• North Korea has deliberately isolated themselves from the rest of the world.
• North Korea feeds its people a grossly distorted view of reality, and convinces them that the rest of the world is evil and miserable.
• North Korea has built a cult of worship around their founder, revering him as the one who brought them all into the light of the one true way.
• North Korea likes to produce huge propaganda productions at stadiums involving tens of thousands of participants who tell the story of their great founder and great society, with little or no regard for historical reality.

"He [JS] was the instrument in the hands of the Almighty. He was the servant acting under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ in bringing to pass this great latter-day work.

We stand in reverence before him. He is the great prophet of this dispensation. He stands at the head of this great and mighty work which is spreading across the earth. He is our prophet, our revelator, our seer, our friend. Let us not forget him. Let not his memory be forgotten in the celebration of Christmas. God be thanked for the Prophet Joseph."

On Sunday morning at 10 a.m. an eight foot statue of Joseph Smith, in his New York identity as "The Frontier Prophet" was installed in downtown Manhattan, near Wall Street. The statue will be dedicated on December 23rd at 4 p.m., the 200th anniversary of Smith's birthday with a ceremony of music, talks, and a dedicatory prayer at the site.

The location in Old Slip Park is significant for its LDS connections. In October 1832, Smith visited New York City and resided at 88 Pearl Street. While there, he wrote to his wife Emma Smith, "the buildings are truly great and wonderful to the astonishing of every beholder." He should see them now. Pearl Street is only two blocks away from the Old Slip site.

The site is also significant because on February 4, 1846, the ship Brooklyn sailed away from Old Slip bearing more than 200 LDS men, women, and children. Under the direction of Samuel Brannan, the group traveled south, rounded Cape Horn and then sailed back up the western coasts of South and North America, stopping at Hawaii and landing at Yerba Buena, later San Francisco. February 4th was, by coincidence, the same day the Latter-day Saints left Nauvoo to begin their overland migration.

Vern G. Swanson, longtime director of the Springville Museum of Art has written a provocative new book theorizing that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, that they bore children and that LDS Church founder Joseph Smith was their direct descendant. Swanson also suggests that this heavenly birthright gave Smith spiritual authority as a prophet and affirms the historical legitimacy of the LDS Church.

Titled Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline, the book was published in November by Cedar Fort, a Springville-based publisher. The scholarly 540-page tome hasn't yet attracted much attention beyond Utah, but Swanson believes his topic will eventually reach a large audience of Mormons, Holy Grail theorists, and fans of The Da Vinci Code book and movie.

To support this claim, Swanson cites public statements from 19th-century LDS Church leaders, including Brigham Young, who wrote in 1859, "Hidden in the blood of many LDS runs the blood of Israel from numerous directions, including that of the Savior. But it is specifically through the divine blood-right of Christ through Joseph Smith Jr. that all members of the Church are lawful heirs of the promise."