Alex Beam interview

[_Joe Geisner]

Many people have said they prefer the written word, so here is the perfect interview with Alex:

http://ourmaninboston.wordpress.com/

[_Joe Geisner]

It appears he has also done an interview with Clay Painter. This should be fun as well.

http://mormonexpositor.com/76-alex-beam ... ucifixion/

[_Fence Sitter]

Thanks Joe.

From the Alex Beam interview when the interviewer asked him if Mormonism was a cult.

I have to say in all honesty when I read the first 120 pages of Lawrence Wright’s book on Scientology {Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief), which is essentially L Ron Hubbard’s biography; I just thought I was reading about Joseph Smith. There were so many similarities. Larry’s book is not fresh in my mind now but it was almost a one to one correspondence. I am dodging your question. I am aware it is valid but I don’t have an answer.

[_Fence Sitter]

More from the interview.

I went to the Mormon Historical Association annual meeting which, for me, was a huge treat. A really friendly Mormon guy— he was such a friend to me throughout the writing of this book, I sent him the book and he said come on down and give a presentation. I gave a presentation and it was very well received. Having said that, the church has an official history department where they create the official history. In my talk I likened their history library to the Lenin Library, which wasn’t all that well received. It was funny — I talked to these people—they knew who I was, let’s put it that way. And this one guy, he wrote the definitive apologist account of the Mount Meadows Massacre—he’s a guy I was trying desperately to reach for three years. He wouldn’t talk to me.

[_Craig Paxton]

More from the interview.

I went to the Mormon Historical Association annual meeting which, for me, was a huge treat. A really friendly Mormon guy— he was such a friend to me throughout the writing of this book, I sent him the book and he said come on down and give a presentation. I gave a presentation and it was very well received. Having said that, the church has an official history department where they create the official history. In my talk I likened their history library to the Lenin Library, which wasn’t all that well received. It was funny — I talked to these people—they knew who I was, let’s put it that way. And this one guy, he wrote the definitive apologist account of the Mount Meadows Massacre—he’s a guy I was trying desperately to reach for three years. He wouldn’t talk to me.

a.k.a. Richard Turley

[_CaliforniaKid]

I definitely need to read this Alex Beam book all the kids are talking about.

[_Aristotle Smith]

I definitely need to read this Alex Beam book all the kids are talking about.

Alex Beam, like Grant Palmer before him, commits the cardinal sin of Mormon Historiography: he made a book an average reader can get through. That's why people are talking about the book, for the simple fact that more people can get through it.