Most Mormons know the general details of how Joseph Smith said he first learned about and found the gold plates: on September 21, 1823, Joseph Smith went to bed. After praying for forgiveness of his sins and asking for a … Continue reading →
I feel bad for today’s missionaries who are unaware of the difficult issues confirmed in the lds.org Gospel Topics Essays. I have heard of missionaries being confronted with church history problems and past doctrines while serving their missions. Without having ever heard … Continue reading →
Elder M. Russell Ballard recently spoke to CES (Church Education System) teachers about how they need to “inoculate” their students with information from the “less-known or controversial” topics found in the lds.org Gospel Topics Essays (my own emphasis added): You should … Continue reading →
Elder D. Todd Christofferson recently made an interesting Facebook post: Aside from him not having a clue about “increasing attacks” on Joseph Smith (really? No idea? Heard of polygamy, polyandry, seer stones, or the Book of Abraham papyri?), I would … Continue reading →
A Mormon just believes! Recently I heard how an LDS father told his potential future son-in-law of a requirement that the son-in-law never leave the church and always stay strong in it. Could I or would I have made a promise … Continue reading →
A scene from “The Prophet Puzzle”, a short graphic novel. I originally created this short graphic novel for a Sunstone Magazine contest. Unfortunately they told me they didn’t get enough submissions, so they cancelled the contest. My story was inspired … Continue reading →
“The Prophet Puzzle” contains two of the three essays I discuss in this post. (Here’s a short graphic novel inspired by the information in this post.) If you go to the front page of Indie Mormon, you can see a word … Continue reading →
William Hamblin is a professor of history at BYU. He recently wrote this blog post: “How BYU Destroyed Ancient Book of Mormon Studies”. Hamblin has spent many years trying to prove the Book of Mormon is a historically accurate book, … Continue reading →
Will the internet kill the LDS church, or just wound it? That’s up to the LDS church. The LDS church is in a difficult spot. Many LDS leaders have presented the Book of Mormon and the church as an “all … Continue reading →
The seer stone used to translate the Book of Mormon, as published by the LDS church This week the LDS church produced photos of the seer stone that Joseph Smith used to translate the Book of Mormon. I’ve seen a … Continue reading →
