FAIR

Apologetics

Fair Issue 87: Is the “Promised Land” limited to one area?

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MAIn this episode brother Ash relates how the term “promised Land” can refer to many areas and is not confined to any specific geographical location but to a faithful people.

The full text of this article can be found at Deseret News online.

Brother Ash is author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FairMormon Bookstore. Tell your friends about the Mormon Fair-Cast. Share a link on your Facebook page and help increase the popularity of the Mormon Fair-Cast by subscribing to this podcast in iTunes, and by rating it and writing a review.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon

 

 

Fair Issues 86: The Lamanite prophet Zelph

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MAIn this article brother Ash considers the account of the prophet Joseph Smith when he discovers the bones that belonged to a “white Lamanite” named Zelph who was a warrior under the prophet Onandagus.

The full text of this article can be found at Deseret News online.

Brother Ash is author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FairMormon Bookstore. Tell your friends about the Mormon Fair-Cast. Share a link on your Facebook page and help increase the popularity of the Mormon Fair-Cast by subscribing to this podcast in iTunes, and by rating it and writing a review.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon

 

Fair Issues 85: Cumorah claims can’t sustain Great Lakes model

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MAIn this article brother Ash addresses the claim that the Cumorah of the Book of Mormon is the same hill in New York from which Joseph Smith retrieved the plates.

The full text of this article can be found at Deseret News online.

Brother Ash is author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FairMormon Bookstore. Tell your friends about the Mormon Fair-Cast. Share a link on your Facebook page and help increase the popularity of the Mormon Fair-Cast by subscribing to this podcast in iTunes, and by rating it and writing a review.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon

 

Fair Issues 83: Great Lakes Book of Mormon geography

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MAIn this article brother Ash discusses several authors and the arguments they make for a Great Lakes model for the Book of Mormon geography.

The full text of this article can be found at Deseret News online.

Brother Ash is author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FairMormon Bookstore. Tell your friends about the Mormon Fair-Cast. Share a link on your Facebook page and help increase the popularity of the Mormon Fair-Cast by subscribing to this podcast in iTunes, and by rating it and writing a review.

The views and opinions expressed in the podcast may not reflect those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon

 

Front Page News Review #7

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FairMormon’s Front Page News Review provides context and analysis of the past week’s media coverage of Mormons and the LDS church. Hosted by Nick Galieti and manager of the FairMormon Front Page news service, Cassandra Hedelius.

What we present is not to be understood as being the official position of FairMormon or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We speak for ourselves, and sometimes not even then.

This week’s news:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2015/04/13/399336765/7-things-you-should-know-about-marco-rubio

http://www.kansascity.com/living/religion/article18104675.html

http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/2378770-155/group-scolds-mormon-apostle-for-disparaging

http://www.hngn.com/articles/83272/20150408/american-idol-alum-david-archuleta-apologizes-anti-gay-tweet.htm

Get your Early-Bird Conference Tickets now!

On August 6 & 7 we will be having our FairMormon conference at the Utah Valley Convention center.

Lodging is provided at the Provo Marriott across the street.

Right now you can get early-bird pricing for your tickets so register now before the price goes up.

To register click here http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/conf15a and scroll down the the conference registration.

Speakers this year include Margaret Barker, Ed Pinegar, Stephen Webb , Brant Gardner, Ron Dennis, Brittany Chapman, David Larsen, Jim Gordon, Laura Hales, Cassandra Hedelius, Paul Reeve, and, Dan Peterson.

We have both Mormon and non-Mormon scholars this year speaking about Mormon topics, so this conference is one that you don’t want to miss.

Sign up at this link: http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/conf15a

FairMormon Front Page, signup at fairmormon.org

Best of FairMormon: April 2015 General Conference – An Apologetic Review (Part 2 – Sunday Sessions & Women’s Session)

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April 2015 General Conference featured presenters from the presiding quorums and general officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this podcast, volunteers from FairMormon discuss the issues and quotes from selected talks through an apologetic perspective.

