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Temples

Best of FAIR 6: Adam in Ancient Texts and the Restoration

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In the address from the 2006 FAIR Conference, Matthew Roper states: “Critics of Latter-day Saint Scripture and teachings have generally paid very little attention to the Book of Moses. Those who have condescended to comment on it have generally dismissed it as a shallow plagiarism of New Testament doctrines and themes if they do not ignore it altogether. Such dismissals show an unawareness on the part of these commentators of the often striking convergences between the Latter-day Saint scripture and the ancient world. Critics, skeptics and the disaffected have in my view greatly underestimated the revelations of Joseph Smith. Unfortunately, so have many members of the Church of Jesus Christ.”

The full text of this address can be found at here.

Matthew Roper (MS from Brigham Young University), is a resident scholar at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University.

The death of “blood atonement?”

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My “blood atonement” article (“Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Blood Atonement Balance Sheet”) is up on the main web site:

/Misc/Dead_Men_Tell_No_Tales.html

It’s a long one (109 footnotes), but well worth the read, in my opinion. I think much of the material will be new for even those who are well-read in things Mormon. Much more so (in spades) for those who happily parade the standard “blood atonement” proof-texts from Journal of Discourses as devastating to Mormon claims that their prophets and apostles were divinely called and sanctioned.

This material is a very small part of some books I’m working on focusing on topics in Journal of Discourses. I have made my own detailed index on over a hundred topics (apologetic, Church-related, background, humor, etc.), which is much more detailed than the standard one published by BYU in 1959 (which listed only seven references for “blood atonement”).

Feedback is more than welcome . . .

FAIR Podcast, Episode 4: Richard L. Bushman p.2

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In part two, Richard Bushman discusses challenges facing Mormon graduate students, his latest book “Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction,” and other subjects including temples, the LDS sacraments, Mormon cosmology, and Zion. Bushman is an award-winning American historian, currently serving as the Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University and Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University. He is also a general editor of the ongoing Joseph Smith Papers project.

Runtime:

47:51

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Gospel Principles Chapter 15: The Lord’s Covenant People

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The only attacks I could think of that we receive from anti-Mormons on the material covered by chapter 15 have to do with the temple.

Important note: Members of FAIR take their temple covenants seriously. We consider the temple teachings to be sacred, and will not discuss their specifics in a public forum.

Here are the resources available from FAIR that I thought were most relevant:

Feel free to leave a comment about anything else that might come up that is related to this chapter.

The Jackson County Temple

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A lot of times our FAIR wiki writers are being purposefully brief by featuring the simplest explanation. There is a hope that those who need more nuance and more possibilities explored will take advantage of the additional resources we point to. I like it when those struggling with an intellectual problem think independently about it. When they find their own solution to a criticism that works for them, I encourage them to stick with what works. Sometimes I will speak up if I see that a particular solution is inadequate and perhaps setting up someone for a future fall from encountering a more advanced criticism. [Read more…] about The Jackson County Temple

Temple Mariage and Civil Divorce

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Recently FAIR (via Ask the Apologist feature) was queried about whether the Church’s website was knowingly misusing the popular 6% divorce from temple marriage statistic. Its main promoter has been Daniel K. Judd. He gave a BYU devotional in 2006 and defended the 6% figure. A partial transcript of Judd’s comments about his prior (2000) LA Times newspaper interview can be found here. Judd explains that divorce statistics are very dependent on how one collects and calculates the data. My co-blogger, Steven Danderson, pointed out that the high divorce rates that people are most familiar with are calculated (for example by the government) on a yearly basis by dividing the number of recorded divorces by the number of recorded marriages. As will be shown, the research that Judd refers to uses a different counting scheme, which is nevertheless well within the norms of academic journals. I think Judd and the LDS Church can continue to use the figure in good faith.
[Read more…] about Temple Mariage and Civil Divorce

Preparing for Your Temple Tour

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In an earlier post on this blog I referenced an article published by Mormonism Research Ministry (MRM), a professional anti-Mormon organization. The article, entitled Preparing for Your Temple Tour, presents the reader with questions to ask during an open-house tour of a temple. In the comments to my earlier blog post, Marc asked the following:

“Is there a rebuttal of the points made on the ‘how to prepare for a tour of the temple’ site anywhere? It would be interesting to read responses to it.”

Good question, Marc. I wasn’t able to find any single document that address this particular page on MRM’s site. However, there are responses to the criticisms that Bill McKeever, the article’s author, raises. I thought it might be interesting to examine the article and provide a few answers.

[Read more…] about Preparing for Your Temple Tour