in the soul. Then I was satisfied that it was the Lord's work, and I was under a covenant to bring it forth.<ref>"Mormonism—No. II," ''Tiffany's Monthly'', 5(4), Joel Tiffany, ed., (August 1859)  163–170.</ref>
</blockquote>
}}

==Response to claim: 29, 495n36 (HB) - Joshua Stafford said that Joseph's family "told marvelous stories about ghosts, hob-goblins, caverns, and various other mysterious matters"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joshua Stafford said that Joseph's family "told marvelous stories about ghosts, hob-goblins, caverns, and various other mysterious matters."
|authorsources=<br>
#Joshua Stafford cited in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=258}}.
}}
{{propaganda|Joshua Stafford came up with these accusations several years ''after'' the Book of Mormon was published, and Joseph had publicly claimed to have seen an angel. 
}}
{{:Question: What did Joshua Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?}}
<!-- ====29-30, 495n37 (HB)====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Did "most of the residents" of Palmyra and Manchester consider the Smith family a "close-knit clan of occultists?"
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic]]
|authorsources=<br>
#"Gold Bible, No. 3," ''Palmyra Reflector'', February 1, 1831, cited in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 2, 242.
}} -->
==Response to claim: 30, 495n38 (HB) - William Stafford stated that Joseph used a seer stone to see "the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient dress"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
William Stafford stated that Joseph used a seer stone to see "the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient dress"
|authorsources=<br>
#William Stafford cited in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=238}}.
}}
{{propaganda|William Stafford came up with these accusations several years ''after'' the Book of Mormon was published, and Joseph had publicly claimed to have seen an angel. 
}}
{{:Question: What did William Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?}}

==Response to claim: 30, 495n40 (HB) - Joseph Capron stated that Joseph encouraged others to participate in money digging in order to obtain wealth==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph Capron stated that Joseph encouraged others to participate in money digging in order to obtain wealth.
|authorsources=<br>
#Joseph Capron cited in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=259}}.
}}
{{propaganda|Joseph Capron came up with these accusations several years ''after'' the Book of Mormon was published, and Joseph had publicly claimed to have seen an angel. 
}}
{{:Question: What did Joseph Capron claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?}}

==Response to claim: 31, 495n42 (HB) - William Stafford stated that Joseph believed that the state of the moon determined the best time to obtain treasures==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
William Stafford stated that Joseph believed that the state of the moon determined the best time to obtain treasures.
|authorsources=<br>
#William Stafford, cited in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=238}}.
}}
{{propaganda|Stafford's testimony was given on Dec. 8th, 1833&mdash;three years ''after'' the publication of the Book of Mormon.
}}
{{:Question: What did William Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?}}
<!-- ====31, 495n43 (HB)====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Did Joseph Smith make animal sacrifices to "appease whatever spirits might be guarding the buried treasure?"
}}
* Even most early hostile accounts about Joseph say nothing about "animal sacrifices."
* {{FR-12-2-16}} 
* See esp. [http://mi.byu.edu/images/review/12_2_2000_16a.html Table 16a]]
|authorsources=<br>
#Emily M. Austin, ''Mormonism; or, Life among the Mormons'', 32ff quoted in Wesley P. Walters, "Joseph Smith's Bainbridge, N.Y., Court Trials," ''Westminster Theological Journal'' (Winder 1974), vol. 36, 125.
}} -->
<!-- ====31, 496n44 (HB)====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Did Hiel Lewis claim that dogs, cats and other animals were sacrificed?
}}
* Hiel Lewis' account was fifty years after the fact.
* Even most early hostile accounts about Joseph say nothing about "animal sacrifices."
* {{FR-12-2-16}}
* See esp. [http://mi.byu.edu/images/review/12_2_2000_16a.html Table 16a]]
|authorsources=<br>
#Hiel Lewis, ''Amboy Journal'', June 4, 1879 quote in Tanner and Tanner, ''Mormonism, Magic and Masonry'', p. 33.
}} -->

==Response to claim: 33, 495n48 (HB) - Joshua Stafford said that Joseph showed him a piece of wood from a box of money that had "mysteriously moved back into the hill"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joshua Stafford said that Joseph showed him a piece of wood from a box of money that had "mysteriously moved back into the hill."
|authorsources=<br>
#Joshua Stafford, cited in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=258}}.
}}
{{propaganda|Stafford's testimony was given Nov. 15, 1833&mdash;three years ''after'' the publication of the Book of Mormon.
}}
{{:Question: What did Joshua Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?}}
<!-- ====36, 497n63 (HB)====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Why did LDS historian Reed C. Durham state that the Freemasonry legend of Enoch "seem transformed into the history of Joseph Smith, so much that even it appears to be a kind of symbolic acting out of Masonic lore?"
}}
* [[Temples/Endowment/Freemasonry]]
|authorsources=<br>
#Reed C. Durham, "Is There no Help for the Widow's Son," Presidential Address, Mormon History Association Conference, April 20, 1974.
}} -->
==Response to claim: 36 (HB) - The author states that Joseph Smith adapted Masonic rituals for the temple endowment==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author states that Joseph Smith adapted Masonic rituals for the temple endowment.
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{misinformation|If Joseph adapted Masonry for temple ritual, then why did he, as the author elsewhere claims, fill the Book of Mormon with ''anti-Masonic'' views? Are we to believe he was both pro- and -anti-Masonic?
}}
{{:Question: What criticisms are associated with the temple ritual and its relationship to Freemasonry?}}

==Response to claim: 40 (HB) - Does the Book of Mormon denounce Freemasonry by condemning "secret combinations," "secret signs," and "secret oaths"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Does the Book of Mormon denounce Freemasonry by condemning "secret combinations," "secret signs," and "secret oaths?"
|authorsources=<br>
#{{s||Alma|37|30}}
*{{s||Helaman|3|23}}
*{{s||Ether|9|6}}
*{{s||Helaman|6|22}}
*{{s||Helaman|6|26}}
}}
{{misinformation|If the Book of Mormon is so anti-Masonic, why did Joseph (as claimed above) then ''adapt'' Masonry for temple ritual? Are we to believe he was both pro- and -anti-Masonic?
}}
{{:Question: Are the Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon actually references to the anti-Masonic panic of Joseph Smith's era?}}
{{:Question: Does the Book of Mormon contain anti-Masonic language?}}
{{endnotes sources}}


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