Movie/Book Reviews
Mormon Nazis
“We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law”, states the 12th Article of Faith. So how does the LDS Church respond when missionaries are in a country where Nazis take over the government? David Conley Nelson gives a fascinating history of Mormons in Nazi Germany […]
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.
Council of 50 – Q&A with Jedidiah Rogers
Jedidiah Rogers has recently published a book on the Council of Fifty. For those of you who have never heard of the Council of Fifty, it was a “quorum” set up by Joseph Smith in preparation for his U.S. Presidential campaign in 1844. One of the most unusual aspect of this council was the fact […]
Remembering Black Protests of the 1960s-70s
In my previous post on how to agitate faithfully, I noted that the only revelations we have received in the past 125 years came about as a result of agitation. With regards to polygamy, the US government agitated in such a coercive manner that we got the Manifesto in Official Declaration 1 in which Wilford […]
Congo Q&A with Margaret Young
February is Black History Month. Margaret Young, who teaches writing at BYU, has been heavily involved in writing LDS black history. She has helped write the play, I Am Jane, a story about early black Mormon Jane Manning James, and has produced 2 films about black Mormons. Her first film came out in 2008 and […]
Did you Meet the Mormons?
This past weekend, we noticed that Meet the Mormons was at the Dollar Theater (actually it is $1.50), so we went to see it. (I admit it–we don’t like to pay the higher prices.) I walked into the theater, and it was nearly sold out. A recent article said that Utah County is 84% Mormon […]
The Crucible of Doubt
Many religions are losing adherents to atheism, or people a simply choosing to abandon organized religion. Mormonism is no different. Deseret Book has recently published The Crucible of Doubt by Terryl and Fiona Givens in order to address those Mormons who doubt truth claims made by the church. I liked some of the points that […]
The LDS Drug Problem
I watched Lisa Ling’s program on CNN Saturday night dealing with the LDS Drug problem. (A short preview is available here.) On the one hand, it was unremarkable. Drug users (in any community) say that they want to stop doing drugs, but are very flaky and keep doing them. LDS users are no different. On […]
Fed Up with Conspiring Men?
D&C 89:4 “Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—” Last year, I asked “Are conspiring men […]
Excommunication is Counter-Productive
Does excommunication do more harm than good? I think the answer is unmistakably yes. It is just simply a bad idea to turn loyal members into enemies. There is the old adage that “they can leave the church, but they can’t leave it alone.” I think when the church excommunicates someone, the church create their […]
Mormon Heretic 