The New Israelites....as if we needed another reason not to believe

[RubinHighlander]

Wow, that really changes the entire origin story of the church. The official narrative was that there was nothing until Joseph went to the grove and everything was revealed to him from that point out of thin air.

Such a huge item on my shelf was that the FV turned out to be a post restoration artifact; an ever changing story that JS told on rare occasions that was built up into a foundation pillar of the restoration for later generations. The New Israelites adds another piece of damning evidence to the pile that continues to grow against the restoration truth claims.

[Red Ryder]

How did I miss reading this thread?

Reading through this stuff is like reading the book "What to expect when you're expecting" but for the Mormon church. Nine months later and a new church is born. A new church that looks strikingly like its mother and father.

I feel so duped.

George Miller's podcasts on Mormon Expression were excellent. For anyone who missed them here is a quick link to find them. I'm not sure if they are part of the ME archived collection.

http://mormonexpression.com/?s=masonry

[Mormorrisey]

I feel so duped.

Man, if we can give Brother Joseph a break, give yourself one, no? Especially since the narrative would be that all of this information just illustrates that the gospel was being prepared to be brought forth. Like the narrative surrounding the burned-over district of New York - God made that happen so that Joseph was all ready to bring all the doctrines of the gospel into this dispensation. Not that he was going to borrow most of his ideas from these debates. Just that he was ready.

I have no guilt over being duped - that's the purpose of mental gymnastics and mormons are masters at it.