Mormon America: The Power and the Promise

From FAIRMormon

Jump to: navigation, search


A FAIR Analysis of: 'Mormon America: The Power and the Promise'
A work by author: Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling
Note:
  • This page serves as either an index for or a review of claims and/or responses to attacks on LDS Church made by this author's work. The inclusion of an author's work here does not imply that he or she is necessarily "anti-Mormon," or that none of his or her work(s) have value. FAIR has noted particularly bad scholarship related to the research contained in this particular work and/or considers significant elements of this work to be "anti-Mormon" in tone or content. (Page numbers may have small letters added to them (e.g., a, b, c, etc.) to make unique labels for cross-linking within the wiki. These small letters do not refer to anything in the original book.)
  • 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.

About this work

Quick navigation

About this work

Should non-Mormons write a book about Mormonism? The coauthors, are, admittedly, conventional Protestants...the outsiders will find some fascinating information and want to learn even more. And the insiders will see themselves portrayed fairly while learning some things they would not have known otherwise.
—Preface, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise'
''Mormon America is very much like two books in one. The first depicts individual Latter-day Saints "as a model minority, a hardworking people with more education than the American average, deeply committed to church and family" (p. xxiv)...Yet in the second part, when the Ostlings begin to discuss the church's doctrines, its history, and its leaders, they paint a landscape that, to a knowledgeable Latter-day Saint, is selective with a bias toward the sensational.
—Raymond Takashi Swenson, Faith without Caricature?, 2001
''[T]he Ostlings do not want to seem openly or stridently hostile toward the Saints. They are, instead, condescending in ways that are analogous to the way virtually every community of believers gets treated by journalists, including evangelicals and their allies. But at times the Ostlings drop the guise of balanced, objective reporters.
—Louis Midgley, Faulty Topography, 2002

Claims made in this work

Quote mining, selective quotation and distortion

Many critics who write about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not content to portray the Church and its doctrines fairly. Some critics mine their sources by extracting quotes from their context in order to make the statement imply something other that what it was originally intended to mean. Other critics make statements that are self-contradictions—instances in which a critic says or writes one thing, and then makes another statement elsewhere that flatly contradicts their first statement.

These examples do not prove that these critics' arguments are without merit; they do suggest caution is warranted before accepting these authors or their works as reliable witnesses when they speak of their own experiences connected with "Mormonism." In particular, one should also be cautious about accepting their interpretation of primary sources without double-checking the original sources themselves.

Council of Fifty behind the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor?

Reference Author's claim... The rest of the story... Use of sources

p. 16

Smith knew that someone from the Council of Fifty, despite the secrecy oaths, had betrayed him by giving information to Foster and Law, According to Quinn, "He could not allow the Expositor to publish the secret international negotiations masterminded by Mormonism's earthly king." But Joseph, as mayor of Nauvoo, declared action was essential because the Expositor faction would "destroy the peace of the city" and foment a "mob spirit." With the backing of his Council, Smith ordered that the new press be smashed and all possible copies of the press run destroyed. (emphasis added)The way that the paragraph is constructed, it is clear that the authors wish the reader to believe that the Council of Fifty was backing Joseph in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor. D. Michael Quinn

Commentary

  • It was the Nauvoo city council that ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, not the Council of Fifty. Note how the authors have capitalized the word "Council," which, when read with the preceding reference to the "Council of Fifty," makes it appear as if the "secret" Council of Fifty was behind the destruction of the Expositor. The correct information is buried in an unreferenced endnote on page 402, which states "Nauvoo city council activities related to the Expositor" were taken from D. Michael Quinn's The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. One wonders why the authors chose not to clarify this information in the main body of the text. The endnote shows that the authors knew that this was the city council. Instead, the author's decided to throw in Quinn's own speculation and then constructed the paragraph in a way which made the matter appear much more sinister.
∗       ∗       ∗

A description of Central American ruins in View of the Hebrews?

Reference Author's claim... The rest of the story... Use of sources

29

One book Joseph Smith likely knew was Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews, published in Vermont in 1825 and containing considerable material on the subject, as well as a description of ancient Central American Indian ruins.Joseph first learned of Central American ruins in 1841 when John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan was published, over 16 years after Ethan Smith's book was published.

Commentary

  • The authors were not very careful in their research. Ethan Smith's book describes artifacts (not cities) found in North America, not Central America.
∗       ∗       ∗

Joseph was "hoping one last time" to use his seer stone to produce treasure in 1836?

Reference Author's claim... The rest of the story... Use of sources

31

Smith left his financially troubled church for Salem, Massachusetts, at summer's end in 1836, hoping one last time that the use of his seer stone might produce treasure that he had been told lay under a house (D&C 111). The seer stone failed again, and his money-digging was no more successful than before. (emphasis added)D&C makes no mention of the use of a seer stone. None of the published accounts of this story mention the use of a seer stone.D&C 111:

Commentary

  • The authors outdo themselves this time by showing their willingness to synthesize and fabricate new elements for this story. Note that they provide D&C 111 as a reference, which describes the Salem "treasure hunting" trip. When one reads D&C 111:, it is plain to see that this section does not mention the use of a seer stone. By 1836, Joseph had not used a seer stone for years, having given his stone to Oliver Cowdery soon after translation of the Book of Mormon was completed.
  • See also Joseph Smith and seer stones
∗       ∗       ∗

The nature of Helen Mar Kimball's marriage?

