Sealed Fate (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

In February 2007, Ida Smith attended a lecture about Mary Magdalene at the Salt Lake City Public Library. There, she ran into her cousin, Julie Taggart, who told her she had left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith, the brother of Ida Smith’s great-great grandfather, Hyrum Smith. Taggart, a self-described former “Molly Mormon” and divorced mother of eight, said she had found something better: a translation of the fabled sealed portion of the Book of Mormon.

After she heard a version was out there, Ida Smith later wrote, “I felt like I had been struck by a bolt of lightning.” All her life, the now-79-year-old Ida had been waiting for the sealed portion of the gold plates that LDS Church founder Joseph Smith had been unable to translate. It was from the remaining one-third of the gold plates that he translated The Book of Mormon. According to Mormon mythology, the sealed portion—of which, Mormon scripture authorities say, very little is known—would only be released when the faithful were ready for it.

Ida Smith (pictured at left) has always believed, “if I wanted the truth badly enough, I would get it.” After then-LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley had asked his church’s 10 million members to read The Book of Mormon during 2005, Ida Smith had been convinced the LDS Church would finally receive the sealed portion. But come LDS General Conference in April 2006, and then October that same year, it was not mentioned.

Daniel Peterson, a Brigham Young University professor of Islamic studies and Arabic, says, “Mormonism is rich in producing would-be prophets” and that occasionally “people come along purporting to know what was in the sealed portion or actually reveal it.” One such person is Christopher Marc Nemelka. While Nemelka acknowledges there are two other sealed portions on the Internet, his translation, he says, is the only one taken from the gold plates, which were given to him by Joseph Smith in a 1987 visitation while Nemelka worked as a security guard in the Salt Lake Temple. “If Joseph Smith were a true messenger,” then, Nemelka says, there’s “a big chance” so is he.

Nemelka’s translation, which Taggart gave to Ida Smith, is titled The Sealed Portion: The Final Testament of Jesus Christ. Nemelka says the book uses “religious prose and symbolism to explain how advanced human beings have interacted with human kind throughout the history of the earth.” One LDS Church member who converted to Nemelka’s version of the sealed portion is Monica Smith (no relation to Ida Smith). Monica Smith wrote on TheSealedPortion.com that, after reading it, “The atonement of Jesus Christ finally made sense. The meaning of the temple endowment was absolutely incredible. The history of the Earth laid out in one fell swoop was remarkable. Christ’s visit among the Nephites brought me to tears.” Its ultimate message, as Monica Smith wrote, was “do unto others what I would want them to do unto me.” This expanded to the Worldwide United Foundation, an organization promoted in the sealed portion and set up by Nemelka and his followers. It functions as both a vehicle to end global poverty and also to receive anonymous donations from those moved to support its aims to outlaw hunger, homelessness and promote universal insurance through a signature campaign.

While BYU’s Peterson finds the translation unconvincing, in part because “it’s contradictory to canonized [LDS] texts,” Ida Smith nevertheless had an intense, life-changing reaction when she read the book. She devoured it over six weeks, in the process emptying two boxes of tissues and several red ballpoint pens as she wept and underlined page after page of scripture. The voice of the Mormon angel Moroni “was unmistakable,” she later wrote. By the time she had finished the book, “my entire worldview had been forever changed.” It revealed to her what she had suspected since her youth: that the LDS Church was fallible and unnecessary, and that its prophets since Joseph Smith had been in name only. No other sealed portion, Nemelka says, “has the power to take somebody like Ida Smith and change their mind about their religion.”

Nemelka (pictured at left) says his job “is to counter the bullshit of the LDS Church.” Whether you believe he made up the sealed portion or not, he says he is doing his work, “for the good of other people. All I’ve seen is the prejudice, alienation and pain the LDS Church has caused other people, and I did something about it.” A spokesman for the LDS Church declined to comment in regard to this story.

