Summary
2004 FAIR Conference
The 6th annual Mormon Apologetics Conference sponsored by FAIR (The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research) Conference was held in August 2004 at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy, Utah.
*Note: the actual schedule from the 2004 FAIR Conference isn’t available, so speakers are listed in alphabetical rather than chronological order.
Richard Lloyd Anderson
Explaining Away the Book of Mormon Witnesses
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Bio
Richard Lloyd Anderson is professor emeritus of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University, where he taught for more than four decades. Trained in law and history, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School and a PhD in ancient history from the University of California, Berkeley. His academic work combined expertise in classical languages, Greco-Roman history, and early Christianity with rigorous study of Latter-day Saint history.
Dr. Anderson was a leading authority on the witnesses of the Book of Mormon and the life of Joseph Smith. His landmark volume Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (1981) and his revised edition of Understanding Paul exemplify his method of careful source analysis. His writings spanned over 150 scholarly articles and several books, focusing both on the New Testament world and on the early Restoration.
Beyond his research and teaching, Professor Anderson was an editor and contributor to the Joseph Smith Papers Project and collaborated on a multi-volume documentary history of Oliver Cowdery. He was widely respected for his meticulous use of primary sources, his balanced historical judgments, and his dedication to linking the origins of ancient Christianity with the foundations of the modern Restoration.
Michael R. Ash & Kevin L. Barney
ABCs of the Book of Abraham (PDF Format)
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Michael R. Ash is a veteran staff member of the FAIR, former weekly columnist for the Mormon Times, and current columnist for Meridian Magazine. He has presented at six of the past fourteen FAIR Conferences and has written more than 200 articles defending the faith. He has been published in the FARMS Review, Sunstone, Dialogue, and the Ensign, and appears in the FAIR DVDs on the Book of Abraham as well as one addressing DNA and the Book of Mormon. Michael is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony In the Face of Criticism and Doubt and his second book, Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Michael and his wife Christine live in Ogden and are the parents of three daughters and the grandparents of six.
Kevin L. Barney was born in Logan, Utah, in 1958. He grew up in DeKalb, Illinois, prior to serving a mission to Colorado from 1977-1979. Upon his return from his mission he resumed his studies at BYU, where among other things he studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Coptic.
From 1982 to 1985 Kevin attended law school at the University of Illinois, after which he moved to Chicago, where he practices public finance law (currently with Kutak Rock LLP). In 1990, Kevin also earned a Master of Laws degree from DePaul University.
Kevin has published a couple of dozen articles, mostly relating to ancient scripture, in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, The Ensign, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Sunstone, FARMS Review, and BYU Studies, as well as a forthcoming publication in the Journal of Mormon History. He also edited the two-volume work Footnotes to the New Testament for Latter-day Saints.
He serves on the boards of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR), and also blogs at bycommonconsent.com.
Kevin is married to the former Sandy Lothson and has two children, Emily and Grant.
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Davis Bitton was born in Blackfoot, Idaho, in 1930. After a mission to France and service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he graduated from BYU in 1956. His M.A. and Ph.D. degrees were granted by Princeton University in 1958 and 1961. After faculty appointments at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California at Santa Barbara, Bitton served at the University of Utah until his retirement in 1995. A charter member of the Mormon History Association, he served one term as its president. His writings are extensive. Especially well known are The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints(with Leonard Arrington); Guide to Mormon Diaries and Autobiographies; and The Ritualization of Mormon History and Other Essays.
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Alex Boyé was born in London, England, to Nigerian parents and spent part of his early childhood in Nigeria before returning to England, where he grew up largely in foster care. At sixteen, he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later served a full-time mission in the England Bristol Mission.
After his mission, Boyé organized the European boy band Awesome, which signed with Universal Records Europe in 1995. The group achieved significant commercial success, selling more than half a million records and appearing on pop charts throughout Europe. They toured with prominent acts such as Bryan Adams, The Backstreet Boys, George Michael, Simon and Garfunkel, and MC Hammer
Alex Boye – Latter-day Saint Mu…
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Following his move to the United States, Boyé settled in Utah, where he became a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, recording with them on the Come Thou Fount album. Drawing on his Nigerian heritage and Motown influences, he has continued to develop a unique musical style that blends pop, gospel, and African rhythms. By the early 2000s, Boyé had established himself as a respected performer within the Latter-day Saint community, recognized for his energetic stage presence, soulful voice, and commitment to uplifting music.
Matthew E. Brown
Historical or Hysterical? Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources
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Matthew E. Brown was born in Portland in 1964. He served a mission in Spokane, Washington, and later earned a B.A. in history from BYU. He became an incredibly prolific author of works on Mormonism which were published primarily through Covenant Communications.
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A. Dean Byrd, PhD, MBA, MPH, is the President and CEO of Thrasher Research Fund and is a member of the University of Utah School of Medicine Faculty, with appointments in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and in the Department of Psychiatry. In addition, he is Adjunct Professor, Department of Family Studies, also at the University of Utah. He was trained at Spartanburg Methodist College, Brigham Young University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Medical College of Virginia, Loyola University, and the University of Utah. He has lectured in many countries throughout the world, including in Israel (Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University, and University of Tel Aviv), Poland (University of Krakow School of Medicine), Democratic Republic of the Congo (University of Kinshasa School of Medicine) and the Ivory Coast (Ivory Coast School of Public Health). He has authored six books and more than two hundred peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, and opinion editorials on family-related topics. He is married to Dr. Elaine Byrd, Professor of Elementary Education at Utah Valley University. They are the parents of five children.
