What is Anti-Mormon?

What is anti-Mormon?
Sunstone Symposium
August 13-14, 2003

by Grant H. Palmer

A. Dr. Henry Eyring spoke at one of the many University of Utah Challenge weeks during my college years at the U on the subject of science and religion. At the end of his paper a student mockingly asked during the question/answer period: “Joseph Smith said that men live on the moon, are dressed like Quakers … do you believe that Dr. Eyring?” Dr. Eyring answered without hesitation, “I’m glad you brought that up. You see, in my religion you don’t have to believe in anything that is not true.”

B. Dr. Eyring was reflecting the definition of Mormonism that he had learned from his Mormon youth, namely that:

“[T]ruth is Mormonism” said Joseph Smith in 1839 (Jesse, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 389); “[I]f there is a truth among the ungodly and wicked it belongs to us, and if there is a truth in hell it is ours,” added Brigham Young (JD 12:155, Jan. 12. 1868); “Mormonism,” Young said, “is all truth in heaven, on earth or in hell. … All truth is ours. Now if anybody wants to make a trade, come on! If you have truths, and I have errors, I will give ten errors for one truth … bring on your truth” (JD 14:280-81, July 3, 1870); for “Mormonism embraces all truth that is revealed and that is unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical” (JD 9:149, Jan. 12, 1862); “Mormonism includes all truth,” he said (JD 11:375, Apr. 8, 1867).

            C. Because there are usually two or more viewpoints to every position,  it always comes down to how good is the evidence? There are people in the U.S. today that do not believe that Neil Armstrong stood on the moon. They believe the whole moon landing was staged in a studio, but how good is their evidence?  Some people do not believe that the Jewish Holocaust occurred, but how good is their evidence? There is still a flat earth club of London, but the three dimensional earth photographs of the beautiful blue and white earth taken by Buzz Aldrin from the moon, cut their club membership in half, nevertheless nine people still believe in a flat earth and belong to the club.

            D. According to early Mormonism, “truth is Mormonism” and it is falsehood itself that is anti-Mormon. Here are three examples that are anti-Mormon to me:
           
1. Former LDS member, Ed Decker, has made several movies on the Mormon temple ceremony. In his second film he notes that Adam’s request in a foreign tongue that God hear his petition, is in reality a prayer to “wonderful Satan.” Prior to using this phrase in his second film, Decker had asked a Hebrew and Greek scholar for his interpretation of the foreign word prayer. When the scholar said such an interpretation was unwarranted in Hebrew or Greek, Decker said: “I’m going to use it anyway.” This action is anti-Mormon.

2. Sometimes religious literature and political positions are labeled anti-Mormon prematurely. For example, Juanita Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, once called anti-Mormon literature, is now carried and recommended by Deseret Book for those inquiring about this subject. Some people in the church are quick to rush to judgment about what is anti-Mormon (such as the main street plaza issue). Time, however, has vindicated Brooks. Someone owes her descendants an apology. She was unofficially disfellowshipped. She was asked not to make comments at church. Even her husband was punished by never being asked to pray again in church.

3. Coming back to the definition and teaching that “Truth is Mormonism.” When something is shown by solid evidence to be false, by anyone, the church, according to this definition will willingly modify or discard it. This definition needs to be re-emphasized in the church today, beginning with the Book of Abraham.
            BYU professor, Michael Rhoades, at the behest of Elder Maxwell and using the tithing money of the church has completed and published the Joseph Smith papyri that were recovered by the church in 1967. It has nothing to do with Abraham. Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that the papyri is about an Egyptian priest of Ahman Ra, named Hor. In Fac. 3, Joseph Smith repeatedly said that the Egyptian language above the hands and heads of the various persons in this facsimile are all about Abraham. He is simply wrong, and it doesn’t matter how he arrived at this information. Writers who have published this evidence are not anti-Mormon, even though speakers at the F.A.I.R. conference called them such last week. Thus, in the best tradition of Mormonism the Book of Abraham should be dropped and the other documents in the PGP placed in the D&C. To continue to spin the Book of Abraham as authentic in light of the evidence is to me an anti-Mormon action. 

E. I hope the panel will allow ample time for those of you in the audience to share what you think anti-Mormonism is and is not. Thank you.

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