Gifted a Book of Mormon

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So coming from a Protestant background I love to collect all sorts of Bibles. Today I was gifted a Book of Mormon to add to my collection (neither I, nor the gifter, are Mormon… I am (hopefully) soon to be Catholic). Yes, I know the Book of Mormon is not part of the Bible and I know it, and the whole religion, is a bunch of lies. But, it is still cool to have a copy since I like to collect. Is there any problem with this or does this go against church teaching? Am I inviting anything unwanted in my household by having this on my shelf (sorry if that is a stupid question). Not really interested in opinions, more interested if there is a church teaching or if someone from the Church has addressed something like this. If not, what are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance
 
If you’re reading it for scholarly interest or so you can better defend the Catholic faith against the Mormons, then no problem having it around.

If you start reading it and it makes you question your Catholic faith, or if you start wondering if the Mormons are really correct and Catholics wrong, then I would get rid of it because it would be an occasion of sin for you.

Having some other religion’s book in your house doesn’t open a portal to the demonic or any of that, unless maybe it’s a book of prayers to Satan or demons, which the Book of Mormon is not, it’s just some fantasy made up by Joseph Smith. LDS has in recent years started putting Book of Mormon in hotel rooms to compete with the Gideon Bibles that are usually there. I reckon I have slept in many rooms containing a Book of Mormon with no ill effects.

There isn’t a specific Church teaching about it nowadays as far as I know. The Church no longer has an index of forbidden books, nor does it require a Catholic to burn or give to a priest any non-Catholic book that said Catholic might be given (something like that was in the Catechism about 120 years ago, it’s not there now).
 
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I can’t give you the exact reference, because I hadn’t found something online, sorry.

When I was growing we had a book of Mormon. We had a Koran in an expensive and precious edition at home

In the preface (sorry no link to provide), I remember there was a quote of Pope Pius XII who said that every scholarly Catholic should have read the Koran.
Because I think, the Islam is a great part of this world’s culture.

Can we extrapoled this to the Book of Mormon? I don’t know and it is up to you to choose.

There is nothing wrong to collect uncluding this book.

But you should be ready if you read it to change, maybe. You are converting, so I guess you understand what I mean.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
LDS has in recent years started putting Book of Mormon in hotel rooms to compete with the Gideon Bibles that are usually there.
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Since they use the bible to promote their beliefs, I wonder why they don’t just put that in hotel rooms instead of the Book of Mormon to avoid controversy.
 
The book of Mormon isn’t a bible… it was written by Joseph Smith supposedly by some golden plates that no one but him ever saw and by putting his ‘seer stones’ into a hat and seeing letters; He would read it off and Oliver Cowdery would write it down. These are the same stones he used to try to find treasure previously but when that didn’t pan out, he decided to try this.

It’s not inspired by God, it was written in the 1800’s by Smith to start his own utopian society/religion (which were a fad and quite popular then - think the Oneida, Oberlin, Hopedale, etc.)

The Book of Mormon isn’t a bible - and I don’t think it adds to the collection, personally.
 
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I read it when I was a teen out of scholarly interest.
 
The book of Mormon is a fantasy book, not a bible. The biggest surprise most people get on reading it is how ‘christian’ it sounds. It does borrow freely from the Bible.

However, the biggest surprise readers who actually study it find out is how little Mormon theology you will find there. Yes, LDS founder Joseph Smith called it ‘the most correct book in the world’, but by the time most Mormon doctrine was established, Joseph had had many more ‘revelations’. Like learning the necessity of having a Mormon temple, how to build a temple, are not contained in the book of Mormon. Nor are the reasons for polygamy, the fact that men can become gods, or how they must live to achieve godhood.

Mormons have two other scriptures, which are placed on an equal level with the bible and book of Mormon…‘doctrine and covenants’ which was written by Mormon prophets over the years, and ‘the pearl of Great price’ which was ‘translated’ by Joseph, in part, from a set of Egyptian writings he bought from a man who used them as part of a carnival exhibit, and wanted out of the carnival business. They were later turned over to Egyptian writing experts, and found to be common documents from the first century, often used at ancient Egyptian funerals. According to said translators, not one word of Joseph’s translation was correct. The LDS, to this day, use Joseph’s translation!

I don’t see anything against owning a book of Mormon. Or not owning one.
 
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