Where did the Book of Mormon question go?

Question

There was a question regarding the book of Mormon, and its compatibility with Christian scripture. It vanished, along with the associated answers. Is this common practice?

Why did the book of mormon question disappear?

Answer 1

Typically we do not delete questions until they have been closed for some time. I believe the question you are looking for is this one

• What is the biblical basis for believing in the Book of Mormon?

Your answer was deleted from that question with the following comment from Elendia:

As others have noted already, this answer is very much not up to the standards of this site, like having references and answering the question. Hence, I'm deleting it. If you manage to edit it into shape, feel free to flag for undeletion.

You should have been notified in your global inbox that the post was deleted and received the comment.

Answer 2

1. No: vanishing questions is not common practice. In fact question deletion is very rare and mostly done by the original OP. There are two types of questions that moderators will delete:

   • The rare question that is blatantly offensive towards any group in its wording. Spam and raw trolling fall into this category.
   • Old questions that have been closed for some time (e.g. many months) and neither the OP nor the community has expressed any intention of editing them into shape to be re-opened.

2. This community has agreed on specific guidelines for supporting answers. It is not a rule that all answers must have footnotes, but at -- least when challenged -- support should be available that shows the views represented are held by some professing Christian group. Posts are not a platform for personal soap-boxing. Re: your comment:

   Again, this answer is better than any of the tripe in the other answers. I do not cite references, it is a stupid thing to do. I try to only write original thoughts, as all other thoughts are valueless.

   This attitude will get you no-where around here.* Answers are not the place to develop or forward new philosophies. This is not a discussion board. It is a place where people should be able to get reliable answers about what various Christian traditions believe that are actually representative of Christianity's views (of course tailored to whatever specific tradition is being questioned), not a place where orthodoxy is called "tripe" and every counter view is given equal air-time -- just as solutions involving Windows are not given equal air-time on Unix & Linux and as Christianity's views are not called for in answer to questions on Jewish Life and Learning.

3. I don't see any deleted question as you suggest. You do have at least one answer that has been deleted from a posted related to LDS. So let's look at that. I don't think I would have used the wording El'endia did in his deletion comment, however I think there is a sound reason for your content being removed from the site. The question was very specifcly looking for BIBILE VERSES that could be used in support of the book of Mormon.. Your answer does not even propose to look at Biblical evidence either for or against the issue raised in the question, it rants on about your personal understanding of history, Catholic and Protestant disagreements on evangelism and how Mormonism came to be. None of this actually answered the question, making your answer not an answer.

Finally, in reply to your comment on this issue:

Yes, religious people offended me--- two of my answers on this site, one relating to Mormonism, the other on Abraham and Sarah's incestuous brother/sister business, which I put some thought into, and which said things that are difficult to find anywhere else, were deleted! I don't mind downvotes, but deletion is offensive to me.

StackExchange sites are not a free-for-all where answers can deviate into whatever tangental topics you feel are generally important to religion or philosophy. If you would like a platform for free speech where you can forward your own personal views that are "difficult to find elsewhere", by all means start a blog or a personal site. Nobody will stop you from putting all the thought into it you like. If questions come up that relate to the topic, you could even link to it from here.

However, when you participate on Christianity.SE, please stick to answering the question posed by the OP and only speak on behalf of views that are called for by the OP. You don't have to hold the views to answer, but you do have to follow suit. A rant about Catholic missionology does not follow suit for a question about Biblical references relating to the Book of Mormon, and speculation about hindu mythology is not relevant to a question asking for Christianity's perspective on Abraham's actions.

* _{Just to be clear: you as an individual are welcome on the site. However the attitude that comes across in many of your comments that demean the main subject matter and beliefs of the constituency of this site is not. If you want to participate, you will have to check that attitude at the door.}