Mormon Crises

Mormon Crises
Author: James A Beverley
Publisher: Castle Quay Books
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2013-03-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1927355338

Mitt Romney's run for President of the United States and the recent success of the Broadway play “Book of Mormon” has created enormous interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In spite of enormous media focus during this so-called Mormon Moment, coverage has been often shallow and misleading, even from the LDS Church. Few reporters dug deep enough to deal with the evidence that the Mormon Church is in a deep crisis, not only because of members leaving but because of increasing proof of lies, fraud, false teaching, and criminality at the start of Mormonism. In Mormon Crisis Jim Beverley deals with major issues about Joseph Smith, the first LDS prophet. He provides a sustained critique of Mormon Scripture, examines flaws in the LDS understanding of Church leadership, and probes unique doctrines and practices, including the secret temple ceremonies. The book offers a serious indictment of the LDS belief system but also presents a way out of the current crisis facing one of America`s most famous and controversial religions.

Silencing Mormon Polygamy

Silencing Mormon Polygamy
Author: Drew Briney
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2016-09-09
Genre: Marriage
ISBN: 9781537063928

The Untold Story"A valuable book that should be on the shelf of anyone researching Mormon History." ~ Association For Mormon Letters ~For decades, the U.S. government punished the Mormons for living the principle of plural marriage. Thousand were jailed, uncounted others slipped into hiding to avoid prosecution under laws that unblushingly targeted Mormons. John Taylor, the venerable Mormon prophet also fled into the "Underground." While in hiding, immense pressure was placed on John Taylor to issue a public statement abrogating plural marriages once and for all.In response to solemn prayer one autumn evening, John Taylor received a revelation wherein he was told that the commandment to live plural marriage would never be revoked. The next day, John Taylor held a secret meeting setting apart five men to perpetuate plural marriages even if it cost them their lives. Four years later, after mounting pressure to renounce plural marriages became intolerable, Wilford W. Woodruff issues the 1890 manifesto. While those within the LDS Church abandoned plural marriages and slowly gained worldwide respect, the five men continued with their commission - thus began the formation of Mormon fundamentalism.This story has been casually dismissed as exaggerated and wayward by some critics - cast aside as historically unsupportable. With an impressive culmination of previously uncovered materials, Silencing Mormon Polygamy unveils this mysterious history and provides unequaled documentation of the historical foundation supporting fundamentalist Mormon priesthood claims. In this unprecedented volume, the birth of Mormon fundamentalism and its shared history with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is presented for the first time - conveying an understanding of these events that few people have every fully grasped.__________________________________________Mormon fundamentalists and their unabashed critics have both authored various apologetic books and pamphlets defending their authors respective religious beliefs. Despite multiple volumes of materials ranging from sensationalist to dry and from unapologizing testimonials to carefully selected research, the historical events surrounding John Taylor's September 27, 1886 revelation have never seen a thorough, even-handed treatment.For the first time, a monument of material has been compiled to put Mormon fundamentalists priesthood claims to scrutiny. While some of their claims are well supported, others are lacking a strong, historical foundation. Regardless of how one reads the evidence, the journey of reading this material has the surprising effect of being delightfully interesting. Any student of Mormon history - especially Mormon history as it pertains to the priesthood as restored by Joseph Smith - will find this volume both exciting and tantalizing!

The Mormon Crises

The Mormon Crises
Author: James A. Beverley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2013-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781927355329

Mitt Romney's run for President of the United States created enormous interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In spite of enormous media focus during the so-called Mormon Moment, coverage was often shallow and misleading, even from the LDS Church. Few reporters dug deep enough to deal with the evidence that the Mormon Church is in a deep crisis, not only because of members leaving but because of increasing proof of lies, fraud, false teaching, and criminality at the start of Mormonism. James Beverley tells the Mormon story as few can. He has studied Mormonism for over 35 years and has consulted frequently with other experts on Mormonism, both LDS and outside the LDS Church. His research trips to Utah have included interaction with polygamous Mormons, major LDS scholars, and the Attorney General of the State of Utah. Mormon Crisis deals with major issues about Joseph Smith, the first LDS prophet, provides sustained critique of Mormon Scripture, examines flaws in the LDS understanding of Church leadership, and probes unique doctrines and practices, including the secret temple ceremonies. The book offers a serious indictment of the current LDS belief system but also a way out of the current crisis facing one of Americas most famous and controversial religions.

