Historical Mormon Smackdown: Bomber edition
July 21, 2005
Sorry for the sporadic posting of late. I’ve been busy. Also, I am still recovering from the results of the last poll. John Lee over Gary Gilmore? As other people have mentioned regarding other polls, I am beginning to suspect the tastes of our readership. Sure, Lee was pivotal in a minor event in Southern Utah a century or so ago. Gilmore only created a situation where W. could say, with a straight face, that he never executed an innocent man (also, Gilmore inspired the Cremaster cycle, for which he can never be forgiven in all the eternities). But I digress…
On to this week’s competition:
Who is the more historically significant LDS bomber: Marc Hofmann or Gail S. Halvorsen?
Hofmann: forged a whole lot of “early Mormon documents”, killed a couple of people to keep it quiet, inadvertantly got Michael Quinn’s career going, inadvertantly got Jon Krakauer in touch with Dan Lafferty (Justin has a collection of articles about Hofmann up on his site).
Halvorsen: dropped candy out of his bomber for impoverished German children during the Berlin airlift. Read about it here and here.
So, what will it be? Vote below or to the right and defend your choice in the comments.
Entry Filed under: Doctrine. .
John C.
Mogget
lxxluthor
Nitsav
TT
jupiterschild
smallaxe
Secco
The Yellow Dart
1.
Anonymous | July 23, 2005 at 1:14 pm
how did Hoffmann inadvertantly get Michael Quinn’s career going? Just curious
Posted by Richard
2.
Anonymous | July 24, 2005 at 5:04 pm
I believe that it is generally assumed that Hofmann’s forgeries partially inspired “Early Mormonism and the Magical World View” and some feature in his research for that book.
Posted by John C.
3.
Anonymous | July 26, 2005 at 7:55 am
I’m gonna have to abstain here… I doubt either of them have much “historical” significance, except to the people who directly benefited or suffered from their actions.
Posted by Rob
4.
Anonymous | July 26, 2005 at 5:47 pm
Rob, as Michael Feldman would say, vague and poorly worded questions are par for the course. If you don’t like it, start your own poll.
Posted by John C.