Summary of Critical Myths
Questions & Concerns
Over time, I have realized that some former members of the Church who criticize it are extremely uncurious. They ask one question and then have no interest in the answer. They spend less time answering their challenging gospel concerns than watching their favorite Netflix show.
For the other, more thoughtful critics, I have some concerns.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints desire truth. Our Church started with a sincere question asked in prayer. Members are compassionate and caring. When I started my faith journey, I took the critics' arguments against the Church at face value. I assumed those ideas were being presented in good faith. Over time, I’ve learned that this is not true. Critics tried exploiting my desire for light and my openness to truth. They took advantage of my empathy and tried convincing me that the Church was harming people when the opposite was true.
Throughout this letter, I’ve identified several false concepts that critics of the Church insinuate are factual. In summary, here are the false premises, presuppositions, and myths that critics readily claim to be realities.
Leader Infallibility
Many critical arguments against the Church start with the presupposition that our leaders are or should be infallible. That was curious to me. Why would someone who has left the Church claim infallibility for church leaders? Then it hit me. If a critic of the Church can get me to accept the false premise that Church leaders are infallible and then show me an instance where they errored, well, that is “game over.”
“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously.” – Deuteronomy 18:22 (emphasis added)
There seems to be a biblical understanding that prophets sometimes speak presumptuously. Once I accepted that men and women called by God are still subject to human error and mistaken judgment, I answered nearly all of my gospel questions. While floundering toward truth and the divine, flawed people can still be God’s chosen servants. All of the evidence from the scriptures suggests that God is perfectly comfortable calling imperfect people to His work.
Some former members sincerely believed that church leaders should be infallible when they were active members of the faith. I feel for them. Growing up and finding out that adults are imperfect is a challenging phase. I hope that the awkward reality that God calls flawed people to do His work can someday be a faith-promoting idea for those disenfranchised former or current members.
The Great Sin of Gathering
By becoming an identifiable group, we automatically put a target on our institutional “back.” Groups are naturally a threat. Random, scattered, and isolated people are no threat (nor much benefit) to anyone. The “identifiable group” frustration for critics is compounded by the Church’s mission to “help all of God’s children come to Jesus Christ through learning about His gospel, making and keeping promises with God (covenants), and practicing Christlike love and service.”1 Whenever any member, parent, or leader fails to live up to this stated mission, many critics treat this as if the Church is failing. For some critics, no amount of good can compensate for the personal and one-off negative experiences they had or heard of with the church.
But the critics are wrong. It is good for us to come together. To learn from one another. Sure, people say annoying and insensitive things in my ward. But getting together is worth the risk. It’s worth listening to the occasional cringy testimony or nonsensical comments in Sunday school to have a community and a family. It’s okay and good even to have immediate and extended family members who drive me crazy but love me and my kids. I desperately need family members and ward members, not social media groups. I do not want endless therapy sessions with counselors who charge per hour to be my friend. I need people in my life who will always be there and where some effort is required to maintain the relationship.
If not, I would perpetually push “toxic” people out of my life until all that is left is myself.
Dare to Have a Standard
In conjunction with the sin of gathering together, what bothers some critics more than anything else is that we dare to have a standard or ideal. The Church of Jesus Christ has doctrinal and cultural standards, and critics eagerly wait for the Church to mess up. Some critics relish it when one of our members is guilty of impropriety or crime. No one would care if a Kohl’s department store member committed a heinous act. But if that same person is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is headline news. This is hypocritical and wrong. Standards have brought me the most precious blessings of my life. Was it hard at times to strive for a high standard? Sure. Because of high standards, do some fall short and then feel guilty? Sure. Does that mean we throw it all out the window? Absolutely not. That is asinine.
Our churches typically have a sign that says, “Visitors welcome,” and our temples have one that says, “Holiness to the Lord.” We want all to come and worship with us weekly in our chapels, regardless of where they are. On the other hand, the Lord’s house (the temple) has a standard of worthiness. I’ve seen only blessings for chapel worshippers who strive to be temple worshippers. I once knew a woman in a previous ward who came weekly to church, sometimes with her wife. She could not participate in the full range of opportunities at church, but the ward loved having her and her partner with us. Years later, after I moved out of that ward, my wife saw her inside the temple. I do not know the whole story; I’m sure temple worship came at a great cost. But she must have rediscovered that special something in temple worship that brings me back to the house of the Lord over and over.
