It looks like this: You can read it by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Below is what I originally wrote, with links to the 2016 version of my reply, if that’s still of any interest. I recommend you read the newest version if you haven’t read any of this before. Daniel Peterson is a brilliant BYU professor who spends a lot of his time engaging in LDS apologetics. In August of 2014, Peterson gave a presentation to the apologetic group Fairmormon<\/a> on the topic of a PDF booklet titled “Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony<\/a>” by a guy named Jeremy Runnells.<\/p>\n The following is the first paragraph from the transcript of that presentation.<\/p>\n Some of you don\u2019t know what the \u201cLetter to a CES Director\u201d is. It\u2019s a letter that\u2019s been circulating online for about a year now\u2026 a year and a half, I think, as far as I know, that has gotten quite a bit of circulation. It\u2019s a kind of compendium of standard critical arguments against the truth claims of the Church. It\u2019s entitled \u201cLetter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony,\u201d and it was written, as the story goes, by request of a CES director who wanted to know why this young man had decided to leave the Church. He wrote the letter. The CES director said he would get back to him with answers, but he did not, according to the story. Now the thing is about 90 pages long, and it\u2019s just a rata-tat-tat list of objections. I can understand why a normal person confronted by that would say, \u201cWell, you know, I\u2019ve got a life. Its 90 pages of quick and dirty objections would take 500 pages to respond to, and probably wouldn\u2019t do much good, so, never mind.<\/p>\n – Daniel Peterson, “Some Reflections on that Letter to a CES Director,” August 8, 2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, I’m here to tell you that Daniel Peterson was wrong. It would only take 231 pages. And 113,031 words. Because, yes, I’ve personally written a comprehensive, line-by-line response to the “Letter to a CES Director.”<\/p>\n Which proves that Dan Peterson was right about one thing – I have no life.<\/p>\n Honestly, why would I do this?<\/p>\n Probably because Runnells\u2019 letter has become the new gold standard for those taking issue with the Church. Dissidents like John Dehlin and blogs like MormonThink and ZelphontheShelf (a great, great title, by the way \u2013 well done, Zelph!) frequently quote from it as the authoritative source for orthodox ex-Mormon positions. \u00a0 As I wander in and out of various Facebook groups and blog discussions, I become astonished at how far-reaching the influence of the CES Letter really is. While I was preparing this response, I received word that one of my cousins has lost her faith as a result of it. Indeed, so many cite\u00a0Runnells\u2019 arguments as the catalyst for their own\u00a0faith crisis that it begs for a substantive and faithful reply.<\/p>\n There have been attempts, of course, but most of them are like Daniel Peterson’s – shorter summaries rather than a line-by-line refutation. FairMormon comes closest – they have devoted considerable resources to responding to it<\/a>, except the presentation is somewhat disjointed. I thought it would be helpful if someone like the CES director to whom the letter was directed had actually replied in a comprehensive conversation rather than\u00a0through a\u00a0piecemeal series of encyclopedia entries. I’m not a CES director, but I did teach early morning seminary for three years, which makes me\u00a0a former CES employee. (Or a CES contractor, anyway.) That\u00a0gave me enough\u00a0chutzpah to rise up to the challenge.<\/p>\n When I first read the CES Letter, I realized that I had already written a number of things about many of the subjects, so I started cutting and pasting\u00a0responses, which deluded me into thinking I could pull this thing off without much effort. But then\u00a0when I fully\u00a0committed to making my way through the whole thing, I realized how naive I had been. (I even ended up\u00a0having to do things like read almost all of “View of the Hebrews” by Ethan Smith. Nobody should have to read “View of the Hebrews” by Ethan Smith.) But, still,\u00a0I kept slogging on\u00a0until\u00a0it became too late to turn back.<\/p>\n Anyway,\u00a0now it’s done.<\/p>\n If you really want to read the whole thing all at once, you can download the PDF and peruse it at your leisure. If you click on the button below, it will open the PDF in a new browser tab. If you right-click on it, you can choose to download it directly to your own computer.<\/p>\n
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