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Brant A. Gardner (M.A. State University of New York Albany) is the author of Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon and The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon, both published through Greg Kofford Books. He has contributed articles to Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl and Symbol and Meaning Beyond the Closed Community.
Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young
Empathetic Imagination: Reading Between the Lines in Standing on the Promises
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An African-American Latter-day Saint speaker and writer, Darius Gray was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the mid-1960s and then attended Brigham Young University for a year. After that he transferred to the University of Utah. He worked for a time as a journalist.
President Gray was a counselor in the presidency of the Genesis Group when it was formed in 1971, then served as president of the group from 1997 to 2003. He was also the director of the Freedmens Bank Records project for the Church’s Family History Department and is a frequent speaker on African-American genealogy, Blacks in the Bible, and Blacks in the LDS Church. Along with Margaret Blair Young, he coauthored the trilogy Standing on the Promises, a poignant portrait of Black LDS pioneers.
Margaret Blair Young is a writer-turned-filmmaker who hopes to return to writing very soon, and uses blogs the way pianists use scales: warm ups. She teaches creative writing at BYU. Margaret’s interests include Mormonism among African Americans, and the Cakchiquel peoples.
Roger Keller
The Apostasy
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Bio
Roger Keller is the former holder of the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University and teaches comparative world religions. He is a convert to the church, having served as both a Presbyterian and a Methodist Minister. His writing has been in areas of interfaith dialogue and the Book of Mormon.
David L. Paulsen
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph Smith: Defending the Faith
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David L. Paulsen is Professor of Philosophy at Brigham Young University and a former member of the BYU Studies Academy. He received his JD at the University of Chicago Law School and his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Michigan.
Daniel C. Peterson
Autobiographical Notes on My Testimony
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A native of southern California, Daniel C. Peterson received a bachelor’s degree in Greek and philosophy from Brigham Young University (BYU) and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Peterson is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU, where he has taught Arabic language and literature at all levels, Islamic philosophy, Islamic culture and civilization, Islamic religion, the Qur’an, the introductory and senior “capstone” courses for Middle Eastern Studies majors, and various other occasional specialized classes. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day Saint topics–including a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007)—and has lectured across the United States, in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and at various Islamic universities in the Near East and Asia. He served in the Switzerland Zürich Mission (1972-1974), and, for approximately eight years, on the Gospel Doctrine writing committee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also presided for a time as the bishop of a singles ward adjacent to Utah Valley University. Dr. Peterson is married to the former Deborah Stephens, of Lakewood, Colorado, and they are the parents of three sons.
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Andrea G. Radke received her PhD from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2002. She is a professor of history at Brigham Young University–Idaho, where she teaches courses in U.S. women’s history, the American West, and other American surveys. She has written and published on various topics related to western women and Mormon women, including polygamy, suffrage, and higher education. She is currently researching a book on Western women’s participation in the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and Mormon women’s experiences in the Mormon-Missouri war of 1838. She lives in Rexburg, Idaho, with her husband and two children.
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John A. Tvedtnes was a senior resident scholar with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University, where he worked full-time beginning in 1995 after many years of teaching and research in the U.S. and Israel. He earned degrees in anthropology, linguistics, and Middle East studies (Hebrew) at the University of Utah, and pursued additional graduate work in Egyptian and Semitic languages at the University of California, Berkeley, and at universities in Israel.
He taught biblical Hebrew, anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and Middle Eastern history at the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and the BYU Jerusalem Center, where he lived and worked from 1971 to 1979. He also lectured internationally, including at the University of Haifa, Brandeis University, and for professional associations such as the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the World Union of Jewish Studies.
The author of ten books and more than 300 articles, Tvedtnes published with institutions such as the Magnes Press of the Hebrew University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the Journal of Near Eastern Studies. His wide-ranging scholarship bridged linguistics, archaeology, and scripture studies, with particular emphasis on the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and ancient Near Eastern texts.
Speakers
Richard Lloyd Anderson, Michael R. Ash, Kevin Barney, Davis Bitton, Alex Boyé, Matthew Brown, A. Dean Byrd, Brant A. Gardner, Darius Gray, Margaret Blair Young, Roger Keller, David Paulsen, Daniel Peterson, Andrea G. Radke, John Tvedtnes
Topics
Explaining Away the Book of Mormon Witnesses, ABCs of the Book of Abraham, I Don’t Have a Testimony of the History of the Church, International Perspectives of a Black Member in a “White” Church, Historical or Hysterical? Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources, Born That Way? Facts and Fiction about Homosexuality, The Case for Historicity: Discerning the Book of Mormon’s Production Culture, Empathetic Imagination: Reading Between the Lines in Standing on the Promises, The Apostasy, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph Smith: Defending the Faith, Autobiographical Notes on My Testimony, The Place of Mormon Women: Perceptions, Prozac, Polygamy, Priesthood, Patriarchy, and Peace, The King Follett Discourse in the Light of Ancient and Medieval Jewish and Christian Beliefs
John Taylor Award
Each year, FAIR awards the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award to a volunteer who made meritorious contributions to FAIR’s mission and outstanding personal efforts in helping defend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 2004, the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award recipient was Marc Schindler (posthumously.