LDS Church urges members to call out racism in their congregations

[Dr. Shades]

If it was simply a case of Smith making a bad stab at expressing a rhetorical point about righteousness, then the current Prophet could simply reword it to remove the influence of 19th Century racism from it. But the Church refuses to do so. Why is that?

If they remove it then they won't have the whole unchanged scripture thing going for them. I was taught several times in seminary and throughout church life that the Bible has been changed and so can't be trusted and that the Bible is true as far as it is translated correctly making the Book of Mormon superior. They start changing the Book of Mormon they don't have unchanged scripture anymore and we'd have the whole, the Book of Mormon is true as far as it's translated correctly losing its power.

I have some bad news for you: The church has already made many, many changes to the Book of Mormon.

[IWMP]

If they remove it then they won't have the whole unchanged scripture thing going for them. I was taught several times in seminary and throughout church life that the Bible has been changed and so can't be trusted and that the Bible is true as far as it is translated correctly making the Book of Mormon superior. They start changing the Book of Mormon they don't have unchanged scripture anymore and we'd have the whole, the Book of Mormon is true as far as it's translated correctly losing its power.

I have some bad news for you: The church has already made many, many changes to the Book of Mormon.

I've not heard.

[MG 2.0]

I have some bad news for you: The church has already made many, many changes to the Book of Mormon.

I've not heard.

Grammatical and Typographical Corrections:

The majority of changes involved fixing spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. For example, the word "which" was changed to "who" 891 times, and "was" was changed to "were" 162 times.

These adjustments aimed to improve readability and align the text with standard English conventions.

Doctrinal Clarifications

Several verses were altered to clarify theological concepts. For instance:

In 1 Nephi 11:18, "the mother of God" was changed to "the mother of the Son of God."

In 1 Nephi 11:32, "the Everlasting God" was changed to "the Son of the everlasting God".

These changes reflect evolving LDS theology, particularly regarding the nature of the Godhead.

Name Corrections

In Mosiah 21:28, the name "Benjamin" was replaced with "Mosiah," correcting an apparent error in the original text.

Structural Adjustments

Elder Orson Pratt introduced chapters and verses in later editions for easier referencing. This formatting change was patterned after the King James Bible.

Clarifications by Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith personally edited early editions to refine wording. Examples include changing "beside a river of water" to "by the side of a river of water" for clarity.

He also added phrases like "in my dream" to ensure readers understood context.

Elimination of King James Bible Language

Some phrases resembling King James Bible language were modernized, such as changing "he sayeth" to "he said".

Scope of Changes
Scholars estimate that over 3,913 changes have been made since 1830, with most being minor corrections. However, critics highlight doctrinal alterations as significant evidence of human influence on the text.

Church Perspective
The LDS Church asserts that these changes were made to eliminate human errors from transcription and printing processes while preserving the original meaning and doctrine. All edits are reviewed and approved by Church leadership before publication.

Perplexity A.I.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Wonder what would happen if members called out the racism inherent in Mormon scriptures.

Some scholars/apologists have. Also, I think that most well read members would admit and/or support the fact that Nephi had some hard/hurt feelings towards his brothers Laman and Lemuel.

My guess is that translated into a form of racism/division between the Nephites and the Lamanites.

Regards,
MG

[I Have Questions]

Wonder what would happen if members called out the racism inherent in Mormon scriptures.

Some scholars/apologists have.

Do you have any links or references on that?

[IWMP]

I've not heard.

Grammatical and Typographical Corrections:

The majority of changes involved fixing spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. For example, the word "which" was changed to "who" 891 times, and "was" was changed to "were" 162 times.

These adjustments aimed to improve readability and align the text with standard English conventions.

Doctrinal Clarifications

Several verses were altered to clarify theological concepts. For instance:

In 1 Nephi 11:18, "the mother of God" was changed to "the mother of the Son of God."

In 1 Nephi 11:32, "the Everlasting God" was changed to "the Son of the everlasting God".

These changes reflect evolving LDS theology, particularly regarding the nature of the Godhead.

Name Corrections

In Mosiah 21:28, the name "Benjamin" was replaced with "Mosiah," correcting an apparent error in the original text.

Structural Adjustments

Elder Orson Pratt introduced chapters and verses in later editions for easier referencing. This formatting change was patterned after the King James Bible.

Clarifications by Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith personally edited early editions to refine wording. Examples include changing "beside a river of water" to "by the side of a river of water" for clarity.

He also added phrases like "in my dream" to ensure readers understood context.

Elimination of King James Bible Language

Some phrases resembling King James Bible language were modernized, such as changing "he sayeth" to "he said".

Scope of Changes
Scholars estimate that over 3,913 changes have been made since 1830, with most being minor corrections. However, critics highlight doctrinal alterations as significant evidence of human influence on the text.

Church Perspective
The LDS Church asserts that these changes were made to eliminate human errors from transcription and printing processes while preserving the original meaning and doctrine. All edits are reviewed and approved by Church leadership before publication.

