Book of Mormon
Losing a Lost Tribe
The 2nd post ever on this blog was Why are the 12 Tribes of Israel important? I’ve seen some interesting documentaries, one from a Jewish-atheist journalist, Simcha Jacobovich asking Have the Lost 10 Tribes been found? (He thinks the answer is yes.) On the other hand, I just finished Simon Southerton’s book, Losing a Lost Tribe, and he […]
Christmas Celebration and Sadness
Christmas is supposed to be a time of celebration of the Savior’s birth. For many, however, it can be a time of depression and sadness. My wife likes to go to Festival of Trees every year to view the decorations, and even donated a tree last year. Money raised from the festival goes to Primary […]
A Different Take on the Samaritan Story
I want to subtitle this post: Defending the Priest and the Levite. Not long ago, we had a lesson in priesthood on the Good Samaritan. This is one of my favorite parables, but the lesson quickly devolved into the traditional platitudes. People began to point fingers at the “hypocritical” priest and the Levite walking past the […]
Book Review: Joseph’s Seer Stones
I was pleased that Deseret Book sent me a copy of Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones to review. I know a lot of people have complained church members have complained that we always reference the Urim and Thummim, but not seer stones. There is also the complaint that the artwork is incorrect concerning Joseph translating the plates. […]
Sunstone Testimonies 2015
I’m a few weeks late with my recap of Sunstone. The one thing about Sunstone is that you can find all kinds of different sessions, both pro and anti church. People seem to concentrate on the anti-church presentations, but there are some others I would like to talk about. The people I have highlighted below […]
Mormon Pageant Season
This year my family has tried to attend several pageants (Manti Pageant, Hill Cumorah Pageant) but schedules haven’t worked out. Last night, we attended the Clarkston Pageant. Never heard of it? Neither had my wife. Clarkston is definitely off the beaten path. It is about 30 minutes northwest of Logan, Utah, just 10 miles or so […]
Atheist in a Foxhole: The Tillman Story
I watched an interesting documentary last week, The Tillman Story. Pat Tillman played NFL football for the Arizona Cardinals, and unexpectedly quit the NFL and enlisted in the army rangers following the September 11 attacks. I knew he had been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004, and there was a coverup, but didn’t really […]
Dan Vogel takes on Mormonism Unvailed
Mormon scholar Dan Vogel and Signature Books have teamed up to produce a scholarly update to the first anti-Mormon book ever written, Mormonism Unvailed. The book is due to be released on April 20, and Tom Kimball was nice enough to send me a pre-release version to review.
Mormon Heretic 