Faith Crisis Vol. 1 - We Were NOT Betrayed!

Answering, "Did the LDS Church Lie?"

L. Hannah Stoddard, James F. Stoddard III

• Publisher: Joseph Smith Foundation
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781648263002
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: North American History

Chapter 1: Hofmann & the Forging of the New Mormon History

It was a cold Wednesday morning, January 18, 1984, when Ronald W. Walker, historian, author, and professor at Brigham Young University, approached the home of his supervisor, thoroughly unaware of the shocking blow that awaited him. Inside, Leonard J. Arrington, Walker’s supervisor, held a copy of an explosive, unsettling, alleged 19th-century document—a document that would forever change Latter-day Saint history. It would come to be known as the ‘Salamander Letter.’ Ron Walker would record in his journal later that night:

At face value, it [the Salamander Letter] is explosive. It is a letter from Martin Harris to W. W. Phelps, [written in] 1830, describing the early origins of the Church in spiritualistic¹ or cabalistic² terms. It confirms several other documents that have been recently found, indicating the “treasure-hunting” activity of Joseph Smith prior to the organization of the Church. These “finds” will require a re-examination and rewriting of our origins.³

The discovery perplexed Walker and many other Latter-day Saint historians. For over a century-and-a-half, anti-Mormons had accused Joseph Smith of dabbling in magic or participating in treasure digging during his formative years. The Smith family, Church leaders, and faithful historians persistently confronted these accusations, recognizing them as vile slander with no foundation of truth.⁴ Did the Prophet Joseph Smith not state in his own official history that “evil-disposed and designing persons”⁵ would malign his character and the character of the Church?

And yet, Latter-day Saint historians remained divided; now a primary source document had surfaced that appeared to have originated from the hand of an eyewitness favorable to Joseph Smith, and not from an enemy. This eyewitness’s account appeared to confirm Joseph’s alleged magical and self-serving practices.

On January 6, 1984, Mark Hofmann sold the Salamander Letter to Steven F. Christensen, a wealthy Latter-day Saint document collector. Hofmann, a ‘married-in-the-temple,’ returned-missionary member of the Church had, in the past, sold many Mormon history⁶ documents to the Church. However, when he approached President Gordon B. Hinckley with the Salamander Letter, Hinckley declined, asserting the price was too high. A few weeks later, Hofmann sold the document to Steven Christensen, for $40,000.⁷

In an instant, Hofmann’s discovery shattered the very foundations of traditional Latter-day Saint history. According to the Salamander Letter, Martin Harris—one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, told W. W. Phelps in 1830 that the “older Smith [Joseph Smith Sr.] . . . says Joseph can see any thing he wishes by looking at a stone Joseph often sees Spirits here with great kettles of coin money.”⁸ Since the early days of the Church, many of its leaders have denied allegations that Joseph Smith, as a youth and young adult, had a career in treasure digging while using peep stones.⁹ However, during the 20^th century, many progressive Latter-day Saint historians and researchers began insisting that the Church had ignored historical sources—even covering up inconvenient facts—and that our history needed to be rewritten.¹⁰

The progressive movement claimed—even demanded—that the traditional story was a lie, or at least, less than the complete truth. Traditionalist historians disagreed, affirming that the dominant history was essentially true, and they encouraged those in scholarly research to press on with faith. The battle intensified to the point that President Spencer W. Kimball, along with other leaders including President Gordon B. Hinckley, quietly and discreetly removed the Church Historian and Director of the History Division, Leonard Arrington, from his post in the early 1980s. The History Division was closed. Some mourned Arrington’s departure as an exile, an attempt to subdue the progressive voice. In the midst of this war over our faith’s history, the Salamander Letter appeared to offer support for the progressive new narrative.

Salamander: Progressive vs. Traditionalist History

While the traditional history of the Church portrays Joseph Smith obtaining the Nephite plates from the Angel Moroni and then translating them using the Jaredite-Nephite Urim & Thummim,¹¹ the Salamander Letter claimed that Joseph did not translate—but instead dictated the Book of Mormon using “some giant silver spectacles [found] with the plates he puts them in an old hat & in the darkness reads the words & in this way it is all translated & written down.”

While the dominant narrative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintained that Joseph discovered the Nephite plates after being visited by Moroni—an ancient American prophet sent by the Lord—the Salamander Letter described Joseph meeting a “spirit [who] transfigured himself from a white salamander.”

In the magical worldview, some considered salamanders an “amulet against Satan and evil spirits.”¹² Furthermore, a New York newspaper, published in 1821 near where the Smiths made their home, recorded a Swedish mystic as being surrounded by hideous reptiles who were replaced by a man. Mexican Indians reportedly...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Hofmann & the Forging of the New Mormon History
• Chapter 2: Trusting in Experts or Revelation? Joseph III Blessing & Anthon Transcript
• Chapter 3: Indolent Treasure Digger — The Josiah Stowell Letter
• Chapter 4: Magical Worldview —The Salamander Letter
• Chapter 5: Victims — Murders, Historians & Police Investigation
• Chapter 6: Is Our Dominant Narrative True?
• Chapter 7: The Swearing Elders
• Chapter 8: Divergent Paths — Historians Leonard Arrington & Joseph Fielding Smith
• Chapter 9: Arrington’s Faith Crisis in College
• Chapter 10: Criticism Leads the Camel’s Nose Into the Tent
• Chapter 11: Arrington’s Epiphany
• Chapter 12: Great Basin Kingdom — Materialism? Failure? Autocracy?
• Chapter 13: William Godbe — Spiritualism, Socialism, Economics
• Chapter 14: Waging War Through Education — Battling for the Youth
• Chapter 15: Mormon Historians Move to Take Brigham From His Pedestal
• Chapter 16: Contriving and Mentoring the New Mormon History
• Chapter 17: The Standard of Truth
• Appendix: Eyewitness Accounts of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s Greatness
• Index