We have not one, but three recent senior leaders and Apostles of the church endorsing this imagery (and metaphor) of defending the faith (or the church and its policies) with musket fire. A musket is a gun, and as the story goes, some pioneer Mormon builders once needed to defend themselves (not as much defending …
Continue reading “Mormon Apostles, Muskets, and The LGBTQ Community”
Russell M. Nelson would have us believe he is in direct conversation with Jesus and with God the Father. Neil Anderson recounts a story from Wendy Nelson (Russell M. Nelson’s second wife) on his Facebook page which details Russell M. Nelson’s frequent practice of receiving revelation. It’s so frequent that he keeps a lined yellow …
Continue reading “Does President Nelson Talk With God? Do Any Church Leaders?”
When Natalie Palmer-Taylor’s son was the target of a racial epithet hurled by another Mormon youth, she went to the church’s headquarters to complain. Ezra Taft Benson received her complaint and retorted with this dismissive challenge: ‘If you allow the people of the church to turn you against the church, then you were not worthy …
Continue reading “Racism and Victim Blaming From God’s Anointed”
Russel M Nelson and his second wife, Wendy, were involved in an altercation in Mozambique, Africa while visiting the mission home in 2009. The mission home is alarmingly robbed by assailants. When first reported there is nothing involving criminals targeting church leaders. The only injuries mentioned in the reports were the Mission President’s wife having …
Continue reading “President Nelson Embellishing Stories to Promote Faith”
There has been a lot of discussion in Mormondom regarding race and the priesthood. The church denied the priesthood from black members (specifically those of African descent) from the 1850s until 1978. They did not relent through the end of slavery, through the proposed State of Deseret joining the United States as Utah, and through …
Continue reading “Apostles Discuss Reasons For Lifting the Priesthood Ban”
Just as the statement from the First Presidency in 1949, there was another statement issued in 1969 regarding the stance of the church on denying the priesthood to any black member of the church. In 1949, the First Presidency consisted of George Albert Smith, J Reuben Clark & David O McKay. In 1969, the presidency …
Among the first votes of dissent in the modern Mormon church occurred in 1977, in opposition to the church doctrine banning blacks from any priesthood ordination and temple endowment. A member voted opposed to sustaining church leadership in General Conference 1977 and was subsequently excommunicated. Then less than 1 year later the church downgraded the …
Continue reading “Byron Marchant, Dissident Excommunicated in 1977 for Opposing Priesthood Ban”
The authors of the fascinating book about Emma Smith, Mormon Enigma were reprimanded for publishing it. They weren’t excommunicated, but they were forbidden to speak in meetings and firesides. Elder Oaks spoke with Linda Newell (one of the authors of Mormon Enigma) as she recounted in her talk at the 1992 Pacific Northwest Sunstone Symposium called “The …
We have seen through the racist statements of Brigham Young when he announced banning the priesthood to those of African descent, or blacks that this was considered doctrine of the church. It was taught as doctrine and understood as doctrine. We also see it in the Lowry Nelson exchange with the First Presidency in 1947 …
Continue reading “Authoritative Statement by the LDS Church on the Doctrine of Blacks in 1949”
Elder Andersen met with the leaders of Zimbabwe and he said the significance of the meeting with Vice President Mohadi was to “express to him our desire to help improve Zimbabwe.” He noted that Vice President Mohadi had made a specific request for support with the development of clean-water wells in more remote areas of …
Continue reading “Elder Anderson claims “We Are Not a Wealthy People””
The church brags about how much they give and donate to humanitarian efforts and welfare. But on the other hand, they do their best to hide how much they don’t give. They have hundreds of billions of dollars siphoned from tithing donations, which they invest and use to purchase real estate and operate their for-profit …
Continue reading “Mormon Church Relatively Meager Humanitarian Efforts”
Lowry Nelson, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and the Utah State Agricultural College, engaged in a series of communications in 1947 with the First Presidency of the LDS Church regarding the issue of race and the priesthood. Who Was …
Continue reading “The Lowry Nelson Letters and Racist Mormon Doctrine”
The church has lately been making regular changes to church policy and the church handbook. Most of these changes are met with praise, such as 2-hour church services! Others seem to simply be bureaucratic noise. Retiring the Home and Visiting Teaching programs, only to replace them with a similar Ministering Program, a big push to …
The term “ponderize” was coined by a Mormon Church leader, Devin G. Durrant, during a General Conference talk in October 2015. It is a portmanteau of “ponder” and “memorize” intended to convey a specific approach to studying and applying the teachings of the Church. I invite you to “ponderize” one verse of scripture each week. The word ponderize is not …
Continue reading “Monetizing Ponderize – Do Church Leaders Cash In?”
