Yearly Archives: 2024

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"I was born and raised in Southern California, as a seventh generation Mormon of Pioneer heritage and I reached every Mormon youth milestone. An Eagle Scout, Returned Missionary, BYU alumnus, I was married in the San Diego Temple with expectations and plans of living Mormonism for the rest of my life. I was a Mormon." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"I was born and raised in Southern California, as a seventh generation Mormon of Pioneer heritage and I reached every Mormon youth milestone. An Eagle Scout, Returned Missionary, BYU alumnus, I was married in the San Diego Temple with expectations and plans of living Mormonism for the rest of my life. I was a Mormon." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"When [apologists] started attacking me, they made a lot of false claims and ad hominems about me and the letter. Further, a few mistakes came to my attention that I corrected in the letter. I needed a centralized place to defend myself from attacks as well as to provide the latest update of the letter to ensure that accurate information was floating around. When the LDS Church started releasing its essays, I included the essays in the letter in a spirit of transparency for my readers. This is how cesletter.org was born. My primary motives were for the above reasons. Not because I wanted to destroy Mormonism or any of the similar claims that apologists make up." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"When [apologists] started attacking me, they made a lot of false claims and ad hominems about me and the letter. Further, a few mistakes came to my attention that I corrected in the letter. I needed a centralized place to defend myself from attacks as well as to provide the latest update of the letter to ensure that accurate information was floating around. When the LDS Church started releasing its essays, I included the essays in the letter in a spirit of transparency for my readers. This is how cesletter.org was born. My primary motives were for the above reasons. Not because I wanted to destroy Mormonism or any of the similar claims that apologists make up." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"In February 2012, I experienced an awakening to the LDS Church's truth crisis, which subsequently led to a faith transition that summer. In the spring of 2013, I was approached and asked by a CES Director to share my questions and concerns about the LDS Church's origins, history, and current practices. In response, I wrote what later became publicly known as the CES Letter." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"In February 2012, I experienced an awakening to the LDS Church's truth crisis, which subsequently led to a faith transition that summer. In the spring of 2013, I was approached and asked by a CES Director to share my questions and concerns about the LDS Church's origins, history, and current practices. In response, I wrote what later became publicly known as the CES Letter." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"The CES Director approached me first. He asked me to share my questions and concerns with him. Seeing a glimmer of hope that he might have official answers that were better than the unofficial Mormon apologetic crap I was frustrated with, I took his offer seriously. I wrote a letter to him. I emailed it to him. He read it and stated that it was "very well-written" and that he would give me a response. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and months turned to years. I never heard back from him again." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"The CES Director approached me first. He asked me to share my questions and concerns with him. Seeing a glimmer of hope that he might have official answers that were better than the unofficial Mormon apologetic crap I was frustrated with, I took his offer seriously. I wrote a letter to him. I emailed it to him. He read it and stated that it was "very well-written" and that he would give me a response. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and months turned to years. I never heard back from him again." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | This is a spotlight on a profile shared at wasmormon.org. These are just the highlights, so please find the full story at https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/. There are over a hundred more stories of Mormon faith journeys contributed by users like you. Come check them out and consider sharing your own story at wasmormon.org!
Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | This is a spotlight on a profile shared at wasmormon.org. These are just the highlights, so please find the full story at https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/. There are over a hundred more stories of Mormon faith journeys contributed by users like you. Come check them out and consider sharing your own story at wasmormon.org!
