The Bricolage of Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Mormonism Shadow or Reality: A Commentary
By Kerry A. Shirts
Researcher for FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research)
Commentary on the Preface:
An approach using Bricolage in writing or collecting and researching in literature or society and whatever culture is being studied, is a myth-making quality of putting together bits and pieces of stuff out of whatever comes to hand. I find this concept from reading Northrop Frye’s magnificent work The Great Code.1
From Frye’s analytical point of view on literature, the Tanner’s work Mormonism, Shadow or Reality?, is a perfect example of bricolage. This is not necessarily a negative thing at all. But it is descriptive of what they produce.
I have many acquaintances on the Internet which ask me about the Tanners and use their material to thwart our LDS research at FAIR. I have been reading in their magnum opus, Mormonism Shadow or Reality?, and have decided I would write a commentary on my impressions, my own research, about their research, etc, of their work. I simply cannot respond to each and every little crossed "t" and dotted "i" as no one ever approaches books that way anyway. In their preface they quote Jennings G. Olson to the effect that Mormons ought to answer the Tanners point by point, and those who try to do so will have their hands full for a very long time.2 Interestingly it is we Mormons who are supposed to have to respond to each and every item critics bring up, but the critics apparently are exempt from doing so with the Mormon research. FARMS has at least ten times the materials in print right now than the Tanners do, and I haven’t seen the Tanners respond to every point the FARMS scholars bring out. For that matter, we at FAIR have a rather enormous website which has yet to be rebutted point by point by any critic, on the Internet or in print, so this is apparently not considered essential in order to refute. I can agree with that. Some things, however, deserve a closer looking into.
This will be a running commentary so to speak, on the Tanners work. I have not been commissioned by the LDS Church in any way to do this. This is entirely on my own volition. In the Preface to their work, the Tanners are pretty darn sure there is some sort of silent cover up conspiracy LDS, CIA, KGB sort of goings on behind their backs. They make it appear to be just wicked, evil and dastardly sinister to be sure. I would hope none of this silliness is used by them, if they so choose to respond to my commentary here. This is all out in the open. No anonymous writing going on here. I really am Kerry A. Shirts. I really am a researcher for FAIR. FAIR really does exist as an Internet Organization to answering Mormon critics. I really am human, etc. I really do have my B.S. degree in History from Idaho State University. I really am a full blooded genuine American citizen. I am no secret agent for the LDS, CIA or KGB, nor did I come from a UFO from the 3rd planet twice removed from the Kolobian star system of the Universe. Please lets keep this secret conspiracy stuff to a minimum, although I understand that it sells rather well to the paranoid, I have no interest in it. It does not impress me at all. This is all up front and in the open. The LDS Church Education System is not secretly funneling funds through Washington D.C. to get to FAIR in round about byways through PO Boxes housed in Minnesota, so as to cover anyone’s tracks for trying to discredit the Tanner’s work or finance all this enormous research that just one man could obviously never really do. One man IS doing all this research, namely me, myself, and I, Kerry A. Shirts. I am simply writing my own commentary on it. It is quite honestly just that simple. This is not a hush-hush operation which should not be leaked by penalty of death through throat slitting out of the LDS Church Office Building. This is a wide open view, plainly stated, I am here to write a commentary on the Tanner’s work, Mormonism, Shadow or Reality? Can I possibly make it any plainer than that?
Let me make another thing perfectly clear. I am not out to convince the Tanners of the errors of their ways whatsoever. I am not trying to convert them back to Mormonism. Their showing comments from some Mormons about the greatness of their research, and their trying so hard to show that they are having an impact comes scross, at least to me, as quite humorous. No Mormon scholar that I am aware of has to preface their own books with comments about how anti-Mormons or non Mormons are flocking into Mormonism because of their research. And so a few Mormons leave the church? So? The implication of this is that the Tanners arguments are correct and solid, and the honest in heart are now seeing the light against Mormonism because it is false. But what of the anti-Mormons and non-Mormons who join the church because of the work, of say, FAIR does on the Internet? Do we laud it about that this proves anti-Mormonism false? There are always comings and goings of folks in and out of any religion. Now then, I don’t intend to show that the Tanners are 100% in error in everything they write. Not at all. I fully intend on complimenting them when they deserve it. But I also intend on critiquing them where they know better as well. I want to be fair about this also, but I am also not a faith destroyer as the Tanners revel in doing. I am defending the LDS church, hence my being labeled and apologist, a defender.
Now to their Preface. It appears as bragging to me. The Tanners, so far as I am aware have no credentials for being scholars, other than Sandra being a descendant of Brigham Young, as if they makes her automatically an expert in Mormon History – it doesn’t. My Ancestor, Peter Shirts, was the maker of the locks and keys in the Nauvoo Temple. Does that make me an expert in Mormon History? He was known as the Daniel Boone of the West once the Saints arrived in Utah, going on several missions for Brigham Young in southern Utah and founding many cities. Escalante, Utah is chock full of us Shirts’s. Does this make me an expert in Mormon History? Not a bit. But, it appears as if the Tanners need and want some sort of bolstering to make their presentation against Mormonism appear valid. As I get to their critique of the Book of Abraham this becomes glaringly obvious. They want ONLY qualified Egyptologists in defending the Mormon position, otherwise we Mormons are automatically ruled out as wrong, yet they themselves can critique it wholeheartedly, and that without any Egyptological qualifications whatever! Well so the merry little game goes.
