NOM

I see you have been in the belly, the VERITABLE Belly, of the beast.

Having a relationship with God and/or Jesus can be a tricky thing. It is full of feelings- whether they be certain or uncertain, metaphors with multiple meanings and the texts themselves have different interpretations. Having a relationship with a Church is relatively more concrete. You go and ...

An apologist would likely say, "God told Joseph to take the Fifth." But that is not not what Joseph Smith said. He essentially said, "I don't want to tell you, and I'm the prophet, the boss." Which is a lot like what we hear today in some conference talks. Essentially, "we don't know the answer, and ...

I don't have a scale yet, just anecdotal experience. The '132 Reasons' blogger, Michelle Stone had encounters with Greg Matson and Brian Hales. Brian Hales acted like he was her bishop calling her to repent. At least Greg Matson listened to her, respectfully for the most part. Deacon Scale says Greg ...

(JOSEPH DECLINES TO EXPLAIN THE BOOK OF MORMON TRANSLATION IN CONTEXT) Br. Hyrum Smith said that he thought best that the information of the coming forth of the book of Mormon be related by Joseph himself to the Elders present that all might know for themselves. Br. Joseph Smith jr. said that it was ...

I've been thinking about the quality of apologists and their arguments, among other things. Also are they open to discussion? Are they malicious? Before we rate them we need criteria. What makes a good apologist? Or a bad apologist? I hope to discuss quality, not whether we agree with them or not. :D

Happy New Year! I look forward to meeting NOM's in person. Red Ryder, thanks!

There is a bit of a fuss lately about a lesson on lds.org that is directed to young children. It concerns polygamy. Any thoughts?

See: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... e?lang=eng

Last Saturday I heard something about a new introduction to the Book of Mormon. Yesterday I read it and saw how it softened or left out supernatural claims about its origins. Then today I look it up on "LDS Living" and "Meridian Magazine" and it was deleted WTH???

Polygamy points to ponder in the church: we are taught to rever Joseph Smith as a noble chosen Prophet but then through the essays and historians we are presented with a very different contradictory version of him. Is the Joseph Smith portrayed in the essays on gospel topics the same man about whom ...

One thing I would like to see is the removal of D&C 132 from the canon. They removed the Lectures on Faith, why not D&C 132, at least the part that talks about concubines.

Interesting responses. I grew up in a 90%- 95% LDS community. I didn't encounter a variety of Christian beliefs until my mission to Southern California, and I was moved by the sincerity of the various beliefs I encountered. I recognized that these beliefs were very important to people, and that many ...

He believes that those in his audience have already given up their "agency." Isn't that what the covenant path is all about?

Palerider and Hagoth make great points. The Church I grew up in liked a literal interpretation of Numbers 23:19: "“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent." But then came the challenge of dealing with the "New Church History." How can the Church address its own m ...

In my opinion, being taught that Heavenly Father is an exalted man is partly to blame for many Exmo's turning to atheism or agnosticism. I do a little study of other Christian traditions and I've found a more flexible view of deity. My own searching has led me to a less dogmatic understanding and ...

Lavina published a critical edition of the Lucy Mack Smith history titled "Lucy's Book." It is excellent. It is too bad she got ex'ed before she got a chance to work on the Joseph Smith Papers. If only Howard Hunter had outlived Boyd Packer. (sigh)

Having a General Conference talk on Our Dear Pre-Adamite Brothers and Sisters would be wonderful. After all, they were around for many millennia before the Mormon Adamites appeared in Missouri. They were able to help instruct the Adamites in clothing construction, food gathering, shelter making ...

What we need next is a movie about Helmuth Hubener, preferably by someone not tainted with an LDS bias.

One point that John Dehlin makes in a recent podcast concerns the Church's moral and legal hypocrisy. The Church may vaguely admit to making mistakes (Pres. Uchtdorff, Oct 2013), but they won't confess specifically to what those mistakes were (there are exceptions, when they were under duress), and ...

I went to two Sacrament meetings in the last month. There was a beard on the stand at each. I think they were part of the bishopric even though neither conducted. I’m betting the “no facial hair” commandment will slowly become out of date. A few decades after the rest of the world