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The Trials and Deaths of John D. Lee and Brigham Young

Posted by Mormon Heretic on January 13, 2013 in Death, Early Mormon History, History, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies

I wanted to continue Ken Burns’ discussion of the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows as part of his series, The West (available on Netflix.) In Part 6, he discussed the trial of John D. Lee. At the beginning of part 6, he begins with this introduction.

By 1874, Washington had launched still another assault on the Mormons who had sought sanctuary in Utah. And the prophet who had brought them there would be forced to choose between saving his Church, or sacrificing his spiritual son.

Following several discussions about the Indians and federal officials, Burns turns to discuss Mormons a couple of decades after the massacre happened. The quotes below come from about the 50 minute mark of Part 6. Continue Reading »

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Tarefic and Wheaties Nominations

Posted by Mormon Heretic on January 9, 2013 in Funny, Mormon, Mormon Culture

WandTawardWheat and Tares has opened nominations for “Best of” (and perhaps “Worst of”) the year for 2012 in the Bloggernacle. Check it out, and nominate! TareficAward

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Ken Burns on the Context of the MMM

Posted by Mormon Heretic on January 6, 2013 in Early Mormon History, History, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, polygamy, Race

I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ 1996 documentary series on The West.  It’s a 9 part series, so it takes a bit of effort to get through.  Of course Burns spends some time discussing the Mormons, and I found his treatment of Mormons within the context of the western United States very interesting. In Part 4: Death Runs Riot (available on on Netflix), the narrator claims that events in the West were precursors to the Civil War.  The Mountain Meadows Massacre (MMM) was just one of several atrocities leading up to the most deadly war in American history.  Burns has a narrator describe the events leading up to the Civil War.
Continue Reading »

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Abortion and Crime

Posted by Mormon Heretic on January 2, 2013 in Economics, Ethics, Health Care, Movie/Book Reviews, Politics, Women

I originally posted this on Wheat and Tares in August 2011, but wanted to add it here since I just talked about a Freakonomics podcast on Baptism for the Dead.

A friend of mine introduced me to the Freakonomics podcast that you can download from iTunes.  Two Steve’s (Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt) put together a book called Freakonomics.  They seek to uncover “the hidden side of everything.”  Netflix has the Freakonomics movie, and you can watch it here (if you have a streaming Netflix account.)  The movie discusses several topic: potty training, cheating teachers, bizarre baby names, self-dealing Realtors, crack-selling mama’s boys, sumo wrestling, and many other topics.

Continue Reading »

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Failure of Leadership

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 31, 2012 in Canon, Christian, Mormon, Politics

We are down to crunch time.  I can’t believe that our Congress is so dysfunctional.  There’s plenty of blame to go around.  Where should I start?

Let’s start with everyone in the photograph!  D&C 38:27

“I say unto you, be aone; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.”

Obviously, they’re not handling this in the way Jesus would have it done.  Partisanship rancor is ridiculous.  But we, the American people, sent these shysters to office.  Apparently we like disunity and dysfunction.  It’s our fault. Continue Reading »

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The Worth of $ouls

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 30, 2012 in Baptism for the Dead, Christian, Early Christian History, Ethics, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Politics, Theology

“Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (D&C 18:10).  But how much is a soul worth?  Freakonomics tries to answer the question.

Steven Levitt, economist

Steven Levitt, economist

For those of you unfamiliar with Freakonomics, it was originally a book written by two Steves:  Dubner and Levitt.  Levitt is an economist for the University of Chicago while Dubner is a former writer for the New York Times Magazine.  Surprised at the success of their first book, they’ve done another book, SuperFreakonomics, as well as the movie Freakonomics (available on Netflix, where I reviewed abortion as a crime fighting tool.)  Now they have a website and a podcast.  Dubner is usually the narrator on the podcast, but goes to Levitt for many of his questions.  They try to find “the hidden side of everything.”  Almost everything they talk about is from an economics perspective.

They have put together a very interesting podcast called Soul Possession.   Continue Reading »

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Re-Evaluating Gay Scriptures

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 26, 2012 in Christian, Ethics, Gender, Judaism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Multi-Faith, Old Testament, Politics, Theology, Women

Reverend Laurence Keene Disc of ChristReverend Dr. Laurence C. Keene, Disciples of Christ, “When people ask questions about homosexuality, almost always they follow with, ‘and what does the Bible really say about it?’

The preceding quote comes from an interesting documentary on Netflix called For the Bible Tells Me So.  The documentary discusses traditional and liberal Christian beliefs about homosexuality in the scriptures.  I wanted to run some excerpts from the documentary by you to see what you thought of these interpretations. Continue Reading »

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Holiday Violence

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 17, 2012 in Canon, Christian, History, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Old Testament, Theology

It’s been a rough few weeks.

Violence

Holiday Violence

1.  Dec 1, 2012.  (Left photo) Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Javon Belcher killed his girlfriend, drove to the Chiefs’ Stadium, talked to his coaches and then killed himself in front of them.

2.  Dec 11, 2012.  (Middle photo) Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22, entered a crowded Portland, Oregon mall and killed 2 people before turning the gun on himself.

3.  Dec 14, 2012.  (Right photo) Children are escorted away from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. Adam Lanza, 20, entered the school and killed 20 students and 6 adults before killing himself. He killed his mother at home earlier that morning.

Acts of these types of unimaginable violence cause many of us to wonder how best to stop these types of violent acts.  Some are calling for more gun control to curb these types of incidents.  On Friday’s radio show, Michael Savage said all schools should be staffed with armed guards to prevent these types of attacks. Continue Reading »

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Magi from China

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 16, 2012 in Archeology, Book of Mormon, Christian, Christmas, Holiday, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Scripture, Theology

A few years ago, Revelation of the Magi was first translated into English. I’ve wanted to blog about it for a time, but now seems appropriate. According to ABC News,

An ancient text called the “Revelation of the Magi,” has been rediscovered and tells a very different version of the Three Wise Men’s journey to Bethlehem.

“It ends up being the most complex, richest, most strange, the strangest story of the Wise Men to come out of Christian antiquity,” said Brent Landau, an expert in ancient Biblical languages and literature. “Until now, it had never been translated into English.” Continue Reading »

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Reassessing the Birth of Jesus

Posted by Mormon Heretic on December 9, 2012 in Book of Mormon, Christian, Early Christian History, Easter, History, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Scripture, Theology

In a 2010 article in BYU Studies, Professor Jeffrey R. Chadwick of BYU made the case that Jesus was born in December of 5 BC.  In the most recent issue of BYU studies, professors Lincoln Blumel and Thomas Wayment review Chadwick’s article and make the case that

his handling of certain ancient sources, including the Book of Mormon, was problematic.We are convinced that the primary evidence does not allow one to pinpoint a year, let alone a month, for the birth of Christ with any degree of certitude.

One of the biggest problems with dating the birth of Christ is that the Gospels themselves don’t agree.  Mark and John say nothing about the birth of Christ, while Matthew and Luke give years that are off by a decade.  Blumel and Wayment (B&W) discuss the problem. Continue Reading »

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