{"id":3708,"date":"2016-04-02T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/?p=3708"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:39:53","slug":"ces-reply-foreword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/ces-reply-foreword\/","title":{"rendered":"CES Reply: Foreword"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is an excerpt from &#8220;A Reply from a Former CES Employee.&#8221; The entire document can be downloaded for free.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/CESReply.pdf\" target=\"_self\" class=\"emd_dl_red_darker\" download>Download CES Reply<\/a><\/div>    <style>            \r\n    .emd_dl_red_darker {\r\n        -moz-box-shadow:inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #f5978e;\r\n        -webkit-box-shadow:inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #f5978e;\r\n        box-shadow:inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #f5978e;\r\n        background:-webkit-gradient( linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0.05, #f24537), color-stop(1, #c62d1f) );\r\n        background:-moz-linear-gradient( center top, #f24537 5%, #c62d1f 100% );\r\n        filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#f24537', endColorstr='#c62d1f');\r\n        background-color:#f24537;\r\n        -webkit-border-top-left-radius:0px;\r\n        -moz-border-radius-topleft:0px;\r\n        border-top-left-radius:0px;\r\n        -webkit-border-top-right-radius:0px;\r\n        -moz-border-radius-topright:0px;\r\n        border-top-right-radius:0px;\r\n        -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius:0px;\r\n        -moz-border-radius-bottomright:0px;\r\n        border-bottom-right-radius:0px;\r\n        -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius:0px;\r\n        -moz-border-radius-bottomleft:0px;\r\n        border-bottom-left-radius:0px;\r\n        text-indent:0;\r\n        border:1px solid #d02718;\r\n        display:inline-block;\r\n        color:#ffffff !important;\r\n        font-family:Georgia;\r\n        font-size:15px;\r\n        font-weight:bold;\r\n        font-style:normal;\r\n        height:41px;\r\n        line-height:41px;\r\n        width:200px;\r\n        text-decoration:none;\r\n        text-align:center;\r\n        text-shadow:1px 1px 0px #810e05;\r\n    }\r\n    .emd_dl_red_darker:hover {\r\n        background:-webkit-gradient( linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0.05, #c62d1f), color-stop(1, #f24537) );\r\n        background:-moz-linear-gradient( center top, #c62d1f 5%, #f24537 100% );\r\n        filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#c62d1f', endColorstr='#f24537');\r\n        background-color:#c62d1f;\r\n    }.emd_dl_red_darker:active {\r\n        position:relative;\r\n        top:1px;\r\n    }<\/style>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As a freshman at the University of Southern California, I was first exposed to what is commonly referred to as \u201canti-Mormon literature.\u201d I read \u201cThe Godmakers\u201d from cover to cover, which described a church with a history and doctrines far darker and more sinister than the relatively dull one in which I had spent the entirety of my life. I also ended up listening to a \u201cChristian\u201d radio station which broadcast the rantings of one Walter Martin, who had made a living as an \u201cexpert\u201d on \u201ccults\u201d and the \u201coccult,\u201d a world in which Mormons supposedly play a starring role. In reviewing the work of these people who had made tearing down my faith their mission, I found myself feeling frustrated, frightened, and powerless \u2013 frustrated because I knew that a good chunk of what they were saying was flat-out wrong, frightened because I wasn\u2019t sure if the stuff they claimed that I didn\u2019t recognize was actually true, and powerless because I was in no position to offer any substantive rebuttal.<\/p>\n<p>I returned to Salt Lake over Christmas break and, out of the blue, was given a copy of \u201cThe Truth About \u2018The Godmakers,\u201d a book by a man named Gilbert Scharffs that took \u201cThe Godmakers\u201d and refuted every charge in it, line by line, with ample documentation. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairlds.org\/authors\/scharffs-gilbert\/the-truth-about-the-god-makers\">(You can now read the whole book online \u2013 no charge.)<\/a> I later met Mr. Scharffs after I returned home from my missionary service in Scotland, and I thanked him for his thoughtful reply. What struck me, beyond the saliency of his arguments, was the patient, Christlike tone with which he wrote. Where \u201cThe Godmakers\u201d had been inflammatory and insulting, Scharffs had been reasonable and kind, with no attempt to attack or defame his supposed enemies personally.<\/p>\n<p>That is the tone I will try to emulate as I reply, line by line, to Jeremy Runnells\u2019 magnum anti-Mormon opus, \u201cLetter to a CES Director.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CES Letter is quite different in tone from \u201cThe Godmakers\u201d and my old pal Walter, who were making the case that Mormonism is a Satanic cult, whereas Jeremy is making a more intellectual case that the Church is little more than a clumsy, obvious, and occasionally well-intended fraud. So while Walter Martin wanted to tear down my Mormon faith to make me a Christian, Jeremy Runnells just wants to tear down my Mormon faith and leave me comfortless in the theological rubble. It\u2019s a far bleaker worldview than the one \u201cThe Godmakers\u201d was peddling, and it\u2019s also, I think, a far more devastating assault on the LDS faith.