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Book reviews

Does God Authorize His Prophets to Make Mistakes?

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Crucible_of_Doubt

[The Crucible of Doubt can be purchased from the FairMormon Bookstore.]

Within the past year, the Church published an article addressing the fact that for a long period in the Church’s history, black men were not allowed to be ordained to the priesthood.[i] The article acknowledged that leaders of the Church gave explanations for the ban that we now recognize as being incorrect. For some people, this article has raised as many questions as it answered. While many have experienced a sense of relief in seeing the Church disavow explanations for the ban that denigrated those of African descent, others have experienced a new sense of anxiety over the question of the extent to which we can rely on the teachings of the prophets and apostles. And to what extent can we be confident that the policies adopted by the Church are ordained of God?

Terryl and Fiona Givens directly addressed the question of prophetic infallibility in their book Crucible of Doubt: Reflections on the Quest for Faith. Terryl Givens has earlier, if only briefly, addressed this question, in his “Letter to a Doubter.”[ii] In their new book, the Givenses expand on this issue. The “Letter to a Doubter” essentially limited itself to a discussion of the fact that prophets are human, and humans make mistakes. However, chapter six of The Crucible of Doubt goes into more depth regarding the principles of delegation of authority and prophets as agents for God.

The concept of God delegating his authority to men on Earth and making them His agents, who act on His behalf, is not a new one. However, the Givenses discuss the concept in a way that may help illuminate the mechanism by which prophets act on God’s behalf and why doing so does not ensure that mistakes will not be made by God’s agents.

The title of chapter six is “On Delegation and Discipleship: The Ring of Pharaoh.” This title is a reference to the story of Joseph of Egypt:

When Joseph of the many-colored coat had gained Pharaoh’s complete trust and confidence, “Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand.” With this gesture, Pharaoh transferred his own power and authority to the former Hebrew slave. “Without your consent,” the Pharaoh told him, “no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”[iii]

Of course, when authority is delegated, it does not mean that the agent will always do precisely what is intended by the one delegating authority. This is obvious in the context of human interactions. However, we sometimes may hope and expect that when God delegates authority to a prophet, that the human in this scenario will somehow rise to the level of perfection inhabited by the one who has delegated the authority; that if one is acting for God, one will act like God. However, the scriptures do not give us this assurance.

In fact, the scriptures provide plenty of examples of prophets making mistakes and acting in ways that could be considered ungodly. For example, Moses disobeyed God’s instruction to speak to the rock and instead hit it. He then attributed the miracle to himself and Aaron, saying, “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” He was chastised by the Lord afterward. (Numbers 20.) Nathan told David that the Lord approved of his desire to build a temple, and that he should commence the project. The Lord later told Nathan that such was not His desire, and that he was to tell David that the temple would be built by another. (2 Samuel 7.) And Jonah felt some personal prejudices against Assyrians, to the point of expecting the Lord to give them fewer blessings than to Jews. (Jonah 4.)

So prophets can guide us and direct us, but they can also test our faith, not just in calling us to live on a higher plane, but also in demonstrating that they do not always reach a higher plane themselves. In light of this, the Givenses note:

And if delegation is a real principle—if God really does endow mortals with the authority to act in His place and with His authority, even while He knows they will not act with infallible judgment—then it becomes clearer why God is asking us to receive the words of the prophet “as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.”[iv]

Of course, most of us are familiar with the observation made by Joseph Smith that “a prophet [is] a prophet only when he [is] acting as such” (HC 5:265). We also often hear repeated the scripture, “whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (D&C 1:38.) When these two statements are considered at once, we may tend to think that if we can just determine whether or not a prophet is acting as a prophet, or as God’s “servant,” we will know whether or not we can consider his words to be the infallible words of God. It may seem that if the president of the Church makes a statement that we later learn to be untrue, or enacts a policy that seems to have been mistaken, we can find comfort in the notion that the man may not have been acting on behalf of God on those occasions. This becomes more difficult, however, when a statement is made, or a policy announced, in General Conference, or on Church letterhead along with the signatures or other members of the First Presidency.

But perhaps in thinking this, we have misunderstood the principle of delegation of authority. For example, while there are statements that have been understood to mean that prophets, or God’s servants, cannot err when acting as God’s servants, the scriptures themselves undercut this interpretation. For example, while D&C Section 1 says “whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same,” a few verses earlier, we read:

Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding. And inasmuch as they erred it might be made known; And inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed; And inasmuch as they sinned they might be chastened, that they might repent; And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time.

(D&C 1:24-28; emphasis added).

Another commonly quoted statement in support of the concept of prophetic inerrancy is that of Wilford Woodruff, when, speaking of abandoning the practice of polygamy, he said:

The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. [v]

However, in addition to the aforementioned reasons to doubt that this statement supports the view that prophets cannot make mistakes, Elders Packer and Uchtdorf have given us additional reasons to doubt this conclusion. Elder Uchtdorf said, “This is the Church of Jesus Christ. God will not allow His Church to drift from its appointed course or fail to fulfill its divine destiny.”[vi] Elder Packer added that “…even with the best of intentions, it [the governance of the Church by mortal priesthood holders] does not always work the way it should. Human nature may express itself on occasion, but not to the permanent injury of the work.”[vii] In other words, while leaders can make mistakes, God will not allow the leaders to utterly destroy the work of the latter-day Church or cause the members to lose their opportunity to receive exaltation.

So when God says that the prophet is His agent on Earth, perhaps He is not saying that, when acting as the prophet, the man will always do exactly what God wants any more than by giving Joseph his ring, Pharaoh was assuring the people of Egypt that Joseph would always do exactly what Pharaoh would have done in his place. Right or wrong, the people of Egypt were to consider Joseph’s actions to be the actions of Pharaoh and were to be bound by Joseph’s words and actions as if they were the words and actions of Pharaoh.

Of course, this principle is not limited to the delegation of authority to a prophet. The Givenses ask “If a bishop makes a decision without inspiration, are we bound to sustain the decision?” And what if an apostle makes a mistake in calling a stake president?

