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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The implication is that the Church's artistic department and/or artists are merely tools in a propaganda campaign meant to subtly and quietly obscure Church history. The suggestion is that the Church trying to "hide" how Joseph really translated the plates.
On the contrary, the manner of the translation is described repeatedly, for example, in the Church's official magazine for English-speaking adults, the Ensign. Richard Lloyd Anderson discussed the "stone in the hat" matter in 1977,[1] and Elder Russell M. Nelson quoted David Whitmer's account to new mission presidents in 1992.[2]
The details of the translation are not certain, and the witnesses do not all agree in every particular. However, Joseph's seer stone in the hat was also discussed by, among others: B.H. Roberts in his New Witnesses for God (1895)[3] and returns somewhat to the matter in Comprehensive History of the Church (1912).[4] Other Church sources to discuss this include The Improvement Era (1939),[5] BYU Studies (1984, 1990)[6] the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies (1993),[7] and the FARMS Review (1994).[8] LDS authors Joseph Fielding McConkie and Craig J. Ostler also mentioned the matter in 2000.[9]
Elder Neal A. Maxwell went so far as to use Joseph's hat as a parable; this is hardly the act of someone trying to "hide the truth":
Jacob censured the "stiffnecked" Jews for "looking beyond the mark" (Jacob 4꞉14). We are looking beyond the mark today, for example, if we are more interested in the physical dimensions of the cross than in what Jesus achieved thereon; or when we neglect Alma's words on faith because we are too fascinated by the light-shielding hat reportedly used by Joseph Smith during some of the translating of the Book of Mormon. To neglect substance while focusing on process is another form of unsubmissively looking beyond the mark.[10]
Those who criticize the Church based on its artwork should perhaps take Elder Maxwell's caution to heart.
Notes
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