Conference examines LDS research

Latter-day Saints who worry their faith is somehow suspect — because some say that church founder Joseph Smith was a money digger or that archaeological evidence doesn't prove the Book of Mormon is historical — let idealism overshadow reality.

That analysis ran through a series of presentations given Thursday at the annual conference of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR). The group is not officially affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but is dedicated to defending the faith from critics.

Meeting at the South Towne Expo Center on Thursday, hundreds heard lectures on a variety of topics, including blacks and the Bible, Mormons and Masonry, archaeology, and the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.

Richard Bushman, emeritus professor of history at Columbia University, first set out to write about Smith in detail in the late 1960s. Evidence emerging then showed the man that millions now believe was a prophet was also a money digger — a fact many LDS critics considered to be proof he was a fraud.

Yet when set within the context of his day, Bushman's research showed that the young Smith was simply engaged in the same types of activities his social counterparts were involved in. Over time, the characterizations of money digging took on less significance and critics moved on to other issues.

"It was no longer considered a great blight on his character but would be comparable to gambling today," Bushman said.

In his new book, set to be released this fall, titled "Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling," Bushman said he takes the money digging aspect of Smith's personality a step further, suggesting his fascination with magic "peep stones" and money digging may have actually been "providential" in that it was "useful in the training of a prophet."

"I came to see what a huge leap of faith" God's command for Smith to translate a set of gold plates would have been for a poor and uneducated farm boy, yet the use of a stone to do so would have seemed natural given his earlier experience, he said.

He used the illustration to suggest a pattern for "problems (with historical oddities) that at once seemed insurmountable have unfolded in ways that cannot be seen in the beginning and later are seen as contributing to the development of a prophet."

What Bushman called the "problem of women" and the lack of any significant official role for them within the church before the establishment of the Relief Society was somewhat rectified when Smith taught the doctrine of eternal marriage.