Louis C. Midgley

It is common for historians—Michael Quinn comes to mind—and various journalists to warrant their work by thanking virtually everyone they have met for assisting them with their research, but Palmer gives only a general nod of appreciation to nameless "friends and colleagues" who read the "first and subsequent drafts" of An Insider's View (p. xiii). Are these people nameless because revealing who they are would signal that he is an "insider" among those on the fringes—that is, among apostates, dissidents, and cultural Mormons? He also neglects to indicate what triggered the first draft of his book, who helped him get started on his book in the 1980s, who encouraged him, who provided him with information then or more recently, who fed him ideas, or who it was that polished his manuscript for publication.

Why, one might ask, has Palmer's publisher emphasized his having been "three‑time director of LDS Institutes of Religion in California and Utah"? Is this a way of portraying him as a loyal "insider" since Signature Books clearly wants him to be seen as being right there in the center of CES things? Or is it a way of puffing Palmer's credentials since "Institute director" sounds more impressive than "seminary teacher"? In addition to this claim of his being a "three‑time director of LDS Institutes of Religion," Palmer himself claims in the opening line of his preface to An Insider's View that "for thirty‑four years I was primarily an Institute director for the Church Educational System". "Primarily"? I have looked into this claim and it turns out to be a bit of an exaggeration. With Palmer's assistance, I have been able to reconstruct his CES assignments.