Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 18

Response to claims made in "Chapter 18: Cover-Ups, Conspiracies, and Controversies"


Claims made in "Chapter 17: Is Mormonism Christian?"
A FAIR Analysis of:
One Nation Under Gods
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 Claims made in "Postscript" (paperback only)
[T]he general public, especially outside America, still possesses little knowledge of the unsavory nature of Mormonism.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 403.
∗       ∗       ∗

402 (PB)

Claim
  • Does the Mormon Tabernacle Choir "proselytize unsuspecting music lovers?"

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

403

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "[T]he general public, especially outside America, still possesses little knowledge of the unsavory nature of Mormonism."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

403, 605n9 (PB)

Claim
  • Baptisms for the dead were performed for Nazis, including Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Was this done so that they could "thereby become gods?"

Author's source(s)
  • Helen Radkey, "The Mormon Church Attempts to Conceal Temple Records for Adolf Hitler"
  • Jan Cienski, "Jews Urge Mormons to Curb Zeal," National Post, June 6, 2001.
Response
  • Members of the Church leave all judgment in God's hands. They are commanded to perform vicarious ordinances for all deceased persons for whom records exist. This is no way guarantees or implies Hitler's acceptance of Mormonism or forgiveness. Such matters are left to God.
  • Does the author really wish to imply, though, that even the most wicked sinner might be beyond the reach of Christ's atoning grace? The Latter-day Saints do not.
  • Temples/Baptism for the dead
  • Loaded and prejudicial language

403

Claim
  • Are baptisms for the dead incompatible with Christianity?

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response
  •  The author's claim is false: the Bible itself describes Christians carrying out this practice: 1 Corinthians 15:29.
  • It may not be a practice found in the author's brand of Christianity, but it has ample precedent among early believers.
  • Hugh W. Nibley, "Baptism for the Dead in Ancient Times," Improvement Era (1948, 1949), multiple. off-site
  • Temples/Baptism for the dead

404

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "It is possible that many readers of this book have had their deceased relatives baptized by proxy into Mormonism, even though such persons might not have wanted anything to do with Mormonism during their lives."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

404, 605n14 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Latter-day Saints perform vicarious baptisms for Jews who had died in the Holocast?

Author's source(s)
  • Bob Mims, "LDS Try to End Unauthorized Work for Jews," Salt Lake Tribune, May 2, 2001.
Response

405, 605n18-19 (PB)

Claim
  • Do LDS leaders suppress access to Church archives?

Author's source(s)
  • Fawn Brodie. Quoted by Newell G. Bringhurst, "Fawn McKay Brodie: Dissident Historian and Quintessential Critic of Mormondom," in Roger Launius, Linda Thatcher, Leonard J. Arrington, eds., Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, 290.
  • B. Carmon Hardy, "Truth and Mistruth in Mormon History," in Lavina Fielding Anderson and Janice Merrill Allred, eds., Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance, vol. 3, 279. (The author lists all three volumes as "available for purchase" from the Tanner's ULM.)
Response
  • Steven L. Olsen, "Is the Church Archives Closed?" (FAIR Conference, 2007). FAIR link
  • The author fails to note that Fawn Brodie worked in the 1940s, when the archives were less well-organized—her experience is irrelevant to the present-day.
  • Church history/Censorship and revision

405, 607n21 (HB) 605n21 (PB) - "LDS leaders re-write historical documents, deny that other documents exist, create fictitious historical data..."

The author(s) of One Nation Under Gods make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "LDS leaders re-write historical documents, deny that other documents exist, create fictitious historical data, add words to update old revelations so that they conform to current events/knowledge, and delete various sections of divine pronouncements said to have been transcribe perfectly when originally delivered."

Author's sources: Richard N. and Joan K. Ostling, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, (New York:HarperCollins Publishers, 2000), 249. ( Index of claims ), summarizing the views of Mark P. Leone, Roots of Modern Mormonism, 204, 211.