<\/p>\n<p>Runnells insists that he still hasn\u2019t received a reply\u00a0from the CES director to whom his magnum opus was addressed. I\u2019m no CES Director, but I did teach early morning seminary for three years in Westwood, California, in the meetinghouse right behind the Los Angeles Temple. They actually paid me to do it, more or less making me a CES employee, although my \u201csalary\u201d was only $599 per year. Another dollar and I would have had to declare it on my income tax. (As it was, they labeled the check as \u201creimbursement for expenses,\u201d but, just to be safe, I still paid tithing on it.) This probably means I was more of a CES contractor than a CES employee, but I prefer the title as it is, even if it contains error. That way, my fallibility will not be in question.<\/p>\n<p>There have been a few other attempts to respond, most notably from FairMormon, which Runnells dismisses as a group of \u201cunofficial apologists.\u201d I take from this that only a direct response from the Quorum of the Twelve or the First Presidency would satisfy Runnells as an \u201cofficial apologist\u201d response, and it is unlikely that any such response will come through official channels. Certainly this response is deeply unofficial \u2013 I\u2019m the ward Webelos leader, which is the limited extent of my current ecclesiastical authority. So nothing I write here should be interpreted as anything but the extremely fallible opinion of a rank-and-file church member. One wonders, then, why I would bother to write it at all.<\/p>\n<p>To answer that, I would cite the Gilbert Scharffs example, recognizing that he was actually a CES Director, and so his response might rise to the level of a more official response. Regardless of his credentials, I will be forever grateful to Brother Scharffs for offering solid answers to an ignorant college freshman who was looking for them when the \u201cGodmakers\u201d authors were eager to destroy my faith. I doubt anything I write here will have any impact on the opinion of Jeremy Runnells \u2013 he seems to have pretty well made up his mind on this stuff \u2013 but if there is a single kid, or adult, who reads this and feels a little less frustrated, frightened, or powerless, then writing this will be worth it.<\/p>\n<p>I also recognize that there is often little value in being \u201canti-anti,\u201d as it usually generates more heat than light, and the exchanges are seldom, if ever, accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Book of Mormon quotes Jesus as saying that \u201che that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.\u201d (See 3 Nephi 11:29-30)<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sad to report that I\u2019ve had my share of contentions on subjects like these, and I have no desire to deliberately reproduce that experience here or anywhere else. I also don\u2019t want this to be interpreted as a personal indictment of Jeremy Runnells. He is a man I have never met and a man I am in no position to judge. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s helpful to demonize those who doubt, or even those who leave. I will therefore attempt to rise to a level of charity, honesty, and compassion in my response, and I will probably, at times, fail miserably.\u00a0 In fact, I probably already have. That\u2019s a good thing, as it really takes the pressure off going forward. I also intend to keep things as light and playful as possible, as I don\u2019t see any reason to treat this thing like a funeral. Just because we\u2019re dealing with issues of eternal salvation, damnation, and eternal lakes of fire and brimstone, there\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t have a little fun.<\/p>\n<p>So, some ground rules \u2013 Jeremy\u2019s words will be reproduced here in <span style=\"color: #339966;\">forest green<\/span>, the color of life. My responses will be in black, the color of darkness. In addition, as I mentioned yesterday, much of the info I will put into my response has already been on my blog in one form or another. I will therefore be cutting, pasting, and freely plagiarizing myself without giving myself proper attribution. (In fact, I\u2019ve done it several times already in this foreword, and you probably didn\u2019t even notice!) It saves me the time of rewriting what I\u2019ve already written on a number of these subjects, and I\u2019m nothing if not lazy.<\/p>\n<p>With that inspirational background out of the way,\u00a0we begin the actual reply tomorrow. Be sure to tune in!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<em>Thisis an excerpt from \"A Reply from a Former CES Employee.\" The entire document can be downloaded for free.<\/em>&nbsp;As a freshman at the University of Southern California, I was first exposed to what is commonly referred to as \u201canti-Mormon literature.\u201d I read \u201cThe Godmakers\u201d from cover to cover, which described a church with a  ... <a title=\"CES Reply: Foreword\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/ces-reply-foreword\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about CES Reply: Foreword\">Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3708"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5138,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions\/5138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}