A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance
when the need for illusion is great.
Saul Bellow
I preface this reaffirming my love and respect for Mormon people.
The corpus of rationale pointing to fallacies and dearth of artifacts supporting the Book of Mormon, throws validity of Joseph Smith Jr.’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints into serious question. Given this, I’m puzzled that Ph.D.s, M.D.s, MBAs and LLDs., really smart folks, and even a handful who aren’t that smart, choose not to consider these facts.
All I can come up with—and it troubles me—is the personal consequence of, in Ex-Mormon Social Media vernacular “Going down the rabbit hole” are so huge and far-reaching. Like “Coming Out” LGBTQ,will I alienate family and friends? Will I lose my job, career, BYU Professorship? In “Too Big To Fail,” I considered the larger cultural and economic devastation that formal dissolution of The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter Day Saints would trigger. Personally, I’m sorry not feeling free dispassionately to discuss, with Mormons, issues which seem to question LDS precepts.
For those in the Closet, but feeling curiosity and courage to glance toward the Rabbit Hole, you’re not alone. Googling “exmormon” can prove bewildering. Going to paper and ink, historian and niece of Church President David O. McKay, Faun Brodi’s No Man Knows My History is seminal. A Brigham Young M.A. with 34 years in the Church Education System (CES), former Director of the LDS Institute of Religion in Whittier, California and Historian Grant H. Palmer’s An Insider View of Mormon Origins is carefully documented and meticulous. Covering all the bases with photos and illustrations, former missionary Jeremy Runnells’ CES letter is instructive and entertaining.
Ex-Mo 