FAIR's Response

Question: Has the Church "whitewashed" some of the information about its origins to appear more palatable to members and investigators?

406, 605n22 (PB) - The History of the Church was mostly written after his death, but reads as if he wrote it himself

The author(s) of One Nation Under Gods make(s) the following claim:

The History of the Church was mostly written after his death, but reads as if he wrote it himself.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

  • This is no secret; using Joseph's authorial voice was standard practice for the day.
  • The history was completed up to 5 August 1838 under Joseph's direction (See Jesse, 466).
Overview
Accuracy of Church History
Forgeries and folklore


The History of the Church, which bears Joseph Smith’s name, was begun under his dictation and direction and completed after his death according to his instructions. The original sources used to compile the History were the Prophet’s own diaries, correspondence, and other documents. Those who may feel that the work is not a fundamental historical source because the Prophet did not personally write much of it are in error. The History, with its priceless collection of primary documents, remains the most important source of historical information on the life of Joseph Smith and early Latter-day Saint history.

—Dean C. Jessee, "I Have a Question," Ensign (July 1985)
∗       ∗       ∗

Who is the author of History of the Church?

The History of the Church, though credited to Joseph Smith, was not actually authored by him

Dean C. Jessee wrote of this question [1]:

The History of the Church, which bears Joseph Smith’s name, was begun under his dictation and direction and completed after his death according to his instructions. The original sources used to compile the History were the Prophet’s own diaries, correspondence, and other documents. Those who may feel that the work is not a fundamental historical source because the Prophet did not personally write much of it are in error. The History, with its priceless collection of primary documents, remains the most important source of historical information on the life of Joseph Smith and early Latter-day Saint history.

The work presents the teachings and activities of the Prophet with a remarkable degree of accuracy. A look at how it was produced, and at the concepts that governed historical writing at that time, helps tell us the nature of the history.

Production of the history

Continued Jessee:

Among the difficulties encountered by Joseph Smith was his own lack of formal literary education. He wrote that it took the exertions of all his father’s family to sustain themselves, “therefore we were deprived of the benefit of an education. … I was merely instructed in reading, writing and the ground rules of arithmetic, which constituted my whole literary acquirements.” [2] Throughout his life the Prophet seemed to be concerned with his lack of literary training. In his extant correspondence he refers to his “lack of fluency in address,” his limited “ability in conveying my ideas in writing,” and “the imperfections of my writing.” [3]

The Prophet thus relied on others to write for him. More than two dozen clerks are known to have assisted him in a secretarial capacity. Of these, nine left the Church (typical of the challenges of those years), and four others died while engaged in important writing assignments.

A major inhibition of efforts to keep a record was the persecution the Prophet and the Church experienced. During the years in which the history was being written, the Latter-day Saints moved or were driven across two-thirds of the North American continent. Such unstable conditions resulted in the loss of some records and affected the accuracy of many of those that were preserved. In addition, the Prophet endured lawsuits and repeated arrests that took his attention from the history.

When Willard Richards took over the duties of Church historian in December 1842, a mere 157 pages of a work that eventually numbered 2,000 pages had been written.

On 1 March 1842, publication of the history in serial form commenced in the Nauvoo newspaper Times and Seasons. By 27 June 1844, the date of Joseph Smith’s death, the manuscript had been completed only to 5 August 1838 and published to December 1831. However, important source material had been preserved for completing the history. Shortly before his death, the Prophet wrote: “For the last three years I have a record of all my acts and proceedings, for I have kept several good, faithful, and efficient clerks in constant employ: they have accompanied me everywhere, and carefully kept my history, and they have written down what I have done, where I have been, and what I have said.” [4] Some have indicated that, prior to his death, the Prophet reviewed most of what his clerks had written.

