Canon

Confronting Racism-Part 2

By Mormon Heretic May 13, 2012 16 Comments

I’ve already posted Part 1 of the Mormon Matters episode 80:  How Can we Confront Racism within Mormon Thought and Culture? Here is part 2.  I have previously posted excerpts from this panel discussion when I asked if 1978 was the right year, and whether the Church should apologize.  The transcript below continues after Part […]

Bill Russell: Pillars of my Faith

By Mormon Heretic April 25, 2012 3 Comments

John Dehlin of Mormon Stories has a recording of a 1993 Sunstone Symposium.  Bill Russell gave a very interesting presentation.  I transcribed the entire talk, and wanted to share it with everyone.  Bill certainly has an interesting perspective on things.  He is a past president of the Mormon History Association.  The topic was titled Pillars […]

Were Jesus and Mary Married?

By Mormon Heretic March 25, 2012 3 Comments

The Da Vinci Code created a bit of a stir in making the claim that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married.  How do LDS handle the issue?  Dale Bills, a spokesman for the Church, said in a statement released Tuesday, 16 May 2006: The belief that Christ was married has never been official church doctrine. […]

Scandalous Behavior of Jesus around Women

By Mormon Heretic March 18, 2012 Leave a comment

Jesus was a social revolutionary.  He gave women a much larger role in his movement than was traditional in ancient Judaism.  In a previous post, I talked about the story in Luke chapter 7 about a woman wiping Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair.  Such behavior would have been considered lewd by first century Jews. […]

Smearing Mary Magdalene

By Mormon Heretic March 9, 2012 3 Comments

March is Women’s History Month.  In celebration of that, I wanted to talk about Mary Magdalene.  I really enjoyed a documentary from National Geographic called “The Real Mary Magdalene.”  It’s a fantastic video, part of a 3 DVD set of Science of the Bible (it’s on disk 3),  and gives some really cool insights into this […]

Friendly Atheist Finds Value in Book of Mormon

By Mormon Heretic February 5, 2012 4 Comments

Clay Painter of Mormon Expression interviewed Bob Price about his opinions of the Book of Mormon.  Not everyone believes the Book of Mormon is a truly divine document, but I found it interesting to hear that Bob finds value in the Book of Mormon, despite his being an atheist.  Regarding Mormon Expression, sometimes I find […]

Ancient Proof-Texting

By Mormon Heretic August 28, 2011 8 Comments

Back in 2008, Jeff Spector introduced me to the concept of proof-texting.  I think we’re all familiar with the idea of taking a scripture out of context to support a certain religious belief.  However, I didn’t realize that this practice goes back thousands of years.  Charles Harrell and Greg Kofford Books has recently published a new […]

The Apocryphal book of Judith

By Mormon Heretic July 31, 2011 3 Comments

Many people refer to “the Apocrypha” as if it is a clearly defined set of books.  The work “apocrypha” means literally “things hidden away.”  In modern usage, an apocryphal book is any book not part of the Bible.  In that sense, the Book of Mormon could be called an apocryphal book; there is a new […]

Using Scriptures to Debunk the Priesthood Ban

By Mormon Heretic April 11, 2011 9 Comments

Alma Allred wrote a chapter in the book titled Black and Mormon.  On page 37, he states: I don’t believe that LDS scripture allows for a restriction against blacks’ holding the priesthood.  Nor do I think that LDS theology can reasonably maintain that today’s blacks are descendants of Cain or that ancient intermarriage with Canaanites perpetuated […]

Scholarship History of the Priesthood Ban

By Mormon Heretic April 2, 2011 10 Comments

The Priesthood ban for black members of the church is a pet topic of mine.  I have previously discussed Early Black Mormons who held the priesthood, as well as a long 10,000 word article discussing events leading to the ban.  Newell Bringhurst and Darron Smith have put together a list of 9 essays highlighting different […]