SANDY, Utah

Is LDS Church history reliable when that history is produced by the Church itself?

Church historians today employ rigorous standards, a member of the Church History Department said Aug. 6 during a presentation at the two-day FAIR Conference.

Ronald O. Barney is a volume editor for the Joseph Smith Papers Project and executive producer of the KJZZ television series that is a companion to the project.

"I know something about the rigor that has been applied to ensure that these volumes will stand for a long time and have a long shelf life," Brother Barney said. "I don't believe we have to make any apologies to anybody." Dozens of outside reviewers have scrutinized it to ensure dependability, he added.

Photo by R. Scott Lloyd

In his FAIR Conference presentation, Ronald O. Barney of the Church History Department discusses the reliability of Mormon history produced by the Church itself. Click for bio of FAIR Conference speakers

FAIR is an acronym for Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, an independent group that defends the Church against attacks on its faith, doctrine and history.

Brother Barney, who has spent 32 years in Church employment, said that "any history about the Church, regardless of who produces it, should be scrutinized."

"We can't be lazy about this," he said. "This religion is too important, and it is very defendable."

He added, "I have a stronger belief in Joseph Smith and his divine appointment today ... than I ever have in my life. We do not have to cut corners; this really is the kingdom, and there are men who really do have keys that were handed over to them by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and they really were handed down. I'm banking the rest of my eternal future on it."

He acknowledged a sentiment of years past that the Church has not been forthright in publishing its history.

He said things changed in 1972, when the Church Historian's Office became the Church Historical Department. At that time, a cadre of professional archivists "served as the platform to create an environment whereby the Church could not only produce an excellent history, but could ensure that it was dependable," he said.

A milestone occurred in 1984, he said, when staff member Dean C. Jessee published The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. Brother Jessee followed that up in 1989 with publication of the first volume of an intended multi-volume work on the papers of Joseph Smith. It was compromised by the unintended inclusion of Mark Hofmann forgeries, he said, but a revised edition came out in 2002 "with rigorous attention made to detail and to ensure that it was defendable."

That was followed by Brother Jessee's effort to publish the papers of Joseph Smith, an intended six-to-eight volume set, with two volumes published in 1989 and 1992. The project stalled, then was jump started at the end of the 1990s by what has become the Joseph Smith Papers Project.

Brother Barney said the new project has had as many as 59 people at a time working on it. The first of an anticipated 30 volumes was published last fall, and the second is due out in September.

Brother Barney spoke of a lesser-known project he called "one of the most significant things the Church has done in its history." The effort included publication of 31 selected collections from the Church's historical archives made available on 74 DVDs, including the entirety of the Joseph Smith collection and 1,000-plus volumes of the Journal History of the Church. Some 450,000 scanned images from the archives are included in the published discs, all in high resolution and, in many cases, easier to use than the originals. He [or Brother Barney] said most of the purchasers have been research institutions, but some individuals have bought the set as well.

"It's completely accessible and purchasable by anyone," he said of the set.

He noted that a book on the Mountain Meadows massacre was published under the authorship of Richard E. Turley, Ron Walker and Glen M. Leonard, three historians connected with the Church. It has been favorably reviewed as "the most thorough, objective and accurate book on the subject to date."

Regarding cooperation by Church authorities in the preparation of the book, Brother Barney said, "Everything that could have been made available was available, and I think we're going to see this kind of historical production in the future."

He added, "I think it's probably understood that the Church moves at a bit of a slower pace than perhaps an independent organization does, but there is so much care and so much attention to detail applied. As one Church leader has said, we want what we do to become bullet-proof."

Brother Barney said the current lesson manual on the teachings of Joseph Smith, used by adults in the Church in priesthood quorums and Relief Society meetings, was prepared from a database furnished by the Church History Department that grew out of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. That database assigned a ranking to recorded statements of Joseph Smith according to their reliability.

"We passed that electronic database on to the writing committee, and they produced what I think is a manual that has great power," Brother Barney said, "something that it would be foolish to ignore if one wants to get to morsels of Joseph Smith's teachings."

He also mentioned creation of the Church Historian's Press, the official publisher imprint of the Joseph Smith Paper's Project, and a Web site associated with the project, where all the content will eventually be posted for free access.