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 The FBI recovered a stolen first-edition of the Book of Mormon.
June 14th, 2012
04:15 PM ET
FBI recovers rare first-edition of the Book of MormonBy Carol Cratty, CNN (CNN)–Law enforcement agents have recovered a rare first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon that was reported stolen from a Mesa, Arizona, bookstore in late May. The FBI announced Thursday the religious book, first published in 1830 in New York, was located two days ago in Herndon, Virginia, and a suspect was arrested. The Book of Mormon is considered scripture by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, on par with the Bible. Jay Michael Linford, 48, is awaiting extradition to Arizona, where he faces charges of theft and trafficking in stolen property. CNN's Belief Blog: the faith angles behind the big stories According to a court affidavit, the owner of the Arizona bookstore - identified only as Witness 1 - reported the theft to the Mesa Police Department on May 28. The bookstore owner told police she had been in business with Linford, who brokered the sale of pages of the rare book on her behalf. The woman said their business relationship had ended but Linford knew she kept the first-edition in a locked fireproof box in a file cabinet and had access to it around the time she believes it was stolen. According to the affidavit, Witness 1 said Linford had a key to the box and to the location where the book could be found. The bookstore owner told police once she realized the book was missing - along with its fireproof box - she contacted Linford and he "denied having the book or having any knowledge of its location." Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter The affidavit says the bookstore owner also reached out to people who buy and sell rare books to alert them that the book had been stolen. A Texas man identified as Witness 2 replied that he recently had bought two pages of a Book of Mormon from Linford for $7,500 and that Linford said the book was owned by a family in North Carolina. The pages were shipped to the Texas man, who later determined they did come from the Arizona woman's first-edition. The FBI's Art Theft unit and other agents investigated and found the book after locating the suspect staying with an acquaintance in Virginia, the affidavit said. The FBI would not estimate how much this edition of the Book of Mormon might be worth. The Arizona bookstore owner placed the value at $100,000. However, the Mesa Police Department consulted experts who gave an estimate of $40,000 because pages had been taken out of the book and sold. |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Now each page may be used to wipe one's b u t t.
You also have nothing of value to say and should go away.
I agree with his policies and the VAST amount of experience he has over Obama. But as for his regilous beliefs.A "First Edition" of the book of Morman from 1803? What about a first edition of the New Testiment? It would be closer to 2000 years old.
you have nothing of value to add to any discussion because you're extremely stupid.
go away.
they tried to tell me about the Book of Mormon, but then they walked by a mirror and there was no reflection.....
THERE WAS NO REFLECTION!!!!!!!
so i said "Begone, you caucasoid vampires!!!!!!!!!" and punched them in the face and threw them out.
and i said "begone and trouble me no more, you spawn of Dracula!!!!!!!!"
then they rode away on their bikes in their nerdy white man outfits.
i'm a cap they vampire a$$es next time, on the real!
Actually a bible is encoded with deep deep knowledge, and if you take it literally(like a atheist does)and think that a sky daddy's going to come and save only the good Catholic, Christians Mormons etc...then you'll never get it, it actually relates a lot to science:)
not really.
oh please
First of all, it relates to science less than this blog post does. Second, why don't you try telling the south and midwest that it's not meant to be taken literally? Have fun.
What a waste of effort to recover another useless book of delusions and drug-induced hallucinations...
The nest of atheist exists on the sounding board of CNN... Do you really think you are going to change anyone's mind on a message board? How about going out getting some friends, spend time with family (instead of neglecting them while getting your message board fix, feeling good about yourself and convincing nobody.) Do you really think we are going to find the world a better place because people were enlightened on a message board... nope! Crawl out of your hole, Oh message board dwellers and breath in the breath of life and bask in the sun light for which is blocked from the curtains in your mother's basement!
Andy, and whose mind do you think you're changing on the message board?
Why yours duce! No go back to outsmarting people... pronto!
Actually Duce, you proved my point precisely!