The story is told of a Church official who returned from installing a new stake presidency. “Dad, do you Brethren feel confident when you call a man as the stake president that he is the Lord’s man?” the official’s son asked upon his father’s return home. “No, not always,” he replied. “But once we call him, he becomes the Lord’s man.” The answer disconcerts initially. Is this not hubris, to expect God’s sanction for a decision made in error? Perhaps. It is also possible that the reply reveals the only understanding of delegation that is viable.[viii]

The Givenses continue by observing:

If God honored only those decisions made in perfect accord with His perfect wisdom, then His purposes would require leaders who were utterly incapable of misconstruing His intention, who never missed hearing the still small voice, who were unerringly and unfailingly a perfect conduit for heaven’s inspiration. And it would render the principle of delegation inoperative. The Pharaoh didn’t say to Joseph, your authority extends as far as you anticipate perfectly what I would do in every instance. He gave Joseph his ring…. And after calling Joseph Smith to his mission, the Lord didn’t say, I will stand by you as long as you never err in judgment. He said, “Thou wast called and chosen. . . . Devote all thy service in Zion; and . . . lo, I am with thee, even unto the end.”[ix]

In light of all this, what are we to believe, ask the Givenses, when confronted by “faith-wrenching practices (polygamy), missteps and errors (Adam-God), and teachings that the Church has abandoned but not fully explained (the priesthood ban).”[x] In response, they quote the Anglican churchman Austin Farrer, who said “Facts are not determined by authority. Authority can make law to be law; authority cannot make facts to be facts.”[xi] To this, they add the words of Henry Eyring, who once quoted his father as saying, “in this church you don’t have to believe anything that isn’t true.”[xii]

Of course, while we may harbor misgivings in our minds regarding some policy, teaching or practice, how are we to act when confronted with doubts about whether or not an agent of God is actually doing God’s will? In response to this issue, Farrer is again quoted: “If Peter and his colleagues make law in applying the Lord’s precepts, . . . their law is the law of Christ’s Church, the best (if you will) that God’s Spirit can make with human instruments there and then, and, as such, to be obeyed as the will of God Himself. But to call Peter infallible in this connection is to misplace an epithet.”[xiii]

To carry the metaphor of agency and delegation further, we can consider the legal realm. What recourse exists against a principle when the agent causes some harm? Under the doctrine of agency law, if a person is injured by an agent who is acting under the authority of the principle, the principle will be liable for the harm and is required to set things right. Of course, while all wrongs and injustices have not yet been set right in this imperfect world, Christ has already paid the price for such wrongs. In other words, the miracle of delegation of divine authority does not ensure that the agent will always act according to God’s will. Rather, it ensures that God will guarantee the actions of the agent, and if the actions are wrong, through Christ’s atonement, all will be made right in the end. Indeed, even those things that can cause fear, doubt and pain can be made to benefit us in the end:

One comfort is to be found in a God whose power is in His magnanimity as well as His wisdom. These two traits mean that His divine energies are spent not in precluding chaos but in reordering it, not in preventing suffering but in alchemizing it, not in disallowing error but in transmuting it into goodness.[xiv]

Even the agents of God, even when acting as God’s agents, can cause fear, pain and confusion in this world. Although this may frustrate us, it does not frustrate God’s plan. In closing, we are reminded that the words of God’s servants can provide comfort and direction, even when counseling us regarding the imperfect words and actions of God’s servants themselves:

“Imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with,” reminds Elder Jeffrey Holland. “That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we.” Generosity with our own inept attempts to serve and minister to each other in a lay church, charity toward those in leadership who, as President Dieter Uchtdorf noted, have “said or done [things] that were not in harmony with our values, principles, or doctrine,” and faith in Christ’s Atonement that makes up the human deficit—these could be the balm of Gilead for which both wounded disciples and striving leaders seek.[xv]

[i] Race and the Priesthood.

[ii] Terryl L. Givens, “Letter to a Doubter,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 4 (2013): 131-146. An audio version was published on FairMormon Blog.

[iii] Terryl Givens & Fiona Givens, The Crucible of Doubt (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014), 73, citing Genesis 41:42 & 44, NRSV.

[iv] Givens & Givens, 75, citing D&C 21:5 (emphasis added).

[v] Sixty-first Semiannual General Conference of the Church, Monday, 6 October 1890, Salt Lake City, Utah. Reported in Deseret Evening News (11 October 1890): 2; cited in LDS scriptures after Official Declaration 1.

[vi] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Come Join With Us,” general conference, October 2013.

[vii] Boyd K. Packer, “”I Say unto You, Be One,'” in BYU Devotional and Fireside Speeches, 1990–1991 (Provo, Utah: University Publications, 1991), 84, emphasis added.

[viii] Givens & Givens, 75-76, citing a personal conversation reported to authors by Robert L. Millet.

[ix] Ibid., 76, quoting D&C 24:1, 7, 8.

[x] Ibid., 74.

[xi] Ibid., 74, quoting Austin Farrer, “Infallibility and Historical Tradition,” in The Truth-Seeking Heart, ed. Ann Loades and Robert MacSwain (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2006), 83.

[xii] Ibid., 74, quoting Henry J. Eyring, Mormon Scientist: The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2007), 4.

[xiii] Ibid., 74-75, quoting Farrer, “Infallibility,” 83–84.

[xiv] Ibid., 78.

[xv] Ibid., 82, quoting Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lord, I Believe,” Ensign, May 2013, 94 and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Come, Join with Us,” Ensign, November 2013, 22.

Continuing the conversation begun by Neylan McBaine’s “Women at Church”

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At the recent 2014 FairMormon Conference, I picked up a pre-release copy of Neylan McBaine’s new book “Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women’s Local Impact”, which is being released publically today. I started reading it on the airplane ride home on Saturday and couldn’t put it down and I finished it the next day after Church. It was amazing. Since it is officially being released today, I thought I would share my thoughts about the book and about the message that I think Neylan is trying to convey concerning how we can improve our Church culture and our rhetoric to match our doctrine.

This is not a book about doctrine, nor does Neylan intend for it to be. Instead, it is written for men and women, Church leaders and fill-the-pews-every-week Church members. First, it illustrates how some Church culture, rhetoric, and practices unnecessarily make some women (and in many cases the men who love and support those women) feel less-than, and then it provides several suggestions for how we might change our culture, rhetoric, and practices without requiring any changes in doctrine or official policy.

Both the descriptions of “the problem” and the suggestions for “solutions” are backed up by anecdotes from a wide range of sources that Neylan collected after considering some of the reactions to her 2012 FairMormon Conference address and being encouraged to expand her work there into a larger project. She sought for stories and suggestions from Church members across the belief and political spectrum. She then pulled them together to illustrate how, when we talk about gender balance in the Church, we are not only dealing with doctrine – we are dealing with emotions, culture, public relations, and long-standing group dynamics, many of which have little or nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Neylan’s message was full of “a-ha” moments for me. One occurred when I listened to her 2012 FairMormon Conference talk and heard her describe why language matters, both internal and external to the Church, when we talk about things like “equality”. For example, When we use the words “equal”, “alike”, or “equality” in a gospel setting:

“…and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike [or equal] unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” (2 Ne 26:33),

we have developed a good internal (as in, inside the Church) understanding of what “alike” or “equal” means and looks like: God loves everyone without regard to race, color, gender, occupation, etc., and we, as disciples of Christ should seek to emulate that same principle.

