Comments about ‘New Joseph Smith Papers book is released’

Put it on line as free content.

put it online as searchable free content.

Free? lol

Why, when you write about Joseph Smith, the founder of the L.D.S. Church, do you call him a prophet. If it was any other modern era church who had a prophet, you would write "the self-proclaimed prophet"? Not all of us out there are L.D.S. We take the newspaper for information. If we were looking for an affirmation for your editors' religion, we would read your L.D.S. Church supplement.

It was announced that eventually the volumes will be online.

RE: J.O.
Get another paper.
We like this one.

I am wondering if the editors of this wonderful project will include all the docs on Joseph Smith, warts and all. It would be less than credible if they expunged the references to Joseph's plural wives, left out passages where he drank alcohol after he received the W of W, botched his financial dealings, ordained blacks to the priesthood, and on and on. I am an active member of the church and I want to see my church, who has a long history of presenting its history in a selective fashion, produce a scholarly treatment that lets us see the man foibles and all. Just as the scholars of the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Papers didn't pull any punches while publishing their scholaly tomes, I hope the Church will follow a similar course.

J.O.: Good question.

But I did a search and DN also uses the title for the prophet Mohammad. So I guess they are being fair in that sense. Calling a person a prophet, who is widely known by that title, is not showing favoritism. It is simply acknowledging that title.

Too expensive. I don't think we'll see this thing online for some time. The project has to recoup the costs of production.

A full and complete tome is exactly what the intention of the project has been. Warts and all.

Re: Scholar's Wish

I agree with you 100%.

To: A Scholars Wish...The project is producing every document that Joseph Smith either wrote or had anything to do with. That includes everything--his revelations, talks, legal papers, financial papers, real estate transactions, etc., etc.

The Church has never tried to hide anything about Joseph Smith's life that is actually true. Of course, we have to be sure that these "facts" you describe are actually "facts." There are many things about Joseph Smith that are believed by many that aren't necessarily so.

Virtually all documents owned by the Church have been available for examination by scholars and members of the public for a long time. The only exceptions being some documents that are extremely sacred and fragile. This project makes it a lot easier to study these documents by everyone without having to come to Church headquarters.

Joseph Smith, like all human beings, had his flaws and shortcomings. He never claimed otherwise and neither has the Church. Nevertheless, he was a TRUE PROPHET OF GOD and a great man. That's all any of us really need to know.

to J.O.: The Newspaper deal in facts. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. That is a fact and is so stated.

You are not a scholar - just an intellectual.

And we are to believe all is true? NOT

Is this book include the "Book of Abraham" writing?

You people toss that title around too loosely.
Everybody's a prophet.
Micah in Murray

Marlin Jensen personally told me that Joseph Smith did engage in Polyandry. He claimed the Church did not understand it completely. You would think with all these documents from Joseph Smith that at least one of them would explain the doctrine behind it.

Believe what you want. Your salvation is your own to work out.

To Cats, unfortunately you don't know what you're talking about. As an LDS Historian, and as one who attends LDS conferences, reads LDS scholarly materials, and engages in LDS scholarship, the church has not had a steller record making its archives available to scholars--and I am not talking about "sacred" material," as you put it. Virtually every faith-believing LDS scholar with whom I have spoke has pressed the church to be more forthcoming in telling its story and in opening up its archives to scholars. Furthermore, the church has not had a good record in producing an accurate and honest version of its documents. For example, in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith book, edited years ago by Joseph Fielding Smith, there are numerous passages in there that have been expunged so as to alter the meaning of the text. You can refer to my earlier post [scholar's wish] for more specific examples. As Latter Day Saints, we have a moral obligation to present our history without deception, and I have high hopes that this new series on Joseph Smith will meet the highest scholarly standards of publication.