Nemelka has indeed attempted to demolish the LDS faith. Polygamy critic John Llewellyn argued in a 40-page court-filed document when Nemelka unsuccessfully sued him for defamation and slander, that Nemelka used “Joseph [Smith], Moroni and Timothy to negate the basic beliefs and teaching of the LDS Church, mainly priesthood authority and the sacredness of the family unit.”

While Nemelka says he has no followers, ex-acolytes put those who believe he is a modern-day Joseph Smith as numbering no more than 80, although Ida Smith says a hundred thousand have downloaded his sealed portion.

In her small, book-lined living room in Orem, Ida Smith says the translation “made so much sense, it never entered my mind to question what it was.” But when she tried to share her new gospel with her younger brother, Hyrum Smith, he pleaded with her to abandon it and return to the LDS faith. “Your eternal future is at stake here,” Hyrum wrote in an e-mail. “You have been duped by a very clever, seemingly sincere, diabolical guy.”

Proclaimed by his own translation as a prophet, Nemelka says he’s rather a messenger for “advanced beings from another planet,” even though he’s issued several prophecies. Those same beings, he says, told him to sue his critics in 2007, something he’s told those who believe in him they shouldn’t do. “I have to disregard all rules of humanity,” he says, laughing. “I’m the ultimate hypocrite. I’m under mandate to violate every gospel of Christ that I perpetuate.”

To the bewilderment and despair of Ida Smith’s family and friends, Nemelka’s work won Ida’s faith. It’s not simply her lineage that made her such a prize for Nemelka. She also spent much of her life with LDS notables: Her father was a general authority and her cousin is Quorum of the Twelve Apostle Russell M. Ballard. She was director of the now-closed BYU’s Women’s Research Institute under Apostle Jeffrey Holland, and she counted former Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, among her friends. Such was the consternation among Ida Smith’s intimates after her conversion to the sealed portion that her family, Sen. Bennett and apostle Holland all tried to dissuade her from following a man who claims not only to being mentored by 2,000 year-old beings from Mormon mythology called the three Nephites, but also says he’s the reincarnation of Hyrum Smith. Her family’s pleas fell on deaf ears.

All her life, the now-79-year-old Ida had been waiting for the sealed portion of the gold plates that LDS Church founder Joseph Smith had been unable to translate. It was from the remaining one-third of the gold plates that he translated The Book of Mormon. According to Mormon mythology, the sealed portion—of which, Mormon scripture authorities say, very little is known—would only be released when the faithful were ready for it. Ida Smith has always believed, “if I wanted the truth badly enough, I would get it”....
....Daniel Peterson, a Brigham Young University professor of Islamic studies and Arabic, says, “Mormonism is rich in producing would-be prophets” and that occasionally “people come along purporting to know what was in the sealed portion or actually reveal it.” One such person is Christopher Marc Nemelka. While Nemelka acknowledges there are two other sealed portions on the Internet, his translation, he says, is the only one taken from the gold plates, which were given to him by Joseph Smith in a 1987 visitation while Nemelka worked as a security guard in the Salt Lake Temple. “If Joseph Smith were a true messenger,” then, Nemelka says, there’s “a big chance” so is he.
Nemelka’s translation, which Taggart gave to Ida Smith, is titled The Sealed Portion: The Final Testament of Jesus Christ. Nemelka says the book uses “religious prose and symbolism to explain how advanced human beings have interacted with human kind throughout the history of the earth”....This expanded to the Worldwide United Foundation, an organization promoted in the sealed portion and set up by Nemelka and his followers....

.... Such was the consternation among Ida Smith’s intimates after her conversion to the sealed portion that her family, Sen. Bennett and apostle Holland all tried to dissuade her from following a man who claims not only to being mentored by 2,000 year-old beings from Mormon mythology called the three Nephites, but also says he’s the reincarnation of Hyrum Smith. Her family’s pleas fell on deaf ears.

There's 3x more material at the original article.

I was wondering of something like that was going to happen.

It happens faily often among Mormons.

