Applying the ‘sniff test’: 3 myths and 3 lessons for dispelling Latter-day Saint rumors

By Trent Toone May 24, 2021, 12:01pm MDT

In 2018, a television reporter wanted to produce a news story about a Book of Mormon that briefly belonged to Elvis Presley.

The light blue volume of scripture featuring the angel Moroni on the soft cover had been preserved in the historical collections of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly 30 years. The book’s pages contained writing, marked passages and a signature. The book’s uplifting story was revered by many in Latter-day Saint culture.

The interview request landed on the desk of Keith A. Erekson, the director of the Church History Library. Erekson wasn’t familiar with the background, so he began researching the book’s history and provenance. But something was off.

“The very first day I opened the book, it just didn’t add up,” Erekson said.

A thorough investigation revealed that although the book was in the possession of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll for 14 days before his death, Presley didn’t write in the book and it’s very unlikely that he read and pondered its words.

“The facts are one layer of history, and how they are presented, how they are put together, is another,” Erekson said. “‘Real vs. Rumor’ is really about this other layer — how people take things out of context, how they manipulate it, how they tell part of the story. Those are the things that everybody can learn to recognize. As soon as you see those kinds of distortions, you know this stinks, this doesn’t smell right.”

Erekson has outlined what he calls the “sniff test” — “clues that something just isn’t right” — and other resources in a new book titled “Real vs. Rumor: How to Dispel Latter-day Saint Myths,” which is on sale now from Deseret Book.

The book explores myths, rumors, legends and lore related to Latter-day Saint history as a way to teach others how to think critically and navigate through misinformation to identify truth.

“The sniff tests are clues that something just isn’t right. The thinking habits are skills that combine study and faith,” he said. “Both need to become reflexes that help us make sense of the world around us.”

“Real vs. Rumor” is divided into three parts:

• The myths within us.
• How to investigate.
• Dispel this.

Erekson is the director of the Church History Library. He earned a doctorate degree in history, has researched and published on topics such as politics, hoaxes, Abraham Lincoln and church history.

He recently spoke with the Deseret News and shared three myths and three lessons discussed in “Real vs. Rumor.”

Elvis Presley’s Book of Mormon

In the case of Elvis and the light blue Book of Mormon, the sniff test was that the donor told multiple conflicting stories about the book, the author said.

“Elvis’ father wanted the book destroyed, Elvis’ father wanted the book given to the Osmond family, or the book was sent to an auction house that decided not to sell it,” Erekson said. “All of those could not be correct at the same time.”

One thinking habit is connecting the stories to the historical context.

“The donor said Elvis read the book the last two weeks of his life, which meant he would have read and marked hundreds of pages of scripture while hosting his 9-year-old daughter, preparing to go on tour, and reeling from the publication of a damaging exposé,” Erekson said. “So those things not adding up prompted a more comprehensive investigation.”

Did a Japanese pilot try to bomb the Laie Hawaii Temple?

Going back to the 1960s, variations of a story have been told about a Japanese pilot flying over the Laie Hawaii Temple with intentions to drop a bomb only to fail when the explosive didn’t release. Some versions tell of the pilot meeting Latter-day Saint missionaries years later and getting baptized. Another version has the pilot becoming a gardener at the temple.

Two firsthand accounts defend parts of the story. One of the witnesses was intoxicated the night of the event. The other witness was a missionary in Japan who met a man in 1957. The Japanese investigator became distraught when shown a photo of the Laie temple and confessed he tried to inflict damage on it, but the missionary and his companion admitted to not understanding Japanese fully at the time.

The two witness accounts also fail to match specific known details about the Japanese air raid following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

With multiple and differing variations of the story, another thinking habit is to ask, “Show me the evidence.” No one else in Laie saw what the inebriated man claimed to see and the missionaries’ investigator vanished, the author said.

“In this case, two firsthand testimonies emerged, but both had problems,” Erekson said. “As a rule, we prefer evidence that is closer to the participants and closer in time to the events, and we like to corroborate the facts to establish accuracy.”

Brigham Young’s hearse at Disneyland

Erekson was standing in line for the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland when he heard someone say, “That hearse carried Brigham Young’s dead body!”

The horse-drawn hearse, with sculpted white columns, mounted on large wagon wheels, seemed appropriate for a prominent, Latter-day Saint figure, but Erekson didn’t buy it.

“The sniff test was the seemingly huge coincidence that Brigham Young had a tie to Disneyland,” he said. “The thinking habit illustrated here is to ‘think the second thought’ — to verify before passing on the story.”

Young died in 1877. The company that built the hearse was established in the 1890s, more than a decade later. In another twist, Young requested in his last will that his body be hand-carried, and that wish was fulfilled.

“So not only was this not Brigham’s hearse, there is no such hearse anywhere,” Erekson said.

More warning signs

When you understand the concept of a sniff test, you don’t need to know every fact to recognize the warning signs, the author said.

“Real vs. Rumor” includes an appendix with four key points:

• Survey the situation.
• Analyze the contents.
• Connect to the context.
• Evaluate significances.

Erekson also urged Latter-day Saints to verify the accuracy of stories before sharing them in church settings. His book includes strategies for verifying information and finding the best resources.

“Pause and think before you share a story,” he said. “If you decide to share it, as teachers or speakers, it’s our responsibility to verify the information that we share.”

Originally published in the Deseret News, May 24, 2021.