A tremendous rebuttal Andy! Although, I'm in the living room of MY house, with my wife (model, yes really) and my daughter is asleep in bed. My mother has no basement. Thank you for your time and ignorance!
Bible was written decades after Jesus had left this earth from stories compiled by those who claimed to have intimate knowledge of Christianity more than Jesus Christ himself. From that point on Bible portions were contnously updated to serve better agenda of those benefitting most from it and often took 360 degree turns on various issues.
Burn it before it is too late
And this is the stuff believed by a potential President of the United States. Just do me a favor; Promise me you are all going to come out and vote for Obama and keep this mental case out of the White House.
I don't know what you do for a living but do speak with some reason and logic on a factual base before calling someone such a name. Please feel free to read this on find out how much you are mislead about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/05/29/essay-about-prejudice-academe-against-mormons#.T82EPX5nFW4.facebook
LOL what a bunch of f'ing idiots!
LOL JUST LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jesus went to Kindergarten???
yep.
he rode the short bus of those days (the short donkey-cart)to it.
God is Good!:)
Atheists worship themselves.
No, in Kentucky they said Jesus rode an Apatosaurus to school!
I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of JesusChrist!
So then you know – your term – that it's fiction, right?
Yeah, I'm sure Jesus was up in heaven thinking, "man, this Christianity thing just ain't working. I know, I'll have Joseph dig up the gold plates that have been buried tor 2 thousand years and translate them into the BoM. Yeah. That'll show those haters." Whether you believe in Jesus or not, I think it's safe to say he didn't need any more credibility than the Bible gave him. Are there people out there that say, "you know, the Bible just wasn't quite enough for me. But then the BoM confirmed that Jesus is real, and that was all the evidence I needed." Please.
sorry al, its a fairy tail just like the bible is...
Dear Lord, I'm always thanking You for the words.
Dear Lord, I'm always thanking You for the actions.
What have atheists got to say now?
What have disbelievers got to say now.
Dear Lord, I am always thanking you for your actions.
Amen.
What would atheists have to say about what?
Yeah, say about what exactly? Oh crap, sorry, we're not supposed to ask questions, right?
Questions, the bane of religions throughout the age.
Dear Lord,
Please help this Dave Dawson, he is in dire need........of something real.
If you're a Christian and you find Mormonism hard to believe, you understand why atheists find Christianity hard to believe.
Slam dunk point. Ill use that. Trademark!
Back your claim up... but do your research first... Troll!
Best comment on the page with no follow-up comments...
Um, Andy, a troll is someone who tries to rile people up (usually with mistruth or malicious intent). I don't think the research is on your side in this one bub.
Im going to use that too ! I am required to take a religion class@ a Christen school. I bet my teacher will love this one.
Dear lord, Please help Andy as well. He is also in need of something .......
Author and Publisher Joseph Smith Jr.
So much for the angel story...
What the....I thought the rabbit in his magical hat wrote the book. Now I'm totally confused....
AH HA!!!!!!!!!
BY JOSEPH SMITH JUNIOR.....AUTHOR....AUTHOR....AUTHOR.....SEE THE WORD AUTHOR.....
Smith wrote this book, there is nothing divine about it.
To be fair the bible was written by someone, or some people, as well..both are said to be the work of divine inspiration...neither are.
In all honesty... have you read the book?
In all honesty, why would I want to read this nonsense. Born and raise in the Pacific Northwest and being constantly around morons taught me enough. I didn't like them as a child, and really started disliking them as an adult.
Show me the gold plates! That whole gold plate thing was a made up crock of stuff. And people believe it to this day. That is incredible. Joseph Smith was a horn dog and started a religion so he could control people. And you know what? It worked!
+1 exactly
Only in America bro! Some kid forgets to take his meds and look what happens, he's a 19th century rock star.