While in Carthage Jail shortly before his death, Joseph Smith instructed the Church historian, Willard Richards, who was there with him, to continue the history. [5] This Elder Richards did, and for the next decade he was the custodian of the records and the architect of the history. After Joseph Smith’s death, work on the history continued, even as the Saints prepared to leave Nauvoo for the Rocky Mountains. With the addition of 674 pages to the manuscript, nearly as much work was done on the history in the period between the Prophet’s death and the departure of the Saints from Nauvoo as had been done in the preceding years.

At the time the records of the Church were packed at Nauvoo for the journey west in February 1846, Willard Richards had compiled the history to 1 March 1843. But in the disruptive years that followed, he was never able to complete that work. After Brother Richards’s death in 1854, George A. Smith and Wilford Woodruff continued work on the history. To assure accuracy, every effort was made to collect information. Late in 1845, for instance, an epistle to the Saints urged all who knew of “any fact, circumstance, incident, event, or transaction” that should be in the history to please report it. [6]

Finally, in August 1856, eighteen years after the history was begun, the work was completed to the death of Joseph Smith. The entire manuscript had been read in the hearing of the First Presidency and other witnesses for a general appraisal.

The History of the Church

Modern standards of history writing were not always observed in earlier time periods. For example, some are surprised to learn at the six-volume History of the Church has portions which were written as if Joseph Smith had written the words, when in fact the original documents were written by others.

Is this an attempt at dishonesty?

The common nineteenth-century format of writing was chosen by Joseph Smith, who directed his clerks to write a first person

Historian Dean Jessee described the differences between historical writing as practiced by a modern writer, and those practices in place in Joseph Smith's day:

Since none of the manuscript of the history is in Joseph Smith’s handwriting, and apparently not much of the text was actually dictated by him, why did those employed on the work write in first person, as though the Prophet himself were writing? That common nineteenth-century format was chosen by Joseph Smith, who directed his clerks to write a first person, daily narrative based upon diaries kept by himself and his clerks. In addition, since Joseph Smith’s diary did not provide an unbroken narrative of his life, the compilers of the history were to bridge gaps by using other sources (diaries, Church periodicals, minute and record books of Church and civic organizations, letters and documents kept on file, and news of current world happenings), changing indirect discourse to direct as if Joseph Smith had done the writing himself. Not uncommon according to the editorial practices of the day, this method of supplying missing detail had the effect of providing a smooth-flowing, connected narrative of events.

Many examples from other works of the period show that this was the historical standard of the time. Nineteenth-century American methods of historical writing and editing were very different from those of today. In 1837, for example, Jared Sparks—regarded as “the first great compiler of national records”—edited in twelve volumes the Writings of George Washington. When his work was later compared with original manuscripts, it was found that he had rewritten portions of letters, deleted or altered offensive passages, and changed irregularities in style and awkward modes of expression.

In his review of historical editing in the United States, Lyman E. Butterfield has noted that changing text and creating text faithful to the ideas of the writer were not uncommon in early years, and that seldom were original texts left to speak for themselves. [7] The History of the Church was written in the general literary and historical climate of its time.

New Testament parallels

Jessee noted that this 19th century approach to historiography matches more ancient practices, such as those used by some Biblical authors:

New Testament writers apparently used a similar method in writing the Gospels. One Bible commentary records that Matthew and Luke borrowed from Mark (Interpreter’s Bible, 7:235–36) and omitted or altered what seemed to be critical of the Apostles. For example, Mark records that James and John came to the Savior and asked that he give them whatsoever they desired; whereupon, the Savior heard their plea that each might sit by his side when he came in glory. (Mark 10:35–37.) When Matthew recorded the event, he said that it was the mother of James and John who desired this privilege for her sons (Matt. 20:20–21.) This difference in recording the circumstances, presumably to place the Apostles in a better light, does not destroy the credibility of the Savior’s mission, nor may we believe that there was dishonesty in making the change.

