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Criticism of Mormonism/Online documents/Letter to a CES Director
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| A FAIR Analysis of:
Letter to a CES Director |
| High Level Summary | |
|---|---|
| Title | Letter to a CES Director |
| Type | Online document |
| Author(s) | |
| Affiliation | According to the author, he is "a disaffected member who lost his testimony." |
| Accuracy | The letter presents a host of troubling issues in the form of questions. The author states that "I’m hoping you’re going to have better answers than many of the ones given by unofficial apologists such as FAIR and Neal Maxwell Institute (formerly FARMS)." |
| Temple content | |
Overview
The "Letter to a CES Director" is a new online document that has become popular among ex-Mormons. This document is hosted on a number of critical websites. The PDF version of the letter may be downloaded here: http://cesletter.com/
The typical ex-Mormon "exit story"
Narratives of de-conversion among members of the Escape are highly formulaic and canonic, and the parallels with conversion stories of faithful Mormons are uncanny. Individuals in both cases describe a moment when they learn an incendiary piece of information that threatens to upend their current worldview. For faithful converts, this may be framed as a seed being planted about the Gospel. Escapists, on the other hand, often describe a moment of intense dissonance resulting from some secular evidence, or the first time they were exposed to anti-Mormon literature, as a “seed of doubt”. . . .Like members of the Escape, Pathists previously occupied a position of faithfulness and normativity in relation to their faith, accepting the history and doctrine of the Church on the Church’s terms. They often begin by offering their Mormon bona fides: whether they have pioneer ancestry, were “born in the covenant”, served a mission, married in the temple, hold a recommend, etc. They next describe some event or piece of incendiary information which interrupts their idyllic faith, with more or less catastrophic results.
—Rosemary Avance, "Seeing the Light: Parallels in Mormon Conversion and De-Conversions Stories," 2012 FAIR Conference.
"A Letter to a CES Director" represents a typical "exit story" of the type that has been posted in ex-Mormon forums for many years. Such stories typically have many of the following elements:
- The writer usually begins by claiming to have been a completely believing and active Latter-day Saint for many years: a "true believing Mormon."
- Often, the writer will claim to have a pedigree as a multi-generational Mormon.
- The writer sometimes seems to have idolized Joseph Smith, having viewed him as having some degree of perfection.
- The writer may state that they have read hundreds of "Church approved" books, without ever reading anything critical of the Church because it was prohibited.
- The writer will sometimes note that they have held many recognizable callings within the Church such as Elder's Quorum President, Relief Society President, High Councilor, etc.
- The writer notes that they experienced a catalytic "triggering event" that suddenly caused them to begin intensely researching Church history on the internet.
- The writer subsequently claims to have had their faith and view of the Church shattered as the result of such research.
- The writer produces a long list of material copied from a variety of critical websites.
- The writer sometimes states that they went to FAIR or FARMS (The Neal A. Maxwell Institute) for confirmation that what they found in their research were simply "anti-Mormon lies," but instead found confirmation that some of these issues were real.
- The writer states that if there were just one or two items, then there wouldn't be a problem, but that the sheer number of items indicates that the Church is not what it claims to be.
- The writer ultimately adopts a sarcastic, mocking tone when discussing the results of their research.
"A Letter to a CES Director": A Brief Overview
The "Letter to a CES Director" contains many of the typical elements of the ex-Mormon "exit story." The author starts out with a reasonable tone: "I’m interested in your thoughts and answers as I have been unable to find official answers from the Church for most of these issues," but then immediately gives an indication that the writer doesn't actually expect any new information, "I’m hoping you’re going to have better answers than many of the ones given by unofficial apologists such as FAIR and Neal Maxwell Institute (formerly FARMS)." A common theme on ex-Mormon boards is that the answers to these questions must come from "official" Church sources and not "unofficial" sources such as FAIR or the Maxwell Institute.
To the writer's credit, he gives his real name (which he requested not be included in the FAIR Review, but can be seen by visiting the link mentioned above). He continues, "Obviously I’m a disaffected member who lost his testimony so it’s no secret which side I’m on at the moment. All this information is a result of over a year of intense research and an absolute rabid obsession with Joseph Smith and Church history. With this said, I’d be pretty arrogant and ignorant to say that I have all the information and that you don’t have answers."
The author claims that his "triggering event" was a statement by Church Historian Marlin Jensen: "In February of 2012, I was reading the news online when I came across the following news article: Mormons Besieged by the Modern Age. In the article was information about a Q&A meeting at Utah State University that LDS Church Historian and General Authority, Elder Marlin Jensen gave in late 2011. He was asked his thoughts regarding the effects of Google on membership and people who are “leaving in droves” over Church history. Elder Marlin’s response: 'Maybe since Kirtland, we’ve never had a period of – I’ll call it apostasy, like we’re having now; largely over these issues…'"
The author then claims to have "started doing research and reading books like LDS historian and scholar Richard Bushman’s “Rough Stone Rolling” and many others to try to better understand what was happening." However, when one looks at the list of issues that follows, it is evident that much of this research actually came from a variety of critical websites. The author also adopts the term "Chapel Mormonism" to define the typical, supposedly non-internet savvy, Latter-day Saint. ("Chapel Mormonism" and "Internet Mormonism," are terms commonly used on an ex-Mormon internet message board. The terms have become increasingly anachronistic as the Church has installed Wi-Fi in its chapels, Sunday School teachers frequently download materials, and missionaries have been given access to social media. See Criticism of Mormonism/Internet Mormons vs. Chapel Mormons).
A long list of issues follows, with the author beginning to adopt an increasingly sarcastic tone. "The problem with this is that the crazy god of the Old Testament was Jehovah. Who’s Jehovah? The premortal Jesus Christ. So, Christ is the crazy god of the Old Testament. The Christ of the Old Testament and the Christ of the New Testament are light years different. Again, I’m asked to believe in not only a part-time racist god and a part-time polygamous god but a part-time psychopathic schizophrenic one as well."
The author also offers a number of sarcastic and sophomoric interpretations of scripture, such as this description of Numbers 21:5-9: "God doesn’t like to hear whining and ingratitude so he sends out a bunch of snakes to kill the people. When the people had enough of the snakes, they ask Moses to tell God to quit it. God decides Moses is persuasive and tells Moses to put a snake [on] a pole and tell the people to look at the pole and they won’t die. So, the pole is built, the people look at it and they don’t die. The moral of the story? Don’t whine or God will send in the snakes."
The author even creates a strawman which supposedly represents the positions of all apologists: "I was amazed to learn that, according to these unofficial apologists, translate doesn’t really mean translate, horses aren’t really horses (they’re tapirs), chariots aren’t really chariots (since tapirs can’t pull them), steel isn’t really steel, Hill Cumorah isn’t really in New York (it’s possibly in Mesoamerica), Lamanites aren’t really the principal ancestors of the Native American Indians, marriage isn’t really marriage (if they’re Joseph’s marriages? They’re just mostly non-sexual spiritual sealings), and prophets aren’t really prophets (only when they’re heretics teaching today’s false doctrine)."
The author ultimately concludes that "There are just way too many problems. We’re not just talking about one issue here. We’re talking about dozens of serious issues that undermine the very foundation of the LDS Church and its truth claims."