Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power/Index

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A FAIR Analysis of: The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power A work by author: D. Michael Quinn Index of Claims

Note: This is a review of claims and/or responses to misrepresentations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found in this work. The inclusion of an author's work here does not imply that he or she is "anti-Mormon," or that none of his or her works have value. Those who do not wish to examine the claims contained in what some would consider an "anti-Mormon" work are advised to proceed no further.

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Index to claims made in The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power

This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within the FAIRwiki.

Claim
The author states, "While they acknowledge that Packer previously was "less than diplomatic," "dogmatic, bigoted," "offended people," and got "agitated and lashed out" as a church administrator, his biographer and Apostle Neal A. Maxwell have recently said that Packer "has grown" out of such behavior."

Author's source(s)
Lucile C. Tate, Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1995), 264.

Response
The author attributes such claims to the biographer and another apostle; in fact, the biographer notes that "in the minds of some few" this has been the case. Reading the entire chapter conveys nothing like the author's version. One wonders if the author's problems with the Church, which became more prominent after he publically attacked a talk given by Elder Packer, explains his current animus and willingness to distort what others have said.

• From the cited source:

[President Packer's] talks have been listened to and appreciated by members throughout the Church. But in the minds of some few he has been viewed as controversial, dogmatic, bigoted.

• See also: Duane Boyce, "A Betrayal of Trust (Review of: The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 9/2 (1997): 147–163. off-site PDF link

Claim
The author claims that Elder Maxwell said Elder Packer might have been "'agitated and lashed out' as a church administrator."

Author's source(s)
Neal A. Maxwell, cited in Lucile C. Tate, Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1995),162; citing Neal A. Maxwell interview, 8 December 1989.

Response
Elder Maxwell's praise of Elder Packer is clear. The author omits the indication that any lashing out is against a thing, not a person. He also ignores key attributes of patience, meekness, anxious concern for the right, and willingness to suffer for the truth, since these are not the characteristics which he wishes to ascribe to Elder Packer. Text without context results in error and misrepresentation of Elder Maxwell's intent. From the cited source:

Whereas Boyd formerly might have been agitated and lashed out against something that wasn't right, he has grown. With his increased spiritual composure his influence and impact are quiet, steady, and deep. He does not simply point out problems; he reconnoiters them perceptively, then in a prophetic, apostolic way he becomes a clarifier, a mover, and a resolver. In patience and meekness he uses his insights and influence to bring about what needs to be done.
Boyd possesses another attribute that relates to the one just mentioned. He is quite unconcerned with self. He is anxiously engaged in good causes, and if issues require him to stand alone until others catch the vision, he'll pay the price and doesn't worry about the consequences for him. He takes the eternal view that if what you have done is right, the fact that you got bruised a bit in the process doesn't matter much; the bruises will heal and the progress will have been made.

Claim
"Mar 21,1858 - Brigham Young tells this special conference that Joseph Smith disobeyed revelation by returning to Nauvoo to stand trial, that the church’s founding prophet lost Spirit of God the last days of his life, and died as unnecessary martyr. He published this talk as pamphlet"

Author's source(s)
No citation given

Response

• For a detailed response, see: Did Joseph defy warning to flee to the west?

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
• Specific works/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• Specific works/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)
• Specific works/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: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism
• 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 101—Index of claims
• 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)
• Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon
• Under the Banner of Heaven — (Index of claims)
• Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture