We want leaders to be infallible or completely fallible. It is hard for us to realize the giant grey zone for every leader on the planet - prophets included. That grey zone is called agency or free will in a world full of others that wield the same power. The life of Mark Hoffman, Gordon B. Hinckley, and our prophetic narrative all seem to make people think that this story of the Murder among the Mormons is a faith crusher. To me, it is a powerful witness on how God interacts with His children.

Background on the Directors

One of the directors of Murder among the Mormons is anti-religion, and the other is active in the Church. If you listen to Tyler Measom talk, you can tell that he is a big scientism fan. He thinks that those who believe in a metaphysical experience where beings outside of a mortal existence interact with humans are no better than fans at a magic show. Tyler grew up in our faith and left it. Jared Hess is active in the faith and fits many of the stereotypes of our faith. He lived in Utah and Arizona. He met his wife at BYU and now lives in Utah in Leanord Arrington’s old home (which is very cool). He also represents a transition of how faithful Saints can authentically interact with history, life, and God.

Richard Turley on Prophetic Agency

I think Tyler and Jared found a way to tell Mark Hoffman’s story without making it a giant hit piece on faith. However, you could tell that Tyler’s paradigm was trying to create a second narrative in the show. He even said that he originally planned the documentary as a narrative on Joseph Smith where he would compare Joseph to Mark (something like the two best cons in US history). That subtle narrative has a climax around minute 18 of the third episode when they show Fawn Brodie proposing that the prophets and leaders of the Church should have had ‘special divine direction’ that Mark was a conman if they were prophets of God. Then the show allows Richard E. Turley, who represented the Church’s position, explain the sound argument of prophetic agency;

The theological response to [that] is that God gives people the agency to choose between right and wrong. As an omniscient being, who himself knows all of this, he doesn’t step in and interfere. The idea being that universal detection of crimes or sins would revoke the agency God has given to each of His children to make their own decisions.

You can watch the clip of the above quote from the documentary.

Authentic Relationships

As I watched the documentary, I came away with the same feeling that Patrick Mason¹ shared;

The evilest thing Hofmann did was to kill two innocent people in cold blood. But perhaps the second most sinister thing he accomplished was to undermine our collective confidence in facts. Hofmann was a master forger, yes, but even more deeply he was a master manipulator of one of the pillars of social trust — the ability to agree on what the facts are. When that pillar begins to crumble, it’s not just the Saints and the nerds who have reason to worry.

I would replace the word ‘facts’ with ‘authenticity’ as our society is built on social authenticity. God wants that same authenticity as well. God sent us here to learn how to have authentic, loving relationships so that we could fully understand the authenticity of his loving outreach. We find peace in that type of authenticity. Elder Oaks makes the same argument about Mark Hoffman’s con.²

In order to perform their personal ministries, Church leaders cannot be suspicious and questioning of each of the hundreds of people they meet each year. Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love. In that kind of atmosphere, they fail to detect a few deceivers, but that is the price they pay to increase their effectiveness in counseling, comforting, and blessing the hundreds of honest and sincere people they see. It is better for a Church leader to be occasionally disappointed than to be constantly suspicious.

God knows the same thing that Elder Oaks shared. We ‘function best in an atmosphere of trust and love.’ He has given His prophets this agency. He allows them to work to the best of their ability while He trusts them and loves them - just as He does with each of us. In studying the Latter-day prophets, I have yet to come across one history that doesn’t include multiple failures - sometimes significant in size and impact. However, those failures don’t make them sinister failures that are of the same breed as Mark.

I love friends, churches, and a God that provide a space for authenticity. Mark Hoffman looks to be one of the best examples of pure inauthentic relationships. The Church is not one of those examples, as Tyler Measom hopes. The decades around 1970 did provide some very poor examples from our church on how to handle authentic interactions concerning our church history³. However, President Hinckley learned from those Mark Hoffman days, and we are now blessed with the Joseph Smith Papers Archive. The Mark Hoffman and President Hinckley story provides another excellent example of how a meek God would reveal Himself to His prophets as the loving leader of His church.

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