The charge is both deeply serious and absolutely false. I had nothing to do with the shutting down of MADB. I don't know what occasioned it, and have had no input on it

I will go after the board, and I will go after each and every one of those who have publicly slandered me in this matter to the extent that the law allows. Enough is enough.

First of all, I would like to confirm all of the rumors that have been circulated over at the Great and Spacious Trailer Park© (Mormon Discussions) and elsewhere in the fever swamps during the past few weeks:

Yes, I was indeed directed to go silent by the Packer Faction. The orders were transmitted through the new radioisotope-powered XL-480 device implanted at the base of my skull. (Eat your hearts out, fellow special operatives!) Yes, I really engaged in an unethical and probably illegal effort to illicitly undermine the defense in a prominent federal criminal trial. My shameless corruption and depravity are boundless. Yes, thousands upon thousands of my despicable and incriminating posts here were deleted by order of the First Presidency and/or a federal judge and/or my wife and/or Manny, Mo, and Curley Joe. Yes, I’m being silenced by the Brethren because they’re embarrassed at my antics and disapprove of me. Yes, I’m being silenced by the Brethren because they’re about to call me as a General Authority. And, yes, I was abducted by lesbian neo-Nazi biker chicks recently landed from the planet Zarkon.

But I’m baack. Sort of. It simply seems to me that the ability to announce new publications, symposia, firesides, and that sort of thing on a free public message board is too useful to surrender. Particularly in view of my role as Director of Outreach for the Maxwell Institute. So I’m intending to use this forum occasionally in order to make such announcements. (We'll see whether anybody actually reads this "Pundit" forum.)

Question: I’m LDS, but have pretty much lost my testimony over contradictions between the Church’s “tightly-correlated data points” and history. I continue to go to church because of a bishopric member I can talk to about these issues. In the past, my bishop was a nice guy, but completely ill-equipped to discuss or deal with these things. I’ve tried FAIR, MADB, etc., but nothing really helps much. My question is: what is the Church doing to improve this state of things, and are things getting better in this regard?

Answer: I can empathize with you. When I was younger, I was thrown for a loop over an alleged denial of Oliver Cowdery’s testimony in a pamphlet printed in Tiffin, Ohio. I couldn’t find anybody who could talk about it, and it seemed that there was no effective response. With the passage of time, this was completely discredited as a fraud, but I still remember the panic and feelings of betrayal involved with this. People really do need to put difficult items “on the shelf” and not panic in the meantime as they patiently and faithfully work through their assumptions, issues, etc. People who are struggling really need to go back to the basics, too. A French noblewoman once made the comment about St. Denis, who purportedly walked 100 steps after his execution by decapitation, carrying his head under his arm: “In such a promenade, it is the first step that is important.” Meaning, if the foundational things happened, the rest is just details. If the Father and Son appeared to Joseph Smith, if resurrected angels really ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to the priesthood, if the Book of Mormon people, places, and events were real, if resurrected angels really appeared in the Kirtland Temple, etc. ---- then the reasons for the priesthood ban, polygamy, varying First Vision accounts, etc. are interesting details. Whether St. Denis walked one mile or a hundred is really unimportant --- the real question is whether he walked at all.

Regarding what is being done and whether things are improving, some of us are trying to do just that. FAIR, FARMS/NAMI, etc. are striving to make information and arguments accessible. The real key is helping members who have emotional reactions and feelings of betrayal when they encounter information that contradicts their assumptions or limited understanding of things.

"If there is no life after death and no loving and merciful God, horrific moral evils and devastating natural disasters have the last word."

"It can easily sound heartless (or pie-in-the-sky) to say it, but, from the standpoint of eternity, even death in a tsunami may someday come to seem a relatively small thing."

The character and claims of Joseph Smith are fundamental to the claims of the church he founded. Knowing this, critics of the Prophet have contended for more than a century and a half that he and his family were the kind of people from whom nobody would want to buy a used car, much less receive a plan of salvation.

The Smiths' farming techniques, it seems, were virtually a textbook illustration of the best recommendations of the day, showing them to have been, by contemporary standards, intelligent, skilled and responsible people. And they were very hard-working.

In order to pay for their farm, the Smiths were obliged to hire themselves out as day-laborers...along the way, they produced between 1,000 and 7,000 pounds of maple sugar annually.

• land and tax records


• farm account books and related correspondence


• soil surveys


• horticultural studies


• surveys of historic buildings


• archaeological reports


• interviews with agricultural historians and other specialists

'But I also realized that the Book of Mormon cautions us powerfully against racism and undue ethnic pride.'

'Have a young man read it. “We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally...''

'Accordingly, all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color.'