“American Primeval,” BYU, And The Evil Mormons

Jorge Cocco's First Vision — A depiction of the First Vision by the Argentinian Latter-day Saint artist Jorge Cocco Santángelo.
I have, incidentally, made an effort to discover the copyright status of this image, but have been unable to be certain of it. I’m assuming that my employment of it here constitutes an example of “fair use.” Authoritative communications to the contrary would be welcomed.

Jonn Claybaugh kindly (and regularly) provides notes on the website of the Interpreter Foundation for teachers and students of the Church’s Come, Follow Me curriculum. This is the latest installment in his series: Come, Follow Me — D&C Study and Teaching Helps (2025): Joseph Smith—History 1:1–26 January 13–19: “I Saw a Pillar of Light”

Also: Our friends at Scripture Central have created a new video that many, I think, will enjoy. Here is an initial glimpse at it, which lasts somewhat less than two minutes: “The Good Samaritan Trailer”

Edwin Kelly with spring water — “David Whitmer” (left, played as an older man by Paul Kandarian) and “Edwin Kelly” (second left, played by Ted Charette) enjoy a short break between takes on the set of the “Witnesses” theatrical film. I’m reasonably sure that the plastic bottle of water in Ted Charette’s hands didn’t survive into the final cut. (Still photograph taken by James Jordan.)

Just this morning, some poor fellow responded (rather irrelevantly) to something I had written with this: “no one ever really saw any plates, except with their spiritual eyes after much convincing . . .” I responded that such a position is much easier to maintain if one is unfamiliar with the historical sources.

I have a dream. It’s a utopian dream, of course, and one that will never be fulfilled in this mortal life. But I can still hope that, someday, critics of the Church will be too embarrassed make such assertions as if they were simple fact. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve been so committed, and remain so committed, to the Witnesses film project. Speaking of which:

As we move, in the Come, Follow Me curriculum, toward February, which will be devoted in significant part to the translation of the Book of Mormon and to the witnesses of the gold plates, the Interpreter Foundation is taking steps to support students and teachers of that curriculum. Here’s a part of that effort:

Episode 3: “David Whitmer, Witness”

“Day Three of sharing short Insight videos on the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon and Church history.

“Today we look at the third of the Three Witnesses: David Whitmer.

David left the Church after disagreements with other Church leaders. But he NEVER denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon or his experience with the angel. In fact, David repeated his testimony of that experience in published statements, interviews, and private conversations hundreds of times over the course of his life, including on his deathbed.”

Witnesses of the Book of Mormon—Insights: David Whitmer was one of the Three Witnesses, from a whole family of witnesses of the Gold Plates. Yet after falling out with Joseph Smith, David left the Church and never returned. But he also never denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon—and, in fact, emphatically repeated that witness countless times through the remainder of his life. This is Episode 3 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . . These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. This week we feature Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. For more information, go to https://witnessesofthebookofmormon.org/. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted—Witnesses of the Book of Mormon at https://witnessesundaunted.com/.

Squaw Peak, October 2012 — Firm as the mountains around us? This Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph was taken in October 2012 from the Provo, Utah, campus of Brigham Young University.

Some of you may be aware of a recent exposé by Peggy Fletcher Stack, published in the Salt Lake Tribune, concerning attempts by Elder Clark G. Gilbert and his team to ensure that teachers and teachings at Brigham Young University are and remain aligned with those of the Church. For the record, I like and respect Elder Gilbert, who is the Commissioner of the Church Educational System for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In fact, I like him very much. And I support efforts to ensure that BYU remains a meaningfully and faithfully Latter-day Saint school. (I see no reason for the Church to own and support the school if it doesn’t.)

Obviously, I hope and expect that such efforts will be made with kindness, intelligence, sensitivity, and charity — by which I don’t mean that they should be ineffectual, indecisive, or vacillating. And I will be saddened to the extent that BYU loses excellent faculty and excellent students because of such efforts, if indeed such losses occur and especially if fully satisfactory replacements for those who are lost cannot be recruited in their stead. But again, as I say, if BYU drifts from its religious and moral foundation, there will remain no particular purpose for its continued existence.

There are already more than enough schools that lack such a foundation. In fact, one would think that, for the sake of the all-important value of diversity, progressives might treasure BYU’s uniqueness. But, somehow, it never seems to work that way.

Here is one response to Peggy Fletcher Stack’s article: “The Salt Lake Tribune’s INSANE Report On BYU And The Church”

MMM 11 September 1857 — The Mountain Meadows Massacre as imaginatively envisioned by somebody who wasn’t there. John D. Lee and his Mormonites are seen here behaving as . . . well, as Mormonites DO.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

As I’ve previously noted here, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is coming under renewed attack from the entertainment industry in the form of American Primeval, a Netflix mini-series that was released today. Central to the narrative of American Primeval is a heavily fictionalized depiction of Brigham Young and of the infamous and unfortunate Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Here are some resources that you might find helpful, including one short FAQ, an important video presentation, and three books that represent the best current scholarship on the tragedy at Mountain Meadows and the investigations that followed. You might, in fact, want to share these materials with others (including those on social media):

“American Primeval: A Historical Fiction Series about 1850s Utah”
Craig L. Foster, “Murder, Mayhem and Mormons: Was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Really a Violent Faith?”
Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Richard E. Turley and Barbara Jones Brown, Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath (Oxford University Press, 2023)
Janiece Johnson, Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture (The University of North Carolina Press, 2023)

Another important scholarly reference publication that serves as a basis for at least the latter two books is Richard E. Turley Jr., Janiece L. Johnson, and LaJean Purcell Carruth, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers, 2 vols. (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017).

There is really no excuse any more, if there ever was one, for inaccurate and sensationalized anti-Mormon portrayals of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The actual facts are bad enough.