Mormon Heretic

I came across this recent article at Christianity Today describing meetings between evangelicals and Mormons.  Here are some interesting excerpts from the article:

LDS president Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors permitted Standing Together, an alliance of 90 Utah evangelical churches, to use the historic Salt Lake City Tabernacle for a September 13 revival meeting. Throngs of evangelicals and Mormons enjoyed gospel songs and prayed together.

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I recently made the acquaintance of Morgan Deane, who runs a blog called Warfare and the Book of Mormon.  Morgan is a scholar in Military History, and has used some of his expertise in analyzing some passages in the Book of Mormon as related to warfare.  Here’s what he says about himself on his website.
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Ok, it’s always nice to be creative when proposing.  But hiding the ring in a milkshake, and then having a race to finish the shake is a really bad idea.  Yep, she swallowed it!  You can read more here.  (Oh yeah, they’re LDS.)

Internet anonymity can have both good and bad consqeuences.  Some people can fall in love, yet never meet in person.  Others, can engage in sociopathic behavior that they would not do without the cloak of anonymity.

This blog came about because I wanted to ask provocative questions that I didn’t feel safe to do in church.  So, anonymity has helped me be more truthful than I otherwise would be inclined to be in public.  I will also admit that on occasion, my temper has gotten the best of me, and perhaps I have left some comments on other blogs that could have been phrased in a more polite manner.

I came across this article at MSNBC which talks about Anonymous behavior, both the good and bad (although it concentrates more on the bad.)  So, is anonymity a good thing, a bad thing, or both?

Here in Utah, during the week of the Utah-BYU football game, also known as the “Holy War”, fans on each side and get downright fanatical.  Being the church school, many mormons pretty much bear testimony that BYU is “the Lord’s school”, and that God wants BYU to win.  Fans of Utah get quite upset about this, and complain about BYU fan’s haughty attitude.

It’s always refreshing to me when I discover similar attitudes in other religions.  This article on MSNBC:  Does God care who wins the Super Bowl? even references the Holy War…  Here are some quotes from the article I found particularly interesting.

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Ok, I will confess that I love learning about the Middle East.  I love learning more about Jews, Muslims, Arabs, etc.  I have so much to learn.

I’m a grad student working on some genetic studies (one of my many jobs).  As part of the genetic study we are doing, we have our study participants tell us their race.  In medical studies, different treatments can affect different races quite dramatically.

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There is a new movie out in theaters called Errand of Angels.  A preview can be found here, and it is available in Utah theaters Aug 22.  This will be at least the 3rd5th “Hollywood LDS Missionary” movie, coming since God’s Army, and The Best Two Years, Other Side of Heaven, and States of Grace (God’s Army 2).

I saw this movie at the LDS film festival back in January, so I thought I would give a movie review.

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I want to give a shout-out to my friend April.  She has a blog called Normal Mormons. April is a relatively recent convert living in Idaho, and I have enjoyed hearing her observations about mormons, our sometimes strange culturalisms, and her efforts to become more Christ-like.

I comment on her blog occasionally, and have often commented that nothing really strange happens in my ward.  Well, today we had an unusual event.

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I need a change of pace, so I thought I’d do a little pop culture for a post.

My wife and I went to see the new Indy movie the Friday morning after it came out.  I’m a big Indy fan.  I liked the movie, but it wasn’t as good as #1 or #3, but better than #2.

Anyway, I don’t want any plot spoilers, and I don’t think this is, so if you haven’t seen the movie, you may want to stop reading here, but if you don’t care, read on.

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I saw a sneak preview of the upcoming movie, “Emma Smith: My Story” at the LDS Film Festival in January. It is due to be released in about a week–April 11 here in Utah. I highly recommend it. It was commissioned by the Joseph Smith Historical Society, and has many of the same actors and actresses who appeared in “Legacy“, which used to show at the Joseph Smith Building. The producers even received permission to use some of the unused footage from Legacy. For those of you in Utah, I really encourage you to attend during the opening weekend. This makes a big impact on how long the film will run. It is a highly professional production, and it is a truly inspiring story. Read more…

I have left messages on this and other blogs about how boring church can be. This has prompted the question, “Well, if it’s so boring, why do you even bother to go?”

First of all, let me state that I am a believing mormon. I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, I believe in the Book of Mormon, I believe in the Bible, I believe going to church is a good, worthy endeavor, and I am very supportive of the good service that is performed in every ward in the church. (I guess you could call these my personal Articles of Faith.) Read more…

First of all, let me say that I am truly sad about Pres Hinckley’s passing. He is a true inspiration, and I, as well as the church will greatly miss him. His humor, and candor will be greatly missed.

Newsweek has an interesting article found at http://www.newsweek.com/id/105857/page/2

It talks about diversity in the church, and some of the poor retention rates of converts. Pres Hinckley was one who was greatly concerned about retention of converts. I recently attended the LDS Film Festival, and watched a movie called Read more…

The LDS Church has a list of 13 general beliefs, which was composed by Joseph Smith in the 1830’s. It does not cover everything the church believes, but is a good guide. In the 10th article of faith, it states, “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes”.

First of all, why do we care about the 10 tribes? Read more…