The 2003 FAIR Apologetics Conference was held August 7-8, 2003, at Utah Valley State College. Click here for a perky summary of last year's event. An interesting article in the Desert News contrasts the apologetic FAIR Conference with the more widely-known Sunstone Conference (which takes a broad, diverse perpective on Mormon topics rather than an apologetic stance). The FAIR Conference has become an annual highlight for the growing Mormon apologetics crowd. One attendee from the 2002 conference is quoted as saying "enemies of the Church are all over the place, poisoning the Internet, spreading their wings," showing more than a hint of paranoia. But how else do apologists justify their self-appointed mission?
A good introduction to the flavor of the FAIR presentations is The Impact of Mormon Critics on LDS Scholarship, a paper by Michael R. Ash from the 2002 FAIR Conference. While claiming "I don't mean to imply that all critics are satanic or evil," he used the words "Satan" or "satanic" eight times on the first page. Apologists seem to embrace the sort of "good guys versus bad guys" mentality that comes so naturally to the thoroughly religious mind and is so evident in the Book of Mormon. Unlike the FARMS Review of Books, the FAIR Conference at least tries to do more than just throw rocks at "anti-Mormons." Consider, for example, Brant Gardner's earlier paper on A Social History of the Early Nephites. Considering the Mormon church puts 60,000 "anti-Catholic, anti-Protestant, anti-Jewish" missionaries in the field (to use the same yardstick Mormon apologists apply to those they label "anti-Mormon"), it seems more than a little hypocritical of FAIR and other Mormon groups to criticize Christians, scholars, and dissenting Mormons for publishing their objections to current Mormon doctrine or the orthodox version of Mormon history. Seems like a little self-criticism could go a long way toward softening the increasingly strident tone of Mormon apologists that, unfortunately, is seeping into the attitudes of Mormon leadership and the general membership. Your opinion? 
11:11:29 AM 
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