Posts Tagged ‘ book of mormon ’

164: New Version of the LDS Scriptures

March 15, 2013
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164: New Version of the LDS Scriptures

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has just announced the online release of a new edition of the LDS scriptures, with physical copies to be made available beginning in August. Although the new version includes some spelling and punctuation changes along with minor tweaks to fonts and layout, the vast majority of the changes are to study materials, including to chapter headings and introductions to the various texts—some of them quite substantive, especially when seen as signals to an increased openness to admitting historical and doctrinal development. In this episode, panelists Gina Colvin, Charley Harrell, and Ben Park…

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135–136: Racism and the Book of Mormon

October 28, 2012
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135–136: Racism and the Book of Mormon

This episode examines the status of the claim that the Book of Mormon teaches that dark skin is a curse from God, that because of their wickedness God cursed a group of people and actually brought about a miraculous change in their skin color so as to make them seem “loathsome” and not enticing to a more righteous group with whom they were in conflict. This claim relies upon a literal reading of various passages in the Book of Mormon that seem to draw this conclusion, as well as an extremely strong view about prophetic and scriptural inerrancy. But is…

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73: “And the Survey Says…!”: Reflections on Mormon Disaffection, Marlin Jensen’s Remarks, Recent Articles on Mormonism’s Challenge in Better Facing Its History

February 8, 2012
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73: “And the Survey Says…!”: Reflections on Mormon Disaffection, Marlin Jensen’s Remarks, Recent Articles on Mormonism’s Challenge in Better Facing Its History

This episode is an attempt to aid in processing the current moment in which various Mormon-watching communities are beginning to digest the preliminary results that have recently been released from the Open Stories Foundation survey about why Mormons leave the church, which comes on the heels of remarks made in December at Utah State University by LDS Church Historian Elder Marlin Jensen and reported on in numerous recent news stories in which he reflects on the current disaffection crisis and the Church’s plans to help address it. What does the survey suggest? How might the LDS Church move ahead more…

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29: David Brooks, The Book of Mormon Musical, and Rigorous Religion

April 27, 2011
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29: David Brooks, The Book of Mormon Musical, and Rigorous Religion

New York Times columnist David Brooks very much enjoyed the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon,” but, as he articulates in his 21 April 2011 column “Creed or Chaos,” he believes the play’s authors end up celebrating a “vague, uplifting, nondoctrinal” type of religion that can’t last and doesn’t motivate people to perform “heroic acts of service,” such as serving missions to third-world nations. As a result, he uses the musical as a springboard for celebrating the virtues of thriving religions, which he says have “communal theologies, doctrines and codes of conduct rooted in claims of absolute truth.” In this…

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23: The King James Version and Changes to Race-Related Book of Mormon Chapter Headings

March 15, 2011
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23: The King James Version and Changes to Race-Related Book of Mormon Chapter Headings

In this episode, Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon and panelists Kristine Haglund, Dallas Robbins, and Philip Barlow discuss two topics: The LDS Church’s recent reaffirmation of the King James Version as is its official Bible translation and The changes it has made to chapter headings in the online version of the Book of Mormon (changes that will be carried forward in future printings) that de-emphasize the idea of darker skin as a curse from God. What is the significance of this renewed commitment to the KJV instead of switching to newer, more scholarly Bible versions based on older manuscripts, translated…

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Book of Mormon Geophysics

August 28, 2010
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Book of Mormon Geophysics

When most people use their rational faculties to test their testimonies about their religious scriptures, they tend to concentrate on things like history, archeology, or textual development. A number of writers on this site and elsewhere in the bloggernacle have far more expertise in those areas than do I. So I have to take their arguments second-hand. Instead, I like to test my scriptural canon in the disciplines where I have my own professional training in college or experience on interdisciplinary teams later in life. So rather than argue about Mesoamerican artifacts, I like to look instead at Mesoamerican volcanoes.

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Pyramids-R-US

July 31, 2010
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Last week I spent a supper hour (it took that long) reading an article called “America’s Ruling Class – And the Perils of Revolution” by Angelo Codevilla. The overall article is well worth reading to better understand current political debates, but that wasn’t what called my attention to it as a possible subject for Mormon Matters. Rather, the following paragraph toward the end of the Article startled me: “Nothing has set the country class apart, defined it, made it conscious of itself, given it whatever coherence it has, so much as the ruling class’s insistence that people other than themselves…

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Wandering Mormons as Nephites

June 27, 2010
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More than two years ago, the Holy Spirit began insisting that I re-read the Book of Mormon. Of course, I didn’t immediately recognize the impulse as anything but a good idea originating within my own intellect. That’s what I do with anything – process it intellectually first. I knew spending more time reading scriptures would be the spiritual equivalent of walking more for my heart, so I put it on my to-do-list. You know all about the to-do-list that never seems to get any shorter because of emergencies and recurring requirements. So, re-reading the Book of Mormon stayed on the…

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Faith & Doubt

June 19, 2010
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Today’s guest post is by Glenn.  When I was at BYU, I got interested in the study of folklore – the way that traditional culture informs our understanding of the world. I worked in the BYU folklore archives cataloguing missionary stories – encounters with the three nephites, miraculous experiences (some easier to believe than others), initiation stories of greenie missionaries, cautionary tales — just a whole bunch of really interesting stuff. I was hooked.

