Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates/Background

Story

A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)

Finding the plates

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An analysis of the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" (Version December 10, 2009)

Background

-	Wikipedia Main Article: Golden plates–	Wikipedia Footnotes: Golden plates–Notes	A FAIR Opinion
	During the Second Great Awakening, Joseph Smith, Jr. lived on his parents' farm near Palmyra, New York. At the time churches in the region contended so vigorously for souls that western New York became known as the "burned-over district" because the fires of religious revivals had burned over it so often.	Jan Shipps, "Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition," University of Illinois Press, pp. 7	Correct, per cited sources
	Western New York was also noted for its participation in a "craze for treasure hunting."	Bennett (1893) . The treasure-seeking culture in early 19th century New England is described in Quinn (1998) , pp. 25–26.	Correct, per cited sources
	Beginning as a youth in the early 1820s, Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer, using what were termed "seer stones" in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure.	Smith (1838b) , pp. 42–43 (stating that he was what he called a "money digger", but saying that it "was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it").	Correct, per cited sources
	Smith's contemporaries described his method for seeking treasure as putting the stone in a white stovepipe hat, putting his face over the hat to block the light, and then "seeing" the information in the reflections of the stone.	Harris (1833) , pp. 253-54; Hale (1834) , p. 265; Clark (1842) , p. 225; Turner (1851) , p. 216; Harris (1859) , p. 164; Tucker (1867) , pp. 20–21; Lapham (1870) , p. 305; Lewis (Lewis) , p. 1; Mather (1880) , p. 199; Bushman (2005) , pp. 50–51, 54–55.	Correct, per cited sources
	Smith did not consider himself to be a common "peeper" or "glass-looker," a practice he called "nonsense."	Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=50–51,	Citation abuse— The meaning of a source quotation has been altered, or the source used does not support the author's conclusion. The intent of the author of the cited source has been lost. Bushman is quoting a secondary source for Joseph's words (Alva Hale), and is demonstrating that Joseph did no longer considered himself to be a "peeper" at all. The wiki editor has presented this as Joseph not believing that he was a common peeper, but a peeper nonetheless. In order to support this, the reference in the cited source Bushman (and the source that Bushman is citing, Alva Hale) to Joseph stating that his ability to use the stone was a "gift from God" has been omitted by the wiki editor. Note that this point was accurately conveyed from the secondary source by Bushman, but was omitted by the wiki editor. Bushman, p. 51: Alva Hale, a son in the household where the Smiths stayed in Harmony while digging for Stowell, said Joseph Jr. told him that the "give in seeing with a stone" was "a gift from God" but that "' peeping ' was all d–d nonsense"; he had been deceived in his treasure seeking, but he did not intend to deceive anyone else....By this time, Joseph apparently felt that "seeing" with a stone was the work of a "seer," a religious term, while "peeping" or "glass-looking" was fraudulent.
	Rather, Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as spiritual gifts.	Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=50–51.	Bushman, quoting Lucy Mack Smith (p. 51): Lucy...showed her knowledge of formulas and rituals and associated them with "the welfare of our souls." Magic and religion melded in Smith family culture."
	Lucy Mack Smith later remembered that the family did abandon its labor "to win the faculty of Abrac, drawing magic circles, or sooth saying to the neglect of all kinds of business. We never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation but whilst we worked with our hands we endeavored to remember the service of & the welfare of our souls."	No citation provided.	Citation abuse— The meaning of a source quotation has been altered, or the source used does not support the author's conclusion. The wiki editor has taken Lucy's statement, which is specifically noting that the family did not stop their labor in order to try to "win the faculty of Abrac," and instead converted it to the family did abandon its labor "to win the faculty of Abrac..." The meaning of the citation (which isn't even provided) has been reversed by the wiki editor. Here's what Lucy actually said: I shall change my theme for the present but let not my reader suppose that because I shall pursue another topic for a season that we stopt our labor and went <at> trying to win the faculty of Abrac drawing Magic circles or sooth saying to the neglect of all kinds of bu[i]sness we never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation but whilst we worked with our hands we endeavored to remmember the service of & the welfare of our souls. (Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, quoted in Early Mormon Documents 1:285) Bushman notes in Rough Stone Rolling, p. 50: Lucy recognized the crossover in prefacing her narrative of the plates with a caution against thinking "that we stopt our labor and went at trying to win the faculty of Abrac..."
	Later, Smith would view the power of "seeing" as the greatest of all divine gifts, greater even than that of a prophet.	Book of Mormon, Mosiah 8:15-17.	Violates Wikipedia: No Original Research off-site— Do not use unpublished facts, arguments, speculation, and ideas; and any unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to advance a position. The wiki editor is synthesizing a conclusion based upon a primary source (The Book of Mormon) regarding Joseph Smith's belief with respect to seers and prophets. Mosiah 8꞉15-17: 15 And the king said that a seer is greater than a prophet. 16 And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God. 17 But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.
	Although Smith later rejected his youthful treasure-hunting activities as frivolous and immaterial, he never repudiated the stones themselves nor denied their presumed power to find treasure; nor did he ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised.	Bushman (2005) , pp. 50–51 Smith "never repudiated the stones or denied their power to find treasure. Remnants of the magical culture stayed with him to the end."; Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition, University of Illinois Press, 11.	Citation abuse— The meaning of a source quotation has been altered, or the source used does not support the author's conclusion. The wiki editor has taken "remnants of the magical culture" from the footnote and solidified them into the culture never having been relinquished in the main text. Bushman, p. 51: Joseph Jr. never repudiated the stones or denied their power to find treasure. Remnants of the magical culture stayed with him to then end. But after 1823, he began to orient himself away from treasure and toward translation.
	Joseph Smith's first stone, apparently the same one he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg,	Roberts (1930) , p. 129. Roberts was at the time the official historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his opinion has considerable weight, given that the LDS Church attempted to downplay any influence of magic in early Latter Day Saint history.[Citation needed}	References not included in the Wikipedia article Note the reference to the stone in the official Church children's magazine, the Friend: "To help him with the translation, Joseph found with the gold plates “a curious instrument which the ancients called Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones set in a rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.” Joseph also used an egg-shaped, brown rock for translating called a seer stone." —“A Peaceful Heart,” Friend, Sep 1974, 7 off-site
	found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors.	Harris (1859) , p. 163; Lapham (1870) , pp. 305–306. The stone was found in either 1819 (Tucker (1867) , pp. 19–20 Bennett (1893) ) or 1822 Chase (1833) , p. 240.	Correct, per cited sources
	This stone may still be in the possession of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.	Joseph Fielding Smith (a former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints): "The statement has been made that the Urim and Thummim was on the altar in the Manti Temple when that building was dedicated. The Urim and Thummim so spoken of, however, was the seer stone which was in the possession of the Prophet Joseph Smith in early days. This seer stone is currently in the possession of the Church." Doctrines of Salvation 3: 225.

References

Wikipedia references for "Golden Plates"

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