Challenges with direct citation

Jessee cautions:

One of the challenges facing those who compiled the history was that of presenting the Prophet’s sermons and teachings. Since none of Joseph’s clerks had mastered shorthand during his lifetime, reports of what he said were made longhand. Many of these were smooth-flowing, well-connected summaries and were copied into the history almost as recorded. In some instances, however, it was necessary to reconstruct an address from brief notes and disconnected ideas. George A. Smith’s editorial work was careful, and when he was finished, each discourse was read to members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, some of whom had also heard the original address. Their input proved invaluable. These measures no doubt guaranteed the doctrinal accuracy of such reporting of Joseph Smith’s discourses, but the result obviously would not reflect his personality and speaking style as accurately as a verbatim report would have done.

An analysis of the History reveals those portions obtained from material written personally by Joseph Smith. These clearly reflect his loving and warm spirit. For example, the following is an entry from the History stemming from a portion of Joseph Smith’s 1835 diary written by himself:

“September 23. I was at home writing blessings for my most beloved brethren, but was hindered by a multitude of visitors. The Lord has blessed our souls this day, and may God grant to continue His mercies unto my house this night, for Christ’s sake. This day my soul has desired the salvation of Brother Ezra Thayer. Also Brother Noah Packard came to my house and loaned the committee one thousand dollars to assist building the house of the Lord. Oh! may God bless him a hundred fold, even of the things of the earth, for this righteous act. My heart is full of desire today, to be blessed of the God of Abraham with prosperity, until I shall be able to pay all my debts, for it is the delight of my soul to be honest. O Lord, that thou knowest right well. Help me, and I will give to the poor.” [8]

Is History of the Church not accurate because Joseph Smith did not write it himself?

The content of the History of the Church is likely largely accurate

Dean C. Jessee noted:

The History will continue to be the most important source of information on the life of the Prophet and early Latter-day Saint history. Since the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve—some of whom were participants in the historical events—reviewed the history, it is reliable. It should be known that the revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants are also recorded in the History of the Church and most assuredly are true and reliable.

It is important to realize that the content of the History of the Church is likely largely accurate, though it can of course be supplemented with other material to expand or correct it. Areas which may be less accurate are the precise wording attributed to Joseph Smith, or the 'personality' of some of the entries, especially the later ones written after his death. Though the History of the Church speaks in the first person as if Joseph were writing, these words are put in his mouth by admirers, often after his martyrdom. Thus, small details of Joseph's "personality" in the History are less likely to be accurate.

Related article:History of the Church as the "most correct" history?
Summary: Quote mining of Doctrines of Salvation about the History of the Church being "the most correct" of any history.


Source(s) of the criticism
Critical sources


Notes

  1. ↑ Text is from Dean C. Jessee, "I have heard that Joseph Smith didn't actually write his history—that it was prepared by clerks under his direction. If so, how reliable is it?," Ensign (July 1985): 15. off-site; headings and additional material have been added as noted.
  2. ↑ Joseph Smith (“Autobiography,” 1832), Kirtland Letter Book, p. 1, manuscript.
  3. ↑ Letters to Moses Nickerson, 19 November 1833; to Emma Smith, 6 June 1832, original in the Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Ill.; and to Emma Smith, 21 March 1839.
  4. ↑ Joseph Smith address, 26 May 1844, reported by Thomas Bullock; published in Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:409. Volume 6 link
  5. ↑ George A. Smith to Wilford Woodruff, 21 April 1856.
  6. ↑ Manuscript History of the Church, 16 November 1845.
  7. ↑ L. H. Butterfield and Julian Boyd, Historical Editing in the United States (Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1963), 19, 24–25.
  8. ↑ History of the Church, 2:281. Volume 2 link

406

Claim
  • Was writing the History of the Church as if Joseph himself wrote it a "flagrant breach of standard protocol for persons producing historical works" as the book claims?

Author's source(s)
  • No citation provided.
Response
  •  The author's claim is false: using Joseph's authorial voice was standard practice for the day.
  • The Jesse article cited above by the author demonstrates that no effort was made to hide who had written the history.
  • History of the Church/Authorship
  • Presentism

406, 608n23 (HB) 606n23 (PB)

Claim
  • Was a "forged prediction" added to the history that a "mighty people" that would dwell "in the midst of the Rocky Mountains?"