Critical Myths
When I peruse Ex-Mormon Reddit boards, X (Twitter) feeds, or any other social media site today, a pattern of myths showcases itself. With some critical thinking, it became easier to identify fair criticism from misinformation.
| Myth | Critical thinking |
|---|---|
| "There is no archeological evidence for the Book of Mormon." | There is plenty of evidence. Frankincense trail, Nahom, Mulek, Bountiful, Mesoamerica and/or Heartland evidence, Semitic language parallels in the Americas, etc. |
| "There is no DNA evidence for the Book of Mormon." | Not relevant. Genuine critics acknowledge the limitations of DNA evidence. |
| "Waiting to have sex until you are married is stupid." | It's not stupid if you want a longer-lasting, happier relationship. |
| "Getting married young is a bad idea and leads to ruined families." | That is not true on the whole. Perhaps it's true for some former members. Growing together with your spouse while young is beautiful and creates more interconnectedness for stronger, longer-lasting marriages. |
| "The Church hurts families." | In a fallen world, sometimes families get hurt. The Church can help. |
| "The Church makes you depressed." | Not true. Overwhelming evidence shows that religiosity fortifies against mental health issues. |
| "Utah has a higher-than-average anti-depressant usage because of the Church's toxic perfectionism culture." | The antidepressant usage part is correct, but the "why" is not. The "why" is unclear, but in all other regards, members of the Church are happy and healthy. |
| "Utah is 16th in the nation in suicide because of the Church's hostility toward the LGBTQ+ community." | The first part is correct, but the "why" is false. The Church is likely preventing what would be a worse outcome for Utah. There are a variety of factors that explain Utah's suicide rate, including elevation, rurality, gun laws, and the happiness paradox. |
| "Joseph Smith was a fraud." | Where is your evidence beyond you do not like him? |
| "The Church is a greedy corporation." | Not true. What individuals would be enriched by the Church's money if this was true? |
| "If you identify as LGBTQ+, your family will abandon you." | This is pure manipulation. I'm sure some families have not reacted well, and I'm sorry that is the case. But to state this as a fact is wrong. |
| "If you identify as LGBTQ+, the Church will hate you." | Nonsense. Why do LGBTQ+-identifying members of the Church do as well, if not better, than their non-religious peers in areas of mental health? |
| "Church leaders purposely misled their members until the internet came out, and they couldn't do it anymore." | Maybe a half-truth at best. Not all parts of church history have been emphasized all of the time. On the other hand, the Church of Jesus Christ is focused on the work of salvation. Spending weeks every year debunking critics regarding church history would be a waste of time. The church curriculum gives a high-level overview and moves on to the next topic. "Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God" is the most accurate and concise way of describing what happened. How helpful would it be to scrutinize the various witnesses' accounts and figure out when he used the Urim and Thummim vs. the seer stone? Did he even use a seer stone at all? We could spend weeks addressing and answering those questions or say, "By the gift and power of God," and get back to talking about serving our neighbors. The Church liberally provides plenty of resources to anyone who wants to know more about church history. |
| Myth | Critical thinking |
| "Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon because he is a religious genius, not a prophet." | Are critics moving the goalposts? Was Joseph Smith an idiot or a religious genius? The truth is that critics have no idea where the Book of Mormon came from. |
| "The Church is systematically abusive." | Not true. The Church has unique policies and practices that prevent and report abuse. Instances of abuse in the Boy Scout program were far less likely to happen in LDS troops than in others. |
| "The Church seeks to cover up abuse and then harm victims of abuse." | Not true. I’m sure there is probably an anecdotal example of local church leaders not doing enough or making the problem worse. That does not make the problem widespread. |
| "Joseph Smith could have easily made up the Book of Mormon." | Not remotely true. Name one example of a 19th-century writer with little formal education and no book writing or dictation experience writing a complicated, consistent, and profound, nearly 270,000-word book in 60-90 days in one draft with relatively few revisions. |
| "At 23 years old, Joseph Smith knew the Bible really well and was a great storyteller." | Where is the evidence? |
