FAIR

FAIR Staff

Evaluating Claims that Contradict the Prophets

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Seven years ago, a FAIR conference presentation identified a harmful ideology among some members of the Church of Jesus Christ. It claims that God gives revelations, visits, and special priesthood ordinations to individuals outside of church leadership, and that faithful church members should follow and obey those individuals, and believe the truth of their purported visions and revelations, either along with or instead of actual church leaders. It often criticizes church leaders for being uninspired, or else claims one must read between the lines of leaders’ statements because most church members are too uninspired or unrighteous to receive greater light and deeper understanding. At the time, some of the major proponents of this ideology were Julie Rowe and Denver Snuffer.

Since then, this spiritually elitist ideology has become far more widespread than a few “remnant” groups. Our culture’s obsession with “authenticity” and personalized truth, along with confusion about scriptural principles of revelation, have made a lot of us susceptible to very harmful ideas that undermine our faith and ability to truly commune with God. [Read more…] about Evaluating Claims that Contradict the Prophets

Yet another critical website pretending to be something it’s not – “LDS Discussions”

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Websites critical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are popping up regularly, some gaining more traction than others. FAIR has responded specifically to some of them, like the so-called “CES Letter,” “Letter to My Wife,” and MormonThink. There are many other similar websites that FAIR has not responded to, partly because the topics raised in these sources are usually addressed in our wiki anyway, and partly because many of these sites overlap, because they are mostly re-hashing old arguments. [Read more…] about Yet another critical website pretending to be something it’s not – “LDS Discussions”

Willing to Be Weak

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Come Follow Me – Doctrine and Covenants 1

by Wendy Ulrich, PhD

Have you ever done anything that left you feeling foolish and weak? Something for which you hadn’t fully anticipated the consequences in time to avert them? Something that brought disapproval from your friends or contempt from your critics that even you had to agree might be warranted? Something that happened because you didn’t see the big picture, lacked experience with the problem at hand, lost your temper in the heat of a battle, or lost your prudence in enthusiasm for some new, shiny idea?

Yes, you have.

As have I.

How comforting the assurance that whatever others may think, whatever we may think, Jesus Christ is not alarmed by human imperfection and weakness (1 Corinthians 4:3-5; Ether 12:26-27). In fact, His preface to the Doctrine and Covenants asserts that He chooses and uses “the weak things of the world. . . [to]  break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellowman, neither trust in the arm of flesh – but that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world.” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:19-20, 23). He throws the door wide open for every weak, ordinary person to speak in His name and participate in His power. What might weakness have to do with that power?

“Calling All the Weak!” [Read more…] about Willing to Be Weak

FairMormon Finances

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The mission of FairMormon is to “provide well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” [1]   As such, we support fully the leadership of the church, its teaching and practices. That said, FairMormon is an independent organization that is not funded, nor run, nor even directed, by church leadership.

The three main sources of income for FairMormon are contributions from individuals and groups, revenue from conferences, and book sales. FairMormon has never received donations from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Nor has it received funds through Deseret Trust or the Foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FairMormon has received two donations from the More Good Foundation. One was a $2,000 donation that was part of a fundraising effort that was matched. The other was in 2018 when a $125,000 donation was made, which we were very grateful for because FairMormon was in financial difficulties at the time. At no time has the More Good Foundation ever told Fairmormon what to do. They do, however, use some of our information in their videos.

The More Good Foundation is also an independent organization funded through contributions. According to their website, they  “operate several websites along with social media pages where persons of other faiths can learn about the Church, and where individual members of the Church can share their beliefs. We also provide training and support for members interested in sharing their beliefs online.” [2] Their website also states that they are “primarily funded by the generous donations of individuals. It may also receive funds from trusts, corporations, and foundations, including Deseret Trust Company (a donor-advised fund), and the Foundation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Foundation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes donations to many organizations and is funded by the revenues of wholly owned, for-profit companies” (emphasis added). [3] In addition, their website states “The More Good Foundation operates independently from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More Good Foundation is not managed or directed by the Church.” [4] [Read more…] about FairMormon Finances

FairMormon Questions: How should we respond when we feel men and women are unequal at church?

