I never said I don’t like Mormons, themselves. Instead of answering the most simple question about Joseph Smith, you avoided the question all together and turned the discussion on to me.
I can’t remember ever seeing a Mormon admit that Joseph Smith ever did anything wrong. Catholics will openly speak about the sinful men in the Catholic Church’s history, but it seems Mormons have placed Joseph Smith above any wrongdoing whatsoever. That speaks volumes, whether you realize it or not. There was only one that was perfect and He was the only begotten Son of God. Joseph Smith, prophet or not, was ONLY a man, and all men are sinful, even if Mormons won’t admit to that about Smith.
we don’t have to. You do it all for us.
This isn’t about a reasonable discussion between two positions that can both admit fault in themselves, Prodigal Son. This is about armies, combat and bomb throwing.
If the only thing you EVER heard from non-Catholics was a constant barrage of criticism and accusations (most false, exagerated, mean spirited and intended to portray them as venal, evil pedophiles, hypocrites and minions of Satan), and you knew that if you so much as admitted that one of them EVER made a personal error that this would be taken as a blanket admission of the whole set, what would you do?
When I was in high school, I heard a couple of girls who were gossiping about another girl, criticising what she was wearing. They went on and on about how horrible her dress was, and how stupid her sandals were, and why didn’t she shave her legs—and her hair looked like a dirty mop head. This girl they were being mean to was my cousin, and I blew.
I told them that she looked just fine, that her dress looked just like ours and I knew that one of my friends had a pair of sandals JUST like hers, and her hair was just fine, too; she’d been out in the wind.
All those girls could latch onto was the comment about the wind blown hair. “See,” I KNEW you would admit that she’s a dweeb…she can’t even comb her hair!
When antis and critics start in on Joseph Smith, we do not see it as our job to admit that he had faults; of course he did. He was a man like all men. But you guys would see any admission of this the way those girls saw my comment about wind blown hair; not as a comment on the frailty of all men, but as a blanket admission that every accusation you make about Joseph Smith is, ah HA! TRUE, because didn’t a Mormon JUST ADMIT IT???
Sorry, bub, but if you want us to comment on Josephs bad business sense, or his struggles with his family, then you are going to have to back off the attacks. Defenders defend, they do not advertise weaknesses that the enemy can exploit, and don’t kid yourself. You see yourselves as the enemies of Mormonism…and if you see yourselves that way, why should we see you any differently?
I see irony in the ‘lying for Jesus’ statement, coming from a Mormon. I remember watching a video of a Mormon instructing young people, for what supposedly was for missionary purposes even though many Mormons denied that here. Anyway, the instructor told them, you don’t have to answer all their questions, you can answer the question they should’ve asked.
And even you can’t say that this video, which I haven’t heard of, by the way…instructs anybody to LIE about anything.
But the anti-types, do. Frequently. Deliberately. With great enthusiasm and without any trace of guilt. It is perfectly permissible to do so, because the ends justify the means; defeating Mormonism is so important a goal that if you insert a little lie about what our beliefs are here and there, that’s OK.
Faced with that, you really expect us to say anything negative about Joseph Smith? When y’all would take that and turn that into an infinitely repeated sound/quote bite that you can present as an admission that we ADMIT that we are following a ‘false prophet,’ or whatever it is that will be done with it?