On the second page of their Preface, one reviewer says "…their techniques of indefatigable research and argument…" But indefatigable research and argument does not a truth make. Just so we are perfectly clear on that. The same reviewer also notes "The Tanner’s masterwork, Mormonism – Shadow or Reality? Is an intricate weaving of arguments from many sources…" Yes, this is true. It is. They have done an enormous amount of work, but that does not a truth make either.
As an example off the top of my head, Umberto Eco’s work shows that the Byzantine geographer of the fourth century, Cosmas Indicopleustes argued that the cosmos was rectangular, and this man has been presented as the authority for the Medieval Church thinking for centuries that the earth was flat. But Eco shows that this is simply not true. Through all the argument, and "intricate weaving," the true light has come out that neither Cosmas nor Lactantius (the other authority said to be the main thought behind the Church thinking the earth was flat) was ever used or known until the English publication in 1897! Not only Ptolemy, but Eratosthenes, Pythagorus, Parmenides, Eudoxius, Plato, Euclid, Aristarchus and Archimedes all knew the earth was round. The only ones who didn’t really believe it were Leucippius and Democritus.3 Macrobius and even Martianus Capella were aware the earth was round.4 Yet intricate and elaborate arguings were presented that the Church in its superstitious stupidity thought the earth was flat! This to show, apparently, that the Church was so very unscientific. All the arguing in the world won’t demonstrate the earth is flat, nor that the ancients thought it was.5 In like manner, all the arguing in the world won’t show Mormonism is false. If ten times the amount of people left the church because of what the Tanners write, it does not show that Mormonism is false. That is an irrelevant point, so far as I believe. If they had ten times the materials against Mormonism, this, in itself, is not proof that the religion is false.
The Tanners also describe in their Preface how some have attempted to refute their work, only to become convinced by it and end up helping them. But for every one they can show who does this turn about, I am willing to bet there is also one who finds their work unconvincing. Count me as one of the latter.
The Tanners describe an anonymous writing against their work as "this sneaky attack" on the third page of their Preface. I have read that work, and haven’t understood it to be sneaky at all. How is it sneaky if it was published and distributed? Who cares if it was mailed free of charge to many in Utah? Isn’t that where it ought to be mailed to instead of say, the North Frisian Islands?
The Tanners also note in their Preface that the church actually allowed over 65,000 copies of their book to get into print, and the church has never officially responded to it, therefore the suspicion is that the church has no answers to the Tanners. Well, they can think that if it makes them feel better, but another explanation could also be that the church is too busy building the Kingdom of God to worry about individual apostates and their writings. I mean both explanations are plausible. They also say that many are now thinking that the church has no answers against the Tanners. I honestly don’t think their material is all that persuasive, nor their research all that powerful. Of course there are answers, but which is more important, worrying about what two disgruntled people think, or carrying on the work of God for literally tens of thousands, both alive and dead? The church, I believe have bigger things to do with their time.
On the fourth page of their Preface, the Tanners are still talking about the anonymously authored book against them and they bring in the CIA the KGB, and all sorts of wonderfully gossipy stuff. They claim "As we followed the tracks of this conspiracy to destroy our work…" I honestly can’t help but be impressed, above all else, with the sheer melodrama here. Oh I mean the conspiracy, the cloak and dagger goings on simply because it was authored anonymously, and the Tanners can’t figure out who wrote the thing! So now it’s turned into a giant conspiracy involving world governments and all that kind of jazz. I mean, really, this is great for paranoid delusionists, but I would rather see the Tanners try to keep this thing on earth here. Such emotionalism is really too sensational for my tastes. Lets get to the issues of what the book said, not worry about because we can’t find out who the author is, then obviously this proves the LDS Church is conspiring against the Tanners and involving the Russians to boot! This is simply too funny for words. More of the same is seen with their comment "Two years after we uncovered this secret plan to discredit our work." Secret? It was published and distributed for crying out loud! So anyway……one last comment I can’t resist. "LaMar Peterson, who is considered to be one of the best informed scholars on Mormon History…" This was said on the fifth page of their Preface. LaMar Peterson was considered this? By whom? Leonard Arrington was far and away better informed, as was Sidney B. Sperry and Hugh Nibley. The reason they tout him, is of course, because they were allowed to use some of his notes, so of course, instead of being involved with secrecy and conspiracy, now all the sudden this particular Mormon is one of the best informed. I say, the bias……it is rather thick.
Endnotes
5. See Isaac Asimov, X Stands For Unknown, Avon Books, 1984: Chapter XVI – "The Circle of the Earth," working this theme from the Bible.