'We're going to look at everything': An 18,000-page monument

Joseph Smith Jr. was born Dec. 23, 1805 — 218 years ago. The anniversary of his birth today may be lost in preparing for Christmas — something that professor Daniel Peterson, professor emeritus of Arabic and Islamic studies at BYU, suggested was by no means inappropriate, since Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ, not Joseph, “and don’t want to suggest otherwise.” Joseph Smith by age 24 had published the Book of Mormon, and organized what Latter-day Saints consider to be a restoration of Christ’s ancient church.

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