Where we run into trouble is when we try to pass off this internal definition or understanding of “equal” in our external public relations messaging as a Church. The rest of the world uses a measuring stick that is vastly different to measure “equality”, and our rhetoric will fall on deaf ears if we do not recognize this fact and adapt our message accordingly.

When I say “vastly different” from the rest of the world, I mean we are different by almost every criteria the world uses to gauge these sorts of things: prominence of women’s events compared with men’s, prominence of women leaders compared with men, emphasis on women’s public teaching and influence compared with men’s, opportunities for institutional or organizational “span-of-control” and “span-of-influence” positions for women compared with men, etc. All of these are simple, basic, easy-to-calculate, easy-to-see, measuring sticks by which the rest of the world gauges the word “equality”. We have to consider what the rest of the world hears when we put out our public relations messaging or our social media posts about media stories regarding gender-related issues in the Church. We need to realize that when we talk about “equality” between men and women within the Church, but then the world sees something totally different when they look at our organization, their reaction will be to discount or dismiss our comments and messaging as not credible or misleading. When we try to pass off our internal definition of “equality” as equivalent to the world’s definition of “equality,” we will fail every time. And when we fail in the public relations space, we lose credibility.

“But who cares?” we might ask. “Since when are we concerned with what the rest of the world thinks of us? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with what God thinks of us?” Sure. Absolutely. But if that were the only consideration, we would have no need for a Church Public Affairs function! It seems like at least one of those reasons should have something to do with aligning our internal and external rhetoric. As long as we want to maintain our ability to appeal to the rest of the world through our missionary efforts, we would do well to listen to people with the experience and expertise to help us at least reduce the number of “unforced errors” on this subject.

This is where I think McBaine’s approach is so valuable. By challenging us to refine our rhetoric first, and not agitating for changes in doctrine, she is reinforcing the point that it is not only important what we say, but how we say it.

One of my favorite parts in “Women at Church” is where Neylan points out the strong and empowering message that we could send to the world about the importance of women’s contributions in the Church by making those contributions more visible. We live in a visual world, and while words are important, so are images. The recent changes in seating assignments during General Conference, for example, where Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary General Presidencies have been invited to take a more central position on the rostrum, and the addition of these women’s portraits in the lobby of the Conference Center and in the center page of the Conference issue of the Ensign and Liahona alongside the General Authorities are some examples of this being put into practice. One of Neylan’s suggestions is that we consider inviting ward or stake Relief Society, Young Women, and/or Primary presidencies to sit on the stand during Ward or Stake Conferences.

Some may consider this an example of tokenism or window dressing, since these women do not preside over the meeting. But whereas changing who presides would require a change in doctrine (as Elder Oaks’ April 2014 General Conference address made clear), the change suggested by Neylan would require no change in doctrine, nor any change in official church policy. And the benefits could be great: both men and women, old and young, would see women as well as men recognized on the stand for the important work that they do in the Church. Our doctrine is clear on this: the work that Priesthood brethren do in the Church is no more nor less valuable than the work that sisters do in their Relief Society, Young Women, Primary, and other callings. So how can it hurt us to have a visible representation of the equal value of those contributions on the stand? Making women’s roles and responsibilities more visible to both the men and the women in the ward by having RS, YW and/or Primary leaders sit on the stand, even if only for Ward and Stake Conference, does not fly in the face of anything more than our traditions and customs (and perhaps in some cases our prejudices). And if it removes a potential hurdle for our youth or other members struggling because of the imbalance in the visibility of women’s contributions, all of whom are growing up and living in a world where the world’s definition and visual depiction of equality is what they live and experience every day at school, at work, and in their other non-Church associations, and if it can remove that hurdle without changing doctrine or policy, then indeed, why not!?

We ignore or minimize the distinction between our “gospel” understanding of these terms and concepts and the “worldly” understanding to our great detriment, as it undermines our ability to be “in the world but not of the world.”  We need to be not only multi-lingual in our missionary training centers as we teach the various languages of the world, but also multi-lingual in our cultural rhetoric and understanding. This will help us guide those who would welcome such empowering and ennobling doctrines if they could see them through a gospel lens, unburdened of the rhetorical baggage that otherwise prevents them from seeing the beauty of our doctrine.

Mormon Fair cast 264: Letters to a Young Mormon

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Adam S. MillerAdam S. Miller who is a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas and associated with the Maxwell Institute of the Brigham Young University is the author the book “Letters to a Young Mormon.”  In this podcast Ned Scarisbrick interviews Adam Miller about this book and the impact it has on the rising generation.

“Letters to a Young Mormon frustrated me. Not that I didn’t like it, because I enjoyed it immensely. No, it frustrated me because I only wish I had had such a book to read when I was a 1960s teenager with racing mind and hormones. And perhaps more poignantly, I wish it had been available when my children were passing through those difficult and impressionable years. Letters to a Young Mormon is both tender and gentle, and at the same time provocative and intellectually stimulating. Its disarming honesty is only surpassed by the significance of its messages. I recommend it wholeheartedly, for young and old.”
–Robert L. Millet, Professor of Religious Education, Brigham Young University

This book is available at the FairMormon bookstore here.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon.

Mormon Fair-Cast 243: Barry R. Bickmore, “Restoring the Ancient Church”

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Barry R. BickmoreBarry R. Bickmore Restoring the Ancient Church 2nd EditionMartin Tanner who is the host of “Religion Today” on KSL FM 102.7 and AM 1160 interviews  Barry R. Bickmore  about his book “Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity.”  In this interview brother Bickmore relates how the teachings of the early Church are reflected in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Professor Bickmore will be appearing at this year’s FairMormon Conference on August 7 & 8 at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, Utah. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

In the second half of his show Martin Tanner interviews Craig Foster about his second book on Mormon polygamy.  “The Persistence of Polygamy: From Joseph Smith Martyrdom to the First Manifesto, 1844 – 1890.

Both book are available from the FairMormon Bookstore:

Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity.

The Persistence of Polygamy From Joseph Smith Martyrdom to the First Manifesto 1844 – 1890

This broadcast originally aired on the 2nd of March 2014.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast may not represent those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon.

Book Review: “Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters”

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Book Review: Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch (eds.), Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2014.)

By James W. McConkie II

Even seasoned Mormon history buffs may be surprised by the kinds of details about Joseph Smith’s encounters with the legal system of his day that are now available in this useful one-volume collection of essays on Joseph Smith and the law edited by Gordon Madsen, Jeffrey Walker and John Welch. For example, the total number of suits – from simple collection matters to more sophisticated civil and criminal cases – is about 220. Or this: We would expect that Joseph Smith was most often the defendant in these suits; but he was also occasionally the plaintiff, or a witness, and even a judge. And this: As far as historians know, despite the number, he was never convicted of any criminal offense. His attorneys used the Writ of Habeas Corpus artfully to keep Joseph out of jail and in the company of the Saints. And finally: Most would agree that his and the Nauvoo City Council’s involvement with the decision in 1844 to order the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor – a newspaper critical of Joseph – led to his death. However, one of the essays argues that although the order and the act may have been ill advised, in the context of his times, it was defensible.

In Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith’s Legal Encounters, the editors have pulled together 18 articles, all but four of which have been published elsewhere. They have simplified and shortened the works to make the book more accessible to the general reading public. Nevertheless, in many places, it often reads more like material from a legal textbook rather than a group of historical essays. Still, for those interested in Joseph Smith and Mormon history, the book is worth purchasing for the Appendix alone. In it the editors have organized a “Legal Chronology of Joseph Smith” that lists and briefly summarizes all of the known cases he was involved in. It also includes sections entitled “Lawyers and Judges in the Legal Cases of Joseph Smith” and a “Glossary of Early Nineteenth-Century Legal Terms” that explain some of the unique aspects of American law in the 19th Century. The book’s index is, however, curiously scant and not very helpful. In my judgment, the book’s value comes from its function as a starting point for amateur and professional historians who wish to explore the legal context of Joseph Smith’s trials and tribulations.

The book considers questions such as, was he really found guilty of being a disorderly person in New York? And, did he act financially irresponsibly when the Kirtland Bank failed? It takes up the legal implications of the Nauvoo Charter, what it means to be charged with treason in Missouri and Illinois in the early 19th Century, and whether or not Joseph and his brethren violated the U. S. Constitution when he ordered the Nauvoo Expositor press destroyed. No doubt the legal materials gathered together in this book and the ever-expanding Joseph Smith Papers project will add insights to the work of historians as well as give them and the more casual reader a more accurate understanding of Joseph’s legal problems.

The book’s weakness is suggested in the first part of its title, Sustaining the Law. That phrase announces the tone generally as well as the content of several arguments specifically that oversimplify Joseph Smith’s attitudes on “honoring, sustaining, and obeying the law.” I think the book would have been enhanced if someone the likes of Richard Bushman had been asked to write an essay on evidence that suggests how Joseph Smith resolved conflicts when the laws of God disagreed with the laws of the land. In a church with a long history of civil disobedience – issues swirling around Joseph Smith and the practice of plural marriage, for example – so many conflicts are at their roots based on that complicated relationship between civil and religious authority.

While no one would suggest that Joseph Smith did not have a strong commitment to obeying the laws of the land, that obligation was not an absolute one. In Section 98, one concerning the “laws of the land”, the Lord commanded that the Saints “should observe to do all things whatsoever I command them” and that only laws that are “constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges … [are] justifiable before [God]. (D&C 98:3-4) Lest there be any misunderstanding, the Section says that any law that is “more or less than this cometh of evil.” (D&C 98:11) Therefore, it continues, “I [God] give you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and cleave unto all good, that ye live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.” (D&C 98:11) In other words, there were justifiable limits to obedience when it came to supporting the laws of civil governments, especially in a situation where religious liberty was at stake.

Without question then, in situations where an important conflict arose on a question of man’s law or God’s law, Joseph would not have hesitated to choose obedience to God’s law. Nevertheless, the editors and contributors of Sustaining the Law turn to two other Church-approved statements to suggest otherwise: Doctrine and Covenants 134:5and Article of Faith 12. Section 134 states that “… all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective government in which they reside”. Article of Faith 12 states that the Church believes in “honoring, and sustaining the law.” While these verses come from books in the LDS canon that described well the general and accepted rule for the membership, it must be remembered that both of these proclamations were written in the early life of the church in order to re-assure outsiders that the Mormons were no threat to their neighbors in fledgling Mormon gathering places in Ohio and Missouri. They, the members of the new church, would submit to the laws of the land and live peaceably in the community. However, a more careful consideration of this issue leads to the conclusion that Joseph Smith’s thinking was more in line with the Apostle Peter’s: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

The tendency of this book and some of its authors is that it/they go several steps too far in one direction in order to show that Joseph Smith was a “law abiding citizen”. Perhaps the best illustration of this claim is in M. Scott Bradshaw’s article, “Performing Legal Marriages in Ohio in 1835.” The word “legal” in the title is the give-away. In the paper, Bradshaw argues that Joseph and his associates were not in contravention of the 1824 Ohio Statute on Marriage when they performed marriages without the required valid license.

Bradshaw makes his case by relying on two sections of 1824 Ohio Statute on Marriage. He claims that Joseph Smith fit under an exception to the general rule articulated in Section 3 of the statute. The general rule stated that a “regularly ordained minister” was entitled to obtain a license to marry from a local court. Mormons had previously been turned down under that Section 3 rule. But Bradshaw’s argument, that Joseph lawfully performed marriages, relies on Section 2 of the statute, one that carved out an exception. It provided that it “shall be lawful” for an “ordained minister” of “any religion” to marry without having obtained a state license if the “rules and regulations of their respective churches” authorized it.

In my opinion, the courts would not have applied the Section 2 exception to the general rule. Here’s why: Bradshaw leaves out the critical fact that in 1803, when the statute was first enacted, this so-called Section 2 exception granting permission for some “ministers” to marry without a license was meant specifically and only for Quakers (“The Society of Friends”) and Mennonites, two faiths without regularly ordained clergy. The Ohio Legislature’s unstated reason for the exception was that officiators for Quaker and Mennonite marriages were not the same as ministers and/or priests in other denominations that had regularly ordained clergy. Therefore, without providing an exemption for those faiths, the statute would have made all the children born to devout Quakers and Mennonites illegitimate.

Although the language of the 1803 statute explaining the need for an exemption had been redacted by 1824, some eleven years before Joseph supposedly relied on the exemption in his situation, given the history of the statute and the intended exempted denominations, it is doubtful that it would have been interpreted broadly to apply to the laying-on-of-hands type of ordained (with certificates) Mormon priesthood bearers. That is to say, since a strict reading of the language granting the exception eviscerates the part of the statute prohibiting a minister from marrying without a license, the court would likely have read the exception to apply very narrowly to those originally intended as meriting special attention in light its legislative history. Mormon Priesthood simply did not qualify. Thus, I think Bradshaw mistakenly claims that Ohio’s marriage laws allowed Mormons to ignore the statute’s clearly stated requirement for regularly ordained ministers to obtain licenses to marry, when in actuality Ohio’s laws made such exemption for only those “religious societies” (like Quakers and Mennonites) that did not have regularly ordained ministers.

A second problem with Bradshaw’s argument involves another omission of the history. When Joseph Smith married Newel Knight and Lydia Bailey in November 1835, he (Joseph) admitted that he was not relying on the authority of the Marriage Statute when he told the couple, “The Lord God of Israel has given me authority to unite the people in the holy bonds of matrimony … and the enemies of the Church shall never have power of the law against me.” Bradshaw acknowledges this diary entry; but he argues that Joseph did not mean to say he married this couple contrary to law because he was relying on the Quaker/Mennonite exception.