"In the fall of 2014, I was approached by my Stake President. This began a circus that ultimately ended on April 17, 2016 when I - out of disgust for the LDS Church's truth crisis, censorship, silence, and attempt to slander my name and reputation - excommunicated the LDS Church from my life (resignation). All of this is recorded and documented and no one has to take my word on anything. See cesletter.org/resign." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"In the fall of 2014, I was approached by my Stake President. This began a circus that ultimately ended on April 17, 2016 when I - out of disgust for the LDS Church's truth crisis, censorship, silence, and attempt to slander my name and reputation - excommunicated the LDS Church from my life (resignation). All of this is recorded and documented and no one has to take my word on anything. See cesletter.org/resign." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"For me, having been a Mormon is like the other stages of my life. It’s something that I was, and it’s something that I did. It had its positives and negatives. But my current self is not defined by my former relationship to that church. I lived in New York City – I’m not an ex-New Yorker. I attended and graduated from BYU but I’m not ex-BYU. I was a Mormon." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"For me, having been a Mormon is like the other stages of my life. It’s something that I was, and it’s something that I did. It had its positives and negatives. But my current self is not defined by my former relationship to that church. I lived in New York City – I’m not an ex-New Yorker. I attended and graduated from BYU but I’m not ex-BYU. I was a Mormon." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"Prior to sending off the letter to the CES Director, I shared my draft in a closed Facebook group as well as on Reddit. I wanted feedback to ensure that it was as accurate as it could be so that I didn't waste the director's time or mine. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a lot of people liked it and started sharing it with family and friends. This is how it started going viral on the internet. Next thing I know, the document is promoted on the home page of MormonThink.com and everything went next level. FairMormon began attacking me and the letter a few months later and I found myself pulled into this current that I never sought or wanted." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"Prior to sending off the letter to the CES Director, I shared my draft in a closed Facebook group as well as on Reddit. I wanted feedback to ensure that it was as accurate as it could be so that I didn't waste the director's time or mine. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a lot of people liked it and started sharing it with family and friends. This is how it started going viral on the internet. Next thing I know, the document is promoted on the home page of MormonThink.com and everything went next level. FairMormon began attacking me and the letter a few months later and I found myself pulled into this current that I never sought or wanted." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"I believe in love. Kindness. Empathy. Compassion. Respect. I believe in today and this very moment. I believe in life before death. There is awe, wonder and mystery in the Universe. I embrace open-mindedness over dogmatism." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"I believe in love. Kindness. Empathy. Compassion. Respect. I believe in today and this very moment. I believe in life before death. There is awe, wonder and mystery in the Universe. I embrace open-mindedness over dogmatism." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"I’ve graduated and transcended from Mormonism. It’s a part of my past but it no longer is a part of my present and future. To me, it’s something like my missionary journals… I’m reminded of my past from time to time seeing the journals on my bookshelf but it no longer has much power or much influence over my present life and my future." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"I’ve graduated and transcended from Mormonism. It’s a part of my past but it no longer is a part of my present and future. To me, it’s something like my missionary journals… I’m reminded of my past from time to time seeing the journals on my bookshelf but it no longer has much power or much influence over my present life and my future." - Jeremy Runnells' I was a Mormon Story | https://wasmormon.org/profile/jeremyrunnells/
"Joseph’s study of the papyri may have led to a revelation about key events and teachings in the life of Abraham, much as he had earlier received a revelation about the life of Moses while studying the Bible. This view assumes a broader definition of the words translator and translation. According to this view, Joseph’s translation was not a literal rendering of the papyri as a conventional translation would be. Rather, the physical artifacts provided an occasion for meditation, reflection, and revelation. They catalyzed a process whereby God gave to Joseph Smith a revelation about the life of Abraham, even if that revelation did not directly correlate to the characters on the papyri." - Gospel Topic Essay: Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham, The Papyri - Apologetic Catalyst Theory | wasmormon.org
"Joseph’s study of the papyri may have led to a revelation about key events and teachings in the life of Abraham, much as he had earlier received a revelation about the life of Moses while studying the Bible. This view assumes a broader definition of the words translator and translation. According to this view, Joseph’s translation was not a literal rendering of the papyri as a conventional translation would be. Rather, the physical artifacts provided an occasion for meditation, reflection, and revelation. They catalyzed a process whereby God gave to Joseph Smith a revelation about the life of Abraham, even if that revelation did not directly correlate to the characters on the papyri." - Gospel Topic Essay: Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham, The Papyri - Apologetic Catalyst Theory
"None of the characters on the papyrus fragments mentioned Abraham’s name or any of the events recorded in the book of Abraham. Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham... Scholars have identified the papyrus fragments as parts of standard funerary texts that were deposited with mummified bodies. These fragments date to between the third century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., long after Abraham lived." - Gospel Topic Essay: Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham, The Papyri | wasmormon.org
"None of the characters on the papyrus fragments mentioned Abraham’s name or any of the events recorded in the book of Abraham. Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham... Scholars have identified the papyrus fragments as parts of standard funerary texts that were deposited with mummified bodies. These fragments date to between the third century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., long after Abraham lived." - Gospel Topic Essay: Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham, The Papyri
"None of the characters on the papyrus fragments mentioned Abraham’s name or any of the events recorded in the book of Abraham. Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham... Scholars have identified the papyrus fragments as parts of standard funerary texts that were deposited with mummified bodies. These fragments date to between the third century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., long after Abraham lived." - Gospel Topic Essay: Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham, The Papyri | wasmormon.org
