Written in an OpenOffice document during 2013. I mostly wrote it for myself with little intention of actually making it public, because I had no life, but what the hey. It's full of black-and-white thinking and unfair generalizations and it ceased to accurately represent my views years before I left the church.
An Open Letter to Critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
By C. Randall Nicholson
First of all, I recognize that your demographics are varied and the generalizations I can draw about you are limited. Some of you are evangelical, most are atheist; some are former Latter-day Saints, others have never been; some are vulgar and immature, some speak with tact and erudition; some oppose the Church out of concern for its members' eternal welfare, some oppose it because you have nothing better to do with your time. I'll try to address all of you. In so doing I'll avoid using the noun "anti-Mormon", which is technically accurate but somewhat pejorative and juvenile. In return I'm sure you'll have the courtesy to cease referring to my religion as a "cult". No? Well, it was worth a try.
What I'm not going to try to do is convince you of the truthfulness of the Church, as I'm sure we can all agree that would be a waste of time and you would only mock me. I'm sure many of you will mock me anyway, but that's all right because I don't exactly yearn for your respect and I don't have much for most of you either. Anyway, I just want to ask you some questions.
The first question I have, which does apply to virtually all of you, is why are you so dishonest? Of course, your degree of dishonesty varies; some are upfront about your intentions to discredit the Church, while some pretend to be faithful members in the hope of deceiving real ones. In either case, whether guilty of flat-out lies or not, you are almost universally guilty of repeating the same claims that have circulated for years, and often decades or more, without acknowledging the responses of LDS apologists and scholars. If you don't find those responses convincing, as you presumably don't, then the honest thing to do would be to respond to them in turn, instead of pretending they don't exist and trying to perpetuate the false impression that your claims have gone unchallenged. (A very few of you actually do this. Kudos.)
This was recognized by evangelical scholars Carl Mosser and Paul Owen in a controversial 1997 paper. They wrote near the beginning "that currently there are, as far as we are aware, no books from an evangelical perspective that responsibly interact with contemporary LDS scholarly apologetic writings... Many of the authors promote criticisms that have long been refuted; some are sensationalistic while others are simply ridiculous. A number of these books claim to be 'the definitive' book on the matter. That they make no attempt to interact with contemporary LDS scholarship is a stain upon the authors' integrity and causes one to wonder about their credibility... We are losing the battle and do not know it. In recent years the sophistication and erudition of LDS apologetics has risen considerably while evangelical responses have not." That state of affairs has not changed.
I also wonder, why are you so arrogant? Daniel C. Peterson has said, "If a substantial number of sane and intelligent people believe something that seems to you utterly without sense, the problem probably lies with you, for not grasping what it is about that belief that a lucid and reasonable person might find plausible and satisfying." But his fellow professor, Bill Hamblin, has summarized the attitude that is far more common among you: "Here all intelligent, right-thinking, and honest people agree with absolute certitude that Mormonism is not simply false, but so manifestly absurd that anyone who believes in it is a liar or an idiot." I've often seen you claim that any intelligent person who believes in "Mormonism" must be lying to himself.
On that note, why do you think you can read minds? I'm not just talking about the incredible talent of such "historians" as Fawn Brodie and Dan Vogel for reading the thoughts and motives of long-deceased figures like Joseph Smith, but of you telling Latter-day Saints with absolute certitude why they remain members of the Church despite its obvious falsity. I've been informed by completely serious people on the Internet, who'd never seen me in person, that I stay LDS because of phenomena such as "belief perseverance", "confirmation bias", "emotional need", and "cognitive dissonance". They also assume that I've never “open[ed my] mind” or “consider[ed] the possibility that the Church may be false”, because then of course I would have come to the same conclusions as them (there's that arrogance again).
Here's one of the biggest things I'm wondering, actually. If Joseph Smith was such a fraud, then why can't you even explain where the Book of Mormon came from? Yeah, I know you have all sorts of theories about how he plagiarized from View of the Hebrews, the Apocrypha, a mythical Spalding manuscript, a map with place names that didn't exist during his lifetime, and so on. Jeff Lindsay treats those theories with the respect they deserve in his satirical skit "One Day in the Life of Joseph Smith, Translator Extraordinaire". Here's what it comes down to: the mere fact that so many theories exist only demonstrates that after nearly two hundred years you still can't disprove the alleged fraud of a farm boy with a third grade education.
