Scripture
Moroni's Visit
In Part 3 of the Mormon Stories interview, John Dehlin gets more details from Richard Bushman about the Angel Moroni’s visit and the environment of Joseph’s Smith’s day between about 1823-1827. This part of the interview continues after Part 2 of the interview. John is a bit ambitious in this, and doesn’t cover the Kinderhook […]
Word of Wisdom in First Decade
For the most part, discussions of the Word of Wisdom on the Bloggernacle tire me out. While I agree that the modern church’s stress on abstinence from alcohol isn’t what the Word of Wisdom actually says, and it should be noted that saints in Nauvoo were encouraged to grow grapes for making wine in Nauvoo, […]
Jana Riess: Truth Doesn't have to be Empirical
Jana Riess has recently published a book called Flunking Sainthood in which she decides to spend 1 month participating in various spiritual rituals. For example, she spent one month fasting from sun up to sun down as a pious Muslim would do during Ramadan (though she picked the month of February because it had the […]
Ancient Proof-Texting
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 Chicago Experiment: A Fundamentalist-Modernist Battle
When it comes to religion, there are 2 main camps: fundamentalists and modernists. Perhaps you would prefer the term “conservative” and “liberal”; to some degree, these terms make sense. Casey Paul Griffiths came out with an article in BYU studies back in January called “The Chicago Experiment” and said “the Church had inserted itself directly […]
Early Mormons Were Anti-Slavery and Anti-Abolitionist
I just began reading Newell Bringhurst’s book Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism. Â It was printed in 1981, and is a hard book to find on the cheap. Â Used copies are around $30 on Amazon, and the local booksellers tell me it is a highly requested book. Â I wanted […]
Book Review: Latter-Day Dissent
A few months ago, I received an advance copy of a new book by Philip Lindholm called Latter-day Dissent: At the Crossroads of Intellectual Inquiry and Ecclesiastical Authority. The book is supposed to be released on Friday by Greg Kofford Books. Lindholm interviews 5 of the “September Six”, as well as 3 others. The September […]
Using Scriptures to Debunk the Priesthood Ban
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 […]
Mormon Heretic 