"None of the characters on the papyrus fragments mentioned Abraham’s name or any of the events recorded in the book of Abraham. Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham... Scholars have identified the papyrus fragments as parts of standard funerary texts that were deposited with mummified bodies. These fragments date to between the third century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., long after Abraham lived." - Gospel Topic Essay: Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham, The Papyri
"In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence" - Abraham 1:1 "Although Chaldea is a real place in real history, there was no Chaldea or land of the Chaldeans in Abraham's day. It didn't exist by this name until more than a thousand years later." - The Book of Abraham - Anachronism - Chalea | wasmormon.org
"In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence" - Abraham 1:1 "Although Chaldea is a real place in real history, there was no Chaldea or land of the Chaldeans in Abraham's day. It didn't exist by this name until more than a thousand years later." - The Book of Abraham - Anachronism - Chalea
“Do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?” - David A. Bednar, LDS Apostle, 2013 | wasmormon.org
“Do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?” - David A. Bednar, LDS Apostle, 2013
Now when President Kimball read this little announcement or paper, was that the same thing that was released to the press? “Yeah.” There wasn’t a special document as a revelation, that he had and wrote down? “We discussed it in our meeting. What else should we say besides that announcement? And we decided that was sufficient; that no more needed to be said.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban | wasmormon.org
Now when President Kimball read this little announcement or paper, was that the same thing that was released to the press? “Yeah.”There wasn’t a special document as a revelation, that he had and wrote down? “We discussed it in our meeting. What else should we say besides that announcement? And we decided that was sufficient; that no more needed to be said.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban
“[President Kimball] asked each one of us of the Twelve if we would pray—and we did— that the Lord would give him the inspiration to know what the will of the Lord was. And then he invited each one of us in his office—individually, because you know when you are in a group, you can’t always express everything that’s in your heart. You’re part of the group, you see—so he interviewed each one of us, personally, to see how we felt about it, and he asked us to pray about it. And then he asked each one of us to hand in all the references we had, for, or against that proposal. See, he was thinking favorably toward giving the colored people the priesthood.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban | wasmormon.org
“[President Kimball] asked each one of us of the Twelve if we would pray—and we did— that the Lord would give him the inspiration to know what the will of the Lord was. And then he invited each one of us in his office—individually, because you know when you are in a group, you can’t always express everything that’s in your heart. You’re part of the group, you see—so he interviewed each one of us, personally, to see how we felt about it, and he asked us to pray about it. And then he asked each one of us to hand in all the references we had, for, or against that proposal. See, he was thinking favorably toward giving the colored people the priesthood.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban
What about intermarriage? Is it okay? “Well, no. Never. Before this decision was reached we’ve always recommended that people live within their own race – the Japanese ought to marry Japanese, the Chinese ought to marry Chinese, Hawaiians ought to marry Hawaiians and the colored people ought to marry colored.” That would still be your position? “That is still our position. But they are entitled to the temple blessings and the sealing of their wives to them. It’s all conditioned on their living.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban | wasmormon.org
What about intermarriage? Is it okay? “Well, no. Never. Before this decision was reached we’ve always recommended that people live within their own race – the Japanese ought to marry Japanese, the Chinese ought to marry Chinese, Hawaiians ought to marry Hawaiians and the colored people ought to marry colored.”That would still be your position? “That is still our position. But they are entitled to the temple blessings and the sealing of their wives to them. It’s all conditioned on their living.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban
“We had a meeting in the temple, and we discussed it as a group together, and then we prayed about it in our prayer circle, and then we held another prayer circle after the close of that meeting, and President Kimball lead in the prayer; praying that the Lord would give us the inspiration that we needed to do the thing that would be pleasing to Him and for the blessing of His children. And then the next Thursday—we meet every Thursday—the Presidency came with this little document written out to make the announcement—to see how we’d feel about it—and present it in written form. Well, some of the members of the Twelve suggested a few changes in the announcement, and then in our meeting there we all voted in favor of it—the Twelve and the Presidency.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban | wasmormon.org
“We had a meeting in the temple, and we discussed it as a group together, and then we prayed about it in our prayer circle, and then we held another prayer circle after the close of that meeting, and President Kimball lead in the prayer; praying that the Lord would give us the inspiration that we needed to do the thing that would be pleasing to Him and for the blessing of His children. And then the next Thursday—we meet every Thursday—the Presidency came with this little document written out to make the announcement—to see how we’d feel about it—and present it in written form. Well, some of the members of the Twelve suggested a few changes in the announcement, and then in our meeting there we all voted in favor of it—the Twelve and the Presidency.”- LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban
“I might tell you what provoked it in a way. Down in Brazil, there is so much Negro blood in the population there that it’s hard to get leaders that don’t have Negro blood in them. We just built a temple down there. It’s going to be dedicated in October. All those people with Negro blood in them have been raising the money to build that temple. And then, if we don’t change, then they can’t even use it. So Brother Kimball worried about it, and he prayed a lot about it.” - LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban | wasmormon.org
“I might tell you what provoked it in a way. Down in Brazil, there is so much Negro blood in the population there that it’s hard to get leaders that don’t have Negro blood in them. We just built a temple down there. It’s going to be dedicated in October. All those people with Negro blood in them have been raising the money to build that temple. And then, if we don’t change, then they can’t even use it. So Brother Kimball worried about it, and he prayed a lot about it.” - LeGrand Richards, Senior Apostle Recounting a behind-the-scenes look at the 1978 Priesthood Ban