Brian Hales on Mormon Stories

[Guest]

I listened to part of part 1 of Brian Hales' Mormon Stories interview on my way into work. It is sort of a blow-by-blow response to the things Grant Palmer said in his last Mormon Stories interview.

The first topic Hales discussed was Joseph Smith's rumored relationship with Eliza Winters. Hales did not impress me here. Hales argued that Winter's silence about the issue is evidence that the report was false. I felt like Hales was trying to read too much into her silence. There are too many other equally plausible or even more plausible explanations for her silence, e.g., she probably don't want to discuss an earlier dalliance because it would be embarrassing.

However, things got better from this point until I had to quit because I had arrived at work (middle of the Fanny Alger discussion). I thought Hales did a much better job pointing out the problems with Grant Palmer's earlier narrative. In fact, I remember listening to Palmer's interview and thinking many of the same things, especially regarding the Mirinda Nancy Johnson castration story (I think it was unlikely that castration was a major consideration the night Joseph was tarred and feathered in Ohio).

Overall, I thought Hales did a good job and was fairly even handed in his approach (more so than Palmer). I also think a lot of Hales' conclusions are probably right given the current state of the evidence.

P.S. One interesting tidbit I was unaware of is that Brian hired Don Bradley to do research on polygamy. Don used this research to write the article on Fanny Alger in the Persistence of Polygamy book.

[_Stormy Waters]

I liked it overall. It's always nice to hear someone engage the evidence in this way.