Dishonest Scholarship
Dishonest Scholarship
Okay, it is this kind of dishonest (intentional or not, not sure) scholarship that I have a hard time with. On mormonr.org about the Kinderhook plates, it says this:
Was Joseph Smith tricked by the hoax?
Not really. Joseph SmithBIO initially took an interest9 in the Kinderhook plates and reportedly made an initial attempt to translate10 one of the characters by the secular means available to him. But he apparently wanted them authenticated by an expert before he did anything more with them.11 Ultimately, Joseph moved on, the owner of the plates took them back, and Joseph never followed up or mentioned them again.12
— Mormonr - The Kinderhook Plates
On number 11, it mentions that he wanted them authenticated by an expert first before working on them, then it continues and says "Ultimately, Joseph moved on, the owner of the plates took them back, and Joseph never followed up or mentioned them again." I looked at all the links on number 11, and they all talk about Joseph wanting them to be authenticated. Guess what they say next? They were, indeed, requested for authentication, the authentication process finished up (they basically just said they didn’t recognize it), and the quotes mention that he commenced with translation. That doesn't sound like he just "moved on".
Also, if we look at how things went with the Book of Abraham, he actually did a similar thing. He started "translating" the BoA for the first bit, then waited years before picking them up again to finish them. The summer of 1835 is when he started them and finished the first chapter and part of the second chapter. He stopped translating for a few years, then picked it up again and finished it, in the spring of 1842.1
He didn't get the Kinderhook plates until 1843. He proclaims what they are and starts to translate them. He takes a break, but we have absolutely no indication anywhere that he's just done with them. It more sounds like he was going to continue. However, he died in 1844. We have no way of knowing that he just "moved on", and based on many statements from leaders after he died, it sounds like, at the very least, they were excited about the plates and certainly believed they were of ancient origin.
I don't know if that was intentional or not by whoever wrote that at Mormonr, but I would hope that they would catch things like this.
One more thing about LDS apologetics. It is very common to see them using “anti” sources when they support their claims, but say they aren’t reliable when they don't support their claim. This is happening in the mormonr situation above. The number 11 citation sources are all “anti”.