For the first time in the seven year history of this blog, I'll be going a couple of months without posting anything. The Lovely Connie and I are busy preparing to leave my native California to resettle in Sandpoint, Idaho by the end of August. (Haven't you heard? Idaho is the new Zion!)I expect to resume with another of my tedious screeds in September. The intention today was to fill this space with a review of Denver Snuffer's new book on Joseph Smith, A Man Without Doubt; but there simply isn't time to write it. So instead I'll just urge everyone to Buy The Book. Or at least read the many five-star reviews the book has engendered so far, all of which are more cogent and astute than anything I might have produced anyway. (There is one smugly negative review by someone who demonstrates complete unfamiliarity with either Denver or his book, but it's worth reading anyway just to watch how other reviewers piled onto that hapless ignoramus.)
Denver gave a recent presentation at the Sunstone Symposium, but I don't know if it's available on line as of yet. If it is, perhaps someone can post a link in the comment section below. The title of that paper is "Was There An Original?" In it, Denver discusses how much Mormonism has changed (and not for the better) since its founding under Joseph Smith. Denver shows how Mormonism "began as a very big religion, but has diminished considerably over the years," and discusses the recent causes for that decline.
Also along those lines is the recent blog post by the Anonymous Bishop, Do We Still Believe Anything Joseph Taught? If you've had the chance to read Rob Smith's Teaching For Doctrines The Commandments of Men, you have probably arrived at your own conclusions about that. (Rob's remarkable blog is called Upward Thought. Go there if you'd like a free pdf version of his book; you'll see a link on the right-hand side.)
That's all for now. In the immortal words of The Tempos, "see you in September."
