In an attempt to impute early Latter-day Saints a high level of gullibility, the Tanners write that:
. . . the early Mormon leaders
grew up at a time when people were very superstitious. The Mormon historian
B.H. Roberts made these comments:
Credulity: Yes, the Prophet’s ancestors
were credulous in that some of them believed that they were healed of bodily ailments
by the power of faith in God. Others had dreams, as their neighbors had, . . .
It may be admitted that some of them believed in fortune telling, in warlocks
and witches--. . . Indeed it is scarcely conceivable how one would could in New
England in those years and not have shared in such beliefs. To be credulous in
such things was to be normal people. (A Comprehensive History of the Church,
by B.H. Roberts, Vol. 1, 1965, pp. 26-27) (Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism:
Shadow or Reality? [5th ed.; Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse
Ministry, 1987, 2008], 39)
Pot Kettle black anyone? I mean, the Tanners are Evangelical
Protestants who believe that God communicated prophetic dreams to people such
as Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus; in the reality of Satan and demons, witchcraft
(the witch of Endor conjuring the spirit of the then-deceased Samuel, anyone),
etc? In fact, this makes them more incredulous as they believe in such things
when they wrote the above in the 20th century. This only shows that
Protestant critics of the Church have to engage in a double standard against
“Mormonism” they will not, nor could not, ever apply to their own faith tradition.