The Salamanders as a Chapter are unusually . According to FairMormon.org a self-described nonprofit "dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of LDS doctrine, belief and practice" Chase asserted in the affidavit that he . It is not the first time the Church has found itself in such a position. I had a someone ask concerning the white salamander in Mormon history and if there is any truth to it. The Mormon Church on Friday released photographic copies of an 1825 letter written by church founder Joseph Smith Jr., the oldest ever . You refuse to be influenced by outside forces. Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love. I was. Netflix's new documentary Murder Among the Mormons is looking into the infamous Salt Lake City bombings which killed two people and left . According to the Los Angeles Times, the "discovery" of the letter had been made by Mark Hofmann, a young collector of antiquated documents. The Tanners did concur with Hofmann in contending that the LDS Church's apparent inability to discern the forged documents was evidence against church leadership being divinely inspired. The white salamander says everything about the mormon church. In 1985, when he learned that the pedigree of the salamander letter was under widespread suspicion, he produced and placed a number of bombs. Netflix's new investigative docuseries, Murder Among the Mormons, depicts a widely known yet largely misunderstood moment in time. Once you go down the rabbit hole there are a hundred other legitimate problems discovered. featuring an angel who transformed into a "white salamander" who guarded the sacred . Hofmann had counterfeited multiple documents, including one that became known as the "White Salamander Letter" an artifact that supposedly would shake the very foundations of Mormonism. This letter if proved to have actually been true would imply that traditional Christian concepts such as angels were not at the root of the religion, but that more magical or mystical creatures were involved. Ultimately, the film brings together crime and religion but leaves the religious consequences of those two forces underexplored . Feb 27, 2006 | AAAA AskGramps Website, Church History | 0 comments. Well, it posited a version of Mormonism founder Joseph Smith's story that fundamentally changed the context of the religion and how it came to be swapping the angel Moroni for a magical white. have used the letter as an argument against the validity of the religion. I was a young teenager in SE Idaho at the time and was told by my parents that some guy tried, but failed, to trick the prophet/church with fake JS letters, but some people still believed him and left the church anyway. Sign in Sign up for FREE Prices and download plans An angel named Moroni told him where to find book made of golden plates, and he later "translated" the text using a seer stone to scribes on the other side of a curtain. In 1983 a person by the name of Mark Hoffman produced a letter which he claimed had been written by Martin Harris in 1830 in which he says that Joseph Smith told him that the spirit guarding the gold in the Hill Cumorah was transformed from a white salamander that Joseph saw in the hole in which he was digging. Your letter of yesterday is received & I hasten to answer as fully as I can--Joseph Smith Jr first come to my notice in the year 1824 in the summer of that year I contracted with his father to build a fence on my property in the corse of that work I aproach Joseph & ask how it is in a half day you put up . That document known as the "White Salamander Letter" turned out to be a fraud, and the once beloved collector responsible for manufacturing it also happened to orchestrate the bombings in a failed attempt tocover up his deception. You can find the Marbled salamander in the Ozark plateau, Mississippi Lowlands, and the river hills of the Missouri River. The devout Mormon purported to be a historian with a natural talent for sniffing out rare and valuable documents, including a supposedly undiscovered Emily Dickinson poem, and others allegedly featuring Mark Twain and George Washingtons signatures,Deseret News reported in 2005. He would promise investors a sizablereturn, sometimes up to 100 percent. In the hands of clever writers and cartoonists, the mythical salamander proved a most effective instrument to pique public interest". As the docuseries points out, Hofmann was hoping the Library of Congress would pay him over $1 million for his fraudulent "Oath of a Freeman," supposedly the first printed document in Britain's American colonies, though the deal never went through. Mark Hofmann fashioned alucrative career out of forgery. The glands in the skin secrete a sticky slime that sticks to your hands like glue. Letter states a white salamander appeared when Joseph Smith uncovered gold plates. FARMS (a research group composed of Mormon scholars) published several articles which examined the salamander letter, such as, "Why Might a Person in 1830 Connect an Angel With a Salamander?"