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Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters
From Fanny Stenhouse to D. Michael Quinn, much of LDS history includes the struggle of men and women who have been willing to ask hard questions. Their issues have centered not only on theology, but also on history, politics, and social topics. Fourteen essays outline the dramas that continue to shape people's differing visions of the Mormon experience.
388 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2002
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September 9, 2026
ESSAYS GIVING BACKGROUND INFO ON A WIDE VARIETY OF PEOPLE
Editors John Sillito and Susan Staker wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, “Clearly, the individuals discussed in this volume qualify as mavericks. Each in his or her own way proved difficult to master, and each operated independently as an individualist. Running chronologically from the early 19th to the early 21st centuries, the subjects of these essays stretch to the very beginning of the history of the LDS church… Whether any individual’s dissent was personal, theological, financial, intellectual, or some combination of the above, every Mormon maverick sought to differentiate his or her view of the Mormon experience from that of the church leaders and from the overwhelming majority of church members as well. This often proves to be disagreeable. The expression of differences brings separation from family and former colleagues, and dissenters are often turned into societal outcasts. Some of these mavericks would come to leave the church, some would not. Some of them would return to the fold; others would remain outside… all of them seem to have been motivated by the desire to promote truth in the face of falsehood. Whether or not they were correct or succeeded in their endeavor is up to each of us to decide in light of our own beliefs and values.”
Ronald W. Walker says of the book ‘Tell It All,’ written by Fanny Stenhouse, “Throughout [the book] there existed a consistent feminist concern, demanding equality and respect, which placed the book in the mainstream of the 19th century’s women’s crusade. Fanny stated repeatedly that she was shielding her readership from the worst of Mormon atrocities—for the ‘sake of decency and propriety.’ She nonetheless hinted that the Endowment House had been employed for murder, suggested that the priesthood had ‘buried’ innocent children who knew its dark secrets, and claimed that Mormon boys had been forced into polygamy. When documenting ‘blood atonement,’ however, her charges reached their most extreme.” (Pg. 116)
William D. Russell says of James J. Strang, “Baptized into the Mormon church by [Joseph] Smith himself only four months before the prophet’s death in June 1844, Strang was nonetheless able to make a believable claim that he was Joseph’s legitimate successor by producing a letter purporting to be from Smith, by claiming a vision in which Smith ordained him, by publishing revelations which he had received, and by unearthing plates and translating them, reminiscent of Smith’s Book of Mormon. There were claims which Brigham Young could not make to buttress his assertion that he was Joseph Smith’s legitimate successor.” (Pg. 131)
He continues, “Internal dissension was a far more serious problem during the years that Strang’s group was located in Wisconsin than was gentle persecution. It is interesting to note the speed with which new converts came and went. When William Smith committed himself to Strang, it looked as though he had brought the whole family of the martyred prophet with him.” (Pg. 140)
Newell G. Bringhurst reports, “In Mormon circles Fawn McKay Brodie is primarily known for her controversial 1945 biography of Joseph Smith, ‘No Man Knows My History,’ for which she was excommunicated. In the 1946 summons to church court, [the] president of the New England Mission charged her with apostasy… This reaction did not surprise the author of the biography. Brodie had approached the Mormon prophet from a ‘naturalistic perspective’---that is, she saw him as having primarily non-religious motives. As she later noted, ‘I was convinced before I ever began writing that Joseph Smith was not a true prophet. Writing [her book] was her declaration of independence from Mormonism…. [She] described the biography as ‘a desperate effort to come to terms with my childhood.’” (Pg. 193)
He continues, “In 1937 she followed [her uncle Dean] Brimhall’s lead and took an interest in the Church Security Program, later known as the Welfare Program, which at the time was touted by church leaders as the Mormon version of the WPA… Although the program aided many destitute church members, both Brodie and Brimhall felt that church officials overstated the program’s impact in taking church members off the federal relief rolls. Their point was that the church was deliberately creating the illusion that it had removed ‘most or all of its members from public assistance’ through its Welfare Program. In reality, the number and percentage or church members receiving public assistance remained high.” (Pg. 200-201)
