• Browsing: »
  • Home
  • »Movie/Book Reviews

Movie/Book Reviews

Debunking the Jockers Study

By Mormon Heretic February 9, 2011 55 Comments

I really appreciate a comment by Chris Spencer on my previous post Dueling Wordprint Studies.  In that post, I had discussed a controversial study completed by Stanford researchers Mathew Jockers, Daniela Witten, and Craig Criddle who concluded that 57% the Book of Mormon was authored by Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spaulding.  (There was an interesting discussion […]

Strang’s Letter of Appointment

By Mormon Heretic February 6, 2011 39 Comments

Just 9 days prior to Joseph Smith’s death, he sent a letter to James Strang.  Strang believed that this letter showed Joseph’s intentions that Strang would be the next prophet of the church.  This letter was originally published in a pamphlet by Strang’s followers known as “The Diamond.”  I have always wanted to read the […]

Kirtland Temple History and Worship

By Mormon Heretic January 30, 2011 8 Comments

There was a fascinating interview about the Kirtland Temple over at Mormon Expression.  It was so interesting that I decided to transcribe it here.  John Larsen interviews historian John Hamer, and Barbara Walden, former Executive Director of the Kirtland Temple.  Both Barbara and John Hamer give some really cool information about the Kirtland Temple, and […]

LDS Film Festival 2011

By Mormon Heretic January 19, 2011 1 Comment

There’s just 1 week until the LDS Film Festival.  I love to go.  Once again, there are too many films I would like to see, and not enough time off work.  To see the full schedule with descriptions, click here.  Here are some movies that sound interesting to me, though I won’t be able to […]

Ethical Dilemmas: My Sister’s Keeper

By Mormon Heretic January 10, 2011 Leave a comment

My wife and I watched My Sister’s Keeper from Netflix this weekend.  Here’s the Netflix description: A former defense attorney (Cameron Diaz) finds herself back in the courtroom when she and her husband (Jason Patric) are sued for medical emancipation by their 11-year-old daughter, Anna (Abigail Breslin), who is expected to donate a kidney to […]

The Wentworth Letter

By Mormon Heretic January 2, 2011 Leave a comment

I posted my initial impressions of the Kindle over at Wheat and Tares.  One of the coolest “books” I received at Amazon for free was the Wentworth Letter.  For those of you who don’t know, Joseph Smith wrote a history of the church to John Wentworth, the editor of a newspaper called the Chicago Democrat in […]

Why Isn’t Sacrament Meeting More Spiritual?

By Mormon Heretic December 26, 2010 32 Comments

I listened to an interview of Jana Reiss on Mormon Expression a few weeks ago, titled “Why Mormon Meetings are So Dull.”  She discussed a book called Sundays in America by Suzanne Strempek Shea. Shae is a novelist in Massachusetts who attended 52 church services over a year.  This author attended a Mormon Sacrament meeting.  […]

Stories about Jesus’ Childhood

By Mormon Heretic December 12, 2010 7 Comments

Ever wondered what kind of a child Jesus was?  Well, The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ tells us that Jesus was part healer, part genius, part brat.  It starts out with some interesting stories about happened to the holy family in Egypt (following Herod’s edict to kill all boys age 2 and under), […]

The Untold Story of Joseph and Mary

By Mormon Heretic December 5, 2010 16 Comments

The biblical account of the interactions between Joseph and Mary is very small.  To me, it almost makes Joseph and Mary appear 2-dimensional, and I never feel like I know them very well.  When Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant before their wedding, we know that he considered cancelling the betrothal.  An angel intervened, and […]

Gospel of the Birth of Mary

By Mormon Heretic November 27, 2010 19 Comments

A few months ago, I picked up a book called Lost Books of the Bible by William Hone on the clearance rack at Barnes and Noble.  It is one of the coolest books I have ever picked up.  There are 26 ancient books included in the compilation, dating to the earliest centuries after Christ.  These […]