Brief Bio
I was born in 1945 in Salt Lake City to active LDS parents. My favorite
subjects in junior high and high school were chemistry, physics and Latin. I graduated from Olympus High School in 1963, went
on a mission to Northern California, returned and attended BYU for three years where I studied Greek, Hebrew, religion and
was a member of the BYU ballroom dance team.
I left BYU to join the Army Reserve and to get married. My wife is the
former Catherine Shelby who graduated from Skyline High School in 1969, the year we were married in the Salt Lake Temple.
Over the next ten years my wife gave birth to five daughters and our
family hobby became dancesport, the competitive form of ballroom dancing. We went to many competitions and two of our daughters
were US champions and American representatives at the World Championships six times. Four of our daughters have been married
in the Temple bearing us 12 grandchildren. Our youngest, yet unmarried, is signed with ABC as one of the professional dancers
on Dancing With the Stars.
I have spent half of my adult life in the food service business and the
other half in the printing business.
My personal hobby has been the pursuit of Mormon history, Bibles and
Biblical studies and early Christian history. My focus has been on the history of doctrine and thought. Typically I find
myself gravitating to the investigation of controversial topics.
Living in the shadows of the greatest repository of Mormon documents,
the LDS Church Archives, I have spent much time there researching many topics from the primary documents and published
sources.
I have written a number of papers for oral presentation at more than
20 symposiums and conferences and articles for publication. I have many unfinished projects which I hope to pursue on this
website. I began hosting a talk radio show in 1980 with my partner Bill Forrest and have continued to the present. The
diversity demanded by this format has kept me jumping from topic to topic for many years. It is challenging, but enjoyable.
One of the questions I have been asked many times is, "Who gave you permission
to do a radio program on Mormonism?" Or, "What do the Brethren think of your program?" The fact is that I have never asked
permission and I have no knowledge of any LDS General Authorities ever listening to, or commenting on my program.
I have always invited a diversity of views to be expressed and have not
hesitated to express my own position and beliefs on many topics. Certainly, many LDS would disagree with me on a number of
points. There is diversity among maintream LDS who have studied their faith. I consider myself mainstream although I hold
some views which others I consider in the mainstream would denounce.
When I say I consider myself in the mainstream let me expand. I believe
in God and Jesus. I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet of God called to be His agent in the Restoration. Further, I believe that
his successors down to President Hinckley are prophets. While I believe that they are all human and I do not demand perfection
nor infallibility from any of them, I find no difficulty sustaining them.
I believe that the Book of Mormon is an authentic Divinely inspired book
of scripture written to persuade in religious matters resulting in conversion and participation in the Restoration.
I question the wisdom in ignoring this purpose to focus on questions of Book of Mormon geography and historicity.
I have greatly enjoyed my study of the Bible and while I believe
it contains the word of God, I also see it as a diverse collection selected from ancient Jewish and Christian religious writings. I
reject the idea widespread in certain circles that the Bible was dictated by God and perserved by Him. That is far to narrow
of a position to account for the numerous situations encountered regarding the production of the individual books, their diverse
views, their transmission, the yet unsettled selection process of deciding what to canonize and what to discard and the translation
process.
I respect many points of view contrary to my own. I believe that two
honest sincere individuals can pursue a study of Mormonism and come to opposite conclusions. I enjoy discussion with those
with whom I disagree and have often found myself rethinking my views based upon an encounter with another perspective. I am
disappointed by the fact that discussions of Mormon topics from opposing perspectives often result in animosity and degenerate
into name-calling and other forms of verbal abuse. Nonetheless, I invite diversity and refuse to avoid it because of the possibility
of such negativism.
I inherited from my father one of his favorites: "Wisdom is the principle
thing, therefore get wisdom, but in all thy getting, get understanding." Proverbs
