From the article: "The degradation of the Smiths eliminated entirely any need to take Joseph's work seriously," Bushman said.
[Well, yes, precisely. Only Smith degraded himself by "marrying" 14 yo girls, seducing adopted housemaids, trying to seduce new young women arriving in Nauvoo, marrying the wives of 11 or 12 men -- while they were still married to their husbands, convicted of the crime of "glass looking" in 1826 -- a common scam of the day whereby the "glass looker" claimed a special ability to find buried treasure (always fee-based, of course)...isn't it a wonder he said he "found" buried gold plated treasure to become known as the Book of Mormon -- though no gold plates have ever turned up)]
the big question about Joseph Smith was: “Was he demented or merely degenerate?”
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How about BOTH
To disagree so strongly, for so long and with such vitriol against the LDS Church, and yet to spend so much of your time reading and attacking church related publications and past church leaders (long since dead and unable to respond), indicates, in my opinion, deeper personal issues.
You might consider holding up a mirror to yourselves.
When I was doing my year long (almost) research of LDS history/theology (in order to prove the “anti-Mormons” wrong), I also vetted some of Hugh Nibley’s books (checking for sources, context and the like).
What I discovered was that many of Nibley’s sources were either misquoted, taken out of context, or simply made up.
Hugh Nibley, IMO, was a very dishonest scholar.