Perplexity A.I.

Regards,
MG

Thanks for sharing. That's really interesting. Any idea why Benjamin was a mistake?

[MG 2.0]

Some scholars/apologists have.

Do you have any links or references on that?

Yep. You can find them as easy as I can. Do some work.

Questions and questions. Get some answers on your own.

If you give it a fair shot and don't find anything come back and I'll give you some help.

Regards,
MG

[I Have Questions]

Do you have any links or references on that?

Yep. You can find them as easy as I can. Do some work.

Questions and questions. Get some answers on your own.

If you give it a fair shot and don't find anything come back and I'll give you some help.

Regards,
MG

So, no links. Thought not.

For future reference. It’s not my job to provide links and references to support an assertion you’ve made. That burden rests with you. You’ve been told this before.

[MG 2.0]

Grammatical and Typographical Corrections:

The majority of changes involved fixing spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. For example, the word "which" was changed to "who" 891 times, and "was" was changed to "were" 162 times.

These adjustments aimed to improve readability and align the text with standard English conventions.

Doctrinal Clarifications

Several verses were altered to clarify theological concepts. For instance:

In 1 Nephi 11:18, "the mother of God" was changed to "the mother of the Son of God."

In 1 Nephi 11:32, "the Everlasting God" was changed to "the Son of the everlasting God".

These changes reflect evolving LDS theology, particularly regarding the nature of the Godhead.

Name Corrections

In Mosiah 21:28, the name "Benjamin" was replaced with "Mosiah," correcting an apparent error in the original text.

Structural Adjustments

Elder Orson Pratt introduced chapters and verses in later editions for easier referencing. This formatting change was patterned after the King James Bible.

Clarifications by Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith personally edited early editions to refine wording. Examples include changing "beside a river of water" to "by the side of a river of water" for clarity.

He also added phrases like "in my dream" to ensure readers understood context.

Elimination of King James Bible Language

Some phrases resembling King James Bible language were modernized, such as changing "he sayeth" to "he said".

Scope of Changes
Scholars estimate that over 3,913 changes have been made since 1830, with most being minor corrections. However, critics highlight doctrinal alterations as significant evidence of human influence on the text.

Church Perspective
The LDS Church asserts that these changes were made to eliminate human errors from transcription and printing processes while preserving the original meaning and doctrine. All edits are reviewed and approved by Church leadership before publication.

Perplexity A.I.

Regards,
MG

Thanks for sharing. That's really interesting. Any idea why Benjamin was a mistake?

I found this:

Textual Change in Mosiah 21:28: In the original 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 21:28 referred to King Benjamin as having the divine gift of interpretation. However, later editions, starting in 1837, changed the name to King Mosiah. This change was likely made to resolve a chronological inconsistency—Benjamin had died three years before Mosiah became king, and it was Mosiah who sent Ammon on a mission to search for the people of Zeniff.

Translation Challenges: The confusion may have stemmed from Joseph Smith’s translation process or an interpolation by Mormon (the ancient editor) or other scribes. For example, Ammon could have referred to Benjamin based on prior knowledge, not realizing Benjamin had passed away. Alternatively, the name Benjamin might have been mistakenly inserted into the text.

Lost 116 Pages: The missing 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript further complicate this issue. These pages likely contained introductory material for the book of Mosiah, which could clarify why Benjamin was mentioned initially. Without them, the abrupt beginning of Mosiah and references to Benjamin create interpretive challenges.
Perplexity A.I.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Some scholars/apologists have.

Do you have any links or references on that?

Sure!

Armand Mauss
Adam Oliver Stokes
John Tvedtnes
Neil Rappleye

The thing to remember is that all is not racism in the Book of Mormon:

Could the Nephites have been racist in their views of the Lamanites? Perhaps, in the same sense that the biblical patriarchs were racist when it came to their pagan neighbors, the Hittites, the Canaanites, and the Amorites, and did not want their offspring to marry these unbelievers. But once the Lamanites had been converted to the Nephite religion, the barriers separating these people dissolved. Even before they were converted, the Nephites considered the Lamanites to be “brethren,” a term used more than fifty times in reference to the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon. This is hardly a term that one would expect to find in a society that holds racist views of a neighboring people. And if Joseph Smith’s racism is reflected in the Book of Mormon, why does that volume have large numbers of Lamanites becoming good guys and, indeed, more righteous than the Nephites in the decades before Christ’s appearance?

John Tvedtnes and Neil Rappleye take the perspective of what is explained in the above paragraph.

I know you have a certain picture you're trying to paint. You're not the first one.

IHQ, my guess is that there are a number of folks, lurkers included, that have noticed that you ask a lot of questions but rarely, if ever, engage with questions and challenges from believers.

That says something.

I think I've spent enough time with you on this thread for now. I will check back later to see if you engaged in my thought experiment on the other thread.

Regards,
MG