Author's source(s)
Response

406, 606n23 (PB)

Claim
  • Was a "forged prediction" added to the history of the Church regarding the future political career of Senator Steven (sic) A. Douglas?"
  • (Note: Should be "Stephen" A. Douglas)

Author's source(s)
  • History of the Church, vol. 5, 85, 393-394, 398.
  • No other citation is given to support this claim.
Response
  •  The author's claim is false: in fact, the prediction was published more than a year before Douglas' attack on the Church; this was well-before his aspirations to the U.S. presidency or fall in political fortunes.
  • Timing of Stephen A. Douglas prophecy

407, 606n26 (PB)

Claim
  • Were over 62,000 words were added or deleted from the history of the Church?
  • The endnote adds that LDS leaders claim that the "official history" is not "the most accurate history in all the world."

Author's source(s)
  • John Widtsoe, Joseph Smith-Seeker After Truth, 297.
  • Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, 199.
Response

407

Claim
  • The minutes of a conference dealing with Sidney Rigdon discussed in Volume six of the History of the Church differs from the minutes originally printed in the Times and Seasons.

Author's source(s)
  • History of the Church, vol. 6, 47-48.
  • Times and Seasons, vol. 4, 330.
Response

408, 608n28 (HB) 606n28 (PB)

Claim
  • Were Joseph's revelations revised to make them "more palatable?"

Author's source(s)
  • Hugh Nibley, letter to Morris L. Reynolds, May 12, 1966. Quoted in Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Case Against Mormonism (Salt Lake City: ULM, 1967), vol. 1, 132.
Response

408, 607n33 (PB)

Claim
  • Did the Church attempt to suppress a copy of the Book of Commandments that was locked in the vault?

Author's source(s)
  • Tanner and Tanner, Major Problems of Mormonism, 135.
Response

412

Claim
  • Is "academic dishonesty foisted upon church members by LDS scholars" as the book claims?

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

412

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "Mormonism has been an emotion-based religion opposed to intellectual, rational thought."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response
  • Many Mormons seem to have been able to use "intellectual, rational thought" to demonstrate the many errors, distortions, and misstatements in this work attacking their faith.
  • LDS testimonies involve both mind and heart.
  • Members of the Church become more active and committed to their faith as their degree of education increases: Education and belief. This does not prove the Church true, but it does put the lie to claims that members are ill-informed, uneducated, or ignorant.
  • Loaded and prejudicial language

412

Claim
  • Why are Latter-day Saints supposed to only rely on the "burning in the bosom" even if they are "faced with irrefutable facts that undermine the LDS church?"

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

412, 609n34 (HB) 607n34 (PB)

Claim
  • Are Latter-day Saints instructed to "simply not think and obey church authorities?"
  • The endnote states that this message was never officially rescinded by the Church.

Author's source(s)
  • "Ward Teachers Message," Deseret News, May 26, 1945, 5.
  • Improvement Era, June 1945, 354.
Response
  • Actually, President George Albert Smith immediately repudiated this message:

Even to imply that members of the Church are not to do their own thinking is grossly to misrepresent the true ideal of the Church, which is that every individual must obtain for himself a testimony of the truth of the Gospel, must, through the redemption of Jesus Christ, work out his own salvation, and is personally responsible to His Maker for his individual acts.


413-414, 609-610n39 (HB) 607n39 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Ezra Taft Benson's talk about "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet" speech eliminate the possibility of Latter-day Saints exercising independent thought?

Author's source(s)
  • Ezra Taft Benson, "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet," February 26, 1980.
Response

414, 610n42 (HB) 608n42 (PB)

Claim
  • Steve Benson said "When the prophet has spoken, the debate is over."

