05 Study both sides
CES Letter Intro Letter
[Name of CES Director Removed],
Thank you for responding to my grandfather's request to answer my concerns and questions and for offering your time with me. I appreciate it.
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. It is my hope that you're going to have better answers than many of those given by unofficial apologists such as FairMormon and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute (formerly FARMS).
I'm just going to be straightforward in sharing my concerns. 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. Like you, I put my pants on one leg at a time and I see through a glass darkly. You may have new information and/or a new perspective that I may not have heard or considered before. This is why I'm genuinely interested in what your answers and thoughts are to these issues.
CES Letter, Introduction
Studying both sides of the issues is important.
Concerning individuals who encounter anti-Mormon literature, Richard Bushman, author of Rough Stone Rolling, counselled believers:
The need is to take these people seriously. [For them] it is like running into a great wall. It is like learning you have cancer or that your mother died. It is something very real in your life and it should never be belittled.
Bushman further advised:
Once you encounter this stuff it can be shocking, terrifying, and you just feel frozen and hardly know what to do. And then when the evidence begins to mount up you just say, “I better get out of here,” and turn away from it. And from then on there is a tendency to just read more and more things that confirm your decision and there’s more evidence that it is all phony.
Despite what the CES Letters says, it isn't phony. Brother Bushman encourages the inquirers to keep seeking: “Be intellectually courageous and focused. . . . Go right into the heart of the problem.” Then he explains how:
Try to figure out what is it precisely about this that is disruptive, what is it that troubles me most. And state that problem in the most severe form you can. And state that problem as clearly as you can. Then try honestly to accumulate information that bears on all sides of the problem. . . It requires a lot of independence and a certain amount of courage to keep looking at all sides of the issue, to read the apologists as well as the critics, and to try to try and figure it out for yourself. My number one piece of advice is to don’t falter. 1
Then he adds: “That is the best way I think you will arrive at a resolution.” Bushman seems unaffected by the critics’ allegations and claims. Undoubtedly, he is aware of them all. He reflects a confidence that sincere earnest inquiry can lead the seeker to the same conclusions he has drawn.
For religious belief, faith is also needed because no source of information has all the answers.
Additional Resources:
Best of Fair 7: The Joseph Smith Papers, Ron Esplin, 1:00:05
FAIR Conversations, Episode 3: Richard L. Bushman p.1, Richard L. Bushman, 1:01:16
FAIR Conversations, Episode 4: Richard L. Bushman p.2, Richard L. Bushman, 0:47:51
Faith and Reason 3: A Prophet’s Birth from Noble Heritage, Michael R. Ash, 0:07:54
Faith and Reason 4: A Miracle Operation, Michael R. Ash, 0:08:46
Faith and Reason 5: Joseph Smith’s Name Known Worldwide, Michael R. Ash, 0:05:19
Rough Stone Rolling — Richard Bushman — Fair Mormon Podcast
Rough Stone Rolling-Richard Bushman- Fair Mormon Podcast part 2
Rough Stone Rolling- Interview with Richard Bushman– Fair Mormon Podcast part 1
Top Videos:
Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration
Joseph Smith Papers,Vol 1, Gerrit Dirkmaat
Joseph Smith Papers, Vol 2, Matthew Godfrey
pt 1, A Change in Venue: Joseph Smith’s Escape from Liberty Jail
pt 2, A Change in Venue: Joseph Smith’s Escape from Liberty Jail
pt 3, A Change in Venue: Joseph Smith’s Escape from Liberty Jail
pt 4, A Change in Venue: Joseph Smith’s Escape from Liberty Jail
pt 5, A Change in Venue: Joseph Smith’s Escape from Liberty Jail
pt 6, A Change in Venue: Joseph Smith’s Escape from Liberty Jail
pt 1 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
pt 2 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
pt 4 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
pt 5, Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
pt 6 Joseph Smith Miscellany, 2005 FAIR Conference address
pt 1 Legal trials of Joseph Smith
pt 2 Legal trials of Joseph Smith
pt 3 Legal trials of Joseph Smith
pt 4 Legal trials of Joseph Smith
pt 5 Legal trials of Joseph Smith
pt 1 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
pt 2 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
pt 3 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
pt 4 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
pt 5 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
pt 6 Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
pt 1, The Protean Joseph Smith
pt 2, The Protean Joseph Smith
pt 3, The Protean Joseph Smith
pt 4, The Protean Joseph Smith
pt 1, The Trial of 1826
“Without a Cause” What this Phrase Means with Mike Ash
1st Joseph Smith JR The Prophet in videos
2nd Series of Joseph Smith JR The Prophet
3rd of 1st Disc of Series of Joseph The Prophet
4th Joseph Smith, 4th in Series
5th Series of Joseph Smith JR The Prophet
6th Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Story
7th of 1st Disc of Series of Joseph The Prophet
Jesus Christ vs. Joseph Smith video review
JOSEPH SMITH – Did he have a gun? Why?
Joseph Smith Miscellany by Richard Bushman
Joseph Smith Papers Constance Lewis and Four Church Historians
Joseph Smith Papers Jeffrey Cannon and Online Papers
Joseph Smith Papers Karen Davidson and John Corrill
Joseph Smith Papers Nathan Waite and Edward Partridge
Joseph Smith Papers Richard Jensen and Missouri Mormon War
Joseph Smith Papers, Documents Series, Ron Esplin-1
Joseph Smith’s Escape from Carthage Jail by Jeff Walker
Joseph Smiths Escape from Liberty Jail
Legal Trials of Joseph Smith by Joseph Bentley
Refuting Joseph Smith’s Critics by Matthew Brown
Review of Jesus Christ vs Joseph Smith part 1
Review of Jesus Christ vs. Joseph Smith part 2
Review of Jesus Christ vs Joseph Smith part 3
Revised or Unaltered: Joseph Smith’s Foundational Stories
Ron Hellings on Joseph Smith and Modern Cosmology
The Protean Joseph Smith by Daniel C Peterson
Top Essays and Articles:
A Joseph Smith Miscellany (2005 FAIR Conference) by Richard Bushman
Joseph Smith and Modern Cosmology (PDF) (2009 FAIR Conference) by Ron Hellings
Joseph Smith and the Biblical Council of the Gods (PDF) (2010 FAIR Conference) by David Bokovoy
Joseph Smith’s History Confirmed (PDF) by Craig N. Ray
Legal Trials of the Prophet: Joseph Smith’s Life in Court (2006 FAIR Conference) by Joseph Bentley
Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Stories (2006 FAIR Conference) by Matthew Brown
The 1826 Trial of Joseph Smith (2002 FAIR Conference) by Russell Anderson
The Joseph Smith Papers (PDF) (2008 FAIR Conference) by Ronald Esplin
The Joseph Smith Papers Project
The Protean Joseph Smith (2002 FAIR Conference) by Daniel C. Peterson
Was Joseph Smith a Martyr or a Murderer? (PDF) by Lance Starr
To better understand Richard Bushman's beliefs see:
FairMormon Frameworks 9: Richard Bushman – Helping Those in Doubt
Rough Stone Rolling-Richard Bushman– Fair Mormon Podcast part 1
Rough Stone Rolling-Richard Bushman- Fair Mormon Podcast part 2
Rough Stone Rolling-Richard Bushman — Fair Mormon Podcast