Recent Posts
-
The Book of Mormon Came in a Box
“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” - Matthew 13:13 When I married my sweetheart at the age of 19, my journey as a man begun. No more was I to think only of myself, for…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Testimony, Spiritual Experiences, and Truth: A Careful Examination
1 Introduction 2 Do spiritual impressions teach truth? 3 What’s behind a spiritual experience? 4 Testimony, bias, and propaganda 5 Circularities: pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps? 6 Conclusions 7 Additional reading (note: This article is an updated version of my original Rational Faiths article) 1 Introduction 1.1 Know the truth…
-
Knowledge and our younger generations
3Ne 26:11 “Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people.” Lately, I have been thinking about this particular verse and scripture. I have been thinking about how we,…
-
Accept all things in faith
Carson, I am not raised in the Church but rather I am a “convert”. In deciding, through much prayer and reading, I decided to be Baptized fully aware that I might not have all of my questions answered and not expecting the fullness of the gospel until sometime in the afterlife……
-
I Desire to Understand
Years ago when my son left the church, I chose to dig deep and find the answers to the difficult questions about church history and its doctrine. I went into this venture with full confidence that I would find the faith affirming answers that would help save my son’s eternal…
-
All in Joseph Smith’s milieu: a response to LDSLiving article on Book of Mormon evidences
Kathryn Jenkins Gordon recently read through the Book of Mormon with a distinct purpose: I wanted to determine how many evidences were found in the Book of Mormon itself supporting the fact that it was translated from an ancient document and not written by Joseph Smith in the early 19th…
-
Letter to parents: Thoughts on the Word of Wisdom
Context: This is a letter I wrote to my mother and father about my current approach to the Word of Wisdom. I recently resigned from the Church, and I have other siblings who have left and who I suspect will leave, so I wanted to establish some common ground and…
-
Check Your Premises
The Shins will change your life. Spoken by a young Natalie Portman in the cult indie classic Garden State, The Shins really have changed my life, providing a therapeutic soundtrack to my transition out of the church. They have always been a favorite band of mine (credit the impeccable music taste of my…
-
America, Chris Columbus, The Bundy’s, and Sorrow
I live in Eastern Washington. The Bundy’s misguided and atrocious take-over of a Federal visitor’s center in Eastern Oregon has got me thinking on one of the most fundamental issues of the Book of Mormon, that Native Americans are somehow supposed to be connected to the awful God of the Old…
-
Riding the Wake of 60 Years of the Good Ship Zion
It’s Christmastime 2015. I’m 61 years old, a loving husband, father of four, grandfather of nine and — eight months into the Post-Mormon portion of my life. The past two years of transition have been painful, terrifying, embarrassing, disorienting but ultimately liberating. I am an active, faithful, lifetime member of the…
Got any book recommendations?