Only learning about Brent F. Ashworth in the Netflix doc, I was surprised he was still LDS. As lawyer, intelligent and educated, well spoken, and a dealer in Mormon historical documents, wouldn't you think he would have, like Hofmann himself, figured it out?

In this interview, Brent gives his theory of Mark's vendetta against the Church - that one of his ancestors was excommunicated for polygamy for which he had been given permission, after the 2nd Manifesto. As evil as Hofmann was, he was still smart enough, very early on, to recognize the falsity of the Church. That Brent would find motive for Hofmann's duplicity in such a silly reflection illustrates the extent to which a believer will find any reason other than the logical one to explain someone's disbelief.

"Brent:  'It’s a letter to himself, like “I learned today,” kind of like, “here’s the evidence.” This is the motive, I think, for murder and for destroying the church. He’s going to pay back the Church for what they did to his family. Because this was a real black mark. I remember when his mother brought that suit over on his birthday, and we were talking, she even brought it up, about her father being exed as a mission president. Well, that would be a really embarrassing thing. Here he is, a mission president to Samoa and they [excommunicate] him. Mark is saying here, this was all authorized. A temple worker, Joseph Summerhays, who was authorized by Joseph F. Smith to do it.' "

https://gospeltangents.com/2021/04/hofmanns-motive-against-church/

One of the earliest concepts I had to "internalize" was the realization that essentially "decent" people (and I regard Ashworth in this vein) have tremendous difficulty grasping and understanding the motives of character-disordered sorts such as Hofmann who can be seen as "authentically evil."

That's my take on Ashworth. His explanation "makes sense" to him, no doubt. I've spent some time and listened to presentations from the "other Brent" (Metcalf) who's now an atheist. He "has no use" for Hofmann, period.

I've posted before how reading and learning about the full extent of Hofmann's machinations has been "old home week" for me. From a historical point of view, Will Bagley and I were able to "authenticate" one of my ancestor's journals that had passed through Hofmann's hands. There was nothing revealing (some old notes from an aunt in the 1930's had a word-for-word match); obviously Mark was "salting the mine" with authentic historical documents.

If I remember correctly, Hofmann and one of the Lafferty brothers are cellmates...

Hoffman killed far fewer people than Brigham Young or Porter Rockwell. What’s wrong with the “I’m only doing that which has been done in other worlds” excuse?

One "f" in Hofmann...

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and guess you're being sarcastic...

I think that sociopaths can "hide in plain sight" because most other people can't relate to them, and don't know to look out for them.

That's a big part of it.

Hofmann knew the church was willing to pay a lot to suppress certain parts of its history. That seems like sufficient motivation to me.

In my opinion Hoffman was not offended. He was a greedy hustler who turned murderer and is in no way a hero worthy of anything except life in prison.

I was just struck by that argument from an intelligent, informed man.

It's the party line. "People leave the church because they are *offended*". Anything to deny that people recognize the fraud.

And certainly greed was part of Hofmann's motivation, but I believe it was more than even that. It was an elaborate game he was playing, and enjoying, seeing how far he could push the con. Much like those imposters who fake their way as professionals, doctors, etc. for years.

auntsukey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> And certainly greed was part of Hofmann's
> motivation, but I believe it was more than even
> that. It was an elaborate game he was playing, and
> enjoying, seeing how far he could push the con.
> Much like those imposters who fake their way as
> professionals, doctors, etc. for years.

Disclaimer: I have only a cursory knowledge of Hofmann and the events.

I think he may well have started out as a true believer, interested in studying the church's origins (think: the Tanners) and came to the honest conclusion that the church's history was false. What then?

Some people turn back when confronted with negative evidence. Hofmann continued on. At this point, he had an avocation of collecting and dealing in LDS manuscripts, made some decent side money, but saw the potential for serious money.

At some point, he acquired a serious two-pronged cynicism: he wanted to make that "serious money," and wanted to see "how far he could push the con" (thanks auntsukey).

He fell into a common criminal hole: having been very successful at several ascending stages of his criminal enterprise, he pushed the envelope, and his own combination of carelessness, greed, and ambition led to his fall.

"You fooled and fleeced me, Mormon church. Now I'm going to fool and fleece you!"

If what I heard was true, Mark's father was very domineering, and demanding with respect to the church. Mark must have held a fair amount of resentment toward his father and the church for their overbearing control. And for a youngster of only 14 to decide he was an atheist, yet play the devoted member all the way to going on a mission, he must have been deep into his patterns of duplicity and secret rebellion.

Just my humble opinion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2021 10:19PM by Twinker.

Agreed.

And if the reports of cruelty to animals are correct, he may well be a psychopath. For such, factual accuracy is not important.

I suspect he was full of range and wanted to destroy. What in Utah is one going to rebel against if not the church? Sagebrush?

As in, "Go pound..."

I've long believed Hofmann is an outright sociopath. The most recent documentary on his crimes has only reinforced that view.

He knew the church's history was loaded with unintentionally hilarious bullshit, so he decided to cash in on it. When it all got too much, rather than a peaceful way out, he went with the bombings, which is the mark of someone with little to no empathy.

I couldn't care less, and I know his victims couldn't either.

End of Report!