Several years ago, a good friend of mine, Tom Donofrio (who actually introduced me to this board way back when), shared with me some correspondence he had had with Mormon pseudo-historian, Richard L. Bushman on the matter of obvious Book of Mormon plagiarisms that Tom had uncovered in his extensive and well-documented research. I have, over the years, encouraged Tom to consider making that correspondence public but, to the best of my knowledge, he has yet to do so, saying that it was private. (I must take a bit of undeserved pride, however, in noting that the title of his presentation, "Book of Mormon Tories," was my small contribution to his great piece of investigative research).

As time has passed, Tom has made some public references to his correspondence-encounters with Bushman and, in doing so, has openly quoted small portions of Bushman's predictable TBM reaction to Tom's devastating findings. Being the good Mormon "historian" that he is, Bushman, of course, has essentially shrugged it all off.

Below is some of what Tom has noted publicly about his research-sharing with Bushman, one of Mormonism's greatest living non-historical apologists:

"'Significant Parallels' (A Reply to Ben McGuire and Others)
by Thomas E. Donofrio [November 2006]

"(Editor's Remarks: The following reply was written by Mr. Donofrio, shortly after the 2006 web-publication of Ben McGuire's 'Parallelomania: Criticism of the Textual Parallels Theories' (http://solomonspalding.com/SRP/parallels.htm). The present web-page is only a short response of opinion (with some minor editorial insertions) and is not intended as a recapitulation of the entire topic, nor a point-by-point rebuttal. For background on the subject matter, see Ted Chandler's 'Finding the Bible in the Book of Mormon' [http://web.archive.org/web/20071027035036/www.mormonstudies.com/bible.htmnew site location], and Mr. Donofrio's original paper, 'Early American Influences on the Book of Mormon' [http://www.mormonthink.com/influences.htm, new site location]."

[Donofrio]:

"Mr. McGuire's 'Parallelomania' paper has recently been made available on the web and its contents call for a short exercise in clarification and opinion-giving, for the benefit of Book of Mormon defenders and for students of Mormon apologetics alike. Besides Mr. McGuire, other defenders have addressed some of the issues he raises: a few brief remarks will suffice as my reply to all of them.

"I have found it consistently predictable, that when an analysis of my research is conducted by defenders, they deftly avoid discussion of the 'liberty, property, wives and children' theme in Revolutionary War writing and the similar 'liberty, lands, wives and children' theme in the Book of Mormon. The fact that both sets of documents (viewing the Mormon volume as a collection of texts) 'take up arms' to defend these things makes the sets of parallels especially significant. I find the defenders' general evasion of the theme an indication of that significance. I'll provide some heterogeneous examples:

" . . . Richard Bushman, in private correspondence with me a few years ago, offered the . . . observation . . . that this stuff was floating around and was of no real significance, (though he admitted there were 'striking similarities' between Washington and Moroni). Dr. Bushman's defense was to explain that I would have a difficult time proving the transmission route from the Revolutionary sources to Joseph Smith's mind. While that may be true, it leaves the 'no significance' answer unexplained. Are 'striking smilarities' of 'no significance,' because their insertion into the Book of Mormon cannot be documented?"

( http://solomonspalding.com/SRP/parallel2.htm )
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"Mormonthink" describes Tom's research as a "fascinating presentation" and "a must-view for those interested in the Book of Mormon and interesting parallels with contemporary sources of Joseph Smith's time."

( http://mormonthink.com/whatsnew.htm )


Part 2 of Tom's presentation made at the ExMormon Foundation annual conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, 20 October 2012, can be viewed on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCWaad1mSXo
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Bushman ought to suck it up, come clean and attend Tom's presentation one of these days. Perhaps it will shame him into a state of non-Saintly submission.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2014 05:15PM by steve benson.

I don't know much about Richard bushman personally. The fact that he can still claim to be a true believer knowing all that he does about Joseph Smith isobviously a little concerning. The good news is that his history of Joseph Smith has actually driven several people out of the church, and many many more church members out of a testimony.

I don't know Bushman personally,however the one semi-positive thing I can say about his book on JS,is that some TBM's who would never have read anything anti,could read his book,because he's a member in good standing,a former SP of the Boston Stake a few years before MM.Romney.But, I Don't know how in the he'll he could still believe all the BS?