As we pick up with the difficult racial quotes this week, I want to start again with the disclaimer that neither I nor anyone else at FAIR agrees with or condones the words and attitudes on display in these comments. I am not defending their use. I am just putting some history and context back into them, so that we can all approach them with a little more knowledge than we may have previously held. That doesn’t make them easier to digest. Some of them are pretty awful, and it’s incredibly difficult for me to understand how someone can hold those views about other children of God.
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Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Acts 10–15
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Evangelical Questions: Who is – and who is not – a Christian?
by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC
Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about what being a Christian means. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Acts 10–15
Come to the 2023 FAIR Conference!
Attending the FAIR 2023 conference in person can be an incredible experience for individuals interested in Latter-day Saint scholarship and apologetics – and just navigating these crazy times with faith intact! Let’s have a conversation about some of the main reasons why you are going to want to be there in person. [Read more…] about Come to the 2023 FAIR Conference!
Cornerstone: A FAIR Temple Preparation Podcast – Episode 5: Ceremonial Clothing and Garments with Lisa Ann Thomson
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Lisa Ann Thomson joins for this episode to discuss the ceremonial clothing of the temple as well as garments. We cover topics such as what they are, why they are important, and some practical tips for wearing them.
Sacred Temple Clothing: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/temples/sacred-temple-clothing?lang=eng
Jacob Crapo was born and now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He served his mission in Upstate New York and was an ordinance worker in the Las Vegas Temple. One of Jacob’s dreams is to help build a temple. He is an electrician by trade but his real passion is helping others access the powers of heaven.
Lisa Ann Thomson is a writer living in Salt Lake City, UT.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Acts 6–9
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Evangelical Questions: The Holy Ghost
by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC
Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about the Holy Ghost. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Acts 6–9
Asking Big Questions: How Can I Find and Evaluate Sources of Truth?
By Craig Lindquist
The “Asking Big Questions” series is made in cooperation with the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project.
We live in a day of confusion, even chaos. The world over, people are searching for truth on a host of subjects—but how can anyone know? It is not an easy search. Who do we trust? Where do we look? How do we know if something is in fact true? If the subject we seek to verify is purely secular, such as historical or even mathematical information, the search for the truth can be fairly easy given today’s technology.
But what do we do when our search for truth goes beyond what can be googled or found in a science book? Where can we look, and who can we trust when we want to know of eternal truths?
By Study and Faith – Episode 3: Logic
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by Zachary Wright
Introduction
If you’ve ever listened to an argument, you’ve probably heard someone angrily protest to the other “You’re not being logical!”, or something to that effect. When I heard the term “logic” previously, I usually thought of things like “facts” or “math,” or even more vague ideas like “things that make sense.” This is mostly true, but there’s a bit more to it than that – and that “bit more” is what we’re going to talk about today. Logic, at its core, is a methodology for creating and evaluating arguments (1). Of course, when I say “arguments” I don’t mean shouting matches like the one in the previous example, rather, I mean “a reason given for or against a matter under discussion” (2). We make these kinds of arguments daily: at work, at home, and even in church. You see, we as people run into problems, and have to make decisions all the time to survive, maintain relationships, and accomplish the tasks we set for ourselves. As critical thinkers, it’s important to understand what “logic” is, because logic is key in helping us convince other people of our ideas, evaluate the arguments of others, and can help us make those decisions based on the information we have obtained (like from the good sources we learned to evaluate in our last article). No matter who you are, logic can help you accomplish your goals, make informed decisions, and be the kind of people God wants us to be. That being said, there is a lot of information to cover. First, we’re going to be talking about the history and basics of logic, then we’re going to talk about how to make a logical argument, then finally we’ll talk about the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning. Let’s begin. [Read more…] about By Study and Faith – Episode 3: Logic
Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 20: The Early Church – Blacks and the Church [A]
We’re now moving into one of the most controversial topics in our church’s history, the Priesthood restriction for black members of African descent. Like plural marriage, this is a topic that comes with a lot of emotion behind it. People have very strong feelings about this part of our history, and for good reason. I’m no exception to that. I’ll be discussing quotes, attitudes, and beliefs that I personally find appalling.
But like I always say, history is messy. Expecting it to be easy is naïve.
There are two things that are absolutely imperative to understand when we’re talking about these things.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Acts 1–5
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Evangelical Questions: What IS an Apostle anyway?
by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC
Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about apostles. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand. [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Acts 1–5
I Know How to Lower Church Abuse Rates by 75%
by Jennifer Roach
Note: Jennifer Roach will be speaking on this topic at the annual FAIR Conference being held in Provo, Utah, on August 2-4. More information here.
The rate of abuse that occurs at churches of all denominations is much too high. And while it’s true that children are at much higher risk of abuse at school, churches can and should hold themselves to a higher standard. [Read more…] about I Know How to Lower Church Abuse Rates by 75%