I found this on the Mormon Curtain, and I loved it so much I wanted to share it with those few (very few) who read my blog. I take no credit for this, and the authors name is not available.
Dear [ *** ],
You know that story about the golden plates? It's not true.You know that story about God commanding Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and others to practice polygamy? It's not true. Joseph Smith made it all up so that he could commit adultery.
Good Ole' Brigham
You know the "bad guys" and "evil apostates" who printed up the Nauvoo Expositor, which was then destroyed by Joseph Smith? Turns out they were telling the truth and Joseph Smith was trying to hide his lies.
For those of you who went to the temple before 1990, did you ever wonder why God wanted you to pantomime your own disembowelment and throat-slitting as "penalties" for revealing the secret handshakes ("tokens") and stuff? And did you ever wonder why God would need anybody to ever learn such things as silly secret handshakes in order to get to heaven? Well, wonder no more. Because Joseph Smith made all that up too. It was not "revealed" to him by the spirit or god or any other-worldly beings. Actually he mostly just copied the rituals of the Masonic lodge, AFTER he had joined a Masonic lodge in Illinois. Now that you know this, don't the secret handshakes and bloody penalties make more sense?
You know, Masonry, through much of its history, has acted as a kind of secret combination or secret fraternity. Secret handshakes and passwords just go with the territory in secret combinations. And if you're operating a secret combination and you want to keep it secret, you impose violent penalties on people who blab the secrets. Doesn't really have much to do with exaltation, becoming gods or anything spiritual at all, really, now does it? But it does make sense when you realize that Joseph Smith was trying to keep his serial adultery, er..."plural marriage" scheme secret for himself and his initiated insider friends. (This is what the Nauvoo Expositor was in the process of exposing when it was violently suppressed by Joseph Smith.)
For those of you who went to the temple after 1990, do you ever wonder why the exciting, if gruesome and bloody, penalty pantomimes were deleted? Now that you know where they came from, it's pretty easy to deduce that they were deleted because the General Authorities realized that they were pointless and embarrassing. Of course this isn't much of an endorsement for the veracity of the "restored" endowment ordinance, is it?
When the Prophets tell you they can't lead the church astray, have you ever wondered whether they are leading the church astray when they say that? Answer: Of course they are--just as Brigham Young was leading the Church astray, when he sacrificed the lives of the handcart pioneers to save money for his pet projects and when he led the church astray with his Adam-God doctrine and Blood Atonement doctrine, and just as Gordon B. Hinckley was leading everyone astray when he denied the LDS Church's doctrine of eternal progression in an interview with a prominent San Francisco newspaper.
If you know anything about the Mark Hoffman bombings, do you ever wonder how so many priesthood leaders (including Gordon B. Hinckley), supposedly with special powers of discernment, could have been so completely deceived by Hoffman, while "gentiles" having no priesthood saw right through him?
Have you ever questioned anything about the Church and the authority of the "General Authorities" at all?? If not, you probably are a person of blind faith and blind loyalty, who has no desire to know the truth about the church. You don't care what the truth is, as long as you feel comfortable in your delusional cult. As Boyd K. Packer said, "some truths aren't very useful." If you fall into this category, please just go back to your comfortable sleep. I'm sorry for disturbing your dreams.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
[ *** ]
Love. It.