Mormon
Songs That Touch Our Hearts
Since yesterday was Pioneer Day, I thought I’d share my thoughts on one of my favorite Pioneer Hymns. Most of you are probably familiar with Come, Come Ye Saints. It was one of my sister’s favorite songs, and she requested that it be played at her funeral. While I always liked the song, I can rarely […]
The Mormon Myth about Alice Cooper
caption id=”attachment_1130″ align=”alignleft” width=”150″ caption=”Alice Cooper at the Scream Awards in 2007″][/caption] If you’re Mormon, you’ve probably heard the myth that Alice Cooper was a Mormon. Most of you have probably dismissed the myth as complete hogwash. Well, it turns out there is an element of truth to the myth. For example, his father’s middle […]
Defining Political Extremism
I usually don’t comment much on politics. When I do, it seems that my political posts don’t do so well, but here goes anyway. A few months ago, I got an email from a friend asking me about how the church defines political extremism. She had some relatives that were concerned about government conspiracies for […]
The Moral Panic Causes Trouble in Zion
The Haun’s Mill Massacre. The Mountain Meadows Massacre. The Rwandan Genocide. Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia and Serbia. How do such terrible atrocities happen? Kenny Ballantine is in the process of producing a documentary called Trouble in Zion. The documentary discusses the events leading up to the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. It highlights the […]
Religious Archaeology and Evidence
I don’t ever think I’ve done 2 posts in one day before, but I want to address this other issue that we have been discussing in the Strangite post. I’d like to discuss both Biblical and Book of Mormon archaeology. Most people believe the Bible is on solid archaeological footing, but that isn’t actually true. […]
Did Paul Found Christianity?
Bishop Rick has mentioned a few times that he believes the apostle Paul invented Christianity, so I thought I’d create a post to address this specific issue. In my previous post on the Strangite Church, he said in a few comments, I believe Paul invented Christianity, not Jesus. There are only a couple of last minute, […]
The Strangites: Another Mormon Group
As I mentioned previously, I really enjoyed the Strangite session of the Mormon History Association meetings a few weeks ago. Vickie Speek, John Hamer, and Mike Karpowicz gave some fascinating presentations on this little known group. Following the session, they answered additional questions, and I thought it would be interesting to provide a transcript of […]
Why Can’t God Speak English?
I received a surprising resurgence of activity from one of my oldest posts, Book of Mormon Geography. In the latest discussion, Bishop Rick asked, “Why would HF send a revelation that would not be understood?” Then he clarified it further stating, “Why would HF send a revelation to HIS “Prophet” (as opposed to any “prophet”) […]
Day 3 at MHA
John Hamer, Mike Karpowicz, and Vickie Cleverly Speck gave a very interesting history of the Strangite movement. What’s a Strangite you say? Speck filled in many details: she said that James Strang was baptized into the LDS church just 4 months prior to the death of Joseph Smith. Strang claims to have a letter from […]
Mormon Heretic 