Again, I think the interpretation of Joseph’s language is doubtful. Joseph made this bold and provocative declaration on his source of authority just nine months after Sidney Rigdon’s application for a license to perform marriages had been turned down in March 1835. And, just one month prior to the Knight/Bailey marriage, Rigdon had been prosecuted for marring a couple without a license. The only reason Rigdon had escaped conviction was that he had produced a license of the Court granted him several years earlier when he was a minister for the Campbellites. Under these circumstances, Joseph surely would have known that if he had applied for a license he would also have been turned down. Hence, Joseph’s statement on the source of his authority is more a statement of insubordination to state law.

Ultimately, Joseph Smith’s willingness to defy Ohio’s marriage license laws is evident in light of the fact he was secretly practicing polygamy at this time. Todd D. Compton and other well-known Mormon historians believe that in early 1833 Joseph married his first plural wife, Fanny Alger. In support, Compton cites Mosiah Hancock’s handwritten report of his father Levi’s account of the marriage ceremony of Smith and Alger. When Joseph Smith said, “The Lord God of Israel has given me authority … and the enemies of the Church shall never have power of the law against me,” he meant it.

It is for these reasons that Bradshaw is, in my mind, more a good defense lawyer – a better apologist for Joseph – than a careful historian evaluating all of the evidence. Nevertheless, Bradshaw’s brief is a valuable contribution because it made me, and undoubtedly others, wonder what might have happened had these matters been appealed or more fully adjudicated by an impartial court. Surely the Mormons qualified as “regularly ordained ministers” and should have been granted licenses to marry under Section 3 of the Ohio statute. Simple prejudice is the only plausible explanation for why the court did not issue a license for Sidney Rigdon to marry others.

This book’s look at the legal encounters of Joseph Smith demonstrates how the courts and legal system significantly impacted his life and the life of the Church. The law and court battles influenced everything from how the Saints were allowed to practice their communal living orders in Kirtland to where the Mormons lived. Ultimately the law played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the Prophet’s martyrdom. One cannot fully appreciate Joseph Smith without considering how he dealt with the unremitting legal barrage that complicated his life and the life of the Church. This book not only opens the door to a better understanding of our history but also gives us a better appreciation for how the Prophet dealt with and endured the travails of the legal system.

Mormon’s Codex: Rich Support for Book of Mormon Plausibility

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Mormon_s_CodexI just finished John L. Sorenson’s monumental work, Mormon’s Codex (Provo: Neal A. Maxwell Institute, 2013). The reading took longer than I expected, but it was worth it. I will have more to say about it in the near future, but here’s an initial review.

Sorenson’s work will be viewed by many as an attempt to prove and defend the Book of Mormon using numerous random parallels and weak threads. This view both fails to grasp the value of exploring many dimensions of a physical and cultural setting when trying to evaluate a fragmentary record from an allegedly ancient source. Sorenson’s work does directly support Book of Mormon plausibility, but it also helps us to better understand the Book of Mormon and its peoples. It helps us understand the region they lived in and the many dramatic as well as subtle influences on their lives from the climate, the landscape, the surrounding peoples, the cultural setting, the plants and animals, the horticulture, the religions and languages, the patterns of war, infrastructure and social economy, political practices, and so on. Sorenson explores these in terms of what we scholars have learned about Mesoamerica and what we can draw from the Book of Mormon text, and then examines the correspondences and implications. The result is increased granularity and plausibility for the Book of Mormon record, and more informed questions for the future and new hypotheses to test. Along the way, some former objections to the Book of Mormon are soundly shelved.

Those wanting a quick and easy tool to defend the Book of Mormon will be disappointed, at least initially, for Sorenson takes over a hundred pages just laying some foundation regarding ancient Mesoamerica as well as the Book of Mormon, without providing any jaw-dropping arguments to win over converts. What he does, though, is provide new ways of looking at the text, informed by the skills of a professional anthropologist. Over the 800 pages of the text, he provides extensive evidence that the Book of Mormon fits numerous aspects of ancient Mesoamerica, ranging from issues of language, political society, practices of trade and war, the impact of natural disasters, and so forth. Some of the most interesting New World evidences known to date for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon can be found in this tome (see also my Book of Mormon Evidences pages for further information).

Why the Setting Matters

One quickly learns from Sorenson how much physical geography affects a society. The physical location of a place determines climate, available raw materials, opportunities for agriculture and other economic activities, and practical modes of transportation. It shapes political boundaries and influences strategies and tactics for warfare. Geographical barriers and isolating features like the terrain of the central depression of Chiapas can allow a region to experience reduced influence from other cultures in the area and develop its own ways more easily. These factors play major roles in the story of a people, even if those details are briefly mentioned or merely implied.

Mormons limit their ability to fully grasp the Book of Mormon when they dismiss its geographical setting as something unimportant. True, the Church has no official position on geography, and it is certainly secondary to the teachings about Christ, but its authors felt physical details were important enough to riddle their text with references to them. It’s a gritty text, linked to physical details, not just theoretical platitudes and lofty doctrine. Book of Mormon authors bothered to cite specific hills, valleys, rivers, cities, and lands with names and real physical locations carefully and accurately woven into the story. There are temples, thrones, prisons, fortifications, markets, and social structures to match: priests, kings, lawyers and judges, soldiers, and merchants. In some cases, these details matter a great deal and are part of the message for our day. Such things are not the trappings of Native American life Joseph Smith could have gleaned from his upstate New York environment, but they are elements of authentic Mesoamerican culture in the only place that offers hope of plausibly locating the places built into the text of the Book of Mormon. They matter not just for validating or defending the text, but for better understanding what happened, to whom, and why, sometimes with added understanding in drawing lessons for our day and our lives.

Aligning Details

The reasons why Mesoamerica is clearly the most reasonable setting have been discussed elsewhere and are again touched upon in Mormon’s Codex: the requirement for an ancient tradition of written language, the existence of many elements of civilization found in the Book of Mormon (armies, kings, temples, taxation, and complex social structures), the narrow neck of land, and many other details with major implications such as the apparent volcanism and seismic activity described in the text. These broad issues force us to consider Mesoamerica as the most reasonable candidate for the setting of the Book of Mormon, but if so, can the details of the text correspond in any degree with the details of Mesoamerica? This is the issue tackled by Mormon’s Codex. Literally hundreds of “correspondences” between Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon are identified that create a powerful case that the Book of Mormon really does have its origins in Mesoamerica, so much so that scholars would be wise to reconsider the Book of Mormon as the most extensive surviving document from the ancient New World, a precious ancient codex that can teach us much outside of its spiritual message.

