Book Review: How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian

        

        Domonic Crossan is the expert on the “historical Jesus” but wrote a book that was severely flawed. Dominic Crosson’s book relies on several false dichotomies (types of justice, radical nonviolent God verses normal civilized God), dubious historical reconstructions, lops off large segments of scripture and fails to truly study the character of God. Instead, like pacifist LDS writers he uses his own ideology to create a God in his own image.

The Historical Jesus

        The foundation of his argument is the nonviolent teachings of the historical Jesus. But his interpretation rests on a house of cards. He points to a general historical trend in the first two centuries AD that he calls “the matrix,” or general cultural and societal attitudes within Jewish society. Yet these attitudes are selectively chosen and amplified. For example, he points to the attempt of Caligula to install a pagan statue in the temple (146-148). In response, a crowd of Jews not carrying weapons gathered in the square to oppose the action. This is supposedly an example of nonviolent resistance but doesn’t account for how militant they seemed simply using the power of an angry crowd. These Jewish people weren’t calmly nonviolent resisters proudly bandied about by modern pacifists. They were militant agitators, that even without weapons were on the verge of a violent and deadly riot. The unarmed Lamanite prisoners, for example, were so violent the Nephites were forced to slay 2,000 of them (Alma 57:13-14). Yet Crossan massages the incident to make readers assume the example supports a nonviolent ideology. (For someone who builds their case on the “historical” Jesus this sloppy understanding of history is especially egregious.)

        His use of the Q source is even more dubious. This is the name of the anonymous source that may have inspired Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Because Matthew and Luke both contain polished expansions of Markan material using the same wording, many scholars conclude that Matthew and Luke relied on the Gospel of Mark and a second, unknown, or Q source (Matthew 6:24 = Luke 16:13; Matthew 7:7–8 = Luke 11:9-10). Yet some scholars argue that maybe Q didn’t exist at all. Others think that perhaps Mark was first to write his gospel but relied on some of Jesus’ unpolished sayings written in Aramaic, that may have been from an earlier Q source and polished by Matthew and Luke. Others think Mark was a later and abbreviated “summary” gospel. There is so much disagreement among scholars concerning which source inspired what and when each was written that it usually needs a chart to explain it. See the chart on this page for example.

        It’s all as plain as the sun in the sky!! Crossan takes this ~settled~ debate and looks at Jesus’ militant statements recorded by Matthew and Luke deriving from Q. Combined with the idea that Matthew and Luke use Q to “update” the original Jesus of Mark with militant statements he concludes that Q had the unsanitized version of the radical nonviolence of Jesus that was changed to the normalcy of violent civilization by Matthew and Luke (see 174-179 for example). The previous sentence sure is a mouthful, but simply stated without Crossan’s buzz words, he claims the historical Jesus was corrupted with bad theology derived from cultural attitudes of later writers. Crosson’s over reliance on Q to try and separate a pure Jesus from a corrupted one within the gospels is unsatisfying from an evidentiary standpoint.

Selective Theology

        It is even weaker from a theological standpoint. His weak arguments that reconstruct the so called, “historical Jesus” are used an excuse to lop off entire segments of the Bible. He somewhat admits this problem when he contends that Christians follow Jesus, not the Bible. Yet outside of living prophets that add living eye witness testimonies, the holy texts that describes God’s dealing with His people are the only information we have about God. So Crosson claims to follow Jesus, while he picks and chooses among the texts that authoritatively describe Jesus.

        For example, he talks a great deal about distributive justice. He doesn’t account for the injustice that derives from nonviolent impulses. If people stand idly by because of their vision of the historical, nonviolent, redistributive Jesus, then their innocent “wives and…children should be massacred by the barbarous cruelty of those who were once their brethren” (Alma 48:24). Moreover, it’s immoral to have a personal choice by individuals impose unjust and immoral consequences on others. For example, Patrick Mason and David Pulispher used the example of Dallin Oaks talking down a mugger holding a gun as evidence that people should adopt their non violent proposals. This is a heartwarming story and I’m glad Elder Oaks didn’t need to use violence. Having someone hold a gun on innocent family members and relying on a speech to save them from gunfire is not a reasonable or safe standard for families. But pacifists expect their passive standards from a selective reading of scripture to guide other’s foreign policy and personal safety with innocent victims at stake.

