So...a little backstory. I was raised Mormon. I'm not anymore. I stopped attending about 12 years ago. I'm not sure what I would call myself now. I think agnostic is probably a fair enough label. I'm not convinced that God and the Devil are real. I'm open to the possibility of it, but at this point I'm just not convinced. I tend to think of God and Satan as anthropomorphized/personified notions of good and evil. To me, they're ideas, but powerful ones (but I admit, if Satan were real, that might be exactly what he'd want me to think).

For a long time though, whether I thought God and Satan were real or not, I never believed that there were actual devil worshippers. To me it sounded like a silly Christian boogeyman. I figured you either believed in God or you didn't. I'd never seen or heard of any churches with his name on them (until recently), I'd never met anybody claiming to worship the devil, and I figured that if I ever did, they would probably just be doing so to seem edgy, get attention, or troll their Christian friends or relatives.

I'm no longer under that impression. It's become clear to me now that there are in fact many people out there who (secretly) worship Satan, or at least the idea of him, and I think those people are very, very dangerous. Because they'll never tell you what they really believe. Because that's part of the deal they make when they join the club. They'll tell you anything except the truth. Why? Because they'll die if they don't. It's all part of the deal. This movie that someone posted the other day sealed it for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7G5CKX0je0

They are, who Jesus said were "wolves in sheep's clothing." And we now know that they've been around thousands of years before Jesus was even born.

I know this won't be a popular take, but in my opinion, Mormonism is a pretty damn good religion all in all. As the refrain goes, Mormons are by and large God-fearing people who WANT to be good people and TRY to be good people. I live in Utah and I love it. It's basically the American paradise that I hear many of you feel you've lost wherever you happen to live.

We're pretty racially and ethnically homogenous. Violent crime is rare. Everyone knows their neighbors. The women are beautiful. Unemployment is always low. The "homeless" (really just drug addicts) population is very small compared to most places. It's great. And I know for a fact that much of that can be attributed to the prevalence of the Mormon Church in this area.

It's also great if you're an Exmormon, like myself, because nobody appreciates a party quite like someone who couldn't attend any (at least with alcohol) for the first 20 some odd years of their life, and nobody quite understands what it's like to leave Mormonism like a fellow Exmormon, so I really do love it here.

Anyway, where Mormons tend to fall short, in my opinion--and this seems to be the case with any organized religion that I've seen in person--is that they CAN get a little too hyper-focused on keeping the "rules" to the letter at the expense of basic human compassion. They often come off as pharisaical and judgy to other members who are less concerned about strict adherence (it's not uncommon for strict Mormon parents to alienate their "wayward" children, making them feel like their love is conditional--and sometimes it is) and fake to outsiders, who sense that their friendships with them are invariably impacted by their secret (or not-so-secret) desire to see them converted at some point ("every member a missionary" is a common refrain in Mormonism).

The idea that they're the one and only true church of God and Jesus Christ also puts a bad taste in the mouths of other Christians, who tend to view the Book of Mormon as heretical, their founder, a false prophet, and the rituals they perform in their Temples a bit too culty for their liking (many active members would also agree with that last bit--if my dad hadn't been there with me the first time I went through it I probably would have walked right out).

And while I know that modern Christians love to say that Mormons aren't Christians--that they believe in a different Christ--and while I understand their rationale for saying that, which seems largely rooted in a very literal, dogmatical reading of Paul's take on the Gospel specifically (in my opinion at the expense of all other takes), and while at one time I may have been tempted to use that same argument myself since I wouldn't mind if a few more of my family and friends would join me outside of Mormonism (man, I'd love to have a beer with my dad someday), I really can't in good conscience agree with that take. The rank and file Mormons, without any question (I can't speak for those at the tippy top though) believe in Jesus Christ. The same one from the New Testament that you believe in. End of story. Don't try to argue with me on that. It's not even the point of this post--which I promise I'll get to soon.

So again, while I'm personally very convinced at this point that The Book of Mormon is a work of fiction (as evidenced by anachronisms found throughout the book, as well as programs that have scanned the text and compared it with that of other books Joseph Smith would have had access to back in 1830, showing too many correlations to not be considered source texts--as is always the case with fictional works, among other things) I still find the Book of Mormon satisfying, inspiring, and at times, eerily prophetic.

For those who don't know, in the book there are two main groups of people stemming from one Jewish family who believed in Christ long before his coming thanks to visions and dreams from God. As the story goes (and I do consider it just a story, so lay off) this family left Jerusalem around 600 BC, right before the Babylonians invaded Israel and carried everyone captive back to Babylon for the next 70 years, and traveled by land and by sea all the way to the Americas. Their "land of promise."

Once they arrived, the group that followed and/or descended from Lehi's son Nephi were called Nephites. Those who followed and/or descended from his son Laman, Lamanites. Nephi is generally depicted as "the good son." He believed his father to be a real prophet receiving real instructions from God, which he determined by praying and receiving his own vision from God, and thus, happily followed his father out into the desert without complaint and on a trek that eventually led them to the American continent (his brothers Laman and Lemuel were not so convinced, complained the whole way there, and they went their separate ways shortly after arriving).