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FairMormon has a service where questions can be submitted and they are answered by volunteers. If you have a question, you can submit it at http://www.fairmormon.org/contact. We will occasionally publish answers here for questions that are commonly asked, or are on topics that are receiving a lot of attention. (The names used in the answer have been changed.)

QUESTION:

We were recently asked to address “Male Privilege” in the church to help a teenage girl looking for answers to questions such as:  How should we respond when we feel men and women are unequal at church? What should we do if we have a nagging feeling that perhaps our culture doesn’t live up to our doctrine? What do we do when we perceive sexism or implicit biases at church? [Read more…] about FairMormon Questions: How should we respond when we feel men and women are unequal at church?

A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 15

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Part 15: Jacob – Words of Mormon and conclusion

The introduction to this series on internal consistency in the Book of Mormon is found in part 1 here.

This is the last part of the series. We hope it has helped the reader to appreciate the complexity and consistency of the Book of Mormon. We will consider some more examples from the short books on the small plates of Nephi and then wrap it all up with some final remarks.

116. Jacob 1:18 and 2 Nephi 5:26 — “priests and teachers”

In Jacob 1:18, Jacob mentions that he and his brother Joseph have been consecrated priests: [Read more…] about A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 15

A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 14

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Part 14: 1 Nephi 10 – 2 Nephi 31

The introduction to this series on internal consistency in the Book of Mormon is found in part 1 here.

This part covers the rest of 1 Nephi and all of 2 Nephi. You will notice that there is quite a big leap from 2 Nephi 5 to 26. This is the largest gap in this series and primarily due to most of the chapters between being quotes directly from Isaiah. Except for this gap, you may notice from the arc graph that there are no other really large gaps, indicating that internally consistent details are found frequently all throughout the Book of Mormon.

107. 1 Nephi 10:5 and 1 Nephi 11:27 — “Redeemer of the world”

As Nephi is describing what he saw in vision, he writes: [Read more…] about A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 14

A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 13

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Part 13: Ether 11 – 1 Nephi 3

The introduction to this series on internal consistency in the Book of Mormon is found in part 1 here.

This part covers the rest of Ether, the Book of Moroni and some of 1 Nephi. After Joseph Smith had dictated to the end of Moroni, he went on to dictate 1 Nephi from the small plates.

98. Ether 11:6, Mosiah 8:8, Mosiah 21:26, Alma 22:30, and Omni 1:22 — “Dry Bones”

There were prophets in the days of Shiblom, found in Ether 11:4-6. We find a very subtle example of internal consistency in the fulfillment of one of their prophecies: [Read more…] about A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 13

A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 12

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Part 12: Ether 1-7

The introduction to this series on internal consistency in the Book of Mormon is found in part 1 here.

This part covers the Book of Ether. The history of the Jaredite plates have already resulted in references from other books to Ether (see items 21 and 44 in previous parts of this series). This part contains more examples of links to other books as well as perhaps the most complex example of internal consistency (item 95).

94. Ether 1:3 and Mosiah 28:17 — the contents of the Jaredite record 

In Ether 1:3, Moroni tells us that the first part of the Jaredite record “speaks concerning the creation of the world, and also of Adam, and an account from that time even to the great tower.” This was also described in Mosiah 28:17 [Read more…] about A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 12

A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 11

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Part 11: 3 Nephi 19 – 4 Nephi

The introduction to this series on internal consistency in the Book of Mormon is found in part 1 here.

This part covers the rest of 3 Nephi plus 4 Nephi. It also includes references to Mormon. In the description of the Savior’s visit to the Americas, there are several particularly interesting and unique examples of internal consistency in the text, as we will discuss below.

87. 3 Nephi 19:4 and 3 Nephi 7:19 — Nephi raising his brother from the dead

We learn a detail about Nephi in 3 Nephi 19:4 [Read more…] about A Detailed Look at Internally Consistent References in the Book of Mormon Text, Part 11