FAIR Symposium
July 31, 2004
by Cody Clark

Pope Leo X designated Henry VIII of England "fidei defensor," or "defender of the faith," in 1521. Roughly four centuries later, Henry's title became a nickname for B.H. Roberts, an early member of the Quorum of the Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an impassioned champion of its theology.

In that sense, the members of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, an Internet-based, nonprofit organization, are Roberts' successors. FAIR, which describes itself as being "dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of LDS (Mormon) doctrine, belief and practice," will hold its sixth annual Mormon Apologetics Conference on Thursday and Friday at Sandy's South Towne Exposition Center.

"Everyone says, 'What the heck is apologetics?' " said Scott Gordon, president of FAIR. "It means a scholarly defense of doctrines or beliefs." Gordon, 46, and others who belong to FAIR have taken it upon themselves to exhaustively research and explain matters of LDS theology and history to both church members and interested, sometimes hostile outsiders.

Among those scheduled to speak at the 2004 conference are Dan Peterson, former chairman of the board of trustees of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), and Dr. Dean Byrd, president of the Thrasher Research Fund, an organization that sponsors pediatric research.

Topics to be discussed at the conference include such hot-button issues as homosexuality, feminism and the participation of blacks in what some view as a predominately white denomination. Despite its willingness to address controversial topics, Gordon stressed that FAIR's first loyalty is to LDS Church leadership. "We don't speak for the church," Gordon said. "But we quite unashamedly embrace what I would call a believing LDS perspective. We're very open about our bias."

Kevin Barney, a lawyer and member of FAIR's board of directors, said he thinks discussion of hard questions is both inevitable and healthy. "As long as we're going to be a missionary church, people are going to want certain questions answered."

The FAIR conference will take place just one week prior to the annual Salt Lake symposium held by the Sunstone Foundation, which tackles Mormon issues from a more questioning, sometimes pointedly critical standpoint.

Dennis Potter, an assistant professor of philosophy and coordinator of Mormon Studies at Utah Valley State College, observed FAIR firsthand in 2002 and 2003, when the organization held its annual conference at UVSC. Though the FAIR and Sunstone gatherings both feature academic-style papers, Potter said that neither organization has a purely academic approach.

Potter said that knowing FAIR's bias makes it simpler for observers to evaluate its claims -- when those claims are evaluated at all.

"FAIR has kind of become an excuse for pseudo-intellectuals to not pay attention to the critical issues," Potter said. "There's a sense that, 'Someone else has critically studied this issue and they've reached a conclusion about it, so I don't need to study it.' "

One thing that FAIR does well, Potter said, is stimulate discussion of questions that might not otherwise be aired among the LDS faithful. Gordon concurred. "Our stated mission is to be supportive of the LDS Church, but we do deal with topics that you don't discuss in your average Sunday School class."

FAIR held its first conference in Ben Lomond, Calif., in 1999, with slightly fewer than two dozen people in attendance. "Half of them were speakers at the conference," Gordon recalled. The next conference was held in Salt Lake City, then Provo and, for the past two years, Orem's Utah Valley State College.

Gordon, a college instructor and resident of Redding, Calif., said nearly 300 people attended the 2003 conference, prompting a move to a larger venue.

FAIR, which has no formal affiliation with the LDS Church, began as an America Online discussion group in 1997. Mike Ash, a 42-year-old FAIR regular and electronics salesman who lives in Ogden, said the group quickly realized the limitations of existing only within AOL.

They would carefully consider questions and criticisms posed by visitors and formulate exhaustive answers. "We ended up making some great responses," Ash said, "and then once you post something, in a few days it's gone."

That led to the creation of FAIR's official Web site, www.fairlds.org. Today, a core of about 120 FAIR diehards participate in daily management of the site and the organization. Those core participants, which include FAIR's officers and board of directors, are all unpaid volunteers.

Barney, 45, who lives in Hoffman Estates, Ill., said FAIR's core participants come from around the globe. Though he's not familiar with everyone involved, Barney knows of FAIR colleagues in New York, Denmark and Austria.

Barney, who sits on FAIR's board of directors, says one of the group's primary objectives is to provide reliable online information for people investigating LDS theology for the first time. First-time investigators, Barney said, "punch up Google and type in 'Mormon,' and get all of this bad information."

Except for its core group, FAIR's membership is largely unstructured. Visitors to the site can join discussions at a message board, submit a question, browse an extensive topical archive of answers to previously asked questions or peruse publications for sale in an online bookstore.

FAIR also distributes a free online journal, delivered to subscribers via e-mail, that circulates monthly to more than 5,000 inboxes in such far-flung locales as South America, Finland and Australia.

FAIR's operating expenses are defrayed by donations -- Gordon said the average donation is about $25 -- bookstore sales and dues collected from the core participants.

"Everybody who works for FAIR not only volunteers their time," Gordon says, "but they pay to be a part of it."

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