Is’t possible! a sinful man like me,
A candidate for Heaven’s mystery!
May I approach the gate and enter in,
Be washed and cleansed from all my former sin,
Renewed in spirit, and partake the power
Of blest Theology from this good hour?
– Parley P. Pratt[1]
On September 1, I found myself doing something I could probably stand to do quite a bit less often: I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed in hopes that someone had posted something interesting. Eventually, something caught my eye. I read the poster’s strongly-worded commentary about the link and then, perhaps because I can’t help but take a peek at things that appear to be the source of such ill-informed outrage, clicked on the link.
The newly-opened tab in my Chrome browser was directed to a YouTube video showing a “Faith Matters” segment from what appears to be a 2009 episode of ABC’s Nightline program. According to host Martin Bashir (who later moved to MSNBC, where he would eventually be forced into an ignominious resignation), the segment was billed as an opportunity for leaders of the Mormon church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS) to “dispel some of the myths surrounding their faith.” The reporting seemed fair enough, and it didn’t seem to me like the type of video that tends to attract fire-breathing Facebook posts.
So why did this one earn so much ire? As is often the case, the answer has more to do with the poster than the subject about which he posted.
The poster was Lee Baker, a former member of the LDS faith who now spends his days trying to convince faithful Mormons to abandon the Church. Through the use of social media, YouTube videos, newsletters, podcasts, and even writing his own book, Baker believes his efforts are planting seeds of doubt in the hearts of Mormons in the United States and Africa.[2]
To help him in his efforts, Baker leans on a variety of organizations, such as Witnesses for Jesus, a Colorado-based Christian non-profit organization that devotes the majority of its energies to arguing against the beliefs of Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. A portion of the organization’s website, “Lee’s Corner,” is essentially a blog where Baker can publicize his latest efforts in his newfound anti-Mormon ministry.
An interesting irony in all of this is that despite Baker’s outspoken denunciations of the LDS Church and his apparent desire to distance himself as far from the Church’s teachings as he can, he can’t seem to divorce himself from his Mormon alter ego. Indeed, in nearly every article, speech, blog post, podcast, or newsletter, he goes to great pains to identify himself as “a former Mormon bishop and High Priest.” In June, he participated in an anti-Mormon “protest” (for lack of a better term) in which he wore what he called his “Bishop’s Suit” and shouted to faithful Mormons in Utah about his interpretations of LDS history and theology.[3] On his Facebook profile he identifies his employment as “Former Mormon Bishop at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (sic), an amusingly misleading claim because, as every Mormon knows, the Church does not pay its clergy. The rest of Baker’s exploits might also be amusing, I suppose, if they were not so sad.
Over a decade ago when I was a teenager, Baker was one of the adult leaders assigned to work with the 16-18-year-old young men in my local LDS ward (local Mormon congregations are organized geographically into units usually referred to as “wards”; for more information on this, see here). He was, in some ways, exactly what boys that age might hope for in an adult leader. His energetic, opinionated, fearless attitude seemed to mesh perfectly with his passion for guns, the outdoors, politics, and the National Security Administration (where he worked for many years as an intelligence analyst). While I can’t say that he and I were particularly close (he didn’t live within our ward’s geographic boundaries for very long), I can say that we had a lot of fun. After he and his family moved, however, we didn’t keep in touch, except for the two years during which he forwarded me emails from his son, Sean, who was then serving an LDS mission in Brazil. By the time I next came into contact with Baker, in 2010, it had been two years since he had been excommunicated from the Church, and until I responded to his September 1, 2014 post about the Nightline segment, our interactions had been limited, but cordial.
In the days leading up to the September 1 post, Baker shared several anti-Mormon posts, including one, on August 31, alleging that the Church harshly “shuns” people who abandon the faith. I read the article, found its arguments rather silly, and left a brief comment, to which Baker never replied.
Baker’s August 31 post, showing my brief comment beneath it.