| "The source for the Book of Mormon was …" | Every claim for the source of the Book of Mormon falls dramatically short. All of the source claims are theories with no proof. Most of the books referenced (View of the Hebrews, The Late War, The 1st Book of Napolean, the Spaulding Manuscript, etc.) are in the 50,000-word count range; where did the rest of the Book of Mormon come from? |
| "The Book of Mormon is clearly made up by a 19th-century author." | If you do not understand the environment in 600 BC after King Josiah or the mode of translation, then I see why you would think that. |
| "The Book of Mormon has so many anachronisms it can't be true." | Out of 205 anachronisms claimed by critics, all but 19% have been eliminated or are trending that way. In the messy field of archeology, especially in the Americas, that’s remarkable. If the Book of Mormon was made up off the top of Joseph Smith's head, then shouldn't it prove more ludicrous over time? Why is the Book of Mormon instead proving more plausible over time? |
| "The Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon are coincidental." | Hundreds of instances of Hebraisms are by chance? What are the odds of that? The chiasmus in Alma 36 alone is proof it was not by chance. |
| "The witnesses of the Book of Mormon are just a bunch of Joseph Smith's wacky, fanatic friends and family." | Then why did all of the witnesses continue to affirm their testimony of the Book of Mormon even after they left the Church? Why did none of them recant their testimony? |
| "Members of the Church pretend that they are happy because they are pressured to." | Evidence? |
| "The Church is damaging for your mental health." | Despite study after study showing the opposite is true? |
| "Church members only give money to the Church; they don't care about other causes." | Not true. After tithing and church callings, church members still donate as much, if not more, time and money to outside causes. |
| Myth | Critical thinking |
| "Church members only live longer because of the word of wisdom." | Then why have researchers found that even controlling for tobacco usage, members still live longer? Why do studies consistently point to religious people living healthier, longer lives? |
| "The Church is oppressive to women." | Women are some of the greatest beneficiaries of the Church. Our men are less abusive and less likely to commit acts of sexual abuse. Our couples are far less likely to get divorced. Children are more likely to be raised in a two-parent home. Married women with children report higher levels of happiness and lower levels of unhappiness than any other group. |
| "Women are encouraged to suffer abuse." | What? |
| "You don't need a church to be a good person." | True. But it is also true that the Church brings out the best in people, and it shows: more volunteering, more charity, more involvement in the community, better relationships with neighbors, etc. |
| "The Church's obsession with family history is weird and useless." | The opposite of true. Family history has major psychological benefits, especially for adolescents. |
| "Joseph Smith plagiarized the Freemason ceremony in the temple endowment." | Then why are elements of the temple ceremony found in the 20 years leading up to 1842? Why does the temple ceremony share elements from early Christian rituals? How did Joseph Smith recover lost temple elements from before the Josiah reforms? |
| "Getting a testimony from the Holy Ghost is unreliable." | Potentially true. We can conflate the Holy Ghost with our feelings. Does that mean God does not speak to us? Can we not get better at identifying answers to prayers? |
| "Spiritual testimonies are the result of neurological triggers." | Hogwash. Perhaps some spiritual experiences in some instances can be explained this way, but certainly not all. |
| "The Church claims to have a lay ministry, but the general authorities get paid." | 99% of church leaders are unpaid. 100 or so church leaders out of our 17-million-member church receive a modest salary. |
| "Church leaders should be infallible or at least the best among us." | They are not infallible, nor have we ever taught that they are. Judging past leaders based on today's standards is immature and unwise. |
| "The Church promotes toxic masculinity." | This is not remotely true. The Church is one of the best places for young men to learn how to be kind and serve from good men. |
| "The Church encourages abuse." | Pardon? |
| "Church members are violent." | Nope. Some percentage of the population is violent, and some of those people are members of our church. Any violence perpetrated by members of our church is in spite of, not because of, the Church's teaching, policies, and practices. |
| "Members of the Church are dishonest. They lie for the Lord." | Not true. Latter-day Saints are widely seen as honest people and good neighbors. People can tell that our communities have less crime and delinquency. To enter our highest and holiest places (the temple), members of the Church are required to answer in the affirmative, "Do you strive to be honest in all that you do?" |