        Instead of acknowledging that different parts of the Bible reflect different attributes of the same God, Crosson refers to “parallel tracks” of a “bipolar” and “schizophrenic” God (71). At one disgusting point he calls the God of the flood a “terrorist” (71).[1] He claims that God was “sucked into” the escalatory violence of the world (71-72), as though God isn’t in charge, he is simply led around by the nose and provoked by His creations.

How Weak a Foundation

        Unfortunately, Crosson’s attitude that judges God based on his concept of nonviolence reminds me of LDS scripture and pacifists. They are so interested in seeing a “God made in their own image” that they minimize and misunderstand God (D&C 1:16). One LDS writer, David Pulsipher, complained that God and His prophets lacked the “moral imagination” that the writer and his favorite pacifists had.[2] It is our job to understand the divine, not try to limit or diminish God because he doesn’t have our “imagination.” (Also, see Helaman 16:22.)

        In another instance, Pulispher and Patrick Mason suggest that we use modern scholarship to dispute the historical accuracy of the Bible, thus “eroding any moral authority that might be gleaned from scriptures that endorse human violence.”[3] Unsurprisingly, just a few pages earlier the same authors cited Dominic Crosson,[4] who not only undermines any moral authority for violence but doubts the character of God to such a degree that he calls him a genocidal terrorist. That is putting the cart before the horse. It uses modern tools of scholarship, themselves a reflection of cultural concerns, to dispute God, who commands us to put aside small-minded cultural attitudes and follow Him.

        Of course, the Bible isn’t a clear manual about God and mankind’s concept of deity is often misunderstood and used to commit awful acts of violence. Still though, Latter Day Saints should be especially wary of a methodology that diminishes God’s character that reduces him to a figure head for an ideology. And an ideology that forbids the use of force actually perpetuates injustice. Rather than showing a schizophrenic God, the Book of Mormon’s account of the destruction immediately preceding His ministry and Christ’s teaching reveal a consistently loving God that recognizes the need to use force. Right before Jesus’s personal ministry among the Nephites he violently destroyed many cities (3 Nephi 9:3-12). Then he lamented that His people didn’t listen to him (3 Nephi 9:13), and he offered a tender example of how he would gather them as a hen gathered her chickens before offering the Sermon on the Mount and turn the other cheek (3 Nephi 10:4-6; 3 Nephi 12:39). Then he finished by reminding his audience of Isaiah's violent prophecies of a militant God executing his “vengeance” (3 Nephi 21:14-21).

        One version of God shouldn’t be believed over the other. Both versions ARE GOD and worthy of study. We are reading about different aspects of his personality, that is just, merciful and loving while God recognizes the need to use violence, often as punishment that compels men to be humble (Alma 32:13), and lead them to repentance and redemption (3 Nephi 9:17).

        Dominic Crosson’s book relies on several false dichotomies, dubious historical reconstructions, lops off large segments of scripture and fails to truly study the character of God. Instead, like pacifist LDS writers he uses his own ideology to create a God in his own image. I can’t recommend his book unless you want to see the “playbook” that LDS pacifists attempt to run on scripture.

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[1] I was seriously tempted to stop reading at that point. Terrorist is an overwrought, emotional term and directed towards God it revealed a great deal of Crosson’s character. I no longer wondered why he was a disgraced ex priest.

[2] Pulsipher, J. David (2021) "Defend Your Families and Love Your Enemies: A New Look at the Book of Mormon’s Patterns of Protection," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 60: Iss. 2, Article 6. (179-182)

[3] Patrick Mason, David Pulsipher, Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Ancer to an Age of Conflict, (Deseret Book, 2021), 167-168.

[4] Ibid., 150 fn 7.

Record Keeping Magic

[I'm starting a new position as a permablogger at Wheat and Tares. I've gusted posted there on and off over the years and they are trying to expand their offering. I've found they are a receptive and mostly positive audience to my ideas. As a result, most of these posts are also cross posted over there and they might add some background you've already heard.]

