Indeed, in reading through the first section of the Smith essay, I find it scholarly, well researched, temperate and balanced in tone and presentation, and detailed in its varied examples and vignettes regarding John Dehlin's beliefs and behavior, and I also see why secularist anti-Mormons of the particular "NOM" type find this to be a "hit piece."
It rigorously exposes John Dehlin to the disinfectant of light.
Smith's essay digs deep into Dehlin's complex and shifting public persona, the inconsistencies and ambiguities in the manner in which he has traditionally defined himself, his purposes in producing his podcasts and constructing Mormonstories, and the hardly inconsequential ax he has to grind against the Church.
The piece clarifies a number of key points or questions about Dehlin that I have long suspected to be the case and now, with a thoroughly researched study giving a more panoramic, analytical view of his career over time, those suspicions have been, for all intents, confirmed as I originally held them.
Despite all of the big, watery-eyed wails of anguish from Dehlin and his supporters each and every time the term "wolf" was used to symbolize the content and intent of his various personal projects, and despite all the endless protestations to the contrary, Dehlin emerges here as a thoroughgoing dissenter and rebel in deep conflict with his church over fundamental questions of doctrine and worldview, to the extent of questioning and/or openly expressing disbelief in the existence of Jesus as a historical figure, the reality of the concept of sin, and the doctrine of the Atonement. His open support of homosexual marriage and conflict with other standards of the church are extensions of his underlying sense of alienation from the church and many of its central teachings.
Interestingly enough, he also confirms a common pattern I have detected among others holding similar positions and who remain in the church "incognito," as it were, as apostates hiding in plain sight:
“ . . . I mostly stay [a member] to help
others just finding out the truth. I would be labeled an apostate if it was known so I don’t let that happen.”
This is the very scriptural "wolf in sheep's clothing" coming clean, as it were, about a core motive for remaining within the Church as an "active" member and not simply severing ties with the religious organization and criticizing from without as an open and unambiguous opponent.
He's kind of like The Thing, hiding within a host and imitating it and using this subterfuge to infect others until it has neutralized what it perceives as a threat to its own integrity.
These were, indeed, the same wolves among the flock the New Testament apostles warned the 1st Century Saints would come among them and sow dissension, confusion, and contention from within the Church.
Also exposed, once and for all, is the risible claim that his only intention is to help people discover whether or not they wish to stay in the Church, upon what basis, and under what terms. Most of what Dehlin has actually done (and my own reading of a number of the testimonials on the Mormonstories website) indicate that, for from this, his primary interest has been mediating exit from the Church.
It was, according to Dehlin, a long and arduous process to precipitate the apostasy of his wife:
“Took about 3 years to convince her—not a fun 3 years I might add. So here’s [some] hope for those with T[rue] B[eliever] M[ormon] spouses. . . .”
Dehlin's general intellectual shallowness, his tenuous grasp of LDS doctrine, and his poorly read general outlook on both Mormonism and numerous issues connected to it stand out in a rather conspicuous detail here, with all the evidence condensed and presented in one scholarly paper rather than dispersed throughout hundreds of hours of podcasts and disparate textual sources.
Yes, a "hit piece" indeed. And so ends the NOM legend of John Dehlin, the noble, innocent, misunderstood Oprah of secular anti-Mormonism.