| "Church leaders lied about Joseph Smith's seer stones." | Not quite. Part of the problem is canonization. Once Joseph Smith canonized his story in Joseph Smith - History and included details about the Urim and Thummim but not the seer stone(s), it was only a matter of time before those details became forgotten naturally with time. Joseph Smith's seer stones were held in high regard and reverence among the saints before and after the prophet's death. Scholars still debate whether Joseph Smith used the seer stone(s) during the Book of Mormon translation. We cannot know whether he used them later in the translation process or if he used them as a demonstration for curious parties without showing them the Urim and Thummim. |
| "Joseph Smith made up the first vision later in life and embellished details as he went." | Wrong. The various first vision accounts were given at different times to different people in different contexts, which accounts for some variations, but the overall thrust is consistent. Critics point to Joseph's first published account of the First Vision in 1832 as inconsistent with later versions as it references “the Lord” (instead of two personages). LDS historians Don Bradley and Walker Wright2 point out that Joseph Smith was working on translating the Bible during this same period. Joseph Smith curiously changed John 1:18 from "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." to "And no man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the Son; for except it is through him no man can be saved." This translation echoes Joseph Smith’s 1st vision. |
The uncomfortable truth for believing members is that critics raise some valid concerns against the Church of Jesus Christ and its truth claims. To this day, I do not have all of the answers. On the other hand, critics do use angled and ugly narratives to distort the facts. Anything can sound evil when the least flattering versions of events are shared with ominous-sounding music playing in the background. Opponents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appear all too willing to make targeted arguments at the expense of the evidence and the overall narrative.
Most critical narratives make no sense when I follow them to their logical conclusion. If a bunch of sexual deviants founded the Church, how come we don’t see the fruits of that today? Why are Latter-day Saint families and marriages stronger? Why do Latter-day Saints hold a high sexual standard for men and women? Why do Church leaders marry and stay married to the same spouse their whole lives? If Joseph Smith created the Church to satisfy his need for power and dominion, how come we don’t see the fruits of that today? Why do Church leaders dedicate their whole lives to the gospel of Jesus Christ to then get called in their golden years as general authorities? If treasure digging is the legacy of the Church, how come we don’t see the fruits of that today? Is the Church abusive, and does it breed violence? Where are the fruits of that narrative anywhere?
If I believed the stories about the Church from critics, why do we not see what we would expect based on their narratives?
To make their ideas work, critics must ignore mounds of evidence. They must constantly adapt and adjust as their theories fall out of favor. Critics ask me to leave the depths of truth of the restored gospel to swim in the shallows of misinformation. They ignore all the good that the Church does in the world and pretend it is somehow wrong or self-serving. Critics are keen to blame the human condition on the Church, despite the Church improving the human condition by measurable standards. Skeptics must do impressive mental gymnastics to explain the Book of Mormon and other fruits of the restoration. Manipulation + fallacies + half-truths + false narratives + “they are the problem” + “we are the solution”? Sounds like an abusive boyfriend. As a potential believer, I had much more flexibility to have a nuanced perspective. Was the African ban potentially a racist policy? Could be. And I hate that that happened. Are the prophets and apostles still called of God? Yes.
Footnotes
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“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 4, 2023. Accessed on April 26, 2024 from https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/about-us?lang=eng ↩
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Bradley, Don and Wright, Walker. “An overlooked text supporting Joseph Smith’s First Vision consistency.” Deseret News, April 13, 2024, https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/04/13/joseph-smith-first-vision-accounts/ ↩
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Callister, Tad. “The’s the Blueprint of Christ’s Church?” CES Devotional, January 12, 2014, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng ↩