Panelists in this episode are Steve Densley, and Cassandra Hedelius (via telephone); moderated by Nick Galieti. In this episode, Part 2, the panel reviews the General Conference sessions that were broadcast on Sunday Morning, Sunday Afternoon, and The General Women’s Session.

Click here for a listing of all the General Conference Presentations from LDS.org

Part 1 of the 2015 FairMormon General Conference Review click here.

 

Best of FairMormon: April 2015 General Conference – An Apologetic Review (Part 1 – Saturday Sessions)

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about-general-conf-interior-2012-03April 2015 General Conference featured presenters from the presiding quorums and general officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this podcast, volunteers from FairMormon discuss the issues and quotes from selected talks through an apologetic perspective.

Panelists in this episode are Laura Hales, Stephen Smoot, and Neal Rappleye; moderated by Nick Galieti. In this episode, Part 1, the panel reviews the General Conference sessions that were broadcast on Saturday Morning, Saturday Afternoon, and The General Priesthood Session.

Click here for a listing of all the General Conference Presentations from LDS.org

 

A Response to Kristy Money’s Salt Lake Tribune Op-Ed

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The LDS doctrine of
“The same revelation that Money wants us to ignore also provides the proof text that gives Latter-day Saint couples hope for an eternal union and companionship.”

By Russell Stevenson

In Kristy Money’s recent op-ed for the Salt Lake Tribune, she urges seminary teachers and parents to “ignore [the] lesson altogether” on Doctrine and Covenants 132—which includes a discussion of the rationales undergirding Joseph Smith’s practice of polygamy. By calling for seminary teachers to ignore section 132, Money would have us silence the teaching of an important aspect of Latter-day Saint history. While section 132 has often raised difficulties for even the most committed of Latter-day Saints, the best solution to these anxieties is not increased ignorance but education, knowledge, and understanding.

Over the past decade, faithful Latter-day Saint historians—men and women who have spent years in the archives—have made venerable strides in creating the kind of faith community that can bear rigorous inquiries into its own past and appreciate its own relationship to broader political contexts. Johann von Goethe warned that “those who cannot draw conclusions/From three thousand years of learning/Stay naïve in dark confusions” and go “day to day undiscerning.”[1] For a people as historically conscious as the Latter-day Saints, Goethe’s poetic injunction holds no less true in matters of the past two centuries.

The study of history ought not be a discipline given to validating our assumptions or even our lived experiences; it demands constant vigilance to ensure that we are not projecting onto the primary sources what we want them to say. When we do, we are not pursuing history but crafting mythologies and perpetuating morality tales, useful though they may be. Immanuel Kant’s quip functions in reverse as well: simply because an interpretation is useful does not mean that it is true.[2]

Money urges seminary teachers to “simply teach that Joseph Smith began practicing polygamy in the early 1830s,” that they should “teach the facts without the spin.” Serious historical inquiries demand that we seek to capture a sense for the man or woman’s values and motivations whether the subject of study are activists such as Harvey Milk and Jane Addams, dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, or religious figures such as Mary Baker Eddy and Joseph Smith. Omitting Joseph Smith’s conviction in his own divinely-sanctioned mission does not present the kind of candid history that I assume Money wants to see. How can one seriously broach the historical Joseph Smith without acknowledging that he believed himself to be a Prophet, the very mouthpiece of God? “This is eternal lives,” he dictated in regards to the polygamy doctrine, “to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.” Joseph Smith enjoined readers to “receive ye, therefore, my law.” Transparency demands that educators of all stripes not merely state that Joseph Smith practiced polygamy but also, explore why he did as well.

Moreover, the same revelation that Money wants us to ignore also provides the proof text that gives Latter-day Saint couples hope for an eternal union and companionship. Whether one wishes to embrace or dismiss the doctrine of eternal marriage, it is undeniable that the Latter-day Saint marriage ritual and its foundational text provide peace, comfort, and fulfillment to couples across the globe. Surely, Money recognizes the kind of emotional pain that would come as a result.