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Patriarchal Hierarchy and the Kingship Model

June 3, 2010
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Patriarchal Hierarchy and the Kingship Model

OT SS Lesson #21 When we lived in Saudi Arabia a few years ago, I obtained a faculty position in the fairly newly-formed department of Health and P.E. at a university which was strictly segregated by gender.  The women’s side of the university operated independently, with our own female custodians, technical staff, professors and administration,  and very little oversight from the male president.  Our department consisted of five women, and we made all decisions collectively, with no titular head.  After the first semester I was there, one of our staff meetings was dedicated to the question of whether we should…

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Looking for an Apologist to Discuss Book of Mormon for Podcast

May 7, 2010
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MM Community, I’m looking to do a podcast series for Mormon Stories on Book of Mormon Historicity and DNA.  I’ve approached Mike Ash to participate, and he has politely declined (I’m waiting to hear back on his reasons).  I’ve also approach FAIR, and am waiting to hear back. In case FAIR/FARMS decide not participate, do any of you know anyone who is a believer in Book of Mormon authenticity, who is able AND willing to discuss Book of Mormon historicity and DNA issues on a podcast?  I offered Mike Ash and FAIR the questions in advance, and an opportunity to…

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Joseph Fielding McConkie and the Lens of Literalism

March 30, 2010
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In a recently published book ‘Between the Lines: Unlocking Scripture with Timeless Principles’ (2009), Joseph Fielding McConkie tries to deal with the issue of discerning between what is ‘Literal’ and what is ‘Figurative’ in the scriptures. I think there are large problems in his brief account and I want to try and deal with them here. These problems arise because he (inadvertently?) wants to establish a particular set of orthodox readings for two different groups of readers.

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Committing Spiritual Murder: Analysing Alma 39

January 26, 2010
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Michael Ash in a Sunstone article entitled ‘The Sin “Next to Murder”’ has argued that Alma’s exhortation to his son Corianton (who had ran off with an woman of ill-repute), that ‘these things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost’ (see Al 39:5), is not speaking about breaking the law of Chastity.  Ash argues that Corianton’s sin is ‘causing the spiritual death of others’[1].  Aside from this being an interesting article, it raises the question of what is spiritual…

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Dialogue Subscribers and Book of Mormon Historicity?

January 7, 2010
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In 2005 Dialogue conducted research among it’s subscribers.  There was over a 1,000 responses which (assuming that everyone answered every question) is a fairly good sized sample to infer what the population of subscribers might think.  One interesting tidbit is that nearly half of the subscribers were over 61 and that 40% had a doctoral degree.  They asked a range of qustions but one that interested me was: ‘What way is the Book of Mormon Authentic?’  I thought before showing the results that our readers should answer the same question:

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Twilight Poll: Anti-Feminism or Fanciful Fiction?

December 4, 2009
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Twilight Poll: Anti-Feminism or Fanciful Fiction?

Because of the New Moon movie, Twilight is getting a lot of discussion in the media.  Since the author, Stephanie Meyer, is LDS, a few articles have even taken a swipe at Mormon values, expressing the opinion that the unenlightened choices of the female lead are typical for patriarchal, female-disempowering Mormons.  Read on, and then take a quick poll to share your opinions.

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On Agency and Accountability: An Inter-dependent View

September 20, 2009
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On Agency and Accountability: An Inter-dependent View

Jeff Spector wrote a post on Agency a few months ago which I enjoyed alot.  The discussion led me down a slightly different path and I wanted to write a supplement to his ideas in light of some of my own thoughts on agency and how they relate to accountability.  My major contention is that the notion of individual accountability is a fallacy, or, perhaps more accurately, it is not the whole story.

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Have you read the Sealed Portion of the Book of Mormon Yet?

September 13, 2009
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Have you read the Sealed Portion of the Book of Mormon Yet?

Christopher Nemelka has published the sealed portion of the Book or Mormon and has also translated the 116 pages of missing manuscript.  His website can be found here.  John the Beloved and the Three Nephites use him to present their message to the World.  Joseph Smith, himself, gave Christopher the Gold Plates so that he could translate the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon.  He believes that in 1987 he was called, in the same manner as Joseph Smith, to share a message with the world.  He believes that his organization is the only true message for the World today and…

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Enos Envy

July 23, 2009
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Enos Envy

Over my lifetime, I have offered all manner of prayers.  These range from earnest, well-intended pleas on behalf of others (“please comfort my sister as she deals with her MS diagnosis”) to mundane requests for undeserved assistance (“please help me pass my Spanish pop quiz”) to the downright inappropriate (“oh Lord, please let me be able to hold it until I get off this bus!”)* But now, after 36 years of practice, I’m rethinking prayer.  In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I’m not a “lose the keys, pray for keys, find the keys” sort of guy by…

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Science vs. Religion: A Poll

July 21, 2009
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When there is a seeming conflict between science and religion, people tend to make a mental choice that either favors religion or science.  Which is it for you?

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Early Mormonism in Context

July 16, 2009
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We tend to view Mormonism in the context of its current contemporaries:  Baptists, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists (among many others).  But how does Mormonism compare with other religious movements of its time at founding?  Was it more progressive or less?  Were its ideas uniquely handed down via revelation or part of a shifting religious culture?  Or both?

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