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Mormon Stories Interview Released with Dr. Richard Bushman

There’s no one in Mormonism that’s too big to do an interview with John Dehlin (frequent KVNU’s For the People guest host and North Logan resident) on Mormon Stories.   John just posted the first part of an interview he did with Dr. Richard Bushman on Joseph Smith.

I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I am really excited to do so.   I have read Dr. Bushman’s book, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.     That book is one of the most important contributions ever to Mormon Studies.   I am not a professional historian, but I felt that the book read like some of Leonard Arrington’s- whose great accomplishment was the ability to write an exhausitve religious history that was both appreciated and accepted as accurate by both believers and skeptics, a nearly impossible feat.

Joseph Smith was a complicated man, a man I personally believe to be inspired, but complicated with weaknesses and shortcomings nonetheless.    In the passionate debate over the past two centuries about Joseph Smith, it’s been fairly rare to have an honest discussion about him.   Followers have been afraid to concede weaknesses and shortcomings in the man and his ministry, while opponents have been unwilling to concede goodness and virtue.    In reality, when we talk about Joseph Smith, we usually get two different men who only share a name, title, birthdate and martyrdom.