1359: Investigating Mormonism as an Apostle's Nephew - Lynn Packer Pt. 2

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2020

⏱️ 157 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Join me today in my series with Lynn Packer - journalist, investigative reporter, and nephew to the late LDS/Mormon apostle Boyd K. Packer.

Lynn Packer was involved in many significant Utah news stories including that of forger/bomber Mark Hofmann and serial killer Ted Bundy. Lynn is perhaps most well known for his investigation of Mormon General Authority Paul H. Dunn. Lynn's investigation directly led to Elder Paul H. Dunn being put on Emeritus Status by the LDS Church First Presidency for repeatedly telling fabricated stories to the worldwide church membership.

In Part 1 we discuss the early life of Mormon Apostle Boyd K. Packer, and his rise to power within the LDS Church.
In Part 2 we discuss Lynn Packer's life, and his perspectives on and interactions with Boyd K. Packer while he was working as a Utah investigative reporter (and while working at BYU).
In Part 3 we will discuss Lynn's investigation of LDS General Authority Paul H. Dunn, discovering that he was telling false stories to LDS Church members about his involvement in professional baseball, and in his activities as a World War II soldier.
In Part 4 we will discuss Lynn's recent investigation into Operation Underground Railroad and Tim Ballard.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome again to this episode of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host John DeLin.
0:05.4	It is November 2nd, 2020 and we are now on part two of our interview with as I call him,
0:12.9	Living Legend, Lidn Packer. He served for many many years as an investigative journalist in Utah.
0:21.4	He was involved in so many of the really groundbreaking Utah Mormon press stories in the 80s or 90s,
0:29.2	including serial killer. Remind me of his name Ted Bundy.
0:37.3	Ted Bundy, including Barmer and Forger Mark Hoffman. He's most known by me for his work
0:46.0	investigating Paul H. Dunn, the Mormon General Authority who Lidn Packer helped discover had been
0:51.4	lying to telling false stories to the Mormon Church membership for years and years and years,
0:57.6	making a ton of money and really building his fame and reputation from these false stories
1:03.0	that were super compelling and gripping for the youth and adults but also manipulative and
1:08.0	unfortunately false. So Lidn Packer was a professor at BYU and his investigative journalism work
1:17.1	affected his employment there and interestingly enough he did all this as the nephew of Boyd K. Packer,
1:23.2	one of the most powerful LDS Church or Mormon apostles in the history of the Church.
1:28.8	So we just spent a few good hours talking about the early years of Boyd K. Packer and the Packer
1:36.2	family living in Brigham City, the Packer Motor Company and we talked about Boyd K. Packer's early
1:43.0	years marrying the Peach Queen, getting into the seminary, the LDS Church's seminary,
1:52.6	organization and his meteoric rise getting his doctorate and his meteoric rise within Utah as a
2:01.2	mover and a shaker that ultimately led to him becoming being selected as an apostle. So that's where
2:07.8	we left off. Lidn had a little bit of camera problems so we stopped to fix his camera problems,
2:13.2	we've resolved them and now we are back with Lidn Packer. Hey Lidn.
2:19.2	Hi again. Thanks thanks so much for helping us troubleshoot that problem and it's so good to have
2:26.4	you back. Yes, good to be back. I'm enjoying the comments that are made that basically
	...

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