D. Michael Quinn

I have been reading Quinn lately. The first book of his I read was Mormonism and the Magic World View, which is a great read, but very DENSE (and I have a graduate degree in literature). His information is well documented and exhaustive.

Quinn begins every book by revealing his bias. He was excommunicated some years back (he says it was for homosexuality, but it is no secret that he and the leaders of the church were at odds for a long time about his published work-- his work that held academic honesty above faithful history). He states, and the beginning of each book, that he is still a believer; that his studies in history have only reinforced to him that men are fallible; that other religions have similarly pocked histories; that he is not welcome in the church, but he'd like to be. Even knowing all that he knows about the church, even knowing about its obfuscating the truth, knowing every document that the church changes for purposes of protecting the faithful and lying for the lord, Quinn still believes. He similarly asks his readers to look on the history of the church with an eye of understanding, maintaining that you can keep your faith, that there is faith to be found.

This kind of stuff makes me all warm and fuzzy, it really does. It makes me want to meet Quinn to tell him what a great guy I think he is. It makes me feel well about all the "lies" I was told in the interest of a faithful history because my leaders didn't know any better. It makes me like the church despite of what it does to improve on the truth. It's the same feeling I get looking at those who stay in the church because they see the good, all those seminary teachers or sunday school teachers who will go against the grain to make you think. My BYU professor who risked discipline for teaching us gender studies and queer theory in a lit class, because he thought it was important. I think it takes courage and understanding, both of which are not native to me.

Here's my problem with it tho, and I think I've said it before: the church LIES about it. I don't care how they couch it in terms of milk before meat, in terms of preserving testimonies rather than destroying them, in terms of "well, no one really knows what went on in history anyway," in terms of lying for the lord, in terms of line upon line and precept on precept. The church's editing of history is well documented; it is prevalent. It is EVERYWHERE. And to those who expose the truth, they are PUNISHED. This is not like a slap on the hand; this is ripping people's lives apart, excommunicating them which is the same as spiritual death, the worst thing that could happen to a person in that theology.

The church is actively and constantly hiding its history. Fawn Brodie wrote a book that was historical accurate and not always favorable to Joseph Smith. And now the archives are closed. With each passing year of analysis, information gets more and more inaccessible.

There is something to be said for honesty, for transparency. This is like being in a relationship with an individual who lied about all their past sexual relationships, all their run ins with the law, all their crazy family history. And then got mad and yelled at you when you said, "Really?"

There is something to be said for "Here's the truth. There are good things and bad things, like with life. We apologize where we've been wrong. We admire those who pointed our errors out to us. Take it or leave it."

That's what historians like Quinn do; that's what new order mormons do. But it is not enough, it is not right, until the church stops punishing those who seek after the truth.