Some of you have already anticipated my conclusion. This is the kind of history—or at least one kind of history—we need in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Speaking from a background of reading many diaries and minutes of meetings, as well as letters and reports on which decisions were based, I can confidently say that such history, in addition to being closer to the reality of actual experience, enhances appreciation for the dedicated, sincere men and women who made decisions and moved the work along. You don't have to agree with them. You don't have to consider them inspired or vested with God's authority. That is a separate question. But in the face of such history you simply cannot portray them as evil or as simpletons.

Since all history is affected to one degree or another by the faith position of the historian, I rejoice when any topic is treated by someone who is both a believer and a good historian. Ideally, the result will be so conscientious, willing to face the facts and consider the complexity of the events, that the resulting article or book will command attention. Let me say that I also welcome non-Mormon historians and will praise their works when they deserve it.

Consider a current example: The Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 has been a cause celebre ever since. Anti-Mormons loved to describe the event in excruciating detail, conveying the impression that this was Mormonism, pure and simple. Instead of the smiling, clean-cut young people with name tags, the real Mormonism, lurking behind the facade, is the massacre and other events like it. So the anti-Mormons would have you believe. That is the subtext of the repeated tellings of the event by critics of the Church. The anti-Mormon writer is not satisfied with describing the event. The horrifying group murder is used as a foundation for larger conclusions—the perfidy of Brigham Young, the intrinsic cruelty of the Mormon religion, the depravity of its doctrines, or, as with Jon Krakauer's recent book, the narrowness, self-righteousness, and violence of all religion.

How should the faithful Latter-day Saint respond? I think it is perfectly permissible for a Latter-day Saint to say, "I don't know anything about that. What I do know is that it is not part of my religion. I have never heard it defended or advocated. I do not have a testimony of the Mountain Meadows Massacre."

But we are talking about what historians can do. The best response to bad history, it has been said, is good history. More than a half century ago, Juanita Brooks wrote one such work of good history. During the past two or three years, new attackers have entered the fray, recounting the events in all their horror but now laying the responsibility squarely on Brigham Young. Individuals of means subsidize works of this kind, and, not surprisingly, there is an audience out there ready to read and publicize. In response, reviews have been written, some of them gleefully reveling in anything that discomfits their Mormon neighbors, some of them savoring the violent and sensational while betraying no in-depth understanding of Mormon history, some of them with penetrating criticisms exposing core legal and methodological flaws in the recent books.

In addition to book reviews in the scholarly journals, three historians have undertaken an exhaustive study. Richard Turley, Ronald Walker, and Glen Leonard are in the final stages of preparing a book that promises to be thorough, using more sources than anyone else. It will be comparative. It will place the event in its wartime context. It will examine alleged provocation. Where mistakes were made, as they obviously were, they will not be swept under the rug. Henceforth it will be the book that anyone who presumes to write on the subject simply must come to grips with. Bad or superficial history will be shown for what it is by superior history.

Is this not a model? One can think of a series of controversial and problematical episodes in our Church history. With newly available sources, with fresh questions, they are ripe for reexamination. This is not an exciting, original idea that no one else has ever thought of. Some articles and books have already done what needs to be done. But there is much yet to do.

Not that conscientious, scholarly history will satisfy the anti-Mormons. They have another agenda. Our worthy opponents will not cease to mine Mormon history for anything negative they can use. If many Latter-day Saints simply ignore these attacks, I am not surprised. After all, they have careers to pursue, families to raise, callings in the Church to perform. Without becoming hugely upset over incidents in our Church history, they have work enough to do ere the sun goes down. But we also have historians both professional and amateur. They also have a work to do.

I don't mind calling on our apologists, including those present here today, to write good history. You need not embark on a huge multi-volume project. It can be a study of one incident or one problem, eventuating in an article or a two-page response. But if it is a historical question, let our treatment be good history. Simply treat a given topic in a way that satisfies any honest reader and in a way that meets the accepted standards of scholarship.

Some of our apologists are already doing this. They have defined a historical problem with precision, examined all the evidence, subjected it to the necessary critical analysis, and presented their findings. Those with the requisite training, skills, and time will continue to do this, making a contribution and perhaps even producing some major works of history. The evil-doers fume and fret, falling back on their tiresome tactic of labeling the work as apologetic. But if they are not brain-dead, what they are really thinking is, "Hey, these guys are good. This is good history."

How Important Is History?

I have been speaking as a historian. What about converts in Mongolia and Ghana? Do they know, or should they know, the Church's nineteenth century history in any depth? What about those non-readers being produced by the government schools in this country? Will they know the details of Mormon history? What about the young missionaries preaching the gospel throughout the world? Are they shining bright because they have read history books for ten hours a day during their teenage years? How much do they know? How much should they know?