Is Book Burning Next?

Read this from the Ogden Standard-Examiner and form your own opinion. Note that the newspaper article has a forum that is decidedly anti-Mormon on this issue. Here is a forum from the LDS blog Our Thoughts.

Comments

[Kim Siever]

Thanks for the props.

[nathan]

I wonder what you mean by the title of this post. Are you for the apology or for the teacher? If for the teacher is it so bad that parents of the students demand that history be taught correctly?

[Kim Siever]

Who said she was teaching history incorrectly?

[nathan]

I did. If you knew the history of the LDS people and Joseph Smith in particular then you would probably feel the same way. Joseph Smith was arrested many times. In Pensylvania he was arrested, but was aquited of all charges due to the perjury of his accusors. In Missouri he was arrested, but never charged. He was held for many months and finally released without charges ever being brought and no trial ever being held. In illinois he was arrested along with his brother and two others members of the LDS church without charges and held in Carthage jail where a mob finally stormed the jail and murdered Joseph and his brother Hyrum.
This has been the extreme cliff notes history version. There are other more in depth resources out there. I would advise you to look into them and do your own research and come to your own conclusion.
My point still remains the same. Is it wrong for a parent of a student to demand an apology for something that they feel was taught falsly? If the teacher was teaching the theory of evolution as proven fact, would the parent be justified in demanding a retraction? I would say yes. What is the difference in this case?

[Kim Siever]

I am very familiar with the story of Joseph Smith and the LDS people. After all, I am one of them. I am not sure why you assumed otherwise.

I still do not see what was false or incorrect about what the teacher taught.

She taught that Joseph Smith was jailed. This is correct. She taught that some people thought Joseph Smith was a criminal. This is also correct.

Do you have an example of something she presented as fact that was false? I certainly could not find anything mentioned in the article that she presented falsely.

[Dave Tufte]

This is a nice - a good discussion going without any prompting from me.

I didn't mean anything pro or anti-Mormon by the title. What I meant was "is this how book burning movements get started?" This seems like a small issue that could easily be blown out of proportion.

Without taking sides, I will point out that Nathan's interpretation is weaker than he thinks (this is an issue known as observational equivalence in economics). Joseph Smith may very well have been innocent in each case, but the problem is that a guilty person could have left the same paper trail - so the trail itself cannot provide particularly strong evidence. Without giving offense, I'd like to point out that if you take this tack, then supporters of O.J. Simpson are on firmer ground than those of Joseph Smith.

Also, I think that Kim's last point is well taken - based on what is written in the article it is hard to see a problem. Could the parents have known something that we don't - of course. But that doesn't make it a legitimate debating technique to assume that they did.

[Nathan]

My comments were made because other reports site the students reaction to the statement that Joseph Smith was a criminal, not that "some people" thought he was a criminal. That is making a false statement and teaching history incorrectly. Now this may have been a miscommunication between teacher and students, and student and parents, but it may also have been a case of a teacher changing her story after the fact to avoid the backlash. Either way I think that it was well within the parents right and duty to demand an apology or at least an inquiry into the event.

I am sorry if I made a false assumption in assuming you were not LDS, but given that LDS members are an extreme minority I thought that I would be safe in assuming so. My mistake.

[Dave Tufte]

I don't know of "other reports". I may be remiss in not presenting all sides of the issue, but I'm a blogger, not a reporter. I thought this would generate some discussion, and it did.

Within the context of the article I linked to, I think my interpretation, and that of the other commenter were OK.

I am not LDS (although I do live in Utah, so I am in the local minority). I am an interested observer who tried to present the issue neutrally.