When I replied to Baker’s next post the following day, I expected a similarly muted response. In posting the Nightline video, he wrote:
“As a Former Mormon Bishop and his wife, we find this is embarrassing to watch. The Mormon Church defending itself from the actual History of their own religion. I am amazed that they say that the LDS Church had NOTHING to do with the Fundamentalist breakoff! REALLY?? According to their own published History, the fact is that the Fundamentalist groups (over 50 of them) follow the Polygamy teachings of the First Four Mormon ‘Prophets’, and all of the early Mormon General Authorities as well as BOTH the Book of Mormon and the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants as Scripture from ‘God’… Ok, I see… So… Polygamy is NOT from the Mormons? Loosen your ties Gentlemen, the additional oxygen may help you think more clearly.” (sic)
Baker’s September 1 post.
I watched the video carefully a few times to see if the two LDS Apostles in the video, Elders M. Russell Ballard and Quentin L. Cook, ever claimed that polygamy was never taught or practiced in the Church. Not surprisingly, they made no such claim. Considering this an obvious straw man fallacy, my simple response to this link was, “No man is quite as fun to beat up as a straw man!”
This time Baker responded. “Too deep for me… I don’t get that one Adam” (sic).
“When,” I asked, “did they ever claim polygamy wasn’t practiced in the Church?”
Declining to answer my question, Baker instead responded with links to videos of some of his material, along with a variety of other unrelated (and, to me, mostly unremarkable[4]) claims about the Church and its history. He also made an offer: “if you find anything wrong in what I say or teach, I will never speak against the Church again, ever!!” (sic)[5]. After that, the thread largely became a mostly-predictable game of whack-a-mole, in which I pointed out errors, Baker repeatedly changed the subject, and his friends gleefully launched a few ad-hominem attacks against me.
More significant to subsequent events, Baker said he wanted to organize a public conference in which he and I, along with my local church leaders, could discuss the issues he has with the Church. I declined his offer and pointed out – in somewhat sarcastic fashion, I confess – that I’d never seen a case in which someone thought it a bright idea to take an informal Facebook exchange and turn it into a large, videotaped conference. Besides, given what I viewed as the substandard nature of the research and presentations I had seen from his articles, podcasts, and YouTube videos, I had no desire to be associated with his efforts whatsoever. Nor did I wish to be involved in any way with any person or organization that appears to be dedicated to destroying my faith. For these and other reasons, each time he asked me to be a part of his conference or his ministry in general, in public and in private, I made it clear that I was not interested.
But going back and forth on the September 1 Nightline thread was apparently not enough for Baker. He expanded his argument to two separate postings on my Facebook wall, in addition to a series of private messages. The threads resulting from what he posted on my wall were essentially more of the same, so I do not have any interest in rehashing their contents here.[6] At about the same time, he busied himself with posting similarly antagonistic messages on the Facebook walls of some my close friends in South Africa, where I served a two-year LDS mission a decade ago. He also visited the Facebook page of a public relations firm I worked for briefly last summer and left a negative review, for no other reason, it seems, than the fact that I once worked for them. He later posted a link to that company’s website on his Facebook page, writing, “Here is a Company I would Not Trust” (sic), though he gave no reason why he would not trust them.
Eventually, when it became clear that my comments on the Nightline thread and his postings to my wall were doing more to demonstrate the reasonableness of my positions than his, he simply de-friended me so that I could no longer add any comments to the original Nightline post. This development, quite frankly, was an unfortunate but acceptable outcome. I considered the matter over, and for all intents and purposes forgot about it.
Then in mid-November I became aware of a series of letters that Baker had mailed to a number of people. In the letters, he suggested that I had requested he put together a conference tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2015. The letters were sent to the Director of MBA programs at UT-Dallas (where I am currently working towards completing an MBA degree), a member of the UT-Dallas faculty whom I have never met, at least one former employer, some local LDS Church leaders, and what he termed other “Appropriate Media & Religious Outlets” (sic).[7]
Not only did Baker misrepresent me and my position with regards to this conference, as well as that of the Church, he also misrepresented himself. The letters claim that he is a member of the Church (he isn’t) and that he is therefore fulfilling his memberly duties by hosting this conference (no member of the Church is required to do any such thing). He also claims that his goal is to “assist the Church” in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet nowhere in his letters does he discuss much about the Church’s doctrine; he instead focuses on some selective and distorted readings of history that appear designed to do anything but “assist the Church.”