[10]. The last of the strange bombs that rocked Salt Lake City over the course of two days exploded on October 16, 1985. The so-called finding even prompted the church to speak out, with LDS spokesman Jerry Cahill enlisted to ensure the public that the church was not in a crisis of faith over the letter, as many believed at the time. No document caused as great a storm as the so-called "Salamander Letter," which Hofmann sold in early 1984. In the offspring, 49% of their abies are green and 51% of the babies are white. Two people were killed: Christensen at his office, the main target; and Kathleen Sheets at her home. Is the White Horse Prophecy true or false? In the. This reference may have been an attempt by Hofmann to associate the recovery of the gold plates to a rumor that Alvin's grave was dug up by Smith's family to use Alvin's remains in a magical ceremony. In that kind of atmosphere, they fail to detect a few deceivers, but that is the price they pay to increase their effectiveness in counseling, comforting, and blessing the hundreds of honest and sincere people they see. The following day, Hofmann accidentally blew up his own sports car while carrying around another bomb. Hofmann was found guilty of murder and theft by deception, and investigations found that he'd forged documents by such illustrious historical figures as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Jack London, and more. As I recall, the letter was subsequently proven to be a forgery. It was hush talked. California Newt 4. Marbled Salamander 13. In 1983 a person by the name of Mark Hoffman produced a letter which he claimed had been written by Martin Harris in 1830 in which he says that Joseph Smith told him that the spirit guarding "the gold" in the Hill Cumorah was transformed from a white salamander that Joseph saw in the hole in which he was digging. Initially accepted by some document experts and collectors, and rejected by others,[2][pageneeded] the salamander letter generated much discussion and debate inside and outside the Latter Day Saint movement. It is, however, an interesting document of the times." Jacobs told Schmidt that he got the letter from a collector in the east, referred by Mark Hofmann. In Church News on April 28, 1985, the LDS Church revealed the contents of the salamander letter. The Salamander Letter's authenticity had been confirmed by several well-respected experts, even the FBI, and despite some people's objections to shape-shifting salamanders being part of their religion, its contents were accepted by scholars and church elders alike. This is a vector EPS file. All the people that were fooled felt terrible and returned to the church to be re-baptized. He found documents showing the J Smith was a tresure hunter before he "found" the golden plates. The Associated Press reported in 1985 that a pair of professors at Brigham Young University defended the letter at the Mormon History Association's annual meeting that year. White Salamander (Trailer). The contents of the letter implied a magical aspect to Smith's life, a controversial subject debated amongst scholars of Latter Day Saint history. The "White Salamander" letter changed this. Earth, air, fire and water, each had a spirit--for fire, it was the salamander." (6) _____--The Still Small Salamander's Voice to Earth: This Is God Calling. Hofmann at this point was soliciting cash from investors, with the stated aim that he'd use the funds to procure valuable artifacts and documents, then sell them at a profit. of 108. White Salamander. He even went so far as to publish an attack on the document, which surprised many scholars and students since this and other "discoveries" of important Mormon documents by Hofmann often appeared to bolster the Tanners' own arguments. It didn't affect my faith because I thought it was more isolated and Utah culture. The Salamander Letter was a document which presented a controversial view of the Latter Day Saint movement. It could have been any other three translated beings (Enoch has a city full of them) or it . . In addressing why Hofmann's lies were not detected by Church leaders, Oaks said: "In order to perform their personal ministries, Church leaders cannot be suspicious and questioning of each of the hundreds of people they meet each year. Ensatina 7. The darkest secrets unravel graduallyallowing the reader fleeting glimpses of the infamous white salamander as it ducks in and out of its fabricator's head. Chinese Giant salamander can grow up to a length of 5.9 ft. Contradicts church history. Hoffman's most infamous fake was known as the Salamander Letter, which claimed that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith, had been visited by a spirit that transformed from a white salamander when he discovered the gold plates on which the foundational scriptures of Mormonism were written. Growing up I heard stories about the whole letter and that the church knew it was fake but was buying it to keep if from destroying people's testimonkies. thumb_up 100%. Dallin Oaks still had not taken back or corrected himself on "white salamander is normal" talk after it came out. Harris talks of a "white . Hofmann was struggling under massive debt and falling behind on delivering on deals that he had made. Spirits are mentioned many times in the letter, but . May 11, 1985 12 AM PT. Murder Among The Mormons Director Jared Hess. The Salt Lake City Police Department used Utah State special agent and forensic examiner George Throckmorton and Arizona document examiner William Flynn to examine a poem supposedly written by Harris and placed in his old Book of Common Prayer and determined it had actually been created by Hofmann. Yes it is possible that these three men were the three Nephites. . I remember hearing it on the news but was too little to comprehend what it all meant. 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