Whole lot of "Shaken" going on!

As I have pointed out in another post, since the days of Joseph Smith, Jr. there have been people who have, shall we say, doubted that Mr. Smith's stories of angels, golden plates, and visions might not be what he and his church have claimed them to be. These people became known as "anti-Mormons" (not to be confused with the anti-Nephi-Lehis in the Book of Mormon).

Back in the day when I hooked up with Mormonism (1981) the "anti-Mormons" consisted of Evangelical Christians who had "seen the light and come to the Real Jesus™". Most of these people came across as ignorant fanatics so it was pretty easy to dismiss them with the saying "consider the source".

Among them were a married couple, Sandra and Jerald Tanner. The Tanner's were the true king and queen of darkness because, unlike the Evangelical preachers who taught that Mormonism was a perversion of True Christianity®, both Sandra and Jerald were former members who had gone into the LDS archives and come out with some pretty faith shaking stuff.

None of this mattered much in the days before the Internet. Now, apparently, the faithful are having some trouble in cyberspace and it's just not the priesthood masturbating to naked women this time!

Mike Ash, an Ogden, Utah electronics salesman has come up with a pretty clever name for the new Internet anti-Mormon plague called "Shaken Faith Syndrome".

In his new book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One's Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, Ash seeks to sooth the nerves of the faithful who find out that Joseph Smith married a 14 year old girl and are tired of the cognitive dissonance that leaves the sacrament water tasting foul.

For the faithful Utah based Mormon who's family goes back to the handcart pioneers, this is a good book to get. It will help them to fit the square pegs of LDS Church history into the round holes of modern Mormonism. But it's main premise that "Much of the problem comes not from the doubt-causing material, but from the mind-set of the person who encounters it" runs into serious problems right off the bat.

At the recent FAIR Conference Ash said "It seems that those who are prone to fundamentalist, dogmatic or closed-minded perspectives about the gospel or early LDS history are more likely to suffer from shaken faith syndrome when they encounter challenging issues."

What Ash fails to point out is that dogmatic and closed-minded perspectives about Mormonism are just what the leaders of the Mormon Church teach!

"Each of us has to face the matter—either the Church is true, or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and kingdom of God, or it is nothing." (Gordon B. Hinckley, "Loyalty", April General Conference 2003)

"Mormonism must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a Prophet of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground. If Joseph was a deceiver, who willfully attempted to mislead people, then he should be exposed, his claims should be refuted, and his doctrines shown to be false..." (Joseph Fielding Smith "Doctrines of Salvation," vol. 1 pp 188-189.)

" 'The Book of Mormon' must be either true or false. If true, it is one of the most important messages ever sent from God... If false, it is one of the most cunning, wicked, bold, deep-laid impositions ever palmed upon the world, calculated to deceive and ruin millions... The nature of the "Book of Mormon" is such, that if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it; If false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it... If, after a rigid examination, it be found imposition, it should be extensively published to the world as such; the evidences and arguments on which the imposture was detected, should be clearly and logically stated, that those who have been sincerely yet unfortunately deceived, may perceive the nature of deception, and to be reclaimed, and that those who continue to publish the delusion may be exposed and silenced... by strong and powerful arguments - by evidences adduced from scripture and reason..." (Orson Pratt's Works, "Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon": Liverpool, 1851, pp. 1, 2.)

This is the mindset of Mormonism: it's either true or it's false. When I was taking the missionary discussions I was taught that if the Book of Mormon were true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet because "God would not give a true prophet a false book or a false prophet a true book".

So again in Mormon apologetics we see it's the Mormon apologists verses the Mormon Prophets.

I wish Mr. Ash well on his new venture and honestly believe he will sell many books in the LDS community. Better yet, the Mormons need to save the money they would have spent on his book and just bear testimony to themselves in the mirror and forget what they read on the Internet.

Shaken....but not stirred.