I’ve been operating a blog, Warfare in the Book of Mormon for the better part of a decade now. The most fruitful approach I’ve taken over the last several years is to read the text a bit more critically. This is only a blog so I won’t get into the methodological weeds, but I think the good guys aren’t as good as we think, and the bad guys aren’t’ always as bad.  There is a FAIR conference talk about ten years ago that talked about not having a testimony of the history of the church. This means that while the gospel is true, the history of the church is complicated, nuanced, grey, and not nearly as black and white as many members assume.  As I’ve taken this same approach to the Book of Mormon and tried to examine how the Nephites might not have been as noble and pure as the narrative implies, I’ve noticed that the Nephite record keepers are great magicians.

As Grant Hardy intimated in his book, Understanding the Book of Mormon, sometimes the text omits key material, or includes other material that essentially distracts from uncomfortable implications. He points out Nephi’s return with the brass plates. The narrative skips over’s Lehi’s reaction to instead include a rather rare example of a women speaking and complaining in the text. (1 Nephi 5:1-9) Hardy’s analysis uses that unusual inclusion plus the resulting peace offering to suggest that Lehi didn’t approve of Nephi slaying Laban. The Nephite record keepers use emotionally based language such as this to make the reader see what they want you to see, and ignore the context, implications, and unintended consequences detailed within the text.  This post briefly (as possible) looks at three examples that illustrate these magic tricks.

The burning of Sanjo Palace in Medieval Japan. I like this picture because the Samurai are often viewed as these noble Knight like individuals and even became the basis for the Jedi. But in this battle they burned the palace, and then killed all of the survivors as they fled. You can see a decapitation in the center of the picture. Historical reality is different than the often idealized views of the past. 

This land is my land 

The first example might sound a bit familiar. Last time I posted a dramatized account of Moroni’s army sweeping out the Lamanites in Alma 50:9.  They likely didn’t issue a 30 day eviction notice and do so with a regard for Lamanite civil liberties. In fact, while it’s not recorded in the text I bet they used many of their ethnocentric descriptions of Lamanites to justify their action (see the next section).  The Lamanites are dark, loathsome, bloodthirsty, and wild people while the Nephites will bring the light of Christ and civilization to the region.

In fact, the magic trick then becomes the very long discussion of how happy and secure this made the Nephites. Instead of considering how the Nephites may not have been Christlike to their neighbors, how they exercised naked power against their ethnic rivals, and how those refugees likely enhanced Amalickiah’s arguments about Nephite perfidy the chapter discusses how secure they were. Verse 12 discussed “the assurance of protection” offered by new lands, and waxed eloquent about how happy and blessed the people were until finally in v 23. the text says that there “was never a happier time” among the people.

Yet, just a few verses later, in the same chapter, Morianton does the same thing as Moroni and is defeated by Moroni (v.26-36)!  Instead of receiving praise, Morianton’s people taking up arms is presented in stark and dangerous terms. There was a “warm contention,” and Moroni was afraid the people of Bountiful would side with Morianton in the dispute (Alma 50:32.)  But instead of concentrating how the people of Lehi likely presented a one sided account of the conflict, and how naturally fearful anybody would be of Moroni, the text instead becomes a morality tale as Morianton beat one his servants. Morianton didn’t immediately chase his servant which suggests the possibility that she often ran away and then came back.  But this time she went to Moroni who then found significant moral authority to deal with Morianton.

This moral authority was needed because Morianton was simply doing the same thing that Moroni did a few verses earlier. But Morianton had the negatives of possible being an ethnic minority (because of the Jaredite root ending in his name), driving out Nephite settlers instead of Lamanites, and having the survivors flee to Moroni’s camp.  This is the second magic trick in this story.  In addition to ignoring the consequences of preemptive action seizing land and creating refugees, Morianton couldn’t do the same thing because he was morally corrupt and seditious.

Praiseworthy Bloodthirstiness

The next piece of magic again comes squeezed within a good deal of happy talk. After Nephi and Lehi preach to Lamanites, are encircled by fire, and have massive conversions, there is a stunning change in affairs. Suddenly there is peace, harmony, increased trade, and righteousness throughout the first part of Helaman chapter 6. Yet not all is good because the Gadianton robbers are still active (and we’ll get to that part of the story in a minute.)  

