Criticism of Mormonism/Online documents/Letter to a CES Director/An "open letter" to Elder Quentin L. Cook

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A FairMormon Analysis of "A Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony"



Jeremy Runnells' "open letter" to Elder Quentin L. Cook (October 9, 2012)

Six months prior to writing the "Letter to a CES Director," the author posted an "Open Letter" to Elder Quentin L. Cook in an online ex-Mormon forum. This "open letter" represents a good summary of the issues that he would later cover in the "CES letter": [1]

An Open Letter to Elder Quentin L. Cook, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Dear Elder Cook,

I am one of those formerly spiritually lost and "apostate" souls whose testimony was destroyed by falsehoods I found on the evil internetz. But on Saturday night, following your advice at General Conference, I repented of my disillusionment, and it totally worked.

Now that I've repented, I cannot believe the ludicrous lies I used to believe about Joseph Smith and the foundational doctrines of the church. I no longer believe those outrageous lies; not even one little bit.

A few examples of the lies I've discarded through my repentance last night after your General Conference talk on Saturday morning: I no longer believe the lie that Joseph Smith sold his services looking for buried treasure with a peep stone that he used to look in his hat with. I've also discarded the lie that this "Ouija Board" Joseph used was the same method he used to translate the Book of Mormon. Respected LDS Historian and "Rough Stone Rolling" author Richard Bushman totally lied and deceived me.

Elder Russell M. Nelson also endorsed this stone in hat method of translation of the Book of Mormon in his July 1993 Ensign "A Treasured Testament" talk. You might want to have a quick chat with him to get his talk corrected. Like, pronto.

I no longer believe the lie that Joseph Smith gave several multiple conflicting accounts of the First Vision. Joseph Smith's own journals have obviously been tampered with.

I no longer believe the lie that all DNA research to date shows the indigenous Americans are of Asian rather than Hebrew descent. The scientists are obviously all lying just to thwart the Mormons.

I no longer believe the lie that the only surviving Egyptian papyrus that Joseph used for the Book of Abraham - which has the Facsimiles on it - does not match Joseph Smith's translation. Both LDS and non-LDS Egyptologists, including those at FARMS, are just testimony destroyers and deceivers. I no longer believe the lie that Joseph Smith married 14-year-old girls. LDS-owned FamilySearch.org listing Joseph's teen brides on his index totally needs to be corrected immediately.

I no longer believe the lie that Joseph Smith married women already married to other living men at the same time. Respected LDS historian and scholar Richard Bushman lied about that. Time to remove his book "Rough Stone Rolling" from Deseret Book and the LDS Church History Museum store in Salt Lake. It's totally obvious to me now that the book is anti-Mormon.

I no longer believe the lie that Joseph Smith denied practicing polygamy when he, according to FAIR, FARMS, FamilySearch.org and LDS historians, really did practice polygamy. It's time to get rid of Volume 6 of the History of the Church that contains Joseph's denial of polygamy.

I no longer believe the lie that Brigham Young taught that Adam was the only God and Father that the Latter-day Saints should be concerned with. By the way, that lie is in the Journal of Discourses...might want to delete it pronto.

You get the picture. I used to believe a lot of vicious lies, all of which are found in LDS or LDS-friendly sources I read about on the evil internetz. I guess these LDS and LDS-friendly sources are anti-Mormon too.

But thanks to your talk, I repented. And now I know the truth: official LDS and LDS-friendly sources on the evil internetz tell lots and lots of lies about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, the First Vision, the Book of Mormon and everything else you can think of about the Lord's church.

Thanks for encouraging me to repent of my disillusionment and bringing me back to the fold.

We should ban Rough Stone Rolling, edit Joseph's journals, delete part of the History of the Church, delete part of the Journal of Discourses, revise FamilySearch.org, correct Elder Nelson's 1993 talk and distance ourselves from FARMS publications. We must remove and stop these absurd and outrageous lies that led me astray in the first place.

Your brother in combating online falsehood,

Kolobot


Notes


  1. Jeremy Runnells, posted on the ex-Mormon subreddit on October 9, 2012 under the pseudonym "Kolobot"