Earlier this month, in his weekly radio broadcast, Baker made a brief return to his prior efforts to damage the reputation of one of my former employers (again, for no other reason, it seems, than the fact that they once employed me). On his January 3rd broadcast (the relevant portions are at about 28:38), while discussing the value of public relations (which he evidently views as a dishonorable profession) he said,
“I even worked with a small group who sometimes does work for the Church — Pilmer Public Relations out of Orem, Utah. I do not understand how they work. I do not even understand the industry. You know it’s gotta be a bad day when something happens and you think, ‘We need the public relations manager.’ How about if we just tell the truth?”
Ironically, this statement contains more error than truth. Baker has never “worked with” the company in question. He did leave negative Facebook reviews and send misleading letters to them (see above), but it is difficult to imagine how this constitutes “working with” them. The company has not, to my knowledge, performed any P.R. work for the Church either, as Baker claims it “sometimes” does. Besides, it seems silly to suggest, sans evidence (as he does), that any public relations efforts are inherently dishonest. And if public relations is an inherently dishonest profession, why would Baker want to publicly associate himself with a public relations firm? And while Baker is claiming to have “worked with” the company, he also claims he has no idea how it, or the industry as a whole, works. Baker’s claims here are more riddled with contradictions than a zombie at a Mensa society meeting.
It is not entirely clear to me if Baker thinks that his behavior throughout all of this is likely to persuade me (or anyone else) to his way of thinking, or if he is simply interested in being a nuisance and attempting to harm my reputation among peers and colleagues. For one thing, attempting to associate me with such an ill-conceived (and, to some of the non-LDS recipients of his letters I spoke with, offensive) conference idea when I repeatedly declined does not exactly engender warm feelings. Supplying articles, videos, podcasts, etc. that are filled with false premises, half-truths, and outright falsehoods does not help his case either.[8]
I confess that this entire series of events has come as somewhat of an unfortunate surprise. I have participated in countless online debates on myriad topics, and while not all of them have ended on the friendliest of notes, not one of them has led to any of the parties involved waging anything that so much as resembles a personal vendetta against another. One hears stories about such things from time to time, of course. But until, “by sad experience,” one encounters them first hand, it is easy enough to dismiss them as the sort of thing that happens to other people.
Yet in spite of this ill-conceived campaign that this former friend appears determined to wage against me and the Church, his efforts have been surprisingly faith-promoting. In 1834, Joseph Smith said:
“Strange as it may appear at first thought, yet it is no less strange than true, that notwithstanding all the professed determination to live godly, apostates after turning from the faith of Christ, unless they have speedily repented, have sooner or later fallen into the snares of the wicked one, and have been left destitute of the Spirit of God, to manifest their wickedness in the eyes of multitudes. From apostates the faithful have received the severest persecutions . . . There is a superior intelligence bestowed upon such as obey the Gospel with full purpose of heart, which, if sinned against, the apostate is left naked and destitute of the Spirit of God . . . When once that light which was in them is taken from them they become as much darkened as they were previously enlightened, and then, no marvel, if all their power should be enlisted against the truth, and they, Judas-like, seek the destruction of those who were their greatest benefactors.”[9]
True as it appears that statement may be, it is nevertheless not my belief that it must be so. Indeed, I write this post not just to demonstrate Baker’s folly, but also because I want, like Spencer W. Kimball, “to make the joyous affirmation that man can be literally transformed by his own repentance and by God’s forgiveness.”[10]
I draw hope from stories like that of W.W. Phelps, which, in my mind, seems like a happy and hopeful way to bring this sad tale to a conclusion:
In the early years of the Church the Prophet Joseph Smith had no more faithful aide than William Wines Phelps. Brother Phelps, a former newspaper editor, had joined the Church in Kirtland and was of such assistance to those early leaders that they sent him as one of the first Latter-day Saints to the New Jerusalem—Jackson County, Missouri. There he was called by the Lord to the stake presidency of that “center stake of Zion.”
But then troubles developed. First they were largely ecclesiastical aberrations but later there were financial improprieties. Things became so serious that the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that if Phelps did not repent, he would be “removed out of [his] place” (HC 2:511). He did not repent and was excommunicated on March 10, 1838.