Levi S. Peterson says of Juanita Brooks [author of ‘The Mountain Meadows Massacre’], “For a quarter of a century, she quietly proceeded with her own agenda for change within the church. She desired specifically that the official church … confront its past candidly and fearlessly, particularly by opening its historical archives to all scholars and by welcoming frank and probing studies. Even more important ...was her upright role as a model for other Mormon protesters. Between the appearance of ‘The Mountain Meadows Massacre’ in 1950 and her retirement from active life in 1977, no other Mormon stood more notably as a symbol of open yet loyal dissent.” (Pg. 215-216)
She continues, “[Brooks] also rebuked Elder Joseph Fielding Smith for conscious distortion of the truth about the massacre in his ‘Essentials of Church History,’ published in 1945. Pointing out that Smith had quoted Western historian Hubert H. Bancroft’s assertion that the massacre ‘was the crime of an individual, the crime of a fanatic of the worst stamp,’ Juanita noted that as church historian, Smith commanded an abundance [of evidence] to the contrary. ‘Even the most superficial research,’ she scathingly concluded, ‘would show the utter ridiculousness of such a statement.’” (Pg. 223)
Stan Larson wrote of Thomas Stuart Ferguson, “Ferguson told [Harold H.] Hougey that he admired his search for the truth but admonished him to work just as hard in searching for problems in Protestantism as he was in looking for difficulties in Mormonism. Ferguson felt that if Hougey would do this, he would either reject them both or ‘come to the point of view to which I have come---even though untrue, they [Protestant Christianity and Mormonism] do more good than harm’.” (Pg. 264)
Brigham D. Madsen wrote of Sterling M. McMurrin, “While many Mormons go through a sometimes traumatic religious awakening in adulthood as they begin to examine the history and theology of their faith, Sterling came to his skepticism early and never encountered such an apocalyptic experience.” (Pg. 289)
Lavina Fielding Anderson says of D. Michael Quinn [author of ‘The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power’], “Michael’s second major work broke new ground again, in this case the place of homosexual Mormons. In ‘Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth Century Americans: A Mormon Example’ … Michael made strenuous efforts to set a context by establishing a complex and elaborate taxonomy of same-sex attraction, only one element of which is erotic behavior. This contribution was an important one, given the eroticized culture of contemporary American society in which virtually any physical contact would be interpreted as sexual… An explosion of letters … criticizing Michael’s methodology and conclusions and simultaneously dismissing the book because of the author’s sexual orientation, which Michael publicly acknowledged in the summer of 1996. Some critics saw in this work a ‘homosexual agenda’ with an ‘obvious impact on the way he has recently chosen to write about the Mormon past.’” (Pg. 356-357)
This book will be of great interest to those wanting to know more about such dissenters/critics of the LDS church.
Editors John Sillito and Susan Staker wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, “Clearly, the individuals discussed in this volume qualify as mavericks. Each in his or her own way proved difficult to master, and each operated independently as an individualist. Running chronologically from the early 19th to the early 21st centuries, the subjects of these essays stretch to the very beginning of the history of the LDS church… Whether any individual’s dissent was personal, theological, financial, intellectual, or some combination of the above, every Mormon maverick sought to differentiate his or her view of the Mormon experience from that of the church leaders and from the overwhelming majority of church members as well. This often proves to be disagreeable. The expression of differences brings separation from family and former colleagues, and dissenters are often turned into societal outcasts. Some of these mavericks would come to leave the church, some would not. Some of them would return to the fold; others would remain outside… all of them seem to have been motivated by the desire to promote truth in the face of falsehood. Whether or not they were correct or succeeded in their endeavor is up to each of us to decide in light of our own beliefs and values.”