One can accuse Sorenson of “parallelomania,” straining to find parallels that really aren’t significant. Parallelomania is often seen in attempts to find plagiarism in the Book of Mormon. Sometimes seemingly impressive parallels can be piled up that, upon closer inspection, are contrived and can be simply due to chance or situations that naturally involve common phenomena. For example, in a written description of war in texts from Joseph Smith’s day, one should not be surprised to find descriptions of battles, prisoners taken, casualties suffered, defenses built, weapons stored, and so forth. These are common to war. It is in the uncommon details where we can see elements that may be meaningful parallels. Chance can always account for some intriguing finds, so we must be careful not to make too much of any one factor. What makes Sorenson’s work so interesting is the abundance of intricate correspondences coupled with insights from the proposed physical setting that repeatedly enhance our understanding of the text.

I was continually intrigued with the way Sorensen extracts and examines numerous social and physical details from the text of the Book of Mormon and from modern knowledge regarding Mesoamerica. His analysis based on his proposed setting helps to fill in missing details in the Book of Mormon, adding to our understanding of Book of Mormon peoples while also challenging lazy assumptions and stereotypes we sometimes import into the text.

A Mix of Broad and Narrow Details

The relationship between the Olmecs and later Mesoamerican peoples is one of the broad issues that fits the Book of Mormon remarkably well, with the rise and fall of the Jaredites and the subsequent remnants of Jaredite culture found in the Book of Mormon corresponding well in numerous ways with Mesoamerica. It’s an area that challenges unwarranted assumptions we have long made about the destruction of the Jaredites. A more informed approach must recognize, however, that in the midst of the civil war and chaos the ended the Jaredites in the Book of Mormon, that many people would have fled and survived. Since the Book of Mormon itself provides abundant internal evidences of an ongoing Jaredite tradition, with Jaredite names like Corihor/Korihor (Ether 7, 13, & 14 and Alma 30) and Nehor (Ether 7:9 and Alma 1) cropping up among the Nephites, generally associated with dissenters who had not fully bought into Nephite traditions. The remnants of Jaredite society among Nephites and Lamanites fit in well with the ways Olmec culture continued to influence Mesoamerica after their fall.

The rise and fall of the Olmecs has many parallels that can relate to the record we have of the Jaredites, and the rise of Mesoamerican cultures after the Jaredites can also accommodate the information we have regarding the Nephites and Lamanites, with numerous parallels that we can extract from the limited information we have today. Even the final destruction of the Nephites in the widespread warfare (ca. AD 350) toward the end of the Nephite record coincides remarkably well with the Early Classic depopulation in the Central Depression of Chiapas that Sorensen documents in Chapter 25.

What I found especially in Mormon’s Codex were the specific details of individual sites fit with the Book of Mormon. For example, Sorenson proposes a Mesoamerican archaeological site known as Santa Rosa as the city of Zarahemla. The archaeology of that region can accommodate the text effectively. Santa Rosa was a small chiefdom in the 3rd century BC with evidence of Olmec influence in its past, similar to what we might expect if it had been occupied by the Mulekites that had taken on the Olmec influence of their region when they arrived. From 75 BC to 50 AD, Santa Rosa saw a huge burst of activity, reaching its peak of socioeconomic activity at the time Zarahemla was experiencing its peak under the reign of judges. “Like the Central Depression [of Chiapas] as a whole, Santa Rosa was abandoned from about ad 350, very near to when the Nephites at last fled from the land of Zarahemla” (p. 586).

Analysis of the terrain around Santa Rosa helps shed light on troop movements and crop destruction from battles near Zarahemla, and helps to readily explain how travelers sent from the City of Nephi seeking for Zarahemla could have missed it and wandered into the land northward instead (see pp. 581-594).

The two key centers of cultural development in southern Mesoameria in the Central Depression of Chiapas and in the Valley of Guatemala in the first century B.C. correspond well with the land of Zarahemla (Nephites) and the land of Nephi (Lamanites) in the Book of Mormon (see p. 602-604), with detailed correspondences on many fronts. In the field of warfare, for example, the correspondences are especially interesting since just a few decades ago, there was a huge gap between expert opinion about Mesoamerica and the record of warfare in the Book of Mormon. The Mayans were viewed as having been peaceful for many centuries, quite unlike the constant warfare in the Book of Mormon text. But recent scholarship has completely reversed that view, showing that Mesoamerica was a scene of armed conflict from Olmec times and beyond, consistent with the Book of Mormon record (p. 606-7).

Understanding Mesoamerican warfare helps us recognize, for example, that Onitah, the “place of arms” mentioned in Alma 47:5 where rebellious Lamanite soldiers fled, was likely an obsidian outcropping used to produce the dominant weapons in the area, near the Lamanite heartland in the land of Nephi. Remarkably, we now know that for the people of Chiapas, the vital mineral obsidian mostly came from El Chayal, a big volcanic outcrop near Guatemala City, the prime candidate for the city of Lehi-Nephi (which became a Lamanite capital after it was abandoned by the Zeniffites; see Alma 22:1), where the archaeological site known as Kaminaljuyu is largely covered by the modern city. El Chayal qualifies well as Onitah in the Book of Mormon (p. 608). Further, lines of confrontation between Mayan groups and Mixe-Zoqueans in the region, as identified by modern scholars, also may correspond with Nephite and Lamanite boundaries in the Book of Mormon (p. 609).

Many other specific locations are discussed in depth. The results to me were somewhat overwhelming, usually interesting, and occasionally quite surprising. Dr. Sorenson has put a great deal of thought into his proposals, and while some sections are speculative and one of several possibilities, some of his proposals are difficult to dismiss.

Society

Sorenson explores numerous social issues, including the role of secret societies in Mesoamerica. He finds parallels with merchant guilds among the Aztecs and others in Mesoamerica. There were also predatory secrecy-based groups in other forms (e.g., the nahualistas) that could correspond with Book of Mormon descriptions. (See pp. 274-277.)

Natural Disasters

One of the most impressive series of correspondences is the large number of natural disasters that struck parts of Mesoamerica around 50 A.D., including volcanic activity and associated fires that can be see in geological and archaeological records. These disasters may account for some of the dramatic changes in Mesoamerica at that time, including large shifts in population and also major shifts in economics and religion. The changes included an abandonment of many long-standing cultic practices, offering an abundance of correspondences with the record at the climax of the Book of Mormon beginning around 3 Nephi 8 and beyond, when there was great destruction followed by the visit of the Resurrected Messiah, ushering in widespread changes that persisted for many decades before the region fell into widespread apostasy and warfare again, culminating in the destruction of Nephite society.