From a spiritual standpoint this is a great story, but conversion also results in societal changes as well. I discuss the historical incidents using examples from European history where I describe how conversion is crown deep. There are numerous benefits that range from added political power, top down government control, additional tools of statecraft, diplomatic benefits that include being part of the Christian club of nations. The conversion of Lithuania is a good case study for seeing all of these trends but for brevity I will focus on the diplomatic benefits.

In Helaman 6:20 the Lamanites are praised for using “every means” to “destroy” the Gadianton Robbers, which might be the only time in the scriptures their martial activities are praised. When the Lamanites are not part of the club they are described a wild, ferocious, bloodthirsty, barbarous, cruel, hardened and a plundering people (Enos 1:20, Mosiah 10:12 Alma 17:14 Alma 48:24). These are typical ethnic stereotypes of the other, but amazingly they disappeared when the Lamanites convert and fought the Gadianton Robbers. When the Lamanite Christians later became Nephites in order to fight the robbers in 3^rd Nephi 2:12-16 their kids also became white!  Fighting satanic pagans under the banner of Christ gets you a good amount of praise from the recording historian (Mormon) as those fighters suddenly become part of the club. This piece of magic is consistent with historical practice and particularly prominent when the historian has a religious background.  

Wicked Chief Judge- Worst thing ever or minor inconvenience?

The final example comes from involves the Chief Judge. In Alma 46 changing a few laws is presented as a grave threat to liberty and resulted in rather passionate prayer, prophecy (and militarization) by Moroni. The Title of Liberty is praised in the most heroic terms. Nonviolent advocates like Jana Reiss and Joshua Madsen have called him a military “stud muffin” and “action hero”. His words helped me get through Marine Corps boot camp and many uncomfortable nights in the field, (at the risk of confirming stereotypes) during my mission in Texas I went to military compounds that quoted and framed the Title of Liberty on their gate, and the Frieberg painting was prominently displayed in my step dad’s office when he was company commander of the 82^nd Airborne. This action was seen as a valiant defense of liberty but the magical description of the powerful Moroni obscures unintended consequences and contrasts with Helaman 6:39 and the trial of where Nephites lost control of the government with little more than a shrug and a whimper.

Just like the refugees created in Alma 50, after the Title of Libety the fleeing men of Amalickiah likely had much more ammunition to spin a tale in front of the Lamanites. He likely didn’t have to exaggerate much to imply that Moroni was an aggressive and dangerous leader.  Nothing says freedom for example like forcing people to support it at sword point (Alma 46:36). Historically failed revolts lands resulted in confiscated lands that were then distributed. Considering the high cost of equipping Nephites with new game changing armor,[1] I wonder if lands were taken or very least a heavy tax levied to support this move. Not only were Kingmen forced to support liberty at sword point, but they likely had to literally pay for it too. This seems like a good case of blowback if there ever was one, and it happened without anybody noticing because we get such warm fuzzies reading about the Title of Liberty.   

Moreover, when the Gadianton Robbers did obtain “sole management” of the government in Helaman 6:39, they were described in the worst terms. Mormon claims the Robbers did “no justice” in the land. They punished the poor because they were poor and allowed the rich to go free so they could go on whore mongering and killing (Helaman 7:4-5). 

Yet, one of the few detailed examples of their justice we have is actually fairly evenhanded. After Nephi prophesied of the murder of another chief judge he was arrested as part of the conspiracy.  They managed to arrest Nephi, an extremely vocal critic of the government, conduct an investigation, and then release him without any indication from the record that he was mistreated.  Nephi didn’t have his lands seized (like the Nephites did to the Lamanites in Alma 50 or possibly the Kingmen in Alma 46), as Nephi apparently maintained his residence in the capital city. Nephi wasn’t indefinitely detained before finally being executed like the Nephites did to their vocal critics during the great war (Alma 51:19; Alma 62:9).  Despite being a vociferous critic of an evil government that he says is inspired by Satan, Nephi received a fair amount of what we would call due process.  Of course, Nephi’s son did have an execution date set. And as a leader of a major or dominant religion, Nephi may have been too big to jail.  Yet this example is still illustrative of how losing control of the government wasn’t the world ending result, especially when we might infer even worse about the supposedly righteous rule of Nephites.

