Blog

Thomas Alexander’s Arrington Lecture on the MMM

January 16, 2008 by Keller

In September of 2006 I had the exhilarating experience of attending Dr. Alexander’s coverage of Brigham Young’s post Mountain Meadows Massacre investigations. Furthermore, I got to break the news of the event to Bloggernacle as Clark Goble and the rest of the crew at the Millennial Star allowed me to do a guest post. In the interest of balance, I will share two excerpts from Dr. Alexander’s now published paper, that paint contrasting pictures of Brigham Young’s response to the Massacre.

Ad-Hoc Book of Mormon Geography

January 15, 2008 by awyatt

I can’t tell you the number of times over the past five years that I have heard critics (and some Mormons) say something along the lines of “Mormons have always believed that the Book of Mormon took place in all of North American and South America, with the Isthmus of Panama as the ‘narrow neck of land.'”

Lawrence O’Donnell’s Charges of Rape

January 13, 2008 by Keller

Graph by Gregory L. Smith. Used with permission.

Getting Into Heaven

January 13, 2008 by awyatt

What does it take to get into heaven? Interesting question.

Every six months I join thousands of others going to General Conference. Every April and October that means that I get to visit with the street preachers, who (in the name of Christianity) are more than happy to consign people to hell. After seeing them every six months however, they’ve gotten a bit used to me and I’ve gotten a bit used to them. We aren’t sending Christmas cards to each other, but it’s not unusual to wish each other well. (Other than the going to hell thing, of course.)

[Read more…] about Getting Into Heaven

Preparing for Your Temple Tour

January 12, 2008 by awyatt

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.

Temples in the Book of Mormon

January 11, 2008 by awyatt

Some critics, particularly Evangelical Christian critics, have pointed out in the past that it is inconceivable that the Nephites could have built temples in the New World because “real Jews” would never do that in violation of their law.

Salvation by Works or Salvation by Grace – Who Really Believes What?

January 11, 2008 by George Cobabe

Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claim that LDS members are not Christian because they do not believe in salvation through the grace of Christ. They claim that LDS believe in a “works based” salvation.

Maine Masonic College

January 10, 2008 by Greg Kearney

The Maine Masonic College, an educational program of the Grand Lodge of Maine, is considering a number of interesting offerings including LDS & Freemasonry and Anti-Masonry Today.

Anti-Masonry and anti-Mormonism are often carried out by the same people and one can usually count on the fact that where you find one you will find the other.

-Greg Kearney

Deseret News Launches New Weekly Section on Mormons

January 10, 2008 by awyatt

The Deseret News announced today that it launched a new section called Mormon Times. In the words of the newspaper’s editor, the section “will contain articles that will inform and edify Latter-day Saints and others who are interested in LDS religion and culture.”

Coins in the Book of Mormon

January 9, 2008 by awyatt

One of the standard chestnuts used by critics is that the Book of Mormon cannot be true because it talks of coins in Alma 11, and everyone knows that there have never been any coins discovered from the civilizations purportedly described in the book.