The 2009 Ex-Mormon Conference and Spalding

Why don't we start off with an event I just attended and go from there. Last Friday I once again attended the Annual Ex-Mormon Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and had a terrific time. The presenters were perhaps the best I've seen yet (since I presented there two years ago :-)), in spite of the fact that attendance was down from last year. It was also the busiest I've been so far, between meeting with new colleagues, talking with old "exmo" friends, videotaping a session that ran concurrently with another one, and also two very personally gratifying conversations with some folks I've known for awhile.One of the highlights was the presentation by Craig Criddle on his research into various word patterns and phrases that were common to both the Book of Mormon and known samples of Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith, Pratt, and Solomon Spalding, the man whom we believe, based on over 30 years of research, wrote the basis for the Book of Mormon.I guess at this point I may need to answer a few questions, starting with who I am. My name is Art Vanick and I am one of three co-authors who wrote "Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? - The Spalding Enigma", published by Concordia Publishing House in 2005. It is the second of two books in which I participated with my two co-authors, the first book being published in 1977 with the help of Dr. Walter Martin. I did some of the research for the 1977 book but was not one of the authors. Now for the next question: who was Solomon Spalding and how was he connected with the Book of Mormon?Solomon was a down and out retired Congregationalist minister who toward the end of his life turned to writing with the hopes of providing a financial legacy for his poor family. He made two attempts at least two attempts at writing - Manuscript Story, which he ended abruptly, and Manuscript Found, which he submitted to several publishers and which finally found acceptance by the Patterson Print Shop. The book was mediocre, however, and so Spalding was required to raise the necessary amount of money to cover the printing cost, which he attempted to do but died before he was able to do it, so the manuscript lay in the print shop. This brings us to the next question - what does Spalding have to do with the Book of Mormon?The Spalding manuscript was taken or otherwise acquired by a man named Sidney Rigdon, who was said by many to have frequented the print shop where Spalding's manuscript was located. At some time after he got the manuscript, he met with Oliver Cowdery and his cousin, Joseph Smith, and the three of them over a period of about three years edited and otherwise rewrote Spalding's manuscript and turned it into what is now known as the Book of Mormon.The next question is how old is the Spalding-Rigdon theory? The answer is older than the Book of Mormon itself, and possibly goes back to a accusation that was attributed to Spalding and his wife, who supposedly accused Sidney Rigdon of taking Manuscript Found as early as 1814.In any case, it is quite probably the oldest and definitely tne most severely attacked of all of the non-Mormon theories for the origin of the Book of Mormon. I say this because it has not only been attacked by Mormons but also by non-Mormons and also various "Smith-only" Christian groups who insist that Smith had to have written the Book of Mormon.Our book, all 562 pages of it, attempts to solve the Spalding Enigma from a historical perspective. It's basically a historical "whodunnit" where we attempt to show via as much evidence as possible, how the principals in the story get together and do what we claim they do.We have been joined in recent times by others who have gone at the same problem from other viewpoints, like Tom Donofrio and Craig Criddle, whose presentation at the 2009 exmo conference has elevated the Spalding claims several notches, as had Tom's.Well, that's about it for now. It's Friday and that means "pizza and movie night" at my household. Join in as the spirit moves.Art
October 16, 2009 7:06 PM