Nephite leaders preemptively seized a perceived threat against the government in Helaman 1, where the person’s sole crime seemed to be just thinking about flattering the people. That could have seemed like a decent reaction based on the chaos caused by other dissenters. But even King Mosiah had to plead to the people that they had no right to “destroy” his son Aaron should he reassert his right to the throne and spark a civil war (Mosiah 29:8), so it seems like a pretty common response that even applied to repentant missionaries. Reading John Welch’s, Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon, shows us that Alma the Younger had to be very creative in his sentence and execution of Nehor, which still inflamed sectarian conflict.^[2]  There are many more examples we could infer about the injustice of the Nephites. Daniel Belnap for example, wrote a very good article detailing the strife and “stumbling block” that unrighteous and unjust actions of Nephites caused in the 18^th year of the reign of the judges.^[3] 

Helaman’s servant stabbed an assassin after nighttime spying (Helaman 2:6), and Nephi exposed another killer in Helaman 9:6. Lawyers and leaders within the Nephite nation were known to beat confessions out of criminals (Alma 14:17-22), and both Lamanites and Nephties attempted to poison each other with wine (Alma 55:13). Of course the beatings to get confessions were committed by unrighteous figures from the wicked city of Ammonihah. Though its important to note that no beatings were recorded during the period the robbers had “sole management” of the government. The Nephites even tested the wine on their prisoners first (Alma 55: 31-32)! Jailing the prophet for a bit in connection to a murder that he just predicated, hardly seems like the government of Satan, and seems comparatively better than some of the actions by righteous figures. Yet again, few readers notice because the Title of Liberty and preaching and prophecy of Nephi distract from that comparison and contrast.

Conclusion

The Book of Mormon is a complex book. Suggesting that the Nephites are unrighteous might be upsetting to some people. After I gave presented at the FAIR conference I got some strong rebukes by people quoting scripture suggesting that I was completely wrong in my reading. This analysis is admittedly speculative, but it’s no less so than the Heartland kooks that probably dominate your Sunday School.  This approach gives us the benefit of treating Mormon as a real person and historian with tension between the spiritual and history in his book. As Michael Austin said the last time this controversy arose, many members insist the book is historical, but then read the text as though it’s a bad novel or propaganda. If the Nephites were real people then they were self-interested just like everybody else in history, and particularly the children of Israel. As a result their record keeping shows the same techniques used by other ancient historians. They liked power and prosperity, and they wrote their history the same way others did. So their culture was seen as better, the “others” were seen as wicked, losing power to wicked individuals was the worst, and making smart moves to consolidate their power was wise. The Nephites were not cardboard cut outs, but acted like people throughout history, moving through a fallen and difficult world the best they can.

Thanks for reading. I work as a freelance writer. If you found value in this piece please consider donating using one of the pay pal buttons at the bottom of the page. 

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[1] Alma 43:19-21 suggest the armor was enough to scare away the Lamanites, and they blame their defeat on it 44:9). We don’t know the exact material. Large metal was not feasible in Mesoamerica at this time, and the Limhites brought back a large piece of armor because apparently it was rare. But it was heavier and enough to tip the balance of power.

[2] John Welch, Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (Provo: Maxwell Institute, 2008), The Trial of Nehor.  

[3] Dan Belnap “And it came to pass . . .”: The Sociopolitical Events in the Book of Mormon Leading to the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 2014 (23): 101-139

2017 Mormon Theology Seminar

[This is a copy of my application to the 2017 Mormon Theology Seminar. This is always a good chance to explore different ideas.  I never did come up with a good title so I hope you don't mind jumping right in.] 

The powerful speech of Abinadi explained pivotal Messianic concepts and elucidated the God head in ways that recalled some of the early Christian ecumenical councils. The largest theme is the duality of Heaven and Earth represented in Mosiah 15:4: And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth. The study of Abinadi’s words justifiably focuses on his amazing testimony of Christ and his bold stand for truth. But preaching doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  His talk about the nature of God and His judgements reveal repeating and important scenes in the Book of Mormon regarding the nature of prophets, and their possible conflict with both political power and the institutional church.