Author's source(s)
  • Steve Benson, 60 Minutes, April 7, 1996.
Response
  • The original claim that "the thinking is done" was made once in a church magazine, and the president of the Church immediately declared it to be false. Anti-Mormons continue to invoke it.
  • N. Eldon Tanner did say the following in 1979 regarding moral issues:

Why should there be any debate over the moral issues which are confounding the world today? When the prophet speaks the debate is over. ("The Debate is Over", Ensign, August 1979} (emphasis added)


415, 608-609n43-57 (PB)

Claim
  • Did the Church excommunicate a number of "dissidents?"

Author's source(s)
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Mormon Inquisition?" LDS Leaders Move to Repress Rebellion," Salt Lake City Messenger (#85), November 1993.
  • Lavina Fielding Anderson, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Spring 1993), vol. 26.
  • Paul Toscano, "All Is Not Well in Zion: Falsoe Teachings of the True Church" (1993), Sunstone Symposium lecture.
  • Maxine Hanks, Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism.
  • D. Michael Quinn, "On Being a Mormon Historian (and Its Aftermath)," in George D. Smith, Faithful History: Essays On Writing Mormon History, 76 (endnote #22 in Quinn).
  • Boyd K. Packer, "The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect", August, 22, 1981.
  • Boyd K. Packer, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, 106.
  • Boyd K. Packer. Quoted in Salt Lake Tribune, September 20, 1993.
  • Private Eye Weekly, Oct. 20, 1993. Quoted in Tanner and Tanner, "Mormon Inquisition?", 9.
  • Bryan Waterman and Brian Kagel, The Lord's University: Freedom and Authority at BYU.
  • David P. Wright, "In Plain Terms that We May Understand: Joseph Smith's Transformation of Hebrews in Alma 12-13" in Brent Metcalfe, ed., New Approaches to the Book of Mormon, 207.
Response

418, 611n58 (HB) 609n58 (PB)

Claim
  • Did President Hinckley say that "dissidents" that were excommunicated got what they deserved "as cursed servants of Satan?" President Hinckley said:

"I think the Lord had them in mind when he declared: 'Cursed are all those that shall life up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord.'...[T]hey are the servants of sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves."

Author's source(s)

  • Gordon B. Hinckley, "Prophet Pre-eminently Grateful for Testimony," LDS Church News, April 8, 2000.

Response


418, 611n59-60 (HB) 609n59-60 (PB)

Claim
  • Is the "Strengthening Church Members Committee" is a group used to spy on members of the Church?

Author's source(s)
  • Richard N. and Joan K. Ostling, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, (New York:HarperCollins Publishers, 2000), 354. ( Index of claims )
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormon Spies, Hughes, and the C.I.A.
  • Peggy Fletcher Stack, "Feminist BYU Professor Fired, but Not Discredited," Salt Lake Tribune, June 8, 1996.
Response

419

Claim
  • Why did the 1997 Relief Society manual make it sound as if Brigham Young only had one wife and six children?

Author's source(s)
  • 1997 Relief Society manual.
Response

420, 611n63 (HB) 609n63 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Gordon B. Hinckley try to cover up the Church's polygamous past when he appeared on Larry King Live and said that only two to five percent of the early LDS practiced it?

Author's source(s)
  • Larry King Live
Response
  • The author is assuming motive, and presuming that President Hinckley knew that his figure was wrong.
  • The calculated incidence of polygamy varies depending on one's assumptions. The 2-5% figure is true if all polygamous males are divided by total members, but this is probably not the best measure to use.
  • Polygamy/Prevalence of in Utah

420, 612n68-71 (HB) 610n68-71 (PB)

Claim
  • Does the Book of Mormon claim that Native Americans will miraculously turn "white-skinned" by accepting "Mormon beliefs?" *Didn't Brigham Young and Spencer W. Kimball say that they would become "white and delightsome?"

Author's source(s)
  • 2 Nephi 5꞉21
  • Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:336.
  • Spencer W. Kimball, Improvement Era, December 1960, 922-923. Qjuoted in Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson, "Pure and Delightsome," Mormonism Researched, Spring 1994, 5.
Response

422, 612n75 (HB) 610n75 (PB)

Claim
  • Did the Church acquire the Hofmann documents (later disovered to be forgeries) in order to suppress them?