Arch Support for the Book of Mormon

As an example of the many fields of knowledge touched upon in Mormon’s Codex, Sorenson also considers evidence related to architecture. In Chapter 16, he states:

Friar Torquemada observed, “It is also worth noting the division of this [Aztec] temple; because we find that it has an interior room, like that of Solomon, in Jerusalem, in which the room was not entered by anyone but the priests.” Moreover, the floor plans of various Mexican temples are shown with “two [nonstructural] pillars at the entrance, at Tenayuca, Malinalco, Tepoztlan, Tetitla, Palenque, Yaxchilan, [and] Piedras Negras,” and in Late Pre-Classic Oaxaca. Since the temple in the city of Nephi was specifically patterned after the first Israelite temple (2 Nephi 5:16), it would have incorporated the two-pillar feature discussed by, for example, Meyers. It could have in turn modeled the feature for subsequent Mesoamerican temples.
Another architectural feature of note might or might not have been incorporated in temples: the true arch. For years it was assumed that Mesoamericans lacked knowledge of the true (keystone) arch. Over the years, reported finds have demonstrated the contrary, but only very recently has a comprehensive survey of those cases definitely shown that the principle was widely known, though little used. Hohmann now states unequivocally that “the principle of the true arch was already known amongst the Maya in the preclassic period.” He adds that the principle was also used at Monte Albán by around ad 600 and still later at Chichen Itza. The arch was, of course, widely known in some Old World centers much earlier. If the concept was not imported by transoceanic migrants, we would have to accept the somewhat questionable idea that it was invented independently on opposite sides of the earth. In light of the extensive evidence of cross-oceanic voyaging presented in chapter 9, it is more plausible that knowledge of this architectural feature was imported to Mesoamerica, whether by a group reported in the Book of Mormon or by others. The arch principle may or may not have been used in Nephite sacred buildings in this hemisphere (it was not used in Solomon’s temple), but the probability that the keystone arch came to Mesoamerica from the Old World supports the Nephite record’s historical assertion about the Near Eastern origin of the founders of its tradition. (p. 327)

These architectural details are issues I had not previously considered.

Transoceanic Diffusion: Plants, Animals, Disease, Cultural Practices, Architecture, and More

One of Sorenson’s strengths is his vast body of knowledge regarding evidences for ancient contact between the New and Old Words. Primarily in Chapter 9, “Transoceanic Voyages,” and also in Chapter 12, “Human Biology,” he provides conclusive evidence that there were episodes of transoceanic contact between the Old and New World before Columbus, consistent with general Book of Mormon claims. He delves into several topics with rich examples and references, especially for plants and diseases. One of the most interesting discussions, in my opinion, involves the hookworm (pp. 159-160). The hookworm points to ancient human contact via oceanic crossing, not wandering along the Bering Strait, because the life cycle of the parasite requires warm soil. A people moving through the Bering Straight would become hookworm free by the time they reached the Americas. The pre-Columbian presence of this southeast Asian parasite in a Peruvian mummy dating to AD 900 and in much older Brazilian remains (ca. 5000 BC) seems to require one or more ancient transoceanic voyages by human hosts from the Old World to the Americas. This is one of an abundance of evidences Sorenson provides for ancient transoceanic contact between the Old and New Worlds. It is not central to his thesis relating to the Book of Mormon, but is supporting evidence for the plausibility of the kind of migrations described by the Book of Mormon.

Future Work

Sorenson repeatedly explains how little is known about many key regions and specific sites, many of which have not had extensive digs. Some, of course, cannot be explored adequately because they may be covered by modern cities or, in some cases, by lava flows. Others are in difficult terrain, often coupled with political and security risks, making exploration difficult and dangerous. But we hope much further exploration will take place. Sorenson offers many hints about regions in need of more research, and even offers what may be taken as tentative predictions of some things to look for. For example, Laguna Mecoacan is identified as a good candidate for the City of Moroni (Alma 50:13) which would sink into “the depths of sea” (3 Nephi 9:4), possibly into the lagoon. This would be an intriguing find, though the city was probably small, having been built primarily for defensive purposes in a war. But finding a sunken city there dating to around 50 A.D. would be interesting.

A more important place to investigate might be the candidate Sorenson offers for the Nephite city of Bountiful. He feels it should be at the mouth of the Tonala River, about 6 miles downstream from La Venta. The modern community of Tonala is built over a large archaeological site overlooking the mouth of the river. There is a large pyramid there, and it is in its debris where the town’s cemetery is located. Sorenson states that as far as he known no trained archaeologist has even visited the region, much less conducted detailed investigation. If future work there shows that it was inhabited during the Late Pre-Classic era, corresponding with the Book of Mormon description, this could be another interesting correspondence.

Much remains to be understood and future exploration and research is sorely needed. But what we do know does provide an abundance of evidences and insights that can be of great value to students of the Book of Mormon. I highly recommend this complex and, yes, heavy volume.

*Cross-posted from Mormanity. See also John Sorenson’s 2012 FairMormon Conference presentation “Reading Mormon’s Codex.” Mormon’s Codex can be purchased at the FairMormon Bookstore.

Book Review: Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book

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Title: Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American BookMormon's Codex
Author: John L. Sorenson
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Nonfiction
Year Published: 2013
Number of Pages: 826 pages
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN13: 978-1609073992
List Price: $59.99 (currently available from FairMormon bookstore for $50.99)

Reviewed by Trevor Holyoak

John L. Sorenson has been studying the relationship of the Book of Mormon to Mesoamerica for over 60 years. He received an MA in archaeology from BYU and a PhD in anthropology from UCLA. His best known book prior to this was “An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon,” published in 1985.

“Mormon’s Codex” is the culmination of his studies. It begins with a Foreword by Terryl Givens and then has three main sections followed by an appendix. At the center of the book are colorful maps and photographs of places and artifacts. There are also black and white photos interspersed throughout the text.

Part 1 is called “Orientation.” It introduces the Book of Mormon and its orgins and tells us about problems with archaeology. One way archaeologists have been able to base the Bible in reality is through finding convergences where the text agrees with archaeological findings. This book investigates the same type of convergences between the Book of Mormon and Mesoamerica. This is not easy, because “only a fraction of the material that was left behind by ancient peoples has been preserved and is waiting to be found” (page 11). There is also the problem that only a fraction of what has been discovered has been excavated, and only a fraction of the items found have been studied and published. In spite of this, there is a tendency among archaeologists to “speak as if their data were complete and their inferences were facts” (page 12).

Sorenson lists key places from the Book of Mormon text and then places them on the map. He has found that a limited Mesoamerican geography is the best fit, specifically around Guatemala. He has gone as far as to identify plausible locations for many places, such as the narrow neck of land, the east and west seas, the river Sidon, the city of Nephi, and the final Nephite and Jaredite battleground (this is the only Jaredite place that he is very certain about). He concludes that the text of the Book of Mormon fits this area so well that it only could have been produced by people living in that place and time.

