by Amber Johnson
When I returned from my mission in late 2015, all eight of my siblings, as well as the strong majority of my friends and co-workers, were active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Over the past seven years, more than forty of my friends and family have left the Church – some very visibly, others more quietly, but nearly all without any intention to return. [Read more…] about Wind & Trees: Remaining Steadfast and Immovable in the Storms of Life
by Meagan Kohler
Do you believe in God? How do you know?
In their new book, Into the Headwinds: Why Belief Has Always Been Hard―and Still Is (Eerdman’s Publishing), Terryl and Nathaniel Givens recount a story about a friend who was sincerely convinced the Second Coming would take place within twenty years. Yet, why was he actively contributing to a retirement fund that would not be accessible until some twenty years after he believed the world, as we know it, would end? The Givenses make a strong case for an unsettling possibility: many of us sincerely profess beliefs we don’t actually hold, and we can’t recognize the hollowness of those beliefs until they cost us something. [Read more…] about Book Review: Into the Headwinds: Why Belief Has Always Been Hard―and Still Is
Well, here we are: the final post in this series. I’m sitting here right now with mixed feelings. This has been a very long time coming, requiring a tremendous amount of research and study, and a lot of blessings have come my way because of it. It’s gratifying to see the final result of all of the effort I put into it, though I have to admit, I’m also eager for a bit of a break.
I’ll go more into my thoughts toward the end of this post, but for now, there are still a few lines of Jeremy’s conclusion to get through.
Picking up where we left off: [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 69
This particular portion of Jeremy’s conclusion starts to get spicy. There will be a lot of questions being asked in a very hostile tone, some of them for the first time in this version of the Letter (he removed an entire section on the Scriptures that was pretty antagonistic, but still references it in his conclusion).
I realize that this relentless antagonism is considered by many to be a feature of the CES Letter, rather than a bug. However, to me, it’s just all very sad. Instead of realizing that just maybe he was wrong in his strident assumptions about the Gospel and allowing the Spirit to teach him something, he let bias and misinformation shatter his own his faith and turn him hostile and angry. Since then, it’s led him to actively destroy the faith of thousands of others while profiting off of their misery. He’s dug a pit for himself and now, the only way out is on his knees. So far, he hasn’t been willing to try that. I genuinely do hope and pray that changes someday, because Alma the Younger told us all exactly what happens when we go down that path without repenting.
Picking up here where we left off last week: [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 68
After almost a year and a half, this series is drawing to a close. All we have left here is Jeremy’s conclusion (which is 3 pages long) and then my own concluding thoughts. It’s been a long road, with a lot of reading, studying, and personal growth. I’ve personally learned a lot, and putting aside so much of my free time to study the history of the Church and its primary documents has strengthened my own testimony more than I ever anticipated.
It’s funny; one of the common claims you hear from people who have left the Church is that the more they studied, the more they became convinced it wasn’t true. For me, it’s been the opposite. The more I study the Gospel and its history, the more deep my belief becomes. I’ve said before that you can’t study this stuff on your own, you have to study with the Spirit.
Maybe that’s the difference, maybe not. I can’t read anyone else’s mind. All I can do is speak to my own life, and it tells me that what you get out of an experience mirrors what you put into it. If you’re hoping to find reasons to leave the Church, you’ll find them. If you’re hoping to find reasons to stay, you’ll find those, too. And if you’re looking to grow your testimony while learning more about the Church you belong to, researching all of these questions on your own is a great way to do it. [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 67
Continuing the trend of things that are actually controversial, Jeremy kicks off this week’s post with the Strengthening the Church Members Committee (SCMC). This is a topic our critics love to run with, though as always, they distort the reality into something bizarre and twisted.
I’d like to go over some of the history and responsibilities of this committee, because, as I’ve said before, when you put the context back into these supposedly controversial things, they become a whole lot less controversial.
The SCMC was formed in approximately 1985 by President Benson, though it has much earlier roots. Its goals, as I’ll show in more detail with statements later, were to give assistance to bishops, branch presidents, and stake presidents who didn’t have the personal knowledge needed to help their members, and to monitor publications by members that taught false doctrine. This was apparently to protect the members from falling victim to those apostate sects who still practice unauthorized polygamy. [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 66
For the past few weeks, we’ve spent a lot of time on Jeremy trying to make “fetch” happen by straw-manning some arguments in order to drum up controversy over things that were never controversial to begin with. Elder Andersen telling us not to believe everything we read online is not exactly scandalous, you know? But this week is different, because the things we’ll be talking about do actually have some controversy swirling around them already.
While we’re still under the main topic heading of “ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM,” we’re starting a new sub-header: “GOING AFTER MEMBERS WHO PUBLISH OR SHARE THEIR QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, AND DOUBTS.” The first subject under this sub-heading is the infamous September Six. Jeremy begins by citing and quoting the same Wikipedia article I just linked to: [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 65
We are pleased to announce that Michael R. Ash’s book, Bamboozled by the “CES Letter”, is now available in audiobook format from Audible and iTunes!
We’d especially like to thank Derrick Duncan for volunteering his time and talent to narrate it.
The e-book version is still available from the FAIR Bookstore and Amazon.
Picking up the next portion of the “ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM” topic heading, Jeremy begins with a quote from President Oaks:
Elder Dallin H. Oaks made the following disturbing comment in the PBS documentary, The Mormons:
“It is wrong to criticize the leaders of the Church, even if the criticism is true.” [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 64
I love to learn new things. Ever since I was a child, I’ve enjoyed researching a lot of topics from a wide variety of sources. I come by that honestly: my dad is always reading something new, too, and it’s only fiction about 1/3 of the time. Every Christmas, our gift from him is a small stack of 2-3 nonfiction books, a tradition I always look forward to. That’s why this last topic header from the Other Concerns section—the largest of the four—is one that I feel especially passionate about: “ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM.”
The claim is that the Church targets scholars and intellectuals for punishment and excommunication. You often see the charge being made in connection with discussions on the September Six, for example—a group we’ll be discussing in more detail in a week or two. [Read more…] about The CES Letter Rebuttal — Part 63
