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Come, Follow Me Week 22 – Joshua 1–8; 23–24

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Trying to Serve the Lord Without Offending the Devil

By Nick Galieti

(Originally published on February 11, 2015 as part of our “Rise Up” podcast for youth)

When it comes to living our lives, we have a lot of choices placed before us. We have our choice of schools to attend after high school, or even a choice of career path. Spiritually speaking, we have a choice to make. When viewing the world around him, even Joshua in the Old Testament dealt with this same question. In Joshua 24:14-15 he was speaking prior to his death and reflecting on the different choices that he made in his life when he recorded this often quoted passage: [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 22 – Joshua 1–8; 23–24

The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 59

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Part 59: CES Letter Other Concerns/Questions [Section A]

by Sarah Allen

 

We’re starting the last section of the CES Letter besides the conclusion, so it’s just a few more weeks of this series. This particular section is a hodgepodge of all of the different things Jeremy could think of that didn’t quite fit in the other sections, as well as other questions that revisit some of the ones already asked.

Jeremy begins with a quote taken from Richard Bushman, noted historian and author of Rough Stone Rolling, that was given during an informal fireside at someone’s home, filmed, clipped into a short, 2-minute video, then handed over to various critics to pass around: [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 59

Under the Banner of Heaven: Fact vs Fiction

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Under the Banner of Heaven movie posterFriends,

Today a new television series has been released titled Under the Banner of Heaven. It is based on a best-selling book by that same name, published in 2003, written by Jon Krakauer.

The book, and now the television series, talks about the 1984 horrific murders of Brenda Lafferty, and her 15-month-old daughter Erica, by Dan and Ron Lafferty in American Fork Utah. The theme of Jon Krakauer’s book is that Dan and Ron’s religious upbringing in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the underlying cause for what they did. Krakauer, an atheist, believes that since bad things are sometimes done in the name of religion, religion breeds violence.

This series will likely lead to questions from your friends and family members. We’ve created a page of resources. Here are a few things to be aware of: [Read more…] about Under the Banner of Heaven: Fact vs Fiction

The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 58

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Part 58: CES Letter Science Questions

by Sarah Allen

 

In this life, there are a lot of questions for which we don’t have answers, or only have partial answers. There is much still yet to be revealed, and one of the big lessons we need to learn in this life is that of having patience and trusting in the Lord to reveal things according to His timeline, not ours.

When I’m praying over some of these questions, two scriptures often come to mind as my answer. The most common one is D&C 58:3, which says, in part:

Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things…

The scripture verse that occasionally follows it up if I’m not satisfied by that answer and I get a little salty or frustrated over it is D&C 25:4, which reads:

Murmur not because of the things which thou hast not seen, for they are withheld from thee and from the world, which is wisdom in me in a time to come.

Sometimes, we’re just not ready for the answers yet, and we need to learn how to be okay with that. It’s not an easy lesson to learn, but it’s a pretty important one.

In this particular section of questions in the CES Letter, we’ll be discussing things that don’t have full, definitive answers yet. A lot of it is speculative, and a lot of Jeremy’s questions and comments are based on assumptions, not revealed doctrine. We’re mostly going to be talking about theories today.

I’m okay with not having explicit answers to these questions yet. Some of you won’t be, and that’s okay, too. Everyone has unanswered questions, and some of those questions can really bother us until we come to an answer that satisfies us. There’s nothing “wrong” or shameful about that. This church was restored because of Joseph Smith trying to get answers to his unanswered questions.

There are two things in particular that I think President Nelson excels at, and I think we’re very blessed to have a leader who does excel at those things. First, he is very good at separating the necessary from the extraneous, both in doctrine and practice. Under his leadership, the Church has streamlined various programs and taken steps to make things more simple and clear for us. He has shown that he’s open-minded and willing to change certain things to make our lives easier. He’s also told us that other things will not change, because they’re necessary for our salvation.

The second thing he’s really great at is closely related to the first, and that’s his ability to adapt to new information. When he’s informed that something isn’t working for many people, he seeks out ways to change it. When he learns new historical information, he adjusts his assumptions accordingly.

[Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 58

Faithfully Informed Podcast #2 – Interview with Sarah Allen, author of 60+ part “CES Letter” Rebuttal

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Sarah Allen has been writing a 60+ part series of articles responding to the “CES Letter” at r/lds on Reddit, which is now also being published on the FAIR blog. In this interview with Amber Rothamer, she talks about how she got started and the experiences she’s had over more than a year in writing the rebuttal.