I share Money’s desires to eradicate environments that foster justifications for sexual exploitation. And the best weapons against these evils are not ignorance and taboo but awareness and candor. Latter-day Saints must seek out their history on the grassroots level; then and only then, can the Mormon community hope to make meaning of their rich, courageous, troubling, and inspiring past.

[1]: Albrecht Schone, “Faust—today,” in Hans Schulte, John Noyes, and Pia Kleber, Goethe’s Faust: Theatre of Modernity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 18–19.

[2]: In his Lectures on Logic, Immanuel Kant said that “many things can be true and still useful to man. Not all truth is useful.” See Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Logic, trans. J. Michael Young (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 43.

Russell Stevenson is the author of For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013.

4th Watch: My Testimony

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4thWatch SmallBrother Nick Galieti, the podcast manager for FairMormon, asked for our personal testimony as a special gift this Easter. I responded that it would be an honor. Testimonies are often given in LDS sacrament meetings on a local level to a few hundred; but as a podcaster I get the privilege to share my testimony to many thousands. It is indeed a true honor that I take seriously. There are places in the world today where any public expression of religious belief is met with ridicule and government suppression. With such a privilege comes responsibility and I would like to start my testimony with the words of Elder Holland. In the October 2014 conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he said this in reference to the forth mission of the Church: To care for the poor and needy.

In what would be the most startling moment of His early ministry, Jesus stood up in His home synagogue in Nazareth and read these words prophesied by Isaiah and recorded in the Gospel of Luke: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and … set at liberty them that are bruised.”

Thus, the Savior made the first public announcement of His messianic ministry. But this verse also made clear that on the way to His ultimate atoning sacrifice and Resurrection, Jesus’ first and foremost messianic duty would be to bless the poor, including the poor in spirit.

From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus loved the impoverished and the disadvantaged in an extraordinary way. He was born into the home of two of them and grew up among many more of them. We don’t know all the details of His temporal life, but He once said, “Foxes have holes, and … birds … have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Apparently the Creator of heaven and earth “and all things that in them are” was, at least in His adult life, homeless.

Down through history, poverty has been one of humankind’s greatest and most widespread challenges. Its obvious toll is usually physical, but the spiritual and emotional damage it can bring may be even more debilitating. In any case, the great Redeemer has issued no more persistent call than for us to join Him in lifting this burden from the people. As Jehovah, He said He would judge the house of Israel harshly because “the spoil of the [needy] is in your houses.”

“What mean ye,” He cried, “that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor?”

The writer of Proverbs would make the matter piercingly clear: “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker,” and “whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor … shall [also] cry himself, but shall not be heard.”

In our day, the restored Church of Jesus Christ had not yet seen its first anniversary when the Lord commanded the members to “look to the poor and … needy, and administer to their relief that they shall not suffer.” Note the imperative tone of that passage—“they shall not suffer.” That is language God uses when He means business.

I agree with Elder Holland. When the Lord uses this type of language, He means business. In the book of James chapter 1 verse 27, pure religion is defined: “Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” As members of the Lord’s Church we have a sacred responsibility to succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees as recorded in the 81st section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is my testimony the Lord stands ready to receive all those who come until Him. He is the great healer. The perfect physician and His Church is committed to performing this great commission. In Jeremiah 29:11 we read. “For I know the plans1 I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper2 you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This hope is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ and I for one stand ready at all times and in all places to give an answer to everyone who asks me a reason for the hope that is in me with kindness and patience for those with whom I witness and respect and reverence for almighty God. (1 Peter 3:15.)

Personally, I honor the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence concerning these penned words: “[W]ith a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” I can say with full purpose of heart that I pledge my life, whatever fortune I may have and my sacred honor to the Father of Heaven and Earth and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit for Their purpose and glory. We read in Romans 8:16 that “the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” It is to him that we need look for our purpose and hope in this life and the life to come. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

As always the views and opinions expressed in this podcast may not represent those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or that of FairMormon.