With spotlight on Mormon faith, scholars gather to defend it

(RNS) Mormon founder Joseph Smith may have declared all churches to be
wrong, even apostate, but he also defined Mormonism as "an inclusivist
faith that not only sees and appreciates goodness and truth in other
religious traditions but is willing to acknowledge divine action in
those other traditions."

That's according to Brigham Young University Islamic and Arabic
scholar Daniel Peterson, who will offer his perspective in a speech this
week at the annual conference of the Foundation for Apologetic
Information and Research (FAIR).

"We don't ask any people to throw away any good they have got,"
Smith once said, according to Peterson. "We only ask them to come and
get more."