The king and prophet are respective representations of heaven and earth.  The prophets are key explainers of spiritual text which govern the kings, and kings are the divine conduit that governs temporal affairs. The prophet Micaiah in 1^st Kings 22 does a good job of illustrating the possible scene and interplay between king and prophet represented in Abinadi’s preaching. In the story the kings of Israel and Judah sat on their thrones and consulted 400 priests regarding future military action. The 400 priests give their approval for the joint attack. Yet one of the kings wasn’t satisfied with the answer.   He was reluctant to consult the prophet Micaiah because he always prophesied evil concerning the king but did so anyway. When pressed Micaiah gave them grim news concerning the judgements of God and used Christ like language when he compared their defeat to being a flock without a shepherd. 

Micaiah then testified of a vision that truly revealed the dual nature of the episode. As Cristiano Grottanelli explains the text, “On earth we see the thrones of the kings with the ranks of prophets and with the recalcitrant truth telling prophet. In heaven we see the throne of Yahweh with the ranks of spirits, and the lying spirit volunteer.”[1]The encounter ended when Micaiah is then slapped by one of the priests and cast into prison.  The story of Micaiah and Abinadi are fascinating accounts of a prophet being forced to oppose the king, testify of destruction, contradict the priests in the court, and then have a theophonic experience that mirrors the earthly scene. Abinadi is brought before a king, contradicts the priests, teaches of the duality between Heaven and Earth, testifies of Christ being born, Christ being brought before a king and killed, and then Abinadi’s experience ends with his death.  

The treatment of Abinadi is not only a possible type scene with the Bible and representation of duality; it also illustrates key themes in the Book of Mormon. Abinadi being brought before an angry king for his preaching recalls prophets such Alma in the city of Ammonihah (Alma 14:2), and Nephi upon his tower (Helaman 8:5-6) who faced the people’s wrath over the enunciation of political consequences of spiritual condemnation.  The other theme, also represented in the Bible, is the conflict between the priests who are part of the institutional church and the court of the king, and the prophets who are often charismatic and outside of the organized church.  This is most clearly seen in Samuel the Lamanite, who preached on the walls, was never heard again, and the people whom he converted had to seek out Nephi, the institutional leader of the church for baptism (Helaman 16:3-4). The prophet Micaiah also contradicted the larger number of priests who were special guests and interpreters for the king.  Abinadi explicitly threatened both the kings (secular) life and safety of kingdom while also undermining the position and prophecies of the priests. Much like the people in Jeremiah’s day, the priests opposing Abinadi contended that their kingdom is strong (12:14-15).

The spiritual teachings of Abinadi receive a good deal of attention. But his words about God being the Father of heaven and earth suggest a connection between the political history of the Nephites and the spiritual preaching of the prophets that is understudied.  Abinadi represents a possible type scene comparable to Micaiah’s experience in 1 Kings 22, and it also highlights the experience of many Nephite prophets in having their spiritual messages ruffle temporal feathers, and suggests a difference between free-lance prophets and institutional priests. 

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[1] Cristiano Grottanelli, Kings and Prophets: Monarchic Power, Inspired Leadership & Sacred Tect in Biblical Narrative (New York, Oxford University Press, 1999), 175. 

Statement of Interest:

I’m particularly attracted to the seminar’s intense reading and focus on new lines of inquiry into the text and believe I could add a great deal to the seminar.  I have extensive academic experience with over a dozen academic publications and presentations. My most recent work includes a research grant that allowed me to study the early insurgency of Mao Zedong, and a contract with Westholme Press to produce a book on decisive battles in Chinese history.

Regarding the Book of Mormon, my methodological focus has reexamined assumptions about the narrative in the text. This has produced a manuscript length volume which discusses a revisionist history within the Book of Mormon currently under review for publication. Some of that research was previewed in a well-received presentation at the 2016 FAIR conference which examined the social and political factors that might have fueled the Gadianton insurgency.   Another focus has been to examine the relevance of the text in formulating foreign policy. Some of this research has been published in past monographs and contributions to collected volumes and conferences. My most recent piece represents ground breaking research into previously neglected verses that discuss preemptive war.  I look forward to bringing these skills to the 2017 seminar. Thank you.

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