Scott - The Mormon Mirage: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today

LATAYNE C. SCOTT

THE

MORMON

MIRAGE

ZONDERVAN

The Mormon Mirage

Copyright 2009 by Latayne Inc.

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Mobipocket Edition March 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-29358-3

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Scott, Latayne Colvett, 1952-

The mormon mirage: a former Mormon looks at the Mormon Church today /

Latayne C. Scott. 3rd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 978-0-310-29153-4 (softcover)

1. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Controversial literature. 2.

Scott, Latayne Colvett, 1952 . I. Title.

BX8645.S35 2009

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

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Thank you, God, for leading me to Dan.

Thank you, Dan, for leading me to God.

Thank you, Ryan and Celeste, for keeping me near him.

CONTENTS

F or the two previous editions of this book I gratefully remember the help of Sandra Tanner, Dave Wilkins, David and Donna Lusk, Carol (Allen) Norris, Carol Jantz, Raylie (Lusk) Pribble, Virginia (Lykins) ODell, Melissa (Harding) Taylor, Rhonda Varley, and Ray Smith, as well as my patient family.

For this edition, I acknowledge with great gratitude Clodette Woodhouse, Gary and Marie Smith, Steve Cable, John Hunter, Sandra Tanner, Candy Evans, Dennis A. Wright, Janis Hutchinson, John Farkas, Phillip Arnn, Lane Thuet, Celeste Green, and Mike Strawn. Bruce MacArthur went above and beyond the call of dedication and duty to supply suggestions, editing, and research. This book would have been impossible for me to complete without their help.

Two additional chapters, one regarding the LDS version of the story of Joseph Smith, and another entitled Priesthood, Purse Strings, and Proselyting are bonus chapters that appear only in the e-book version of this work.

All hyperlinks are operational as of June 2008.

All Bible quotes, unless otherwise indicated, are from the King James Version.

Quotations from the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants, unless otherwise noted, are from the latest editions of these works in print in 2008.

The callow chestnut of Mormonism that says if you want to know about Fords, then you dont ask a Chevrolet dealer, and if you want to know about Mormonism, then dont ask a non-Mormon, is both wrong and lacks critical judgment. Groups like Consumer Reports prove their maxim false. Some of the best information comes from outside investigation (like Fords exploding Pinto gas tank), which outside information can be life-saving.

Kurt Van Gorden

I n the preface in previous editions of this book I recounted how I once lived Mormonism fully, responsibly, and joyfully. I never was (nor ever will be) perfect, but I was a good, faithful Mormon. Finding out that Mormonism wasnt true was not initially a liberating experience. It was soul ravaging and sickening. I will never completely recover from it.

I am middle aged now. The day approaches when I will go before my God and give account for what Ive said, done, and written. I ponder the fact that though the original publishing of this book ceased some years ago, scarcely a week goes by that I dont get requests for copies of it. Many, many other books on the same subject have been published, and to counter them, LDS apologists use sophisticated and complex arguments to support the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the superstructure of a church based on them.

I wrote this book for regular people, not scholars, and as I have revised it for a new century, I have done so with the first aim of updating my statements about Mormonism that are no longer true because Mormonism itself has changed.

Part One of this edition is a replication of the reasons why I left Mormonism with updated sources for the information on which I based that decision, and new resources that validate those original sources and decisions. In some cases I have left in the text some statements that reflect how I felt, just a few years out of Mormonism, even though I might not state it that way now.

We are witnessing the sea change of Mormonism. As a result of doctrinal changes, the LDS Church is in the midst of a significant but invisible split into two camps. One group of both scholars and regular members still believe and treasure the doctrines I loved when I was a Mormon. Many of them see the second group as syncretistic and postmodern, abandoning the uniqueness of a faith that is based on continuous and reliable revelation. Those of the first group are struggling with the Churchs new insistence that the prophets of the past should be discounted when their official (even thus-saith-the-Lord) teachings disagree with twenty-first-century pronouncements. The second group looks for acceptance from and sometimes even fellowship with Christians, with immunity from questions about the past. Many in the second group refer to criticisms of traditional Mormonism as straw-man arguments that are no longer viable.

Since one sociologist of religion has estimated that at any given moment, the majority of Latter-day Saints are first-generation converts (that is, people who would have no ancestral ties to Mormonism and who would see its past quite differently from the descendants of handcart pioneers, for example), these differences are far beyond superficial. I have attempted in this book to provide thoughtful, researchable material for both groups even though they themselves have increasingly less common ground between them.

If at all possible, look up references that are footnoted in this book. I have written this book for the Internet generation (and an expanded-content e-book, with clickable footnotes, is available at www.zondervan.com). If a footnote is too long or complicated to type in, go to Jerald and Sandra Tanners site, www.utlm.org, and search for the subject matter among the wealth of documents and photographs of documents there. For printed books from which I quote, I have attempted to use only those which are accessible at the time of the writing of this book. I have directed special attention to those written at a laymans level and by both Mormon and ex-Mormon scholars and researchers. I hope to provide updates of information on my website, www.latayne.com.