Boyd K Packer gave a talk to religious educators at a symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history. The talk was given at Brigham Young University on August 22, 1981 and is titled The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect. This is an infamous talk among scholars because Packer commands them …
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Leaders and apologists like to reference an article from 1970 where the church addresses multiple first vision accounts. This is that article, which unsurprisingly, is the same apologetic nonsense as the Gospel Topic Essays. However, the church still wants to use this as proof that the church has never ever hidden anything from members. The …
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Heidi was a faithful member who enjoyed studying church history. Recently, the “new” church history became disturbing and sounded more like a cult. Through her spouse leaving the church she struggled with the fear-based messages of church leaders and digging in to understand when they are speaking as prophets vs as men, realizing that they …
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Jon Krakauer wrote and published the book Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith in 2004. In 2022, the book was made into a television series starring Andrew Garfield on FX of the same name, Under the Banner of Heaven. The church tried to silence the book before the show was even …
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After receiving the Faith Crisis Report, the church leaders commissioned and started quietly publishing what they call Gospel Topic Essays. These essays, for the most part, are the first time the church has published an official stance on many of the topics. They were published quietly and buried deep within the church site of materials. …
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What Does Gaslighting Mean? The term “gaslighting” comes from the 1938 play Angel Street, which Alfred Hitchock later adapted into the film Gaslight, in which a man tries to convince his wife that she is going insane so he can steal from her. When he turns on the lights in the attic to search for her jewelry …
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Members of the Mormon church are required to pay the church a tithe. This tithing is understood to be ten percent of the member’s income. This is the same for children who earn $5 for mowing the lawn to wealthy lawyers and doctors in the church. The church makes much of the sacrifice and blessings …
Continue reading “Development of Mormon Tithing – From Meager Origins to Ensign Peak Billions”
There are myriad warnings against dissension and apostasy by church leaders. Church leaders are afraid of those who leave the church behind. Those who leave have the gumption and the gall to stand up for what they believe in, rather than believing what they are told to believe. Those who leave have the courage to …
Continue reading “Mormon Authorities Threaten Doubters With “Don’t You Dare Bail” Messages”
What Happened between Fanny Alger and Joseph Smith? As a young woman, Fanny Alger was a servant in Joseph Smith’s house. She lived with the family for a time while also serving as a maid. Joseph Smith and Fanny got very close. Multiple accounts exist of Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife catching Joseph celestializing (sexually involved) …
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David Nielsen, a former Ensign Peak portfolio manager, shared with his twin brother Lars about the shady practices and massive amounts of money the Mormon church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have in investments. Together the brothers compiled information and reported it to the authorities at the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) …
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Joseph Smith purportedly knew he was going to be killed, and said the following, which is now canonized in the D&C scriptures as the dominant narrative of the church. I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, …
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For the past week, the church has been all over the news. Not for something they will want to draw publicity. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that the Church has been fined $5 Million for using shell companies to obscure the size of its investment portfolio. On February 21st, the SEC issued a …
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John Taylor, the third President of the church, would not recognize the church today. He invites discussion and investigation on even trivial matters. He’s not afraid of research or whack-a-mole. When there was speculation and disagreement about a certain plot of land which Brigham Young was reimbursed for after having personally purchased for the church …
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Jessie was troubled by her shelf items: issues with church history, sexism, racism, and homophobia in the Mormon church. It became too much to reconcile, and she’s lucky to have left the church as a whole family. Born and raised in Germany and live now in Texas. I was a mormon. We left the church …
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Elder Jeffrey R Holland gave a fiery talk at a devotional in Tempe, Arizona in April 2016. Tempe Rescue This is a very dynamic address, and he’s quite emotionally charged about those who leave. Though charged, Holland does come off as more intelligent than in his BBC interview where he claims he’s neither an idiot …
Continue reading “Elder Holland’s Taffy-Pulled Devotional – Don’t You Dare Bail & Stay in the Boat!”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints With all the hubbub about referring to the church by the proper name, as directed by church president Russell Nelson, let’s stop and look at what the church name is. Why does the official name of the church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) contain …
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As a result of a believing Mormon potentially leading the United States, there was increased scrutiny of the Mormon church. John Sweeny, of the BBC, interviewed LDS Apostle Jeffrey Holland for a program called ‘The Mormon Candidate’ which aired on BBC in 2012. Holland is caught in lies during the interview and resorts to claiming he’s neither an idiot or a dodo.