The histories of the Jaredites and Nephites are laid out, followed by a parallel history of Mesoamerica. It is also pointed out that there is a limited amount of history to go on from the Book of Mormon (three centuries are covered in a mere four pages, for instance).

Part 2 covers “Correspondences by Topic.” It first lays out geographical correspondences, such as distances and characteristics of the land. This is where a possible site for Jerusalem is first mentioned, a submerged city called Samabaj that was discovered recently in Lake Atitlan.

Evidence for transoceanic voyages is laid out, with a list of some of the plants that have been found in both hemispheres. This is followed by a similar list of diseases, as well as a discussion of languages, records, and writing systems. Also covered are human biology, political economy, society, population and distribution, material culture, government and political processes, warfare, knowledge systems, and ideology and religion.

Part 3 has “Correspondences from Archaeology and History.” I found this part to be the most interesting. It is split up into four time periods: before 600 BC, between 600 and 1 BC, between AD 1 and 200, and between AD 200 and 400. One of the things discussed is the apparent absence of fortifications, since they are a common part of the war chapters. There have actually been more found than is commonly recognized. Sorenson has tabulated 75 named sites that date before AD 400. (It hasn’t been published because the project kept expanding.) He tells how it took generations of work at Tikal before they realized an embankment was actually a wall. It took over 30 years to trace the miles of wall found, and it may not yet be fully revealed.

A possible location for Bountiful has been identified, based on geography, but it has not yet been studied, so Sorenson still considers such correspondence to be premature. However, Santa Rosa is a good candidate for Zarahemla, all the way down to evidence of destruction from the right time period preceding Christ’s visit in 3rd Nephi. In fact, corresponding evidence such as volcanic ash has been found in the same time period in many places in the area. This also includes the city of Jerusalem being covered with water as mentioned previously. In addition, there is evidence of significant cultural and religious
upheaval at that time which corresponds with the Book of Mormon text.

Sorenson explains how the codex (the plates) may have been transported to New York from Mesoamerica by relating the story of English sailors who trekked 3,000 miles from Mexico to Nova Scotia in 1589 over a period of nine months. And near the end of the 20th century, an adventurer named David Ingram walked 4,000 miles from Maine to Tampico in 11 months.

In the appendix, Sorenson explains how he has modified his views of the Jaredites since the publication of “An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon.” He now sets them in Veracruz, with the three main lands in Jalapa, Cordoba, and Tuxtepec. And he has changed his mind to an Atlantic Ocean crossing instead of the North Pacific. However, he notes that all this still remains tentative.

I would have preferred if the book were laid out a bit differently – he tends to explain Book of Mormon history and Mesoamerican history separately and then gives a summary conclusion. He explains that “to recapitulate detailed parallels would be tedious; an alert reader can identify further general and specific correspondences” (page 665). While this may be the case, I believe it would better suit the purpose of the book to combine the parallel information, pointing out correspondences in more detail as it goes. On the other hand, I appreciate that in places where the evidence is weak or still lacking, he is quick to point it out.

This book is a treasure trove of information about New World archaeology and how it may relate to the Book of Mormon. It probably won’t convince critics (although it will be harder for them to say there is no evidence), but as a believer in the Book of Mormon as scripture and as real history, it helped me better visualize the events and people it contains. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in physical evidence for the Book of Mormon and placing it on the map.

Mormon Fair-Cast 215: The First Vision

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RussellStevensonIt is the foundational event of Mormonism–or at least that is what it became. Beginning in 1832, Joseph Smith began to publicly talk about a visionary experience he had in a grove of trees nearby his home in upstate New York. However, what he told audiences differed from year-to-year in what feels to be substantial detail. Is this evidence of rank fraud? Or, as his supporters say, does it indicate the natural human tendency to emphasize/omit details of a story based on one’s audience or perhaps his own changing understanding of the importance of certain theological principles. Brittany Nielson and I speak with LDS Church Historian Dr. Stephen Harper about his book, Joseph Smith’s First Vision: A Guide to the Historical Accounts.  Harper currently works on the Joseph Smith Papers Project production team for the LDS Church.

This podcast interview was provided courtesy of Russell Stevenson.

Russell Stevenson is the “Mormon History Guy” and the views expressed are his own may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon.

Mormon Fair-Cast 203: Odds are you are Going to be Exalted

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Odds_Are___Exalted_detailAlonzo GaskillMany Latter-day Saints worry whether they’re capable of reaching the celestial kingdom. Are these anxieties born of a sense of unworthiness, or is it that we just don’t think we can “do it all?” Author Alonzo L. Gaskill believes that such pessimism results from misunderstanding God’s great plan of happiness and what it is that the Lord actually requires of us. In this hope-filled book, he reviews the teachings of the scriptures and modern prophets to instill in readers a greater sense of God’s unfailing love and mercy and of His power and desire to exalt His children. Exaltation may be not only possible but probable!

Dr. Alonzo L. Gaskill was reared near Indepence, Missouri, and joined the Church in the fall of 1984. One year later, he served a mission to England. He has attended several schools and universities, earning a master’s degree in theology and a Ph.D. in biblical studies.

He has taught graduate and undergraduate religious education courses at the University of California (at both Berkeley and Santa Cruz) and Idaho State University. He was the director of the LDS institute of religion adjacent to Stanford University, and is an assistant professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He is a frequent presenter at BYU’s Campus Education Week and Know Your Religion seminars.

Dr. Gaskill and his wife, Lori, are the parents of four children and reside in Payson, Utah.

This book is available through the FairMormon Bookstore here.

You may also be interested in his blog here.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon.

Mormon Fair-Cast 202: Barry R. Bickmore, “Restoring the Ancient Church”

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Barry R. Bickmore Restoring the Ancient Church 2nd EditionBarry R. BickmoreMills Chrenshaw who is the host of the program “Drive Time Live” on K-Talk AM 630 radio in Salt Lake City Utah interviews Barry Robert Bickmore about his book “Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity.”  In this interview brother Bickmore relates how the teachings of the early Church are reflected in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This book meticulously examines the earliest teachings of Christianity and how some of those teachings were modified, abandoned, or forgotten in the centuries following the death of the Apostles. By exploring the writings of early Christian leaders, Dr. Bickmore is able to recover those early teachings while illustrating the significance they played in the theology and Christology of the pristine Christian Church. Most importantly for Latter-day Saints, Dr. Bickmore demonstrates that many of forgotten early Christian teachings were restored through the prophet Joseph Smith.

This 2nd edition is enlarged and revised.  This book is available through the FairMormon bookstore here .

A written review of Barry R. Bickmore’s first edition from a non-LDS perspective is also available at FairMormon here.

This interview was used by permission of Mills Crenshaw and K-TALK radio. The opinions expressed in this interview do not necessarily represent the views of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or of FairMormon.