The Community of Christ does not have an awful track record regarding racism like the Utah Mormon church has and their racial prejudices were rather short lived like a bump in the road. The CofC refused to embrace the Book of Abraham as scripture as did the Utah church which canonized it in 1880. Why did the Reorganized church not follow suit? Well, it’s rather simple, it wasn’t their idea and they don’t follow or do what the Utah church says! In addition, the CofC was separated from that work and did not have any of the original documents to include the Kirtland Egyptian Papers because all of that was taken west and secured in the First Presidency’s office and later hidden in a vault. Brigham Young was not especially apt to canonize the work but John Taylor who was involved with publication in Nauvoo did so the moment he became Church President.
From the Terrestrial forum:
Kishkumen wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 1:29 pmThis is how I have felt about arguments regarding the antiquity of the Book of Mormon. Given the fact that there is insufficient evidence to argue in favor of it in traditional historical terms, the apologetics in its favor are nuts. The reliance on the witnesses is even more humorous: “these guys with no expertise attest to these ancient plates!”
I see nothing wrong with calling the Book of Mormon scripture or believing that the witnesses believed they had some experience that one will accept on a spiritual basis. It is when these things are passed off as grounds for accepting ancient Hebrews in America as factual that I object.
I have similar sentiments regarding the Book of Abraham. Smith and his beloved associates had no real or proper understanding of the Egyptian antiquities. Everything coming from Smith was a kind of guesswork grounded in a spiritual realm to suit religious ideas and meld them with the Bible. The hieroglyphic spells and vignettes of the mythical gods portrayed in the papyri were adopted and borrowed by Smith to reconstitute biblical stories, more especially the one when Noah began the world anew and his sons repopulated the planet and founded the nations. The stories presented by Smith are pseudepigraphal in nature and were created out of his own mind using biblical themes as a backdrop in which to frame his story.
Recall the Book of Moses takes us to the other side of the flood before the earth was flooded when God swore he would destroy all flesh from off the earth. All of mankind to include the entire family of Adam was destroyed except for the eight souls who were saved by God’s grace while floating about on the USS Ark Zoo and finally landed on top of mount Ararat. That is the most ridiculous story told in the Bible! Anyway, in the Book of Moses, Zion became the spiritual capital for true believers and an entire city was taken up to heaven with Enoch. All of this is entirely mythical in nature. It is not historical and never really happened!
We learn about the so-called people of Canaan (black people) who were despised by all people (presumable the white people of Shum) and how war and religion separated people into different classes. We are informed of the different lands and nations that were upon America prior to the Deluge:
Moses 7:9 wrote:And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: Look; and I looked, and I beheld the land of Sharon, and the land of Enoch, and the land of Omner, and the land of Heni, and the land of Shem, and the land of Haner, and the land of Hanannihah, and all the inhabitants thereof;
But all this is the creative imagination coming from the mind of Joseph Smith. It is not historical and never really happened. They are concepts and ideas to promote religion and bring people together to follow a faith, under the direction of Joseph Smith who aspired to be the prophet of the world.