Faith Crisis Vol. 2 - Behind Closed Doors

Leonard Arrington & the Progressive Rewriting of Mormon History

L. Hannah Stoddard, James F. Stoddard

• Publisher: Joseph Smith Foundation
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781636849645
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: 20th Century History

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Fact-Checking Bushman’s Innuendo with Real Data

A careful analysis of the sources used by Bushman in Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism—as well as other progressive scholarship—reveals that one book appears repeatedly as an authority for the new narrative: Mormonism Unvailed [sic], published in 1834 by Eber D. Howe.

When first released in 1834 by Howe, Mormonism Unvailed included purported affidavits and research collected by Latter-day Saint dissenter Doctor Philastus Hurlbut,1 who was excommunicated from the Church for immorality less than two years after joining. Hurlbut bragged that “he had deceived Joseph Smith; God, or the Spirit by which he is actuated,”2 and swore that he would have his “revenge”3 and would “wash his hands in Joseph Smith’s blood.”4

With that motivation, Hurlbut found support from an anti-Mormon committee who funded him to gather any conceivable evidence to prove the Book of Mormon was a “work of fiction and imagination,” and to “completely divest Joseph Smith of all claims to the character of an honest man, and place him at an immeasurable distance from the high station which he pretends to occupy.”⁵

Hurlbut journeyed back East to find, or perhaps manufacture, any acquaintance of the Smiths during the time they lived in New York and Pennsylvania, who would be willing to excoriate and defame the Smith family. Hurlbut returned to Ohio with his so-called ‘affidavits’; but before they could be published, the State of Ohio convicted him on a charge of endangering Joseph Smith’s life, and his wife was caught having an affair with a leading member of the Mentor Baptist church. With his reputation as a man of unstable and shady character, and unable to publish himself, Hurlbut delivered his material to E. D. Howe, the anti-Mormon printer who would act as a proxy in the publishing of Mormonism Unvailed.

Eventually, Howe would renounce his Christian faith and embrace the growing movement of Spiritualism.⁶ As for Hurlbut, many later suspected—and provided evidence and testimony for the assertion—that he robbed and murdered Garrit Brass of Mentor, Ohio, in addition to several other thefts and crimes.⁷

Mormonism Unvailed contained page after page of slanderous material, claiming that the Smith family was lazy, alcoholic, involved in ritual magic and treasure digging, had engaged in occultic animal sacrifice, and a litany of other charges. Upon its publication, Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and other leaders denounced the book as “all the rediculous [sic] stories that could be invented,”⁸ and for many decades, faithful Latter-day Saint historians regarded Hurlbut’s affidavits and Howe’s publication as nothing worthy of consideration.

Hurlbut’s affidavits initially constituted the bedrock for the anti-Mormon attacks on Joseph Smith’s character—however, over the past few decades, these controversial allegations have become the foundation for progressive reinterpretations of Joseph Smith. Professor Daniel C. Peterson referred to the affidavits as “an anti-Mormon treasure trove to which generations of critics have turned and returned for years.”⁹ Succeeding critics of Joseph Smith built on the foundation laid by Hurlbut and the publisher of Mormonism Unvailed, E. D. Howe. Without Hurlbut’s affidavits, this new image—first painted by, and then later adopted by progressives—melts away without support. For years, there have been two competing and entirely contradictory voices: the impugning stories told by the apostates, and the acclamatory accounts given by the faithful followers of Joseph Smith. How can we know which of these polarized voices is true?

Fact-Checking the ‘Affidavits’ with Real Data

Mormonism Unvailed’s affidavits present alleged—but extremely suspect and contradictory¹⁰—signed testimonials from many neighbors of the Smith family who claimed to have been eyewitness to scandalous secrets. According to these accounts, members of the Smith family were reportedly lazy, indolent, beggarly fortune tellers who believed in ghosts and witches; they were an ignorant, superstitious family with no discipline or vested interest in earning an honest income to sustain themselves. Joseph Capron’s affidavit imputed that Joseph Smith and “the whole of the family of Smiths, were notorious for indolence, foolery and falsehood. Their great object appeared to be, to live without work.”¹¹ Henry Harris testified that “Joseph Smith, Jr. the pretended Prophet, used to pretend to tell fortunes; he had a stone which he used to put in his hat, by means of which he professed to tell people’s fortunes.”¹² Was the Prophet indolent and deceptive—an apathetic, inattentive laggard? Could this be proven or disproven with verifiable and quantifiable data?

In 1993, Donald L. Enders published his careful analysis of the available historical data with the intent of fact-checking Mormonism Unvailed and other slanderous reports, circulated early on against Joseph Smith and his family. Enders realized that by evaluating the scientific data, he could likely either authenticate, or disprove, their accounts. In this trailblazing research, he examined “[l]and and tax records, farm account books and correspondence, soil surveys, and interviews with archeological reports, historic building surveys and interviews with agricultural histor...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Forward
• Introduction
• Unlocking Sealed Diaries
• Rejecting the Faith
• The New ‘Undercover Liberal’ Church Historian
• Arrington Assembles His Team at Church Headquarters
• Butting Heads
• An Awkward, Fervent Meeting with the First Presidency
• Seagulls Cover-up
• Seagulls Myth
• A Newly Concocted, Not-So-Honorable Joseph Smith
• True Scholarship Cracks the Faith Crisis
• The Ultimate Showdown Between Two Boys from Idaho
• A Boy’s Paper Finds Its Way Into Hands of the Brethren
• Changing the Church to Fit in with the World
• Marshall Unwittingly Becomes Arrington’s Nemesis
• Backtracking on the New Sesquicentennial History
• Fact-Checking Bushman’s Innuendo with Real Data
• Interrupting the Mystical Call
• Greener BYU Pastures?
• Resurrecting Progressive Deconstruction
• Icon Topplers or Awakening Defenders
• Index
• Authors