kathleen wrote: ↑Sun Dec 06, 2020 1:40 am
Hello Shiz,
This is Kathleen Kimball Melonakos, the author of
Secret Combinations: Evidence of Early Mormon Counterfeiting 1800-1847. Glad you have enjoyed my book, at least the part you have read. You refer to the John Dehlin interview that I did on Mormon Stories. Perhaps I can fill you in on that, at least from my point of view, and from the feedback I have received from others....
How wonderful to hear from you, Kathleen! Before writing my initial question I should have re-familiarized myself with your Dehlin interview, but your recap brings it all back. As I remember it, I was pretty captivated the entire interview but I do remember Dehlin letting you have it at the end which must have left an impression with me that by attacking your current religious beliefs he was also discounting your scholarship. That said, after listening I ordered your book right away. Side story: While reading it one night, my TBM wife asked what I was reading and that set off a minor domestic verbal skirmish, so I remember putting your book in a hard to find place only to rediscover it nearly two years later!
I've only read a few more pages since rediscovering the book but I find what you've written so far absolutely dripping with dense detail and connection that you don't find in many other places. The part I just enjoyed reading was Joseph H. Jackson's quote of Joseph Smith admitting that he was an atheist and that
Lyman Spaulding authored the Book of Mormon. Because of the Lyman reference most have dismissed Jackson's tell-all, but I think you bring it back to life by showing the relationship tree -- there really was a Lyman! And the connection could be meaningful in renewing the idea of the Spaulding Theory, which I think is the most plausible of the theories on the Book of Mormon's creation.
I don't know that anyone else has successfully mapped relationships like these, post-Fawn Brodie. Understanding how all were so much more interconnected -- especially around Dartmouth -- is a masterful finding. I'm no scholar so maybe I've missed it in early Dialogue articles or another book out there, but point is I'm seeing it for the first time in your book and am loving it!
The other piece you mentioned with Dehlin was the possible connection Joseph had to a murder during his days living in Pennsylvania. I'll be interested in learning more on that one, too. If I remember right, Dehlin didn't take that one seriously.
My growing theory is that Joseph was very intentionally deceiving everyone from the beginning. He was not delusional, or especially hopeful, as many seem to believe, but was an atheist early on. So far, your book kind of feeds that idea for me. It's something we'll never know but someone engaged in the level of deceit he was from an early age, and ancestrally, tends to lead me there. That's where your work on their counterfeiting is so important as it paints a clearer picture of one prone to lie, and not for the Lord.
As I get through the book I'll reach out again. Thanks for your good efforts.
And regarding your Christian faith, I respect it 100%. I've lost my faith in just about everything but I like hearing how others have rebuilt post-Mormonism.
But I write on another matter -->