And for that he was tortured, lost his home, was arrested, his own children died, he was put in jail and an order to exterminate the Mormons was given by the Governor himself. Then he was murdered with his brother and the killers were celebrated by the mob. Sounds like Joseph had so much fun 'controlling the people'.
And why might he have gotten mobbed? Pretty sure their were other religions being practiced in this country, what was he doing they werent? What are they still doing that gets them raided by law enforcement? What I thought.
Not taking up for Mormonism Joseph but Christians seem to be known for persecuting other religions...
Show me the 10 commandments, dude..... Oh yeah, I forgot... they came from a burning bush..... ha ha ha. Give it a rest
I heard a picture of Smith posing with Christ taken by A Kodak dry plate was missing from the book. Damn, so close.
5 Simple Thought Questions for Christians to ponder...
1. Is God omnipotent, all loving, and did it create everything?
2. If so, then didn't it also create evil?
3. If not, then isn't it clearly powerless to stop it?
4. If not, then how is it any of #1?
5. If it's not any of #1, why waste time worshiping it?
“The Human Abstract”
Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we;
And mutual fear brings peace;
Till the selfish loves increase.
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.
He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears:
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.
Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Catterpiller and Fly,
Feed on the Mystery.
And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.
The Gods of the earth and sea,
Sought thro’ Nature to find this Tree
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain
Blake
1. Is God omnipotent, all loving, and did it create everything?
Yes (and what you refer to as "it" is our mutual Father in Heaven)
2. If so, then didn't it also create evil?
Our Father gave us all free agency to choose for ourselves wether to choose righteous action or wickedness in any given situation.
3. If not, then isn't it clearly powerless to stop it?
He wont stop it because He allows us all the learning experience of making mistakes and correcting those mistakes through repentance and the Atonement of Christ.
4. If not, then how is it any of #1?
This one makes no sense.
5. If it's not any of #1, why waste time worshiping it?
It is not a waste of time. In any form, people who worship a "higher power" are better prepared to endure life's challenges. Consider the miners rescued from the collapse in Chile. As soon as they reached the surface, they knelt in prayer. The same holds true of any challenge and in any cultural belief system..... except atheism.
1. Yes HE is.
2. He creates evil by being good; if you did not know good, you would not know evil. Just as if you had never seen light, you would not know what dark was.
3. Your premise is flawed, thus your points 3-5 are as well.
please, please lets just focus on the story here. The more you turn this into a christian athiest battle, the more crazy lunatics will post stupid BS that has nothing to do with this story. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE STARTING
way to go @Joseph. Look what you did man. Now I wont be able to read any comments relating to the STORY. THANKS ALOT.
@Nate who wrote:
"4. If not, then how is it any of #1?
This one makes no sense."
Sure it does. If God didn't create Evil and he is either powerless or unwilling to stop it, then how can he be all loving AND the creator of everything? It's a very relevant question.
Obviously, my 5 questions are a bit of a setup. Brainwashed religious folk can't technically answer them, because the logical conclusion is there is no God. It's just a case-in-point for those of us that know 😉
It's a bit of a lay version of the Problem of Evil. I like it.
Trying to get a religious person to try rational thought without the "because God can do that" crutch has to be one of the most obnoxiously pointless things a person could ever waste their time on.
I never debate for the sake of the person I'm debating, I do it for those on the fence to show the illogical and attrocious parts of religion. Not to mention the complete lack of evidence for them.
1. Is God omnipotent, all loving, and did it create everything?
You got it. You also forgot some other character traits such as kind, just, patient, joyful, merciful, and creative, to name a few.
2. If so, then didn't it also create evil?
Incorrect. God created everything good (Genesis 1). Evil was introduced into the world by humans (Genesis 3).
3. If not, then isn't it clearly powerless to stop it?
Incorrect. In fact, he has already solved the problem. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Romans 5:6-8, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
4. If not, then how is it any of #1?
The responsibility of the state of the world lies not in God's hands, but in human hands. Humans were given dominion over creation (Genesis 1:28), and led it down a terrible path and introduced evil to the world. God was gracious and merciful enough to come into the world and rescue it.
