{"id":61436,"date":"2018-05-31T11:06:28","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T17:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=61436"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:53:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:53:38","slug":"a-brief-response-to-a-claim-from-a-former-mormon-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/05\/a-brief-response-to-a-claim-from-a-former-mormon-critic.html","title":{"rendered":"A brief response to a claim from a former-Mormon critic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The western side of Brigham Young University\u2019s main chemistry building, where requirements for pro-Mormon chemical experiments appear to be unknown. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raising such issues as the archaeology of the Book of Mormon, the character of Joseph Smith, early Latter-day Saint polygamy, and the origins of the Book of Abraham, a critic posting on my Facebook page suggests that among the reasons for rejecting Mormon responses to these and related questions is the (alleged) fact that they\u00a0\u201cwere explored largely within the confines of the Joseph Smith Building at BYU, and under the supervision of the church\u2019s own paid professional religious scholars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both portions of the quoted comment are false.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such issues were not<\/em> \u201cexplored largely within the confines of the Joseph Smith Building at BYU.\u201d \u00a0During my decades of involvement with LDS writing on these topics, people housed in BYU\u2019s Joseph Smith Building were relatively uninvolved in them. \u00a0(I\u2019m acutely aware of this because I sometimes found their lack of involvement a tad frustrating.) \u00a0Instead responses on these topics came from other people around campus and beyond \u2014 e.g., from John Sorenson and John Clark in Anthropology, Stephen Ricks in my own Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, Jack Welch at BYU\u2019s law school, Noel Reynolds in Political Science, William Hamblin in History, and so forth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the authors<\/a> and current leadership<\/a> for the Interpreter Foundation, relatively few are affiliated with BYU and very few are housed in the Joseph Smith Building.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this isn\u2019t merely a quibble.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why not? \u00a0Because the second and more weighty proposition advanced by this critic is that these crucial questions \u201cwere explored largely . . . under the supervision of the church\u2019s own paid professional religious scholars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only substantive significance of this second allegation would seem to be the insinuation that, to some greater or lesser degree,\u201d \u201cpaid professional religious scholars\u201d cannot be trusted to be fair or objective in their research and writing on topics that implicate their personal financial interests.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, very obviously, making an allegation like this teeters perilously on the brink of the logical fallacy known as \u201cpoisoning the well,\u201d<\/a> which is a subspecies of the ad hominem fallacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, I think that this particular critic has gone beyond mere teetering. \u00a0(John Gee\u2019s discussions of the Book of Abraham<\/a>, for instance, demand examination on their merits, not on the basis of BYU accounting or the source of his income, which is quite irrelevant.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll leave that aside.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to be clear that writing on Mormon subjects wasn\u2019t a particularly good career for BYU faculty in Anthropology, Political Science, Law, Asian and Near Eastern Languages, or History. \u00a0There was and is no expectation in such departments that one will publish on Mormon-related subjects. \u00a0In some cases, in fact, such writing could actually count against one\u2019s salary increases or rank advancement.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a minimum, people devoting themselves to faithful Mormon scholarship have done so with little or \u2014 in most cases \u2014 no institutional support or encouragement, and on their own time. \u00a0This has certainly been true for scholars not employed at BYU or by the Church.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thus, to insinuate that such authors were influenced, or their work warped, by financial self-interest is both unjust and disingenuous. \u00a0To be charitiable about it, it has no merit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve responded to varying forms of this criticism for decades now. \u00a0It appears that I\u2019ll be obliged to continue to respond to such criticisms for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Raising such issues as the archaeology of the Book of Mormon, the character of Joseph Smith, early Latter-day Saint polygamy, and the origins of the Book of Abraham, a critic posting on my Facebook page suggests that among the reasons for rejecting Mormon responses to these and related questions is the (alleged) fact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA brief response to a claim from a former-Mormon critic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Raising such issues as the archaeology of the Book of Mormon, the character of Joseph Smith, early Latter-day Saint polygamy, and the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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