Up until the early 1960s, critical thought and an open mind were not considered sure evidences of apostasy. In fact, they were even encouraged by certain Church leaders, such as Hugh B. Brown.

The story of how the LDS Church entered the Dark Ages in the twentieth century is fascinating. In 1945, Fawn McKay Brodie, the niece of David O. McKay (the man who six years later would become the ninth President of the LDS Church), published a book that would eventually have far-reaching consequences. The book, a biography of Joseph Smith, Jr., was titled No Man Knows My History. Brodie’s family ties enabled her, for a time, to gain virtually unfettered access to documents in the Church archives. Many of those documents undermined the notion of Smith’s divine calling and, consequently, had purposely been hidden from public view. Although the book initially caused quite a stir, the Church mounted a campaign to discredit the book and its author. Hugh Nibley, a Church scholar and professor at B.Y.U. anonymously authored an answer to Brodie’s book, which he titled No Ma’am, That Ain’t History. As a result of the campaign, the Church laity became generally convinced that Mrs. Brodie was a bitter apostate who had distorted and misconstrued the evidence.

For nearly fifteen years, the situation remained essentially unchanged, as there was little primary source material available with which one could measure the accuracy of Mrs. Brodie’s book. During that period, the LDS Church maintained its cocksure, arrogant position that Joseph Smith and his divine mission were immune to serious attack. With Its dirty laundry now carefully locked up in the Church archives, only the true and tested faithful could gain access to it and, then, only on a very limited and restricted basis.

The year 1959 brought a dramatic turn of events. It was that year that the Tanners established the Modern Microfilm Company on West Temple Street in Salt Lake City, Utah–less than two miles from LDS Church headquarters. With an ever-increasing supply of primary source material anonymously provided by church members, and available through the Tanners, the Church found itself under unrelenting attack. Intellectual freedom within the Mormon kingdom suffered a severe setback as the Church prepared for a long-term siege. Questioning minds were no longer in vogue, and a “follow the brethren” mindlessness was soon imposed on the Church laity.

Any vestiges of intellectual freedom within the LDS Church were obliterated shortly after the papyri, from which Joseph Smith had “translated” the Book Abraham, were deciphered. At first, the Church attempted to discredit its chosen translator, a self-taught Egyptologist who had obtained a mail order doctoral degree. However, when other Egyptologists having legitimate credentials authenticated Dee Jay Nelson’s translation, the Church realized that it had a major credibility problem. Once again, Hugh Nibley came to the rescue with a series of esoteric essays published in the Church’s Ensign magazine. By presenting a convoluted discussion of Egyptian mythology and symbolism, Nibley attempted to obfuscate the obvious conclusion that Smith’s translation was bogus. Most Church members were so impressed by the complexity and the erudite nature of the discussion, that they ignored the fact that the essays never directly addressed the problem of the defective translation.
As a result of the Book of Abraham debacle, the Church no longer espouses the scientific method or critical thought as means by which religious truths may be established. Today, religious truths can be known only through faith and testimony. Boyd K. Packer, a now-deceased, former President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was a Church leader who exemplified this cretinous mentality. A religious fanatic virtually devoid of humor, Packer (as I discovered in my conversations with him) was absolutely intolerant of any degree of dissent or uncertainty of belief. In an address to LDS religious educators, in which he instructed them to gloss over certain historical events that would paint the church in an unfavorable light, he reportedly said: "Some things that are true are not very useful."

As a result of Packer’s crusade to excommunicate liberal Mormon intellectuals, the Church educational system has been stripped of teachers who engage in critical and reflective philosophical thought. D. Michael Quinn, a brilliant historian raised in the LDS Church, is not the only seeker of truth who has been excommunicated for compiling embarrassing and controversial history. One thing is certain: Truth is no defense to charges of apostasy.

With its doctrines under unrelenting attack, nearly all controversial material, relating to unique doctrines of the Church, has been deleted from the Sunday School and Priesthood Quorum lesson manuals. The only unique teachings which remain in Church lesson manuals deal with temple marriage and temple ordinances. The result is lesson material and Church meetings characterized by stupefying monotony.

Officials of the Church, at the very highest levels, have demonstrated by their actions that they consider the Church to be a fraud. How else can one explain the more than 5,000 changes that have been made to the Book of Mormon (remember: According to Joseph Smith, "it is the world’s most correct book"), the significant revisions (including wholesale deletions) to revelations supposedly given by direct revelation from God to Joseph Smith, sweeping changes in the LDS temple ceremony over the years, surreptitious doctoring of Church history, and dramatic doctrinal shifts when politically expedient.

At the same time, the Church disingenuously claims that the Bible was massively altered, to the extent that many precious principles were expunged therefrom, and that this ravaged compilation of sacred texts was then grossly mistranslated. The historical facts simply do not support such a conclusion. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with Jewish religious tradition and practice knows that the Torah (i.e., the Old Testament) is almost certainly the most carefully preserved of all ancient documents. If LDS scriptures continue to undergo revision at the same rate as in the past, they will be virtually unrecognizable within five hundred years from the date of its founding (assuming, of course, that the Church will survive another 300 years).