5. If it's not any of #1, why waste time worshiping it?
This reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
@joe I dont understand bro, I thought the devil was created before humans.... before Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden of Eden, was it not the pre-existing snake who tempted Eve to eat the apple?
@Joe
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
Isaiah 45:7 KJV
@HawaiiGuest oh snap
@DB
LOL. How about that the supposed tree that was eaten from was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (or right and wrong whichever you want). That in mind, how is it that god blames adam and eve for doing wrong when they clearly weren't aware that it was wrong, since they didn't have the knowledge before that.
One of two things will happen now. Standard apologetics, or completely ignoring the points made.
And there is another "holy" book read, taught from, and used by hundreds of millions that teaches believers to slay infidels (those who do not bow before the same god as they.) I dare you to openly aim your wrath at them... or are you cowards?
so what's your point? That there are plenty of people out there that are just as dumb as mormons?
@baj99 I think thats exactly his point....
WHY?? ARE YOU SO RUDE TO MORMONS? We hurt no one with our beliefs. We respect YOUR freedom to choose or not a religion. Seriously!!
@Camen If you are not allowed the ability to call out massive stupidity, what freedoms do you even have then? You can believe whatever you want, just know that smarter people are going to recognize how ridiculous it is....
Great answer DB! Why don't people get it?
Prayer changes things.
Prayer takes people away from actually working on real solutions to their problems.
Prayer has been shown to have no discernible effect towards what was prayed for.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just go to http://santorum.com to find out more.
Prayer prevents you from getting badly needed exercise.
Prayer makes you fat, pale, weak, and sedentary.
Prayer wears out your clothes prematurely.
Prayer contributes to global warming through excess CO2 emissions.
Prayer fucks up your knees and your neck and your back.
Prayer can cause heart attacks, especially among the elderly.
Prayer reveals how stupid you are to the world.
Prayer exposes your backside to pervert priests.
Prayer makes you think doilies are exciting.
Prayer makes you secretively flatulent and embarrassed about it.
Prayer makes your kids avoid spending time with you.
Prayer gives you knobbly knees.
Prayer makes you frothy like Rick Santorum. Just google him to find out.
Prayer dulls your senses.
Prayer makes you post really stupid shit.
Prayer makes you hoard cats.
Prayer makes you smell like shitty kitty litter and leads you on to harder drugs.
Prayer wastes time.
You been on holiday and away? Back in your Mom's basement?
I agree!! Prayer is good!! God is good!! atheist's just need a hug!!
Maybe the funniest (but certainly not the most ridiculous) part of mormon history was when God decided it was time to let African Americans have the priesthood. What a joke. Of course, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the BYU football team was facing NCAA sanctions for their ties to a racist organization. So, I guess God is a football fan. Only a matter of time before they allow gay marriages in the temples.
Bigot much?
I think it's funnier that you sum it up to football, but you did no actual research to find out that when the church was first founded blacks had full equality in the priesthood. It had nothing to do with God or the doctrine, but racist church leaders.
@Nate : you're asking if I'm a bigot? I'm from Detroit, dude. I have plenty of black friends. My best friend is an Iranian Jew. So, to answer your question, no, I don't "bigot much."
If you look at that first edition book of mormon, I'm sure you will find quite a few racist remarks
Poor baj – doesn't even know what a bigot is? Spewing hatred towards another individual because you don't agree with or just plain hate them.... Just come out with it and tell us you HATE the MORMONS! That is pretty apparent on this blog, dude!
Poor Curt – doesn't even know that people are just sick of religion. Not Mormons, not Jews, not Christians, not Muslims, not Sikhs, not Hindus, etc. Tired of all of the religions' division and war mongering.
Sorry for the friendly fire Curt, just read some of your other posts. baj99 is on the right track, he just expressed it poorly...