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John Weldon's Response To Mosser/Owen and FARMS

Note: This is an initial response to the paper "Mormon Scholarship, Apologetics, and Evangelical Neglect: Losing the Battle and Not Knowing It?" by Carl Mosser and Paul Owen. This response may be modified or expanded within the near future.

Appendix 1: F.A.R.M.S. -- Is Mormon Scholarship A Threat To Christianity,
    Or Is It Evangelical Neglect?
Appendix 2: FARMS Review of Books
Appendix 3: The Evangelical Response
Appendix 4: Reinventing Mormonism
Appendix 5: Are Christians Anti-Mormon and is Criticism a sin?
Appendix 6: An Intelligent Defense of Mormonism?
Appendix 7: Signature Books
Appendix 8: Hugh Nibley
Another Study in F.A.R.M.S. Behavior: A Brief Response to Mormon Scholar Dr. Daniel
    C. Peterson

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Signature Books offers a wide variety of books documenting problems in Mormonism that refute FARMS claims. What FARMS will not do, because it cannot, is to fairly evaluate these Mormon writings because they disprove their claims re: Mormonism. Nor does FARMS seek to review technical Christian apologetic works. As Dr. White points out,

"Despite the large volume of material produced by FARMS and LDS scholars in general, there is precious little meaningful apologetic material with which to interact. That is, in comparison to works specifically defending the Book of Mormon or dealing with other LDS-specific topics, there are very, very few LDS works engaging the specific theological and historical issues raised by Christian apologists."
(White, "A Test Case of Scholarship", p.3)

The following titles from Signature Books are relevant to showing how biased FARMS is in its treatment of Mormonism:

  • Against the Grain: Memoirs of a Western Historian, Brigham D. Madsen
  • An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith, Scott H. Faulring, ed.
  • Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance, Lavina Fielding Anderson and Janice Merrill Allred, comps. and eds.
  • Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Jean Bickmore White, ed.
  • Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Martha Sonntag Bradley and Allen Dale Roberts, eds.
  • Early Mormon Documents: Volume One, Dan Vogel, ed.
  • Early Mormon Documents: Volume Two, Dan Vogel, ed
  • Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Revised and Enlarged Edition), D. Michael Quinn
  • An Environment for Murder, Rod Decker
  • The Essential Brigham Young, Eugene E. Campbell, fwd.
  • The Essential Joseph Smith, Marvin S. Hill, fwd.
  • Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History, George D. Smith, ed.
  • God the Mother and Other Theological Essays, Janice Allred In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Todd Compton
  • Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record, H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine, Gary James Bergera, ed.
  • The Lord's University: Freedom and Authority at BYU, Bryan Waterman and Brian Kagel
  • Matters of Conscience: Conversations with Sterling M. McMurrin on Philosophy, Education, and Religion, Sterling M. McMurrin and L. Jackson Newell
  • The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: The Roberts-Van der Donckt Discussion, B. H. Roberts
  • The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, D. Michael Quinn
  • The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, D. Michael Quinn
  • Mormon Neo-Orthodoxy: A Crisis Theology, O. Kendall White, Jr
  • Mormon Polygamy: A History, Richard S. Van Wagoner
  • Multiply and Replenish: Mormon Essays on Sex and Family, Brent Corcoran, ed
  • New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, Brent Lee Metcalfe, ed.
  • The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past, D. Michael Quinn, ed.
  • New Mormon Studies CD-ROM: A Comprehensive Resource Library, Smith Research Associates
  • Peculiar People: Mormons and Same-sex Orientation, Ron Schow, H. Wayne Schow, and Marybeth Raynes, eds.
  • Power From On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood, Gregory A. Prince
  • Quest for the Gold Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson's Archaeological Search for The Book of Mormon, Stan Larson
  • Religion, Feminism, and Freedom of Conscience: A Mormon/Humanist Dialogue, George D. Smith, ed.
  • Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders, Linda Sillitoe and Allen Roberts
  • The Sanctity of Dissent, Paul James Toscano
  • Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess, Richard S. Van Wagoner
  • Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology, Margaret and Paul Toscano
  • Studies of the Book of Mormon by B. H. Roberts, Brigham D. Madsen, ed.
  • The Unforgiven: Utah's Executed Men (Updated Edition), L. Kay Gillespie
  • "Wild Bill" Hickman and the Mormon Frontier, Hope A. Hilton
  • The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture, Dan Vogel, ed.

(Contact Signature Books, Inc.
564 West 400 North Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84116-341(801) 531-1483
(801) 531-1488 Fax
(800) 356-5687 Order Line)

Readers are encouraged to read the descriptions of these books at the Signature Books website which, along with the additional hundred or so books available from Utah Lighthouse Ministry in Salt Lake City, will indicate just how accurate our book, and other responsible Christian literature on Mormonism is. In fact, readers can address other problems in Mormonism from a good quality skeptics site, Honest Intellectual Inquiry: http://www.california.com/~rpcman/MO.HTM (Link to "Books Dealing with Mormonism" plus "Site Map" to "Mormonism" to "The Best and Worst of Mormonism" and "alt.religion. mormon.archive"---See also the "and Worst" section which links to comments about FARMS as well as Mormon authoritarianism.) An interesting comment is given from that site, responding to FARMS criticism:

Of the hundred or so sites on the net that FARMS would probably deem "anti-Mormon", I'd estimate that over 70% of them link back to faith-promoting Mormon sites to allow the investigator of Mormonism to look at both sides of the issues. Of the thousands of faith-promoting LDS sites on the net, less than a dozen of them link to anything that would be considered "anti-Mormon". Based on these facts, just who does he [the FARMS reviewer] think is trying to hide the "answers"?"

Continued