The CES Letter is a collection of questions, concerns, and doubts about the Mormon church’s truth claims addressed to a Church Education System Director from Jeremy Runnels. Learn about the background, the effects and rebuttals and some of the contents.
The report concludes with suggestions the mormon church can take to mitigate the further loss of members due to a faith crisis. This report shows that the church leaders are well aware of the fact that members are leaving and why they are leaving and shows us insight into how the church thinks it can plug this membership leak.
This faith crisis report next lists many anonymous faith crisis profiles each detailing the exit story of the member (along with precious statistics and demographics the church cares deeply about such as household income). Not to be confused with the actual faith crisis profiles shared on wasmormon.org.
The report also analyses a perpetual cycle of disaffiliated members, where a member finds troubling information and through the age of information and the internet confirms the troubling issue as true and feels betrayed by the church for not being honest, and ends up venting to a family member and causing the cycle to restart for them.
The report defines the stages of such a faith crisis from a true believing member, through a catalyst and traumatization, and then either through a traumatized disbeliever and ex-mormon or a nuanced believer and then secular participant.
This report studies a faith crisis in detail along with an actual research survey of members who have left the church due to faith crisis and these respondents’ demographics such as age, gender, education level, household income, and church callings held as well as the primary reasons why the member left.
The Personal Faith Crisis Report was presented to Elder Uchtdorf in 2013 by Elder Jensen so leaders could better understand what is happening and take appropriate measures to address members leaving the church as a result of a faith crisis. The gospel topic essays were part of the response to this study by the church.
Joseph Fielding Smith was the 10th president of the church, the son of Joseph F Smith, the 6th president of the church, and the grandson of Hyrum Smith. He returned from his mission to England in 1901, and began to work in the Churcvh History offices and was later called to the quorum of the …
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Jean was impressed with the ‘true religion’ as taught by the missionaries and joined the church with her young family. After serving faithfully for a long time and even serving a senior mission to South Africa, she collected a few issues onto her shelf. She questioned why she and the other missionaries weren’t better protected …
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Anyone who was raised Mormon, or even attended the church for any length of time knows the Urim and Thummim story. Joseph Smith is portrayed as having translated the Book of Mormon with some special seer stones which were found with the gold plates. The Book of Mormon translation was possible with this Urim and …
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Garrett stumbled into the rabbit hole of doctrine inconsistencies while doing his best to teach the youth of the church. He studied deeply and what he was finding troubled him enough to stop. He felt the prompting to continue to “seek truth. [He] felt assured that if the church was true, if the restoration was …
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What was the Nauvoo Expositor? The Nauvoo Expositor was a four-page newspaper that only printed one issue. It reportedly printed so many vicious lies and slander about Joseph Smith that the prophet of the restoration had the printing press destroyed in retaliation or as the church claims to avoid violence. Somewhat ironic that they destroyed …
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What is an anachronism? Anachronisms are impossibilities or inconsistencies that include things that do not belong together. Something like the Flintstones is anachronistic because it portrays humans and dinosaurs living together, but science tells us that dinosaurs were long extinct before humans evolved. Something like the image above, portraying Abraham Lincoln with a laptop computer …
!["Joseph had asked [Jane Law] to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband." Elder William Law, Mormon Apostle. Defected from the First Presidency and published the Nauvoo Expositor when his wife Jane told him she refused Joseph Smith who came in the night while he was away seeking a polyandrous relationship.](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/William-Law-Joseph-Smith-sought-polyandry-with-Jane-Law.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1)
