Our Authors, ElsewhereWebsite: http://mormonheretic.org
Profile: I've been blogging on religious topics since January 2008 at my own blog, Mormon Heretic. In February, 2009, I started blogging at Mormon Matters, and in October 2010, I came over here. I am a member of the Mormon History Association. I love to talk about early Christianity, Mormonism, Judaism, and would love to know more about Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism. I am active at church, and served a mission in South Carolina and Georgia. When I'm not thinking about religious stuff, I am thinking about sports.
Last week, Stephen Marsh at Wheat and Tares posted about how arguments about Guns and Gays are similar. Steve specifically said “people post disputed statistics for the harm caused by the parties they wish to regulate or deny. In both cases, those opposing regulation point to contrary statistics showing how good either guns or gay [...]
I just watched a documentary called Jefferson’s Secret Bible. (You can download it for free on iTunes or watch it at the Smithsonian website.) The documentary discusses the restoration and some of the theology behind Thomas Jefferson’s rewriting on the Bible. In his day, Jefferson was called an atheist by his detractors; he wasn’t really [...]
I was late to church because I was finishing up on filing my taxes. This is the time of year when we get to look and see how much we’re sending to the government, and while many of us enjoy the tax refund, we neglect to see how much we’re sending to the government. Tea [...]
Just prior to General Conference, Utah Valley University hosted a Mormon Studies Conference titled “The Expanding Canon”. I wish I could have attended more of the sessions, but enjoyed the sessions I attended. I was surprised that the LDS Instituted of Religion hosted one of the sessions. I attended Institute when I was in college, [...]
A 73 year old man with arthritis, failing kidneys, and other health problems died last Tuesday. I didn’t know him very well (I’ll call him Gene), but I knew his daughter. During the funeral yesterday, his daughter recounted his life and said she was glad that he had left his bodily prison, but at the [...]
There has been a lot of buzz in the bloggernacle lately. A Facebook group was created in February called Let Women Pray in General Conference. To the surprise of many, Salt Lake Tribune’s Peggy Fletcher Stack is reporting that women are scheduled to pray in General Conference for the first time next month. Is this [...]
I wanted to continue my series on the book Mormon Doctrine, by Bruce R. McConkie. With the election of Pope Francis this week, I thought that would be an interesting place to go. Elder McConkie didn’t have much good to say about Catholicism. Let’s compare the 2 revisions for Catholicism 1958 version – Catholicism Additions [...]
I was pleased to attend a book signing at Pioneer Book in Orem, Utah Saturday night. Brian Hales has put together a new comprehensive set of 3 volumes concerning the theology and history of polygamy in the early church. Initially the book was over 1000 pages, so the editors at Greg Kofford Books asked if [...]
The LDS Church has produced an update to the scriptures, following 8 years of work by historians on the Joseph Smith Papers Project. You may have heard about some of the changes, as our own Andrew S was the one that alerted me, but By Common Consent has some fantastic posts on the subject as [...]
I wanted to start a new series on the book Mormon Doctrine, by Bruce R. McConkie. Some have referred to this book (no longer being published) as “Bruce’s Doctrine.” In Greg Prince’s biography of David O. McKay, Prince cited a study by some general authorities that the book had over 1000 errors. The first edition of [...]
Pope Benedict 16th stunned the world last week when he announced his resignation due to “lack of strength of mind and body.” Geoff over at RationalFaiths modified the pope’s statement, writing if as if President Monson made a similar announcement, and then discussed the history of emeritus status in the LDS Church. Geoff writes, In [...]
A 2000 Supreme Court decision rules that because the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization, they are within their rights to exclude gays, atheists, and agnostics from its membership ranks. So why did the Boy Scouts of America reverse course and announce that local units now have the ability to choose whether to allow [...]
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore bperfect, even as your cFather which is in heaven is dperfect. Professor Kris Doty spoke last week at UVU. “In the (Mormon and Utah) culture, people have just taken it too far,” she said during the 2013 Mental Health Symposium at UVU’s Sorensen Student Center. “They think they can’t make a mistake and [...]
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: [...]
While the Sundance Film Festival gets all the press, Utah County is also home to the LDS Film Festival. I reviewed the schedule, and thought I would point out a few films that sound interesting at the Scera Theater in Orem, Utah. Wednesday – Opening night 7 pm – The Playbook It’s the story of [...]
“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. 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 [...]
Reverend 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. [...]
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 [...]
On Dec 23, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo was arrested (on Sunday no less) for DUI. He had been driving erratically in Virginia at approximately 12:45 am. Crapo previously served as bishop of an LDS ward at age 31. (He is now 61 years old.) The good news for him is that he is not up [...]
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 [...]
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