Ronald W. Walker says of the book ‘Tell It All,’ written by Fanny Stenhouse, “Throughout [the book] there existed a consistent feminist concern, demanding equality and respect, which placed the book in the mainstream of the 19th century’s women’s crusade. Fanny stated repeatedly that she was shielding her readership from the worst of Mormon atrocities—for the ‘sake of decency and propriety.’ She nonetheless hinted that the Endowment House had been employed for murder, suggested that the priesthood had ‘buried’ innocent children who knew its dark secrets, and claimed that Mormon boys had been forced into polygamy. When documenting ‘blood atonement,’ however, her charges reached their most extreme.” (Pg. 116)
William D. Russell says of James J. Strang, “Baptized into the Mormon church by [Joseph] Smith himself only four months before the prophet’s death in June 1844, Strang was nonetheless able to make a believable claim that he was Joseph’s legitimate successor by producing a letter purporting to be from Smith, by claiming a vision in which Smith ordained him, by publishing revelations which he had received, and by unearthing plates and translating them, reminiscent of Smith’s Book of Mormon. There were claims which Brigham Young could not make to buttress his assertion that he was Joseph Smith’s legitimate successor.” (Pg. 131)
He continues, “Internal dissension was a far more serious problem during the years that Strang’s group was located in Wisconsin than was gentle persecution. It is interesting to note the speed with which new converts came and went. When William Smith committed himself to Strang, it looked as though he had brought the whole family of the martyred prophet with him.” (Pg. 140)
Newell G. Bringhurst reports, “In Mormon circles Fawn McKay Brodie is primarily known for her controversial 1945 biography of Joseph Smith, ‘No Man Knows My History,’ for which she was excommunicated. In the 1946 summons to church court, [the] president of the New England Mission charged her with apostasy… This reaction did not surprise the author of the biography. Brodie had approached the Mormon prophet from a ‘naturalistic perspective’---that is, she saw him as having primarily non-religious motives. As she later noted, ‘I was convinced before I ever began writing that Joseph Smith was not a true prophet. Writing [her book] was her declaration of independence from Mormonism…. [She] described the biography as ‘a desperate effort to come to terms with my childhood.’” (Pg. 193)
He continues, “In 1937 she followed [her uncle Dean] Brimhall’s lead and took an interest in the Church Security Program, later known as the Welfare Program, which at the time was touted by church leaders as the Mormon version of the WPA… Although the program aided many destitute church members, both Brodie and Brimhall felt that church officials overstated the program’s impact in taking church members off the federal relief rolls. Their point was that the church was deliberately creating the illusion that it had removed ‘most or all of its members from public assistance’ through its Welfare Program. In reality, the number and percentage or church members receiving public assistance remained high.” (Pg. 200-201)
Levi S. Peterson says of Juanita Brooks [author of ‘The Mountain Meadows Massacre’], “For a quarter of a century, she quietly proceeded with her own agenda for change within the church. She desired specifically that the official church … confront its past candidly and fearlessly, particularly by opening its historical archives to all scholars and by welcoming frank and probing studies. Even more important ...was her upright role as a model for other Mormon protesters. Between the appearance of ‘The Mountain Meadows Massacre’ in 1950 and her retirement from active life in 1977, no other Mormon stood more notably as a symbol of open yet loyal dissent.” (Pg. 215-216)
She continues, “[Brooks] also rebuked Elder Joseph Fielding Smith for conscious distortion of the truth about the massacre in his ‘Essentials of Church History,’ published in 1945. Pointing out that Smith had quoted Western historian Hubert H. Bancroft’s assertion that the massacre ‘was the crime of an individual, the crime of a fanatic of the worst stamp,’ Juanita noted that as church historian, Smith commanded an abundance [of evidence] to the contrary. ‘Even the most superficial research,’ she scathingly concluded, ‘would show the utter ridiculousness of such a statement.’” (Pg. 223)
Stan Larson wrote of Thomas Stuart Ferguson, “Ferguson told [Harold H.] Hougey that he admired his search for the truth but admonished him to work just as hard in searching for problems in Protestantism as he was in looking for difficulties in Mormonism. Ferguson felt that if Hougey would do this, he would either reject them both or ‘come to the point of view to which I have come---even though untrue, they [Protestant Christianity and Mormonism] do more good than harm’.” (Pg. 264)
Brigham D. Madsen wrote of Sterling M. McMurrin, “While many Mormons go through a sometimes traumatic religious awakening in adulthood as they begin to examine the history and theology of their faith, Sterling came to his skepticism early and never encountered such an apocalyptic experience.” (Pg. 289)
Lavina Fielding Anderson says of D. Michael Quinn [author of ‘The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power’], “Michael’s second major work broke new ground again, in this case the place of homosexual Mormons. In ‘Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth Century Americans: A Mormon Example’ … Michael made strenuous efforts to set a context by establishing a complex and elaborate taxonomy of same-sex attraction, only one element of which is erotic behavior. This contribution was an important one, given the eroticized culture of contemporary American society in which virtually any physical contact would be interpreted as sexual… An explosion of letters … criticizing Michael’s methodology and conclusions and simultaneously dismissing the book because of the author’s sexual orientation, which Michael publicly acknowledged in the summer of 1996. Some critics saw in this work a ‘homosexual agenda’ with an ‘obvious impact on the way he has recently chosen to write about the Mormon past.’” (Pg. 356-357)
This book will be of great interest to those wanting to know more about such dissenters/critics of the LDS church.
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