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A FAIR Analysis of: 'An Insider's View of Mormon Origins' A work by author: Grant Palmer

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About this work

Lest there be any question, let me say that my intent is to increase faith, not to diminish it.
— Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, p. ix.

Palmer's readers may well wonder what kind of faith he is trying to increase, for nothing in the book generates confidence in Joseph Smith or modern scripture.
— James B. Allen, "Asked and Answered: A Response to Grant Palmer (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 235–286. off-site PDF link

Overview

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins was developed during a period of time that its author, Grant Palmer, worked as a teacher in the Church Educational System (CES), and was not published until after Palmer's retirement from Church employment. He wrote anti-Mormon work in private, but did not disclose his lack of belief publicly until his CES pension was secure. He then published An Insider's View of Mormon Origins with Signature Books.^[1]

The book attempts to explain many otherwise clearly described events of the restoration by reinterpreting them as spiritual rather than physical events. The author was originally inspired by Mark Hofmann's Salamander Letter prior to the time that the letter was exposed as a forgery, and its influence was present in early drafts of this work. The Salamander Letter inspired the author to postulate that Joseph Smith plagiarized a book called The Golden Pot during the production of the Book of Mormon. The book heavily promotes and emphasizes the role of magic and treasure hunting in Joseph Smith, Jr's early life, and it concludes that Joseph deliberately enhanced and added fabricated detail to his later accounts of events such as the First Vision, the Priesthood restoration, the Three and Eight Witnesses and the visit of the angel Moroni. Although the stated purpose of the book is to "increase faith," it is clearly intended to demonstrate the Joseph Smith employed dishonesty in order to secure his position as head of the church.

Palmer's criticisms are not new; they have all been asked and answered. Palmer's sole contribution is the attempt to link "The Golden Pot" to the Book of Mormon: A theory based on the Hofmann forgeries. Palmer persists in his claim despite the discovery that Hofmann's documents were fakes.

Claims made in this work

Main article: Index to claims made in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins

Source analysis

This section performs a detailed analysis of the use of selected sources by this work.

Main article: Source analysis of selections from An Insider's View of Mormon Origins

Reviews of this work

• James B. Allen, "Asked and Answered: A Response to Grant Palmer (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 235–286. off-site PDF link
• Davis Bitton, "The Charge of a Man with a Broken Lance (But Look What He Doesn't Tell Us) (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 257–272. off-site PDF link
• George E. Cobabe, "A Summary of Five Reviews of Grant Palmer's "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins" (with a Few Comments of My Own)," (FAIR). FAIR link
• Group, "Statement from the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 255–256. off-site PDF link
• Steven C. Harper, "Trustworthy History? (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 273–308. off-site PDF link
• Mark Ashurst-McGee, "A One-sided View of Mormon Origins (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 309–364. off-site PDF link
• Louis Midgley, "Prying into Palmer (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 365–410. off-site PDF link

Endnotes

1. [back] Louis Midgley, "Prying into Palmer (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 365–410. off-site PDF link
2. [back] Midgley, Prying.
3. [back] Steven C. Harper, "Trustworthy History? (Review of: An Insider's View of Mormon Origins)," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 273–308. off-site PDF link
4. [back]  The Reflector, 2/13 (14 February 1831).

Further reading

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works

• American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows— (Index of claims)
• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
• Ashamed of Joseph: Mormon Foundations Crumble
• Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism/Inside Today's Mormonism — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Behind the Mask of Mormonism
• Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
• Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism
• Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 1
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 2
• Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism
• Early Mormonism and the Magic World View — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mormonism
• Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History
• From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni
• In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith — (Index of Claims)
• Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon
• Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record
• Is the Mormon My Brother?
• Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet
• Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon (2nd edition)—(Index of claims)
• Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined
• The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) — (Index of claims)
• Leaving the Saints
• Letters to a Mormon Elder
• Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church — (Index of claims)
• Mormon America: The Power and the Promise — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Mirage: Seeing Through the Illusion of Mainstream Mormonism
• Mormonism (Kurt Van Gorden)
• Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? — (Index of claims)
• The Mysteries of Godliness—A History of Mormon Temple Worship
• Nauvoo Polygamy — (Index of claims—Use of sources—Prejudicial language—Presentism—Mind reading—Censorship—Romance—Assumptions—Magick)
• New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
• New Mormon Challenge
• No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith — (Index of claims)
• One Nation Under Gods — (Index of claims—Use of Sources—Prejudicial language—Absurd claims—Presentism—Mind reading—Rewording—Omissions—Sarcasm)
• The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844
• Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example — (Index of claims)
• Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
• The Changing World of Mormonism — (Index of claims)
• Under the Banner of Heaven — (Index of claims)
• Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture