I just started reading a book that I have had for some time entitled Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman. Bushman's most notable published work, From Puritan to Yankee: Character and Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765 won the prestigious Bancroft Prize in 1968, an award considered to be one of the greatest honors for a work on American history.
So I found it interesting while reading the Mormon Times here that Bushman just gave a speech on Wednesday at Weber State University.
In his speech, he stated, "the LDS church is in good company, with Judaism, Islam and Christianity all making extraordinary claims" and that the LDS Church simply needed time to become more familiar to the world in general."What is needed for Mormonism to become respectable is for it simply to age", Bushman stated.
I pondered that last statement and wonder how factual it is. There are so many individuals and organizations that still look at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as fanatical, extremist, and belonging to a cult. I wonder if those that think that way will ever believe anything differently. But perhaps their children will.
This is a very good article, and I encourage you to look it over here.
This is the last paragraph from the Mormon Times article on Bushman's speech: "Piece by piece," Bushman observed, "the elements of the arguments against Mormonism can be dealt with."
Well said.