Elizabeth was raised in a religious culture which believes a) they have a prophet living on the earth today, and b) said prophet's "revelations" should be accepted without question. Adherents are actively discouraged from entertaining any questioning or critical analysis of present or prior revelations, and such questioners (especially those who publish their findings) are branded "anti-X" or worse....Once she began to believe that Mitchell was in fact speaking with God - and had a revelation about them needing to be married - the culture had betrayed her, sealing her fate.
-- Alex Murphy, March 30, 2003

Here is a follow up letter to the editor (City Weekly) I thought you might be interested in reading:

Didn’t Do Your Homework
By City Weekly Readers

Praise to City Weekly for its willingness to inform the world of The Sealed Portion when The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole [“Sealed Fate,” Jan. 27, City Weekly]. But what a disservice Stephen Dark does to readers, the LDS community and the world for mocking the man who holds the only solution that could end the worldwide economic crisis.

In preparation for the story, Dark was invited to peruse Human Reality: Who We Are and Why We Exist or find a flaw, if he could, in the comprehensive but simple plan that claims to eliminate poverty and inequality around the world, virtually overnight and in perpetuity. Either one of those pursuits, despite his atheistic and anti-religious views or personal contempt for the translator, had he kept an open mind, would have convinced him of the authenticity of his appointment and the realization that this is not another religion. It sets people free from the need to join with, follow, worship or trust anyone but oneself.

Tragically, the assignment to do his homework and present it with objectivity wasn’t deemed significant enough for what I believe will one day prove to be the story of the century—especially in a state filled with people too intimidated to read anything but Deseret Book’s “priestcraft” wares.

However, if you wanted more relevant sensationalism, you might have compared Christopher Nemelka’s works, all transparent and free, to the LDS Church that refuses to disclose its income to its own members (who can “rob the storehouse” except those who hold the keys to the coffers?). Or asked why engraved images are erected atop all its temples in violation of the Ten Commandments? Or why it sets up businesses (temples) around the world, then sends in its sales force (missionaries) to convince people they can’t have their Family Forever unless they pay 10 percent of their gross income to gain entrance? Why does the church build a multibillion-dollar mall but give a pittance of its gross income to help the poor and needy? As if that weren’t enough, the church continually hails its good deeds abroad despite President Thomas Monson’s own talk “See Thou Tell No One” on giving anonymously (Ensign June 1992).

LDS leaders, with the utilization of their contacts, resources and influence around the world, could partner with the Worldwide United Foundation to implement the plan that would restore peace (and prosperity) on earth, good will toward (all) men—but for their hubris. Except that they “become as little children” with the humility and accept that this Divine Plan could not, did not and never will come through them, the world will continue to know poverty, destitution, starvation, war, crime and terrorism.

Nemelka will hold a free symposium on March 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at the Salt Lake City Public Library auditorium, for those who dare to think for themselves—all are invited to attend. Who can answer any question or solve any mystery with reality and common sense to the understanding of a little child? Pile that wood high, then douse it in water and prove you now herewith ye cowards, who dare not show your face, even en masse with all the brethren and your experts by your side, before this one man, who alone can withstand the force of a hurricane, the fierceness of many lions, or the hottest furnace, yet remain unscathed?

Julie L. Taggart

Here is a follow up letter to the editor (City Weekly) I thought you might be interested in reading:

"In preparation for the story, Dark was invited to peruse Human Reality: Who We Are and Why We Exist or find a flaw, if he could, in the comprehensive but simple plan that claims to eliminate poverty and inequality around the world, virtually overnight and in perpetuity. Either one of those pursuits, despite his atheistic and anti-religious views or personal contempt for the translator, had he kept an open mind, would have convinced him of the authenticity of his appointment and the realization that this is not another religion. It sets people free from the need to join with, follow, worship or trust anyone but oneself...."
"....Pile that wood high, then douse it in water and prove you now herewith ye cowards, who dare not show your face, even en masse with all the brethren and your experts by your side, before this one man, who alone can withstand the force of a hurricane, the fierceness of many lions, or the hottest furnace, yet remain unscathed?"

Given that you just joined FR today, is it same to assume that "Jules8", the Julie Taggart who wrote the letter above, and the Julie Taggart cited in the article are all one and the same?

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