The implication of the GAS account being false is that Brother Horne is a liar, and persisted on the lie when Kirtland RM called him.AI2.0 wrote: I'd also like them to speak up in a big way on these things, but they don't and since I trust their judgement, there must be a reason. I think it is because things are different now. Back when leaders denounced the white horse prophecy and the John Taylor vision, the church was small. Those 'prophecies' were being distributed along the mormon corridor--they didn't have the ability to spread this stuff around like we do and so if they spoke out at a general conference on this, it reached the people who they needed to reach. But, in our day, this stuff is still mostly only available to a small group of LDS who search for them and shared in the mormon corridor--though it's a little bigger now. But, if the leaders denounce it on a church wide scale, it goes to all the other parts of the church and that's just free publicity! It has the opposite effect of giving these spurious materials a larger audience. I think they feel it is better to not call these things out and give them a larger audience. Rather they come to our regional conferences and speak specifically to us, warning us about these things--Elder Ballard did at our's in September--and those of us who are familiar with this stuff, we knew what he was referring to.
Why would members of the Church do it? Maybe I am too far away from the United States, specially from the Mormon corridor, and do not quite grasp their mindset, but I think faking a prophet's statement would put one under severe condemnation, regardless of the goodness of the reasons for so doing.