Isn’t it amazing that the LDS Church falsely denigrates the Bible for supposedly having the very same defects that distinguish its own scriptures! The General Authorities of the LDS Church seem to despise the truth. They have adopted the Hitlerian tenet that a colossal lie can be transformed into truth if enough people believe it. One has to marvel at the incredible duplicity of this tightly-knit group of men who, on one hand, hold themselves out as Christ’s representatives on earth and yet, on the other hand, engage in lies, fraud and deceit to maintain their power base. The situation reminds me of Revelations 2:2 (ESV): “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false."



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2025 04:19PM by zliska.

One correction: there was nothing anonymous about Nibley's No Ma'am, That's Not History. I was at BYU at the time, and everybody knew about it and who wrote it. Also, his name is printed on the cover of the book (pamphlet, really). See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No,_Ma%27am,_That%27s_Not_History

Correction to the correction: I see it was originally published in 1946. I was not at BYU then. I was nowhere then.

I was at BYU when the BoA papyri were returned to LDS Inc. I actually read Nibley's convoluted bullpucky apologetics about the papyri, including all the footnotes. I was a math major. I knew how to read convoluted, opaque text! Nibley's nonsense was the reason I left the Mormon church.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2025 04:39PM by Brother Of Jerry.

"I was at BYU when the BoA papyri were returned to LDS Inc. I actually read Nibley's convoluted bullpucky apologetics about the papyri, including all the footnotes. I was a math major. I knew how to read convoluted, opaque text! Nibley's nonsense was the reason I left the Mormon church."

COMMENT: I had a similar experience with this book, entitled, "The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri," published in 1975. A second edition came out in 2006 with additional apologetic nonsense offered by its editor, John Gee.

It is noteworthy that Nibley did not claim that the Book of Abraham was a translation of the papyri, in fact he denied that connection explicitly. Instead, he attempted to justify the Book on its own terms, by content alone, making alleged cultural connections, and claiming that JS could not have known the same. This became a standard Nibley tactic; ignore the "translation" deficiencies and concentrate on a loose and improbable expansion of the text through consideration of Egyptology, and more broad Middle Eastern culture and history.

Seeing that this approach is "nonsense" is difficult, requiring two alternative skill sets: A knowledge of ancient Egyptian culture and history, or alternatively being able to see that the inferences Nibley makes between the text and that history are logically suspect. Personally, I pursued the latter approach, not being competent in the former. Those people having neither skill set (or inclination to question Nibley) were easily sucked into the common false assumption, "If Nibley can explain it, it must be true."

Virtually all of Nibley's apologetic books engage in this same strategy. Once one is able to see through it, they all come tumbling down.

By the way, Here is the original book:
 
https://www.amazon.com/Message-Joseph-Smith-Papyri-Endowment/dp/0877474850/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title

Don’t open your door except to vetted, invited persons; have packages carefully checked before you accept them, If people who appear similar to the Blues Brothers are in your vicinity, take cover, do some spontaneous 90 degree turns without signaling. Pray.

The church got more regimented when correlation got implemented in the 1950’s.

Two points:

1) Officials at the highest levels of the Mormon church have also shown how much they are "control freaks" by their actions. Unfortunately, this is also true for most other religions.

2) While the Torah does consist of parts of the Old Testament, it also includes (per a Jewish law class professor I had back in the 1980s) the Talmud and other writings that are *not* part of the Christian Bible.

Sigh. I was incredibly stupid and trusting. I bought that book as a birthday present for myself when we were newly married. It troubled me though as it was difficult to follow the Nibley's logic to support the Book of Abraham. His sentences were convoluted and so pedantic to be incomprehensible to me. One Saturday I went to the University of Wisconsin library in Milwaukee to look up the references Nibley listed as sources. I went to the periodicals section knowing that these 'rare' publications would not likely be in the library. I just wanted to see that they actually existed. I had the librarian assist me in searching, in any language, where these publications were printed. I brought the names of eight periodicals and the dates and we searched for them. None existed.

I should of trusted myself that this was all bogus. I continued to be an active member for another 16 years even though this constantly gnawed at the back of my mind. All those wasted years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2025 09:27AM by Eric K.

Eric K, thanks for that post. After his response to Brodie's book, I never trusted Hugh Nibley. I knew his brother, Reid, quite well, and found him to be a wonderful human being, as well as a fabulous pianist.

My ex and I took it as a commentary. I should of went along with the route that Eric K took. It would have left me having to make a choice back then. We just thought of it as a commentary. We knew that all the footnotes led somewhere.

However, this was while we were 6 months into our marriage. We had never been so duped, but Nibley was a nutcase too. Wearing his temple clothing in his house, and such.

I think the Jack West slide show says it all.

The light of Kolob shines from every TBM bung hole.

They don't want critical thought only devotion to leaders.

Wow. This was great, and I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for the commentary!