The biggest problem with the Book of Mormon is that it exists, says Sen. Bob Bennett.

"You can't dismiss it, because it exists," he said. "That means that somebody wrote it."

The Republican senator from Utah is the author of "Leap of Faith," which was recently released by Deseret Book. It examines the origins of the Book of Mormon and confronts accusations by detractors that the text was forged while also encouraging members to analyze and better found their own understanding of it.

Bennett didn't like the way the Book of Mormon was represented in media coverage leading up to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He began penning letters to the editor of newspapers and the project soon "took hold" of him, and he expanded them into a book in the years afterward.

"The tenor of the articles that kind of started me on this was that no one of any intelligence could believe the incredibly outlandish story about angels and gold plates, that any person with the slightest bit of education would reject this out of hand," he said. "And of course, that is not true."

Bennett approaches the subject of forgery as a debater, which he was in college, and analyzes both sides. He said he tried to be as objective as possible and attempted to "look at all the arguments, for and against, and test them for validity." He writes to someone who has had no exposure to the Book of Mormon.

Bennett studied forgeries before he was a senator when he worked as Howard Hughes' public relations director. A supposed authorized biography and will surfaced after the billionaire's death, and Bennett helped to disprove the documents. He applies forgery tests to the Book of Mormon in "Leap of Faith," namely seeing if the work is consistent, if there's a motive or reason why someone would want to forge it, if it's relevant and there's need for it in contemporary times, and if there are statements in the book that fit with facts that have come to light since its publication.

Because every work of writing reveals something about the author, Bennett said it's possible to learn a lot from applying these tests to different texts.

"Any book tells you something about its author. If you read 'Harry Potter,' you get to know the mindset of J.K. Rowling. If you read the biographies of Lyndon Johnson, you get to know the mindset and the research methods of Robert Caro. If you read 'Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling,' you get acquainted with Richard Bushman," he said.

So it follows that studying the Book of Mormon would reveal something about its author, whether he was a forger or not.

"If it's a forgery the book itself will give you clues as to who the forger is," he said. "Nephi and Jacob and Mormon and Moroni wrote the book of Mormon. If they're all the same, there was a single forger. Do the four authors sound different? Yes. They clearly do."

So if it was forged, Joseph Smith couldn't have done it on his own, Bennett said. He would have needed help, and the likelihood of his meeting someone with a knowledge of ancient cultures, military strategies and Middle Eastern geography isn't likely.

"When I get through drawing the picture of the possible forger, I point out that believing that such an individual actually existed requires a huge leap of faith," he said.

Hence, the title of the book. Regardless of the knowledge or biases readers have before they read the book, when they finish they'll have to choose whether to ignore the consistencies and facts in the Book of Mormon, making a leap of faith in believing it's forged, or they'll have to take a leap of faith in believing the miraculous event and angels in believing it is what it says it is -- written by prophets of God.

"Which leap the reader wants to make is, of course, up to the reader," Bennett said.

A byproduct of his research and analysis was Bennett's new understanding of the chronology of the Book of Mormon, which he details in the book. It can be hard to get a grasp on the basic story of the scriptures as there are many tangents and retelling of events.

"The Book of Mormon is a history where the historian is constantly interrupting the plot to burst into vision and sermon," he said. "So when the sermon is over, you're 14 pages away from where the story stopped, and you can't remember where you were."

When he separated the story from the doctrine, he said it was easier to comprehend the events.

"I think it will find an audience among members of the church who find the Book of Mormon kind of confusing."


E-mail: mfarmer@desnews.com