Sarah’s “CES Letter” response series can be found on the FAIR website here:

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Sarah_Allen_CES_Response_Posts

Sarah Allen is brand new in her affiliation with FAIR. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. A voracious reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises and began sharing what she learned through her studies. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.

Amber Rothamer currently operates as the Project Manager at FAIR, streamlining the volunteer application process and organizing the many operations of FAIR into easy to manage teams led by its volunteer base. Amber has over 5 years experience spearheading marketing campaigns for radio and social media as a social media marketing manager, and specializes in written and visual content creation. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University Idaho where she majored in Broadcast Journalism with a minor in music and worked for both the school paper and the school radio station. Amber is driven by a passion to connect people through effective communication both professionally and personally. At home she focuses on building her young family of herself, her husband, and infant son, on open and honest communication. When Amber is blessed with free time, she enjoys traveling with her family, family history, and singing songs for her son.

 

The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 57

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Part 57: CES Letter Temples & Freemasonry Questions [Section C]

by Sarah Allen

 

While Eastern societies and cultures are often well-versed in allegory and symbolism, Western societies and cultures are typically much more literal-minded, especially in the modern day. This can make studying the Gospel, particularly the temple, more challenging than it needs to be. So much of what happens inside the temple is symbolic. It can be difficult for us to fully understand what is being taught to us, and Jeremy Runnells takes that to extremes here in this portion of his CES Letter. [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 57

The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 56

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Part 56: CES Letter Temples & Freemasonry Questions [Section B]

by Sarah Allen

 

Before picking back up with this week’s post, I just wanted to take a moment to thank Jeffrey Bradshaw and Brandon Cole for providing additional resources and information in the comments of last week’s posts, as well as Trevor Holyoak for pointing me toward a helpful eBook. It was very generous, and I learned a lot this week. I appreciate you guys.

I’m a lot less appreciative of Jeremy and the spin he puts on things. The word games he favors come out in full force in this section, where he conflates different concepts, makes broad assumptions, and gives dishonest readings of quotes. He seems like a smart guy with decent reading comprehension, so I have to believe that he’s doing it on purpose. An honest reading of these quotes in context more than answers his supposed questions, and yet, he avoids doing that on topic after topic. [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 56

“Under the Banner of Heaven” Redux

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(Updated 4/28/2022 – Please see our new post at https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/blog/2022/04/28/under-the-banner-of-heaven-fact-vs-fiction)

“Under the Banner of Heaven” is not only a slap in the face of modern Latter-day Saints but also a misrepresentation of religion in general. – Robert L. Millet

This book is not history, and Krakauer is no historian. He is a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good. – Mike Otterson

Although the book may appeal to gullible persons who rise to such bait like trout to a fly hook, serious readers who want to understand Latter-day Saints and their history need not waste their time on it. – Richard E. Turley Jr.

[H]is obvious biases against both religion in general and the Church of Jesus Christ in particular have made the book nothing more than a flawed, sensationalistic work… – Craig L. Foster 

A book called Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer was published in 2003. It has now been made into a miniseries that will be available for streaming from Hulu later this month. Here are some resources available regarding the claims made in the book:

The Deseret News now has an article on the series:

Have a question? Contact us here.

Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

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by Robert Hill

Every six months, dating back to 1840, Latter-day Saints gather as a worldwide congregation to worship, sing and learn at the feet of leaders we consider living prophets. It’s a wonderful time full of the Spirit of God. But recently, I can’t help feeling I miss the way General Conference used to be. I don’t mean the recent changes in whether we get a male priesthood session or the socially-distanced broadcasts necessitated by the pandemic. I mean the feeling of sitting down for it. It wasn’t so very long ago that I looked forward with unalloyed eagerness to gathering with family and food for a joyful weekend of spiritual edification. [Read more…] about Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 55

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Part 55: CES Letter Temples & Freemasonry Questions [Section A]

by Sarah Allen

 

The next “problematic” topic the CES Letter discusses is the apparent link between the temple ceremony and Freemasonry. Admittedly, this isn’t a topic I know as much about as some of the others we’ve gone over. I’ve just never had many questions about Freemasonry, so I’ve never studied the topic much in the past. I love learning new things, though, so I’ve been looking forward to this section. It’s a difficult one to talk about because it’s so heavily centered on the endowment and, due to its sacred nature, that’s not something we talk about openly. [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 55