Recently the US passed an act called The Respect for Marriage Act. This act requires the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages. It also protects religious liberty. Almost surprisingly, Latter-day Saint leaders supported the act. Support is a Dramatic Reversal Taylor Petrey, …
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The September Six were a group of six members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who were excommunicated or disfellowshipped in September 1993 for their intellectual and historical pursuits that were deemed contrary to the teachings and doctrines of the Church. The six members were: The excommunications and disfellowshippings of …
Continue reading “Mormon Excommunication For Change – The September Six and More”
The popular news program 60 Minutes released a segment on its program discussing the obscene wealth of the church and the whistleblower complaint filed by David Nielsen. His complaint alleges that the Mormon Church claims to behave as a non-profit charity, but in reality, is a for-profit corporation pursuing investments and investments. The church never …
Continue reading “Whistleblower News Prompts Vacant Responses from LDS Corp”
The show 60 Minutes broadcast a segment about the Mormon Billions. Sharyn Alfonsi follows up with whistleblower David Nielsen who resigned from his position at Ensign Peak Advisors and wrote the whistleblower report in 2019. Since then, the Mormon church has been fined 5 million dollars by the SEC for illegal filing practices, but Nielsen …
“1984” is a dystopian novel written by George Orwell and published in 1949. The novel is set in a totalitarian society in the year 1984 and follows the life of a low-ranking member of the ruling Party, Winston Smith, as he navigates the oppressive and all-controlling state. The novel is a warning against the dangers …
The Mormon church was recently charged with fraud and reached a settlement with the SEC agreeing to pay five million dollars. Their chief infraction was failing to properly file and misstating in filings they did submit about the church investments with the church-owned investment company Ensign Peak Advisors. The fraud reached all the way to …
Continue reading “Why the Mormon Church Hid Billions of Dollars of Investments?”
James Huntsman filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the church claiming that he was duped into believing that his tithing contributions were going to charitable work, while in fact, they are used to pad the coffers of the church investment accounts. He filed the fraud complaint against the church and states that “this is not …
Continue reading “Mixing Tithing Funds and Investments Maybe Legal But Doesn’t Mean Its Right”
Hinckley made it clear that the church doesn’t share financial statements because the information belongs to those who made the contribution. Since 1959, Church finances have not been disclosed to the public, and we can see that church leaders have actively tried to hide finances from the public. Even so, there are disclosures that can …
Continue reading “Church Finances: Follow the Prophet, He has the Money”
Irrefutable scientific evidence clearly shows that horses did not co-exist with Nephites or Lamanites during the Book of Mormon times. Mormon apologists stretch to come up with any explanation. their leading theory agrees with science on the one hand, that the horses in the Book of Mormon weren’t horses, but on the other hand, the …
Continue reading “Book of Mormon Horses: Real or Myth? Or Tapirs?”
A recent episode of the Mormon Book Reviews podcast features an interview with Evan, the creator of wasmormon.org, and his brother Garrett. Evan shares the story of how he came to create the website and why he chose to share his experience of leaving the Mormon church. The interview includes the personal stories of faith …
Continue reading “Explore the Origin Story of wasmormon.org – A Mormon Book Reviews Podcast Episode”
Tax time in the US and as people are leaving the church, they are receiving real blessings. In many countries, donating money to a charitable organization is tax deductible, meaning this decreases your taxable income. This is a perk to tithing for some people, it can save you some money on your taxes, though not …
Continue reading “Stop Paying Tithing and Challenge the Tax Exemption Status of the Mormon Church”
BYU–Hawaii presented an international concert and devotional by recording artist, Dr. David Glen Hatch, on Thursday, April 4, 2023, in the McKay Auditorium. Brother Hatch, who has published sheet music as well as recordings at church-owned Deseret Book, performed some piano pieces and spoke to the audience in this devotional. Brother Hatch warns of the …
Continue reading “Mormon Fearmongering & Marginalizing Liberal Agenda at BYU Devotional”
Mormon Church President, Russell M Nelson is being honored by the Martin Luther King Jr International Chapel on Morehouse College Campus in Atlanta, Georgia. He is to receive a new award, the first recipient, which is to be called the Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize. This is in coordination with the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Institute at the chapel. What …
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Before M Russell Ballard was an apostle, he is praised as a successful businessman. He was involved in various business pursuits in Utah. He was the top-selling salesman for his father’s Nash car dealership, which he left and in the late 1950s put his efforts into being the first Edsel car dealer in Salt Lake City. Sadly, …
Continue reading “Elder M Russell Ballard’s Colorful History With the SEC”
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, previous Justice of the State of Utah Supreme Court, but currently in the First Presidency of the Mormon church, submitted a “testimony” to the Senate Finance Committee Hearing in 2011 regarding the debate on whether charitable deductions should be considered when calculating taxes. In other words, he’s talking about the tax-exempt …
Continue reading “Dallin Oaks Lectures Senate Committee regarding Honesty”
Do you have exmormon trauma? Try writing your story. Write about your faith deconstruction or crisis. wasmormon.org gives you a place to do this important and healing writing. Consider contributing your story to the site so others can read it and find community and validation as well! Suppressing the trauma is bad for us and …
Continue reading “Writing Your Traumatic Faith Crisis Experience is Healthy and Healing”
