Having been a studious member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for my entire life, I thought that I had encountered at least one version of every “anti-Mormon” distortion (or fabrication) of Latter-day Saint belief in circulation. But, impressively, I recently discovered some hitherto unknown little-known “facts” about “Mormon” doctrines that, stunned, I could only salute the author. Well done, sir.
This was in Grail Knights of North America by Michael Bradley, a 1998 nonfiction volume of the Holy Blood, Holy Grail / DaVinci Code vein. I often read books that I know I’ll mostly disagree with, just to see what interesting ideas there are. (Also, I’m a longtime Oak Island aficionado, so transatlantic Templars always catch my attention.)
After a lot of stuff about Templars, Masons, Egyptians, Atlanteans, etc., the author is discussing the possibility of Jesus having been married — and to multiple women — and then includes this digression:
Like I said: Stunned. Why, I hadn’t even heard of many of these things that my fellow Latter-day Saints and I supposedly believe! There’s about ten percent truth in here, mixed with assertions so stunningly wrong that I want to know where they came from, as they can’t just be simple misunderstandings or misremembered distortions of real Latter-day Saint doctrines. (Alas, unlike most of the book, there were absolutely no endnotes for this passage; we are, apparently, to take Bradley’s declarations as unquestioned fact, no matter their provenance.)
And so I set the book aside. Not for any personal offense; I simply couldn’t trust it anymore. If I discovered unsupported falsehood presented as documented fact in a section of the book on whose subject matter I’m an expert, why would I trust “facts” presented anywhere else in the book to be any more trustworthy when I can’t personally fact-check them?
Wow. Just wow.
INORITE?
Too bad he didn’t end that passage, “…don’t believe everything you see on television or read in books.”
There may even be intentional lies, because that’s good stuff, there, punch up the subject and everything. I even wonder if this Bradley was the inspiration to Blaylock’s “Knights of the Cornerstone.”