Author's source(s)
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Hofmann Talks," Salt Lake City Messenger (#64), January 1987, 7.
Response

424

Claim
  • Did LDS officials hinder the Hofmann investigation by not providing information about the Hofmann document acquisitions?

Author's source(s)
  • No source given.
Response

424

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "Mormon leaders also blocked efforts by police to see exactly what documents were in LDS church vaults, apparently knowing that some of their authentic documents not yet released to the public might further damage the church's reputation if the contents of them were to be revealed."

Author's source(s)
  • This is pure conjecture on the part of the author.
Response

424, 610n77

Claim
  • According to the Tanners, Richard Turley's book Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case "shows that Mormon Church leaders were engaged in a conspiracy of silence with regard to the McLellin collection to save the church's image."

Author's source(s)
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Mormon Leaders suppress 'Key' Item in Murder Case," Salt Lake City Messenger (#83), November 1992, 3-4.
Response

424, 612n78 (HB) 610n78 (PB)

Claim
  • Should LDS leaders have been capable of detecting the Hofmann deception?

Author's source(s)
  • Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 197.
  • DC 46꞉27
Response
  •  The author's claim is false: LDS doctrine is very clear that prophets will not always know deception when they see it. For it to be otherwise would be to threaten moral agency. Said the Lord to Joseph Smith: "as you cannot always judge the righteous, or as you cannot always tell the wicked from the righteous, therefore I say unto you, hold your peace until I shall see fit to make all things known unto the world concerning the matter" (DC 10꞉37).
  • Use of sources: Church leaders will always know deception

427

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "The Mormon habit of sometimes taking detours around truth to protect the church has not always led to murder."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's statement.
Response

428, n85

Claim
  • Paul H. Dunn defended his embellishments in order to "illustrate his theological and moral points."

Author's source(s)
  • Richard Robertson, Arizona Republic, February 16, 1991, B9.
Response
  • Paul H. Dunn was disciplined by the Church, and required to apologize for his actions.
  • This demonstrates that the Church does not endorse or support Dunn's choices. His decision to justify himself is immaterial. Ought we to judge Jesus and his teachings by the choices of one of his apostles, Judas?

430-433

Claim
  • Was the Salt Lake Olympic bribery scandal the fault of the Church?

Author's source(s)
  • Various citations regarding the scandal.
Response
  • It is not clear what the actions of these individuals, despite the fact that some were LDS, has to do with the Church itself. Do we condemn other Christian faiths simply because their ministers may be found guilty of sex scandals, financial impropriety, or child abuse? Or, do we conclude that not all members of a faith live up to its precepts?
  • The author ignores that a Church member, Mitt Romney, was hired to "clean up" the games and eventually stage a successful Olympics.
  • Logical fallacies: guilt by association

434, 614n117-127

Claim
  • Do Latter-day Saints believe they will rescue the Constitution from ruin, thus allowing "Mormonism" to take over the world?

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph F. Smith, conference Report, October 1912, 11.
  • Melvin J. Ballard, Conference Report, October 1928, 108.
  • Mark E. Petersen, Conference Report, April 1946, 171.
  • Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference REport, April 1950, 159.
  • Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, October 1952, 18.
  • Senator Wallace F. Bennett, BYU Speeches, February 15, 1961, 13.
  • Dr. Ernest L. Wilinson, BYU speeches, April 21, 1966, 7.
  • Ezra Taft Benson, "Jesus Christ-Gifts and Expectations," New Era, May 1975, 19.
  • Ezra Taft Benson, Teaching of Ezra Taft Benson, 619.
  • Daniel H. Ludlow, ed. Selections from Encyclopedia of Mormonism, "The Church and Society," 122.
  • "Weatherman's politics cloud his role on TV," Seattle Times, November 24, 2000, 2.
Response

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