The Mormon Question

The Mormon Question
Author: Sarah Barringer Gordon
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2002
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780807849873

From the Mormon Church's public announcement of its sanction of polygamy in 1852 until its formal decision to abandon the practice in 1890, people on both sides of the "Mormon question" debated central questions of constitutional law. Did principles of re

View of the Hebrews

View of the Hebrews
Author: Ethan Smith
Publisher: Left of Brain Onboarding Pty Limited
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2021-11-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781396322228

In the nineteenth century, it was a common belief that Native Americans were the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Ethan Smith wrote on this topic, and in so doing, challenged the dismissal of the Indigenous Americans by European settlers. Smith used biblical scripture, similarities in the Hebrew and Native American languages and their name for God, and other points of evidence to prove the connection between Israel and the First Nations. From there he showed how the reunited Hebrew tribes would be restored to Zion before the end of the world. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Smith's book is that it is said to have influenced the Book of Mormon, which was published about seven years after later. As a child, Smith moved away from religion after his parents died but found his way back before he turned 20 and worked in the ministry until his death. Smith wrote several books while serving in the ministry in which he explored prophecies and baptism, among other subjects. But this book remains one of the most controversial of all his publications.

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die

I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die
Author: Sarah J. Robinson
Publisher: WaterBrook
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0593193539

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

The Next Mormons

The Next Mormons
Author: Jana Riess
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 019088522X

American Millennials--the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s--have been leaving organized religion in unprecedented numbers. For a long time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an exception: nearly three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon stayed that way into adulthood. In The Next Mormons, Jana Riess demonstrates that things are starting to change. Drawing on a large-scale national study of four generations of current and former Mormons as well as dozens of in-depth personal interviews, Riess explores the religious beliefs and behaviors of young adult Mormons, finding that while their levels of belief remain strong, their institutional loyalties are less certain than their parents' and grandparents'. For a growing number of Millennials, the tensions between the Church's conservative ideals and their generation's commitment to individualism and pluralism prove too high, causing them to leave the faith-often experiencing deep personal anguish in the process. Those who remain within the fold are attempting to carefully balance the Church's strong emphasis on the traditional family with their generation's more inclusive definition that celebrates same-sex couples and women's equality. Mormon families are changing too. More Mormons are remaining single, parents are having fewer children, and more women are working outside the home than a generation ago. The Next Mormons offers a portrait of a generation navigating between traditional religion and a rapidly changing culture.

Race and the Making of the Mormon People

Race and the Making of the Mormon People
Author: Max Perry Mueller
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1469633760

The nineteenth-century history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Max Perry Mueller argues, illuminates the role that religion played in forming the notion of three "original" American races—red, black, and white—for Mormons and others in the early American Republic. Recovering the voices of a handful of black and Native American Mormons who resolutely wrote themselves into the Mormon archive, Mueller threads together historical experience and Mormon scriptural interpretations. He finds that the Book of Mormon is key to understanding how early followers reflected but also departed from antebellum conceptions of race as biblically and biologically predetermined. Mormon theology and policy both challenged and reaffirmed the essentialist nature of the racialized American experience. The Book of Mormon presented its believers with a radical worldview, proclaiming that all schisms within the human family were anathematic to God's design. That said, church founders were not racial egalitarians. They promoted whiteness as an aspirational racial identity that nonwhites could achieve through conversion to Mormonism. Mueller also shows how, on a broader level, scripture and history may become mutually constituted. For the Mormons, that process shaped a religious movement in perpetual tension between its racialist and universalist impulses during an era before the concept of race was secularized.