The Prophet Joseph and others immediately tried to love Phelps back into the fold, but he would have nothing of it. Then in the fall of that violent year W. W. Phelps, along with others, signed a deadly, damaging affidavit against the Prophet and other leaders of the Church. The result was quite simply that Joseph Smith was sentenced to be publicly executed on the town square in Far West, Missouri, Friday morning, November 2, 1838. Through the monumental courage of General Alexander Doniphan, the Prophet was miraculously spared the execution Phelps and others had precipitated, but he was not spared spending five months—November through April—in several Missouri prisons, the most noted of which was the pit known ironically as Liberty Jail.
I do not need to recount for you the suffering of the Saints through that period. The anguish of those not captive was in many ways more severe than those imprisoned. The persecution intensified until the Saints sought yet again to find another refuge from the storm. With Joseph in chains, praying for their safety and giving some direction by letter, they made their way toward Commerce, Illinois, a malaria swamp on the Mississippi River where they would try once more to build the city of Zion. And much of this travail, this torment and heartache, was due to men of their own brotherhood like W. W. Phelps.
W.W. Phelps
But we’re speaking today of happy endings. Two very difficult years later, with great anguish and remorse of conscience, Phelps wrote to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo.
Brother Joseph: . . . I am as the prodigal son. . . .
I have seen the folly of my way, and I tremble at the gulf I have passed. . . . [I] ask my old brethren to forgive me, and though they chasten me to death, yet I will die with them, for their God is my God. The least place with them is enough for me, yea, it is bigger and better than all Babylon. . . .
I know my situation, you know it, and God knows it, and I want to be saved if my friends will help me. . . . I have done wrong and I am sorry. . . . I ask forgiveness. . . . I want your fellowship; if you cannot grant that, grant me your peace and friendship, for we are brethren, and our communion used to be sweet.
In an instant the Prophet wrote back. . . There is a lesson here for every one of us who claims to be a disciple of Christ.
He wrote:
Dear Brother Phelps: . . . You may in some measure realize what my feelings . . . were when we read your letter . . . .
We have suffered much in consequence of your behavior—the cup of gall, already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us . . . .
However, the cup has been drunk, the will of our Father has been done, and we are yet alive, for which we thank the Lord. And having been delivered from the hands of wicked men by the mercy of our God, we say it is your privilege to be delivered from the powers of the adversary, be brought into the liberty of God’s dear children, and again take your stand among the Saints of the Most High, and by diligence, humility, and love unfeigned, commend yourself to our God, and your God, and to the Church of Jesus Christ.
Believing your confession to be real, and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal.
“Come on, dear brother, since the war is past,
For friends at first, are friends again at last.”
Yours as ever,
Joseph Smith, Jun. [HC 4:141–42, 162–64]
It seems almost unthinkable that Phelps, who was not only fully aware of all the controversial issues that had dogged Joseph Smith for years, but who knew from close personal acquaintance that Smith was made from the same crooked timber as the rest of us, would willfully choose to return to a faith he had once abandoned and actively sought to destroy.
Yet that is exactly what he did.
______________
[1] Pratt, Parley P., Key to the Science of Theology, 5th Edition, 1891, p. 96
[2] He has a weekly podcast that is aimed specifically at African Mormons in Liberia.
[3] Interestingly, I have been a member of the Church my entire life and have never heard of a “Bishop’s suit” before. Moreover, I have never seen a Bishop dressed as Baker was, in a suit with a black name tag. Full-time missionaries wear the black name tags, but bishops do not. His use of a black name tag appears to be deliberately misleading.
[4] I say his claims are unremarkable to me because for the most part, there was very little new information. Many of his points seemed to constitute little more than standard anti-Mormon fare which, thanks to the magic of Google, one can find with relative ease.
[5] Throughout the thread, he repeated this claim several times.
[6] If you are interested, however, you can view them HERE and HERE.
[7] I have not been able to confirm whether any letters actually were sent to other media or religious organizations in the area, although the letters I have seen claim that this is the case. Likewise, I have no evidence that any letters were received by local Church leaders.
[8] I am not, by the way, interested in getting into the myriad problems with his telling of LDS Church history here, though perhaps I may do so in a future post.
[9] Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, Deseret Book Company, 1967, p. 67
[10] Kimball, Spencer W., The Miracle of Forgiveness, Bookcraft, 1969, p. x-xi