Reference Author's claim... The rest of the story... Use of sources

61

[Joseph's] youngest bride, in some ways typical, was fourteen-year-old Helen Mar Kimball. (emphasis added)The most conservative estimates indicate that Joseph entered into plural marriages with 29–33 women, 7 of whom were under the age of 18. The youngest was Helen Mar Kimball, daughter of LDS apostle Heber C. Kimball, who was 14. The rest were 16 (two) or 17 (three). One wife (Maria Winchester) about which virtually nothing is known, was either 14 or 15.

62

[Helen's] own writings and other evidence indicate that she felt rebellious at times, and that it was possible she had not grasped before the ceremony that the marriage in time would eventually have a sexual component. (emphasis added)
  • The prophet's marriage to [Helen] seems to have been largely dynastic—a union arranged by Joseph and Heber to seal the Kimball family to a seer, church president, and presiding patriarchal figure at the dispensation of the fullness of times.
  • So apparently Helen had expected her marriage to Joseph to be for eternity only, then discovered that it included time also.
  • [Helen] was apparently coming to realize that her secret marriage to Joseph entailed time as well as eternity.

Commentary

  • The authors speculate that the marriage to Helen Mar Kimball was "in some ways typical," although they do not clarify this statement.
  • The authors take speculative statements from their source (note Compton's use of the word "apparently" in each case) and extrapolate them even further by adding the term "sexual component." Note that the source never mentions a "sexual component," and that the authors interpret this data in ways that the source never intended. Todd Compton said the following when Jerald and Sandra Tanner attempted to use his material to "prove" that sexual relations were involved:
The Tanners made great mileage out of Joseph Smith's marriage to his youngest wife, Helen Mar Kimball. However, they failed to mention that I wrote that there is absolutely no evidence that there was any sexuality in the marriage, and I suggest that, following later practice in Utah, there may have been no sexuality. (p. 638) All the evidence points to this marriage as a primarily dynastic marriage.[1]
∗       ∗       ∗

The "Mormon Jesus"

Reference Author's claim... The rest of the story... Use of sources

320

The same process of apostasy was repeated among the believers in the New World who were visited by the Mormon Jesus.Consider this excerpt from the 1982 anti-Mormon film The God Makers:

"Mormon apostle Orson Pratt taught that after Jesus Christ grew to manhood, he took at least three wives: Mary, Martha and Mary Magdeline. Through these wives the Mormon Jesus, through whom Joseph Smith claimed direct descent, supposedly fathered a number of children before he was crucified. According to the Book of Mormon, after his resurrection, Jesus came to the Americas to preach to the Indians, who the Mormons believe are really Israelites. Thus, the Jesus of Mormonism established his church in the Americas as he had in Palestine."

Source not provided by the authors.

Commentary

  • The term "Mormon Jesus," as used by the authors here, came from somewhere. A search of the endnotes for Chapter 19 did not turn up any references to The God Makers...yet it was this film, well known to Evangelical Christians, that promoted the term "the Mormon Jesus." This pejorative term is used by evangelicals to distinguish the "Mormon Jesus" from the "true Jesus" in order to support the claim that Latter-day Saints are not "Christians." Its use by the authors in the main text of their narrative is simply insulting to Latter-day Saints.
∗       ∗       ∗

Mormonism operates more like a small cult?

Reference Author's claim... The rest of the story... Use of sources

354

The files are only one aspect of a meticulous system of internal discipline through which contemporary Mormonism operates more like a small cult than a major denomination.Church disciplinary procedures linked to the word "cult?"Authors' opinion

Commentary

  • Apparently the authors cannot resist the opportunity to use the word "cult" in association with the church.
∗       ∗       ∗

Evidence of magical activities "too well documented for Mormons to deny?"

Reference Author's claim... The rest of the story... Use of sources

403

Evidence of Smith family magic activities too well documented for Mormons to deny: Richard L. Bushman, "Treasure-seeking Then and Now," Sunstone, II, no. 5 (1987): 5.Richard L. Bushman, of course, is a believing and active Latter-day Saint scholar.Richard L. Bushman, "Treasure-seeking Then and Now," Sunstone, II, no. 5 (1987): 5

Commentary

  • The authors' mask of alleged impartiality and objectiveness slips as they flatly imply in the endnotes that the Church would attempt to hide any evidence of magical activity on the part of the Smith family unless forced to acknowledge it. They then have the gall to support their claim by using the published work of one of the most well-known, active LDS scholars. Attempting to promote their bias in the endnotes is apparently acceptable journalistic practice.
∗       ∗       ∗

Reviews of this work

  • Louis Midgley, "Faulty Topography (Review of: Mormon America: The Power and the Promise / And the Saints Go Marching On)," FARMS Review of Books 14/1 (2002): 139–192. off-site PDF link
  • Raymond Takashi Swenson, "Faith without Caricature? (Review of: Mormon America: The Power and the Promise)," FARMS Review of Books 14/1 (2002): 65–77. off-site PDF link

Endnotes

  1. [back] Todd M. Compton, Response to Tanners, post to LDS Bookshelf mailing list, no date. It should be mentioned that many reviewers of Compton's work do not agree with all of his conclusions, even though he has collected much useful data; see the reviews of In Sacred Loneliness, linked below.

Further reading

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works
Retrieved from "http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormon_America:_The_Power_and_the_Promise"
Personal tools