You know what could convince me to take you seriously? If one of you duplicated his achievement. I would reconsider the possibility that Joseph Smith was a fraud if one of you became the first not to shy away from Hugh Nibley's challenge to his BYU students. [Omitted here because I have it on its own page.] Are you ready to accept this challenge, and prove to the world once and for how the Book of Mormon was forged? No? Pity. I was looking forward to seeing your attempts. But maybe now you understand why I can't take you seriously.
And finally... what exactly do you hope to accomplish? Even assuming for the sake of argument that you're right and we're wrong, do you really think you can stop or even substantially weaken the LDS Church? Really? Don't you think that if it could be destroyed, that would have happened, I don't know, at least a century and a half ago when it was weaker and smaller? I know a lot of you think “the Internet” will be this big revolutionary thing that will destroy the Church by exposing “the truth”. Perhaps you don't realize that the Internet has existed since 1982 and become widespread since 1995, and that sociological studies have found no correlation between Internet access and church growth rates in various countries.
In any case, predictions of the Church's demise only become more laughable with each passing year. The Internet notwithstanding, your own such predictions are nothing new or original, and only repeat the same debunked theme that has echoed since the Church's origin:
"With its authors, the Book of Mormon cannot survive this generation. The next will remember it, only to smile at the credulity of the present." (1832)
"Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet is dead. Thus ends Mormonism." (1844)
"Personally, I believe the next decade will see major shifts in policy and doctrine in a futile attempt to keep the Morg alive. The Old Timer GA's are still stuck in their ways and thought patterns they developed in their twenties and thirties. This inflexible calcified spirituality is killing the body of the Church." (2002)
"The Mormon Church is vulnerable. We firmly believe that with enough exposure, Mormonism will crumble and become a shadow of what it is today." (2007)
"They know that one major publication (popular movie; popular book etc) could be the 'tipping point' which could send 75% of the membership to abandon the Corporation and its lies... the trickle is becoming a torrent, the dyke is about to burst." (2010)
"I prophesy, in the honorable name of Jesus Smith, that 2013 will be the beginning of the 'Mormon Apocalypse'. The gig is up." (2013)
"Big changes in Mormondom are always desperate acts. They don' [sic] change unless compelled to. All these things mean are that they realize they are at a tipping point. They have peaked out, and they are terrified of the view from the top of the roller coaster." (2013)
Realizing the futility of your efforts will, of course, cause varying degrees of frustration. Some of you merely oppose the Church, others actively detest its actual members as well. I suggest you think about these questions long and hard, but I also don't expect you to take that suggestion because, after all, I'm a Latter-day Saint and don't know much about anything. So while I'm at it I may as well make one more suggestion: leave the Church alone and try finding a different outlet for your time and energy - you know, one in which you might actually accomplish something. But if accomplishing something's not your priority than by all means continue. I might join you someday if I get tired of having integrity and being on the winning side.
Read more of my essays here.
What I'm not going to try to do is convince you of the truthfulness of the Church, as I'm sure we can all agree that would be a waste of time and you would only mock me. I'm sure many of you will mock me anyway, but that's all right because I don't exactly yearn for your respect and I don't have much for most of you either. Anyway, I just want to ask you some questions.
The first question I have, which does apply to virtually all of you, is why are you so dishonest? Of course, your degree of dishonesty varies; some are upfront about your intentions to discredit the Church, while some pretend to be faithful members in the hope of deceiving real ones. In either case, whether guilty of flat-out lies or not, you are almost universally guilty of repeating the same claims that have circulated for years, and often decades or more, without acknowledging the responses of LDS apologists and scholars. If you don't find those responses convincing, as you presumably don't, then the honest thing to do would be to respond to them in turn, instead of pretending they don't exist and trying to perpetuate the false impression that your claims have gone unchallenged. (A very few of you actually do this. Kudos.)
This was recognized by evangelical scholars Carl Mosser and Paul Owen in a controversial 1997 paper. They wrote near the beginning "that currently there are, as far as we are aware, no books from an evangelical perspective that responsibly interact with contemporary LDS scholarly apologetic writings... Many of the authors promote criticisms that have long been refuted; some are sensationalistic while others are simply ridiculous. A number of these books claim to be 'the definitive' book on the matter. That they make no attempt to interact with contemporary LDS scholarship is a stain upon the authors' integrity and causes one to wonder about their credibility... We are losing the battle and do not know it. In recent years the sophistication and erudition of LDS apologetics has risen considerably while evangelical responses have not." That state of affairs has not changed.
I also wonder, why are you so arrogant? Daniel C. Peterson has said, "If a substantial number of sane and intelligent people believe something that seems to you utterly without sense, the problem probably lies with you, for not grasping what it is about that belief that a lucid and reasonable person might find plausible and satisfying." But his fellow professor, Bill Hamblin, has summarized the attitude that is far more common among you: "Here all intelligent, right-thinking, and honest people agree with absolute certitude that Mormonism is not simply false, but so manifestly absurd that anyone who believes in it is a liar or an idiot." I've often seen you claim that any intelligent person who believes in "Mormonism" must be lying to himself.
On that note, why do you think you can read minds? I'm not just talking about the incredible talent of such "historians" as Fawn Brodie and Dan Vogel for reading the thoughts and motives of long-deceased figures like Joseph Smith, but of you telling Latter-day Saints with absolute certitude why they remain members of the Church despite its obvious falsity. I've been informed by completely serious people on the Internet, who'd never seen me in person, that I stay LDS because of phenomena such as "belief perseverance", "confirmation bias", "emotional need", and "cognitive dissonance". They also assume that I've never “open[ed my] mind” or “consider[ed] the possibility that the Church may be false”, because then of course I would have come to the same conclusions as them (there's that arrogance again).
Here's one of the biggest things I'm wondering, actually. If Joseph Smith was such a fraud, then why can't you even explain where the Book of Mormon came from? Yeah, I know you have all sorts of theories about how he plagiarized from View of the Hebrews, the Apocrypha, a mythical Spalding manuscript, a map with place names that didn't exist during his lifetime, and so on. Jeff Lindsay treats those theories with the respect they deserve in his satirical skit "One Day in the Life of Joseph Smith, Translator Extraordinaire". Here's what it comes down to: the mere fact that so many theories exist only demonstrates that after nearly two hundred years you still can't disprove the alleged fraud of a farm boy with a third grade education.
You know what could convince me to take you seriously? If one of you duplicated his achievement. I would reconsider the possibility that Joseph Smith was a fraud if one of you became the first not to shy away from Hugh Nibley's challenge to his BYU students. [Omitted here because I have it on its own page.] Are you ready to accept this challenge, and prove to the world once and for how the Book of Mormon was forged? No? Pity. I was looking forward to seeing your attempts. But maybe now you understand why I can't take you seriously.
And finally... what exactly do you hope to accomplish? Even assuming for the sake of argument that you're right and we're wrong, do you really think you can stop or even substantially weaken the LDS Church? Really? Don't you think that if it could be destroyed, that would have happened, I don't know, at least a century and a half ago when it was weaker and smaller? I know a lot of you think “the Internet” will be this big revolutionary thing that will destroy the Church by exposing “the truth”. Perhaps you don't realize that the Internet has existed since 1982 and become widespread since 1995, and that sociological studies have found no correlation between Internet access and church growth rates in various countries.
In any case, predictions of the Church's demise only become more laughable with each passing year. The Internet notwithstanding, your own such predictions are nothing new or original, and only repeat the same debunked theme that has echoed since the Church's origin:
"With its authors, the Book of Mormon cannot survive this generation. The next will remember it, only to smile at the credulity of the present." (1832)
"Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet is dead. Thus ends Mormonism." (1844)
"Personally, I believe the next decade will see major shifts in policy and doctrine in a futile attempt to keep the Morg alive. The Old Timer GA's are still stuck in their ways and thought patterns they developed in their twenties and thirties. This inflexible calcified spirituality is killing the body of the Church." (2002)
"The Mormon Church is vulnerable. We firmly believe that with enough exposure, Mormonism will crumble and become a shadow of what it is today." (2007)
"They know that one major publication (popular movie; popular book etc) could be the 'tipping point' which could send 75% of the membership to abandon the Corporation and its lies... the trickle is becoming a torrent, the dyke is about to burst." (2010)
"I prophesy, in the honorable name of Jesus Smith, that 2013 will be the beginning of the 'Mormon Apocalypse'. The gig is up." (2013)
"Big changes in Mormondom are always desperate acts. They don' [sic] change unless compelled to. All these things mean are that they realize they are at a tipping point. They have peaked out, and they are terrified of the view from the top of the roller coaster." (2013)
Realizing the futility of your efforts will, of course, cause varying degrees of frustration. Some of you merely oppose the Church, others actively detest its actual members as well. I suggest you think about these questions long and hard, but I also don't expect you to take that suggestion because, after all, I'm a Latter-day Saint and don't know much about anything. So while I'm at it I may as well make one more suggestion: leave the Church alone and try finding a different outlet for your time and energy - you know, one in which you might actually accomplish something. But if accomplishing something's not your priority than by all means continue. I might join you someday if I get tired of having integrity and being on the winning side.
Read more of my essays here.