But whether it's true or not, the book is super interesting when you take into consideration the fact that Joseph Smith was rumored to have been a 33rd degree Freemason (the ceremonies in Mormon temples being likely the chief evidence of that, but also on the day he died, as he was falling from the jail window where he had just been shot, he was also heard screaming what many believe was the first portion of a Masonic cry for help that the Freemasons were supposedly bound by with an oath. He reportedly yelled "My Lord, my God!" as he died. The Masonic cry for help is "My Lord, my God, is there no help for the widow's son?")

But more interesting than the temple ceremonies, within the book, which is supposed to be a condensed version of nearly 1,000 years of ancient American history, the character named Mormon apparently finds it important enough to tell us a story of a secret society that sprung up in ancient America that was founded by Satan worshippers, or rather, by Satan himself, appearing to those with lofty dreams of fame and fortune, teaching them how to lie to get what they want, and how to murder, and steal, and subvert and bring down entire nations without getting caught or punished.

In the story, their existence first became known to the Nephites when a man named Kishkumen and his fellow "robber" Gadianton accidentally made their plans to murder and supplant their chief judge known to someone they thought was part of their club but was actually a double agent (he apparently knew some of their secret signs which managed to fool Kishkumen). He killed Kishkumen, but Gadianton got word and went into hiding. They were thenceforth dubbed "The Gadianton Robbers." Here's what Mormon says about them:

But behold, Satan did stir up the hearts of the more part of the Nephites, insomuch that they did unite with that band of robbers, and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed, that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings. And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant...And whosoever of those who belonged to their band should reveal unto the world of their wickedness and their abominations, should be tried, not according to the laws of their country, but according to the laws of their wickedness, which had been given by Gadianton and Kishkumen. Now behold...these secret oaths and covenants...were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit—Yea, that same being who did plot with Cain, that if he would murder his brother Abel it should not be known unto the world...and he has brought it forth from the beginning of man even down unto this time.

If that doesn't give you chills, given what we know today, you might wanna check your pulse. Cause that right there...that IS the cabal that we're dealing with today. They may go by different names, but the goal, the methods, and the source, are the same.

So, I find it very interesting that Joseph Smith chose to include this in his book and pass it off as an historical record.

It reminds me of a man I learned about in college as an English major named Geoffrey of Monmouth. He died in 1155 AD. Before his death he published a book in Latin titled De gestis Britonum or Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain). This is where we find the original stories of King Arthur.

For several hundred years it was believed that the stories in the book were true. He claimed in his dedication that the book was a translation of an "ancient book in the British language that told in orderly fashion the deeds of all the kings of Britain," given to him by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, but modern historians have dismissed this claim. In it, he traces the lineage of the monarchy and the people present in Britain at the time back to Brutus of Troy, who was the son of Aeneas and the notoriously beautiful Greek Goddess, Aphrodite.

It's believed by some that his goal in writing this book, and passing it off as history, when he likely knew it wasn't, was more than simple fame and fortune (after all, he was very old by the time it was published, and the printing press had yet to be invented, so it would have been hard to capitalize on that) but rather, it was his genuine attempt to inspire his nation to become something more than what they were, driven by the belief that they were descended from beautiful gods and mighty, noble, well-educated warriors, who had traveled to a land set apart for the settlement of fair-skinned angels (England literally means "angel land").

Joseph Smith, the son of two school teachers, likely had a copy of that book growing up, and was likely aware of the story behind it. Could the Book of Mormon have been that kind of a lie? Was the story he told about its origin what he viewed at the time as "necessary disinformation?" Could he have been hoping to inspire people, and maybe, warn the world about the Freemasons and their true beliefs while maintaining some semblance of deniability?

I don't know, but it begs the question, why did he use Freemason rituals in his temples in the first place? And if he was going to use them, why did he change them so much? Is it possible that he thought that the only way to fight a vast, evil secret society was by creating a good one that used similar methods but with a different aim?

It bears mentioning that much ill has been written about Joseph Smith throughout history. He was rumored to have been a secret polygamist. It's well-documented, but in light of what was in the book, and what we know about this vast secret society today, which includes their grip on the media, I'm starting to wonder how much I can really believe about what's been said and documented about him.

It's funny, one reason he's been maligned by history is for burning down a local printing press he claimed was printing lies about him (mainly about the polygamy thing). Was he a dictatorial philanderer trying to silence dissent and keep his sins hidden from the world...or is it possible that a greater plot to destroy him, his reputation, and his work was afoot, because of what he revealed about the Freemasons, and in his desperation, saw no other recourse than to burn down a seditious and libelous fake news outlet?

Could Joseph Smith have simply been another victim of fake news, the way we've seen with Donald Trump today? Do we really think this ancient Satanic cabal that has been secretly running humanity behind the scenes for millenia only recently realized the power of the press? Is it impossible to think that maybe, just maybe, they've been using that tool, and the good faith and naivety of honest Christians as a weapon against them long before the creation of CNN and Fox News?

Is the Book of Mormon really an ancient record of an ancient American civilization, revealed to Joseph Smith by an angel named Moroni, and translated into English by the gift and power of God? I don't think so.

But one thing is absolutely certain: there exist among us, and often above us, a secret society of people who believe in God just as strongly as you and I do, but who love darkness more than light, and see Jesus Christ and his followers as their mortal enemy. We know this now.

And Joseph Smith laid it all out for the world to see way back in 1830.

Make of that whatever you will.