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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormon America: The Power and the Promise: Difference between revisions
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* It was the Nauvoo ''city council'' that ordered the destruction of the ''Nauvoo Expositor'', ''not'' the Council of Fifty. Note how the authors have capitalized the word "Council," which, when read with the preceeding reference to the "Council of Fifty," makes it appear as if the "secret" Council of Fifty was behind the destruction of the Expositor. The correct information is buried in an unreferenced endnote on page 402, which states "Nauvoo city council activities related to the ''Expositor''" were taken from D. Michael Quinn's ''The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power''. One wonders why the authors chose not to clarify this information in the main body of the text. The endnote shows that the authors knew that this was the city council. Instead, the author's decided to throw in Quinn's own ''speculation'' and then constructed the paragraph in a way which made the matter appear much more sinister. | * It was the Nauvoo ''city council'' that ordered the destruction of the ''Nauvoo Expositor'', ''not'' the Council of Fifty. Note how the authors have capitalized the word "Council," which, when read with the preceeding reference to the "Council of Fifty," makes it appear as if the "secret" Council of Fifty was behind the destruction of the Expositor. The correct information is buried in an unreferenced endnote on page 402, which states "Nauvoo city council activities related to the ''Expositor''" were taken from D. Michael Quinn's ''The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power''. One wonders why the authors chose not to clarify this information in the main body of the text. The endnote shows that the authors knew that this was the city council. Instead, the author's decided to throw in Quinn's own ''speculation'' and then constructed the paragraph in a way which made the matter appear much more sinister. | ||
{{parabreak}} | {{parabreak}} | ||
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===A description of Central American ruins in ''View of the Hebrews''?=== | |||
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!width="5%"|Reference | |||
!width="35%"|Author's claim... | |||
!width="35%"|The rest of the story... | |||
!width="25%"|[[Use of sources]] | |||
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|29||One book Joseph Smith likely knew was Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews'', published in Vermont in 1825 and containing considerable material on the subject, as well as a description of ancient Central American Indian ruins.||Joseph first learned of Central American ruins in 1841 when John L. Stephens, ''Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan'' was published, over 16 years after Ethan Smith's book was published. | |||
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'''Commentary''' | |||
*The authors were not very careful in their research. Ethan Smith's books describes artifacts (not cities) found in the North American continent. | |||
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==Endnotes== | ==Endnotes== | ||
Revision as of 05:27, 11 September 2008
This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.
About this work
Author: Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling
Claims made in this work
A list of claims indexed by page number made in Mormon America: The Power and the Promise with links to the corresponding responses in the FAIRwiki may be found here: Index to claims made in Mormon America: The Power and the Promise.
Quote mining, selective quotation and distortion
Many critics who write about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not content to portray the Church and its doctrines fairly. Some critics mine their sources by extracting quotes from their context in order to make the statement imply something other that what it was originally intended to mean. Other critics make statements that are self-contradictions—instances in which a critic says or writes one thing, and then makes another statement elsewhere that flatly contradicts their first statement.
These examples do not prove that these critics' arguments are without merit; they do suggest caution is warranted before accepting these authors or their works as reliable witnesses when they speak of their own experiences connected with "Mormonism." In particular, one should also be cautious about accepting their interpretation of primary sources without double-checking the original sources themselves.
Council of Fifty behind the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor?
| Reference | Author's claim... | The rest of the story... | Use of sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| p. 16 | Smith knew that someone from the Council of Fifty, despite the secrecy oaths, had betrayed him by giving information to Foster and Law, According to Quinn, "He could not allow the Expositor to publish the secret international negotiations masterminded by Mormonism's earthly king." But Joseph, as mayor of Nauvoo, declared action was essential because the Expositor faction would "destroy the peace of the city" and foment a "mob spirit." With the backing of his Council, Smith ordered that the new press be smashed and all possible copies of the press run destroyed. (emphasis added) | The way that the paragraph is constructed, it is clear that the authors wish the reader to believe that the Council of Fifty was backing Joseph in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor. | D. Michael Quinn |
Commentary
- It was the Nauvoo city council that ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, not the Council of Fifty. Note how the authors have capitalized the word "Council," which, when read with the preceeding reference to the "Council of Fifty," makes it appear as if the "secret" Council of Fifty was behind the destruction of the Expositor. The correct information is buried in an unreferenced endnote on page 402, which states "Nauvoo city council activities related to the Expositor" were taken from D. Michael Quinn's The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. One wonders why the authors chose not to clarify this information in the main body of the text. The endnote shows that the authors knew that this was the city council. Instead, the author's decided to throw in Quinn's own speculation and then constructed the paragraph in a way which made the matter appear much more sinister.
Endnotes
Reviews of this work
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