Grant H. Palmer papers, 1788-2015

Grant H. Palmer was born on 17 August 1940 in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1958 Grant graduated from Olympus High School after which he entered the Utah National Guard. While in the Guard, Palmer served on a two year mission for the L.D.S. church in Washington D. C., Virginia, and North Carolina from 1960 through 1962. Majoring in history, Grant graduated from the University of Utah in 1965 with a B.A. degree. That autumn he continued his academic career entering Brigham Young University where he received his M.A. in history in 1967. His thesis concentrated on a study of the Godbeites. Subsequent to graduation Palmer became an employee of the L.D.S. Church Education System (CES), a job which he held for the span of thirty-four years (1967-2001). His initial teaching assignment involved instructing college students in European history and religion at the Mormon Church College in New Zealand during the years of 1967-1970. Based upon the strong support of the college's headmaster, Grant was appointed in 1970 as the Director of the L.D.S. Institutes of Religion at the colleges of Whittier and Rio Hondo in California. In that capacity Palmer supervised seminary teachers in the church's Whittier stake. Desiring to obtain a doctorate in U.S. history, he was granted a year's leave of absence in 1973 to pursue post-graduate studies at B.Y.U. After completing a year and a half of course work in history and religion, Grant resumed his work for the CES being transferrred to Oroville, California where he was the Director of the L.D.S. Institute of Religion at Butte College and supervisor of seminary teachers at the stake in Chico from 1975 until 1980. Upon returning to Utah in 1980, Palmer commenced the final segment of his teaching career. From 1980 until 1988 he taught seminary classes at East High School in Salt Lake City and at Brighton High School.

It was during his tenure at Brighton High School that Grant began to express some unorthodox ideas about Joseph Smith's association with the world of magic and the Prophet's translation of the Book of Mormon. Palmer's assertion that Smith did not utilize the Golden Plates in his rendering of the Book of Mormon led to the first confrontation between him and the church's general authorities. He had arrived at these positions following an investigation of Joseph Smith's pre-Book of Mormon experiences and an examination of eyewitness accounts of the translation process. Because of the controversy created by the dissemination of these views Grant was placed on probation for one year and removed from teaching seminary classes in 1988. For the next thirteen years he worked at the Salt Lake County jail as the L.D.S. Institute's Director teaching Bible classes and acting as a religious counselor to the inmates. Not limiting his religious instruction to only those individuals who were incarcerated, Grant taught his ward's high priests about the teachings of Jesus Christ while avoiding any discussion of Mormon religious tenets and history.

In a 1988 letter to Ed Wheeler, Palmer characterized his non-traditional views of Joseph Smith's role in the establishment of the Mormon religion as that of a heretic rather than that of an apostate while regretting that church members regarded heresy and apostasy to be synonymous. Considering himself as a practicitioner of the Mormon religion, Grant desired to remain within the fold for a variety of reasons. During the early 1990s he decided to publish a book reflecting his research findings which disputed the church's pronounced narrative of the foundation of the L.D.S. faith. Published in 2002 and entitled "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins", the work created a firestorm of controversy within the Mormon leadership and the laity. Palmer, characterizing his scholarship as representative of the Leonard Arrington school of New Mormon history, viewed his revisionist presentation of the seedbed of Mormon history as objective and corrective in nature, not as a condemnatory critique of the legitimacy and practices of the church which he found admirable. Negative reaction to Grant's publication took two forms, one attacking his scholarship which appeared in standard and online book reviews (box 21) and another which manifested itself in an administrative investigation of his adherence to time-honored Mormon beliefs (boxes 41-42). The latter led to a 2004 decision of Palmer's stake authorities to brand him as an apostate whose punishment restricted his participation in church activities while requiring him to fulfill his financial obligations to the church. It is noteworthy to mention that some of the response to "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins" was favorable and supportive of his research and his standing in the L.D.S. community. One of the consequences of the publicity surrounding the publication of the book and the disfellowship proceedings which ensued was that Grant was interviewed on television, the internet, and the campus of the University of Utah where his views reached a wider audience. The television interview was conducted on "The Mormons", a P.B.S. documentary in 2007. Three years later Palmer published an article in the "Midwestern Journal of Theology" which rejected some fundamental Mormon teachings present in the Book of Mormon and in the church's Doctrine and Covenants. In October of 2010 Grant's bishop informed him that it would be necessary for him to appear before his stake's disciplinary court which would require him to repudiate the central arguments of "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins". Refusing to comply with the demands of the local L.D.S. authorities, Palmer resigned his membership in the Mormon church a few days later.

Palmer is the author of another book entitled "The Incomparable Jesus" which appeared in 2005 and of several articles printed in "Sunstone" and the "John Whitmer Historical Association Journal". In 2003 the John Whitmer Historical Association named Grant's "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins" as runner up in its competition for the 'Best Book of the Year".

(Biographical sketch composed by Roger V. Paxton.)