Archive
Wondering about The Mormon Mirage
Zondervan and Harper-Collins have provided an easy way for you to browse inside my book, The Mormon Mirage: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009.) Just click on this image. Or order an autographed copy here: The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition:...
Reason #103: Mormon Myths about Bible Translations and Transmission
A new book just published by Zondervan, entitled Busted: Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity, has one of the best explanations, in simple language, I've ever seen of Biblical textual transmission. Look what author Fred von Kamacke has to say: "Busted" Ch. 3 -...
Reason #102: New Discoveries of Possible Sources for Book of Mormon scenes
I recently became aware of a massive new book that has carefully documented some possible sources for scenes from the Book of Mormon. Of particular interest is the dream of Nephi with its rod of iron and other features. What follows is a book review by...
Reason #101: The LDS Church itself doesn't sponsor research into Masonic-LDS Connections
Recently Sunstone, an independent Mormon studies magazine, announced its Mapping Mormon Issues Project, which aims to make available in multiple formats (including online) scholarship on controversial subjects. It lists topics such as polygamy, blacks and the...
Reason #100: Masonic Symbols in LDS Temples
Traditional Masonic symbols are rampant in older LDS temples. Representations of beehives, heavenly bodies, clasped hands, the All Seeing Eye, the square, the compass, and cloud-painted ceilings are abundant in 19th-century Utah temples.[1] Many Masonic symbols which...
Reason #99: Non-Divine Masonic Source of LDS Temple Ceremonies
Any Mason who reads even such an abbreviated account of the temple ceremony as I have outlined in The Mormon Mirage will be amazed at the similarities between temple ordinances and Masonic lodge ordinances. Joseph Smith claimed that he got much of the substance of the...
Reason #98: Changes in LDS Doctrine regarding Freemasonry
Alexander Campbell once noted that the Book of Mormon managed to comment on a surprisingly large percentage of the religious issues of their time.[1] In addition to infant baptism, authority and ordination, the nature of the Trinity, free agency of man, the fall, and...
Dan Brown's Lost Symbol and Latter-day Cipher: The Masonic Connection
When I began writing Latter-day Cipher (Moody, 2009), one of the themes I wanted to explore was the uneasy relationship that Freemasonry would have with Mormonism in the mind of someone who was a faithful Mormon. Here's an excerpt from Latter-day Cipher that...
Reason #97: Mormonism and Masonry — Denied at first
Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS Church “became a first-degree Mason on the night of the installation, and the next night rose to the sublime degree," as documented by historian Fawn McKay Brodie in her book, No Man Knows My History (page 280.) Though the...
Reason #96: Modern Polygamy justified by Joseph Smith's teachings
Irene Spencer, author ofShattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife pointed out that based on the teachings of the Doctrine and Covenants 132:62, the current mainstream LDS Church could justify -- as have the polygamists -- the marrying of ten “virgin”...
Reason #94: Timing of Polygamy Revelations in D&C
The revelation commanding polygamy was not announced to the LDS Church as a whole until 1852, eight years after the death of Joseph Smith. It was not until 1876 that it was added to the Doctrine and Covenants and assigned the section number 132. Up until that time,...
Reason #95: Mountain Meadows Massacre
September 11, 2009 marks the 152nd anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I never heard of it when I was a Mormon, and even after leaving the LDS church I refused to believe that priesthood leaders, church officials, ordered the death of peaceful people who...