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Rehabbing Elder McConkie

Posted by Mormon Heretic on August 12, 2012 in Early Mormon History, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Priesthood, Priesthood Ban, Race

Bruce R. McConkie

I took a break from the Kimball biography to discuss the recent Sunstone and FAIR conferences, but now it is time to get back to Lengthen Your Stride by Edward Kimball, and I wanted to discuss Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s role in the events leading up to the 1978 revelation.  Elder McConkie has been much maligned in the bloggernacle for his book Mormon Doctrine, which has often been cited as “Bruce’s Doctrine”, or known to have many errors (even by me.)  However, many often fail to mention Elder McConkie’s contributions to Mormonism: he put together much of the Bible Dictionary (of which few people complain), as well as many of the chapter headings in the LDS scriptures.  President Kimball also singled out Elder McConkie for his part as to whether the priesthood/temple ban on black church members had any basis in scripture. Continue Reading »

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FAIR 2012 Review

Posted by Mormon Heretic on August 5, 2012 in Book of Mormon, Christian, Early Mormon History, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Scripture

In past years, it seems that the Sunstone Symposium and FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research) have overlapped, so it was difficult to attend both.  However, this year they were not the same week.  I was able to attend my first FAIR conference, though my time was limited to just 2 speakers.  Since this was my first FAIR conference, I thought I would give some initial impressions before telling about the speakers I heard.

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Sunstone 2012

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 29, 2012 in Early Mormon History, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, polygamy, Priesthood, Priesthood Ban, Race, Theology, Women

Sunstone began on Wednesday, but unfortunately, I could only attend Friday.  I thought I would give some initial impressions of the sessions so far.

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The Non-verbal 1978 Revelation

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 22, 2012 in Canon, History, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Priesthood, Priesthood Ban, Race, Scripture, Theology

Pres Spencer W. Kimball

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been reading the Lengthen Your Stride: Working Draft.  Chapter 22 provides more information than is available in Lengthen Your Stride by Edward Kimball.  Many have wondered why there has been no written revelation of the 1978 revelation allowed men  of all races to hold the priesthood, and all races to participate in temple ordinances.  The best answer to this question was in fact that it was not a verbal revelation.  Edward Kimball describes the circumstances surrounding the revelation.  The information in blue comes from the longer “Working Draft” version.  From page 344 of the longer version (Chapter 22),

As a follower Spencer had proved loyal and conservative. He did not come to leadership intending to be a reformer, but he was not afraid of change.  His only desire was to push the work of the Church forward.  If doing so required changes, he stood prepared to make them. Continue Reading »

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Mormon Missions in Islamic Countries

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 12, 2012 in Islam, Mission, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Muslim, Priesthood Ban, Race, Sabbath

Many of you have read Lengthen Your Stride by Edward Kimball.  It’s a great book in an of itself, and it includes a CD with a treasure trove of material.  Included on the CD is a much longer version of the book, but few people read the “long version.”  Edward Kimball and Deseret Book disagreed on some parts of the book that the publisher wanted to cut, so the compromise was to add the CD for people that wanted all of the details.  I’ve been reading the long version of the book.

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Talking to Angels

Posted by Mormon Heretic on July 1, 2012 in Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Temple, Theology

Denver Snuffer

Bonnie has written a really interesting post on whether regular people can have access to angels.  Denver Snuffer was interviewed by John Dehlin on Mormon Stories back in February, and Denver has written a book detailing the steps to go through to receive an angelic visit.  John introduces Denver as a “A Progressive, Fundamentalist, Non-Polygamist Mormon Lawyer Who Claims to Have Seen Christ.”  Rather than recount the entire 2 hour interview, I’ve included the last 20 minutes or so of the interview that deals with this topic. Continue Reading »

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The Bushman Interviews

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 30, 2012 in Book of Mormon, Early Mormon History, History, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Scripture, Theology

As a recap, here is a recap of all of my posts transcribing the Richard Bushman interview.

Richard Bushman

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Bushman’s Testimony of Joseph Smith

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 29, 2012 in Early Mormon History, History, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews

It took more than a month, but I’m finally finished.  This is the conclusion of John Dehlin’s 5 part interview with Richard Bushman.  (I will post an index tomorrow of the interviews.)

JD, “Well if I can ever help, I’m just one small little voice but I’d love to help to that end.  Well Brother Bushman, I just can’t thank you enough for the time you’ve been willing to take with me, but more importantly with the listeners to provide your very important faithful and still knowledgeable perspective.  As we agreed up front I kind of hit you with a lot of hard question in serial, almost like a full frontal assault, but I wouldn’t feel good if we didn’t end by having you share with us what clearly is the most important aspect of Joseph’s work, no matter what your beliefs are and that the positive things that he did.  I would love it and be honored if you might conclude with us a story or two that you feel captures Joseph as you’ve come to know him so intimately, and maybe even share with us your final feelings about Joseph in a positive affirming light.” Continue Reading »

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Stung by the Bees; Why it’s hard to help the Disaffected

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 27, 2012 in Early Mormon History, History, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews

Following up on John Dehlin’s feelings on how the Bushman interview has progressed so far, Bushman discusses why it’s hard to help the disaffected.

Dehlin, “Now, about this episode, after four hours of interviews with me, it was clear that Dr. Bushman felt as though, in his words, I’d gotten the best out of him.  Once we realized it was time to wrap up, there were a few final thoughts that Dr. Bushman wanted to share with my listeners, so the first part of this episode represents his final thoughts about the interview, and the challenges of dealing with tough Mormon history in general.  The last part of the interview however represents something that was very important to me.  After drilling down so deep in the controversy of Joseph Smith’s life, I didn’t feel comfortable ending on a negative and controversial note.  So I asked Dr. Bushman to share with us a story or two that would encapsulate his view and even testimony of Joseph Smith the Prophet, after a lifetime of studying the both the man and the prophet.  This segment ends with that story and those expressions by Dr. Bushman.   Continue Reading »

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John Dehlin's Thoughts on Bushman and the Role of Church in Disaffection

Posted by Mormon Heretic on June 26, 2012 in Early Mormon History, History, Intellectualism, Mormon, Mormon Culture, Movie/Book Reviews, Theology

I can’t believe Richard Bushman has dominated the month of June on my blog.  (I actually started this at the end of May.)  Anyway, I’m finally on to Part 5 of the Richard Bushman Interview.  At this point, John Dehlin takes a short break an explains that the interview will not cover all the topics as promised in Part 1 due to the depth of his questions and Bushman’s lack of time.  (Four hours was not enough!)  Then John asks some questions that I think are very interesting questions, and I’d love to hear your answers to John’s question.  So, here is John’s thoughts on the interview up to this point. Continue Reading »

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