The following was forwarded to me by a friend. A Facebook comment made today by Natalie Hess, a Provo-based real estate agent, read:
This is going to be bold, so be prepared. I’m so sick of hearing about lds people who are watching & reading anti-lds propaganda & then actually believing it as 100% truth. Seriously use your brains people! Don’t believe everything u watch/read. Consider the source, usually it’s begrudged people coming up w/ this crap!
Richard Dutcher, yes the Richard Dutcher who made “God’s Army” and “Brigham City”, replied:
And this is going to be unpopular. So be prepared.
You have a point, Natalie. But, as one who has studied and researched more Mormon history and doctrine than anyone I know (other than some scholars and published writer friends of mine), there is another side to that coin.
There are so very many church members who are familiar with only material published by the church/Deseret Book. And then they come into contact with something controversial from an outside source (not all outside sources are “anti-Mormon” by the way) and turn to Deseret Book or the church for an explanation and…guess what? There’s little to nothing.
And so they research a little more and find out not only that what some of these outside sources are saying is true, but that the church deliberately hid and/or lied about the information. And then they’re really confused. They’ve trusted in the church, they’ve sacrificed for the church, they’ve LIVED for the church, and then they find out that the church has lied to them, repeatedly.
It can be quite a faith shaker. In many cases, a faith destroyer.
Yes, there are anti-Mormons who lie and cheat (using partial information) and do anything they can to fight against Mormonism. But there are very many historians and scholars with no axe to grind who simply put forth material that is contrary to the church’s official story.
Some of us can manage to live with the cognitive dissonance of holding two contrary realities as somehow both true. Some of us can’t.
Be patient with those who are struggling with information that is shaking their faith. They’ll need your support. It is a hellacious ride which will most likely end in a very painful collision with reality.
It is also a painfully confusing experience to realize that the church you love and have sacrificed for is withholding information from you, while your “enemy” is telling you the truth. So very painful and confusing.
Molly Muses . . . 
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So glad that Dutcher never got to make his Joseph Smith movie. Can’t imagine what a faith destroyer that would have been given him showing his true colors now. I have posted a link to the real one, a great movie, and I saw God’s Army, and believe me, it was amateurish then and still is now. I don’t know that Dutcher is such a great movie maker as he is a pot stirrer. Fact is, there will always be two sides to the story of anything, true and false, and the ONLY way we can sort through it is by the Spirit of God, so I am going with the Spirit of God. He tells me by His power that Joseph Smith was a prophet, the scenes in that movie are true, and that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God. You can’t really argue with that, but you must be at least sensitive to that. Otherwise, you are on your own. That’s a pretty weak place to be, considering the conflicts of truth and lies out there today. I’m trusting in God. Trust in the Lord, and lean NOT to thine own understanding. I think the Lord said that.
Just click on the name to see the movie about Joseph Smith. What a great movie, such quality and such truth.
@Grant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
Richard Dutcher is right. I’m a former LDS missionary, and I wrote a book defending the Church which sold in LDS bookstores for about 12 years, and was a favorite for missionaries in many English speaking missions. What Dutcher wrote is the truth. Natalie simply rejects any evidence she does not ‘want’ to believe. Simple as that. An Ignorant person “ignores” anything they don’t wish to believe. A Seeker of Truth MUST go where the facts lead him; regardless of whether he wants to go there or not. Natalie is an Ignoramous. Dutcher is a Seeker of Truth. I am a Seeker of Truth. The facts are, the Church has hid many things from the Members, believing it was for “their own good”. The Church has suppressed things, changed history, rewritten here and there, all in the name of “protecting the Faithi” of the poor weak Members. Really, it is more about controlling them. The real facts about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, Book of Abraham, Kinderhook Plates, plural marriage, prophecies, American Indian DNA, it all points to only one conclusion………….Mormonism is not true. Sorry, but that’s where it leads. Regardless of the “good feelings” we get. Seventh-day Adventists get “good feelings” about reading the visions of Ellen G. White, but no Mormon would accept her as a Prophetess, but Adventists do. Again, based upon “feelings” they call the Spirit. But its not the Spirit, but emotionalism. Richard Dutcher is right, the Church (i.e. the leaders) have lied, lied, lied, lied, and lied again to the Members, over many decades, from the beginning. I am not an Atheist. I am a Daheshist, a follower of Dr. Dahesh, the miracle-working Prophet of Lebanon, the most prolific worker of supernatural miracles of all time. He did not seduce the wives of other men (he never married). He did not have many wives and then claim he had only one (as Joseph Smith did). He offered no book which contradicted scientific facts. He simpy works thousands of supernatural miracles.
The LDS Church is now trying to cover-up its racist past, saying that the Curse of Cain Doctrine, which Church leaders taught to Members, was “some folklore that some Members may have believed at one time, but was never a doctrine of the Church”. They are lying again. Another lie. Another cover-up of the truth. I can document at least 40 lies by Joseph Smith. Dr. Dahesh never said any lie. Who is the father of lies? YES….the most popular anti-Mormons also “LIE”. Not all anti-Mormons lie, but many do, to make money. But that doesn’t make the Church true. I hope the Mormons finally open their eyes, and realize that Mormonism began with a lie, and lies have been part of it ever since, and lies are not of God.
“The real facts about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, Book of Abraham, Kinderhook Plates, plural marriage, prophecies, American Indian DNA, it all points to only one conclusion………….Mormonism is not true.”
Laughable conclusion. Many people have studied the very same documents you have, and more, and have not come to the same conclusion. Therefore, your conclusion is not an obvious one, though I’m sure some people come to it.