March 3rd, 2008 Steven Danderson
While Latter-day Saints (I think) rightly claim that we are the “only True Church,” many of us forget that others have large amounts of truth that we can–and should–incorporate into our faith. As Joseph Smith put it, “We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true ‘Mormons’” [HC 5:517].
For example, there are too many Latter-day Saints who do not realize their need for a Saviour–in spite of statements from our “Standard Works,” and our General and local Authorities to that effect. There are even memos from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles encouraging members to testify to this fact on Fast Sundays.
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February 20th, 2008 Allen Wyatt
In what some undoubtedly view as a hard-hitting video on YouTube—complete with sinister music—a critic of the Church asserts that Mormons belong to a cult because we teach that “DEATH is better than any form of immorality.” (Yes, the capital letters are in the video. Perhaps the video’s producer is doing his best to channel Jerald Tanner.)
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February 16th, 2008 Steven Danderson
It appears that “Finn” may become the GOP nominee for vice president of the USA.
Such a ticket, though, would lose to the Democratic nominees–big. To some Evangelicals, those “bigoted Mormons” would be the scapegoats, since they don’t see “Finn’s” anti-Mormon cracks as the reason for the lack of LDS enthusiasm. Moreover, I imagine that these and other Evangelicals would see this loss as yet another instance of being persecuted.
Unlike militant Evangelicals who claim that Latter-day Saints lie about being persecuted, I categorically affirm that Evangelicals are also victims of persecution. As Glenn Beck might put it, “Here’s how I got there:” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Anti-Mormon critics, General, News stories, Politics, Temples | 2 Comments »
February 13th, 2008 Mike Ash
Heretic that I am, I regularly read the Skeptic and the Skeptical Inquirer (2 magazines that regularly attempt to debunk anything that seems to be unscientific). Although I don’t agree with everything in their magazines (much of it is atheistic), I do like a lot of what they print.
The other day I picked up the latest copy of the Skeptical Inquirer and found that the first article I read tied neatly into LDS apologetic efforts. The article is entitled “Difficulty in Debunking Myths Rooted in the Way the Mind Works,” by Shankar Vedantam. Here are some quotes, paraphrases, and summaries of the article.
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Posted in Anti-Mormon critics, General | 4 Comments »
February 12th, 2008 lpoulsen
It never ceases to amaze me that critics insist that the Book of Mormon read like a doctoral dissertation with an extensive introduction and massive references explaining all of the details relative to the culture and environment in which the history takes place.
Brant Gardner explains something about this in his introductory chapter to volume one of “Second Witness” He references Bible scholars who point out that our modern culture is what is called a “low context environment” culture. This means that we expect the writer to explain every detail of the environment in which the story takes place. An example is the need for an extensive introduction to a doctoral dissertation with massive amounts of references and extensive explanations of what has already been done in the field. The Bible and other ancient writings, however, are written in what is classified as a “High context” environment. In this environment the reader is expected to have a broad and concrete knowledge of the common cultural context of the culture that the writer is talking about.
If, indeed, the Book of Mormon is an ancient document then one should not expect it to explain every detail of the culture and environment related to the recorded history. In fact, the lack of detail is a hallmark of an ancient document and gives further support to the historicity of the book.
Posted in Anti-Mormon critics, Book of Mormon | 11 Comments »
February 9th, 2008 Steven Danderson
One thing many anti-Mormons have managed to convince the general public is that Latter-day Saints allegedly think that all non-members are “anti-Mormon.” Why is this?
When we point out bad deeds from SOME non-Mormons, do we leave an impression that we condemn EVERY non-Mormon, even those who commit no such bad acts? Could this impression be why non-Mormons think we refer to them, too as “anti-Mormon,” when we are not? If so, then, of course, we must be more clear.
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February 5th, 2008 Steven Danderson
My friend and colleague, Greg Kearney, stated that he is a Democrat because that party is the best way to fulfill Deity’s mandate to care for the less fortunate and to work justice [See James 1:27 and other Scriptures]. Greg is right; too many of us tend to not want to “get involved”–the Kitty Genovese murder is eloquent illustration of the need to help others. The Democrats, of course, have rather detailed plans to achieve what Thomas Sowell calls, “cosmic justice.”
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Posted in Anti-Mormon critics, Doctrine, Politics | 4 Comments »
February 4th, 2008 Greg Smith
Introduction
Since Mike Parker’s blog post on plural marriage has garnered more comments than all our other threads combined, my keen market research skills have told me that polygamy posts are traffic gold.
One of my research interests at FAIR is plural marriage, and I’ve been reading as much of the primary and secondary literature as I can get my hands on.
I thought our readers might be interested in a periodic look at a few of the things that I’ve found interesting, weird, or different from the common portrayals of plural marriage. In particular, primary sources that may have been misread or misrepresented, are also worth looking at. I hope that readers will spot things that I haven’t, or correct some of my own blind spots.
I’ll try to post at least once or twice a week, until people get bored, I run out of material, or FAIR tells me to stop so this doesn’t become the All Plural Marriage, All the Time blog.
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Posted in Anti-Mormon critics, Book of Mormon, Polygamy | 13 Comments »
February 1st, 2008 Mike Parker
Usually FAIR refrains from giving anti-Mormon critics free publicity, but Florida televangelist Bill Keller is so over-the-top that I can’t resist sharing his latest web site:
http://votingforsatan.com/
Last May Keller made headlines claiming, “If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!” The web site is his follow-up to that statement. (It even lists a “Judas Gallery” of Christians who have sold out to endorse Romney.)
Rarely is anti-Mormonism this much fun, outside of the likes of Ed Decker and Loftes Tryk.
Posted in Anti-Mormon critics, Politics | 13 Comments »
January 31st, 2008 Scott Gordon
In the various articles, blogs, and comments related to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, the Mormon honesty problem has come up. “Why didn’t Mitt Romney talk about what Mormons really believe?” asked one writer. “Mormons feel it is okay to lie about their beliefs,” stated a radio caller.
So do Mormons lie about their beliefs?
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Posted in Anti-Mormon critics, Doctrine, Politics | 27 Comments »
