I found this on the blog MormonMentality.org this morning and I wanted to share, it really makes you think....
Also intriguing to me along these lines was Bushman, following Terryl Givens in By the Hand of Mormon, points out the changing role of the Book of Mormon in the Church. For the period of Joseph’s life and a significant period thereafter, the actual content of the Book of Mormon wasn’t as important as its function as a sign of his prophetic calling. As Givens writes, …
Even for the book’s adherents, it has not always been deemed imperative to read it before having an opinion of it. Its strength as a pillar in Joseph’s claim to be a prophet, just like its status as a blasphemous imposition, depends upon one’s acceptance or rejection of the story of its miraculous coming forth, more than on an analysis of its theological coherence. (p.86)
