Author: bwv549
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LDS Indoctrination and Retentive Socialization
LDS Indoctrination and Retentive Socialization Introduction In A Message To The Most Ardent Critic Of The Mormon Church, Ben Arkell quotes a nameless member of the church who had recently dropped off their daughter and son at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day…
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Book of Mormon parallels to 1800s thought
Book of Mormon parallels to 1800s thought Richard Bushman, well-known Mormon historian, recently stated: … there is phrasing everywhere–long phrases that if you google them you will find them in 19th century writings. The theology of the Book of Mormon is very much 19th century theology, and it reads like…
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Questions to Ask
Introduction These questions are designed to probe various aspects of the LDS Church’s history and truth-claims.1 The list was made for 1) investigators to ask the missionaries, 2) active members to ask themselves, or 3) those experiencing a faith transition to ask their parents or ecclesiastical leaders. The majority of…
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Finding Truth: Response to “8 Anti-Mormon Tactics That Satan Uses To Attack The Latter-day Saints”
In March of 2017, MyLifeByGogoGoff published a piece entitled 8 Anti-Mormon Tactics That Satan Uses To Attack The Latter-day Saints. The piece was then reblogged by LDS Living. I am certainly no expert logician, but I have taken a couple philosophy courses, and I spent many years in the sciences…
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The Shunning Key
The Shunning Key: Whom Mormons shun and why Introduction The leaders and manuals of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints frequently emphasize brotherly love and charity to all. Consider this statement by Elder M. Russell Ballard: Let us reach out in friendship and love to our neighbors, including…
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Problem Summaries: resources discussing LDS-truth claims
Problems with LDS truth-claims Before reading about the problems, you may want to first consider the pros and cons of investigating the truth-claim data. Very short summaries Five Key Facts (~ 1 page) 50 Problems with the Mormon Church (~10 minute youtube video) More significant summaries Mormon Primer (multiple perspectives: mainstream, critical,…
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Joseph Smith’s Polygamy Denials
Introduction Joseph Smith denied the practice of polygamy1 on several occasions. He was also responsible for the publication or distribution of several additional denials. A complete listing of early Church leader polygamy denials up to 1850 is available here. A few notes: Hyperlinks to original source material may be found by…
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Faith of a naturalist: response to “Faith of a Science Teacher” questions
Introduction On February 12, 2017, The Faith of a Science Teacher published a post entitled “Questions about the Church and Gospel of Jesus Christ”. I think many of these questions are very poignant. Having thought for many years about these same kinds of questions, I decided to offer up some…
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To peek behind the curtain: weighing the decision to investigate LDS truth-claims
Why not investigate? From the perspective of a believing member, there are many valid reasons to avoid critically1 investigating the truth-claims of the Church.2 Lack the time, energy, interest, or capability To investigate requires time and effort. Most members are busy raising a family and have many demands on their…
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Five Key Facts
This is a very short summary of what I view as the 5 most important facts in understanding alternative models for LDS truth claims. To the best of my knowledge, every point made in this document is accepted as factual by both LDS and non-LDS scholars (please correct me if…
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The 1832 First Vision account was suppressed between 11 and ~30 years.
The 1832 First Vision account was suppressed between 11 and ~30 years The evidence LaMar Petersen, an amateur Mormon historian, met with Levi Young (senior President of the First Council of the Seventy) on February 3, 1953, and took these notes: His curiosity was excited when reading in Roberts’ Doc. History reference…
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The three-fold nature of the LDS Church: corporate, totalistic, and individual-growth
The three-fold nature of the church: corporate, totalistic, and individual-growth bwv549 last updated 2016-06-06 Teachings and actions of the Church, its leaders, and its members may be categorized into three prominent mindsets: corporate, totalistic, and individual-growth (aka “growth-mindset”): There is certainly overlap and interplay between these mindsets, but many of…