Mormon Heretic

Trouble in Zion Poster

The Haun’s Mill Massacre.  The Mountain Meadows Massacre. The Rwandan Genocide.   Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia and Serbia.  How do such terrible atrocities happen?

Kenny Ballantine is in the process of producing a documentary called Trouble in Zion.  The documentary discusses the events leading up to the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri.  It highlights the Extermination Order and Haun’s Mill Massacre, as well as events leading up to these terrible events.  Kenny showed a pre-release version of the film at the Mormon History Association in Independence, Missouri in May, and he is also showing the film at Sunstone here in Salt Lake City in August.  I really enjoyed the film, and highly recommend it.  I thought Kenny was pretty even-handed, and had experts discuss reactions by both Mormons and non-Mormons which escalated the violence.

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Sorry there was no post last week.  I had planned to put this one up, but this has turned out to be one of my longest posts since my Priesthood Ban post.  This post is over 6000 words (14 pages), so be forewarned.  I’ve combined three different videos, so that’s why it took so long.  I’ll color code these quotes so you know which videos these quotes come from.   The videos are Science of the Exodus, by National Geographic; Exodus Decoded, by Simcha Jacobovici; and Exodus Revealed, by Discovery Media Group.

What I found interesting was the fact that there were many similarities.  The same experts and evidence often appeared in multiple videos, yet often different conclusions were provided.  It reminds me of the debate concerning Book of Mormon evidence.

During Passover celebrations in 2001, Rabbi David Wolpe created international headlines in Israel by proclaiming to his Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, “the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all.”

For more than 1700 years, Christians have been looking for Mount Sinai, the place where Moses received the 10 Commandments.  Constantine’s mother, Helena was probably the first Christian in search of Christian artifacts in the 4^th century.  Read more…

Dr. Carole Fontaine of the Andover Newton Theological School said, “Archeologists often find themselves hooted and hollered out of town, when they first suggest things like, ‘I’ve found Troy, or look, we’ve found Sodom and Gomorrah.’  But history has shown that in fact, the more you dig, the more you find.  It’s amazing how accurate the Bible sometimes turns out to be.”

This quote comes from an episode of History’s Mysteries: Sodom and Gomorrah.  It was originally aired in 2000 on the History Channel.  Read more…

After Christmas, we decided to finally upgrade our television, and got a new 55 inch HD LCD.  It’s pretty nice.  As part of the package, we are able to download Netflix directly to the television.  The first Netflix movie I watched on my new television was Ken Burns’ America: The Shakers (1985).  I picked it because I remembered that there was a mission to the Shakers in D&C 49.

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The LDS Film Festival begins Jan 20.  I admit to being an aspiring film maker.  I have great designs to one day do a documentary on some church related topic.  I’ve been to the festival for the past 3 years, and I hope to be able to go this weekend.  The schedule can be found here.  Here’s some movies I would like to see, if I had unlimited time:

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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’ve learned a lot about consecration in the last few books.  While most of us know that tithing was instituted as a “lower law” because the early saints weren’t capable of the “higher law” of consecration, I have still learned some interesting things about both tithing and fast offerings.  For example, Fast Offerings were instituted due to the grasshopper attacks in 1855.  Those of us who live in Utah are all familiar with the famous seagull invasion where the seagulls saved the crops of the saints in 1848.  However in 1855 and 1856, the grasshopper attacks were much worse, and the seagulls were overwhelmed.

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I just saw this movie last night.  I had never heard of it before, and literally knew nothing about it.  I told my wife to pick a movie, and I thought she would pick a chic flick.  She said she thought I might like it because it had something to do with numbers and predicting future events.  I don’t want to give away any plot lines.  It’s not the kind of movie that I typically like.  In fact, I’d say that for about 90% of the movie, I thought, “This is just a weird, creepy movie.”  Then the end came, and I really liked it (though my wife just thought it was a weird, creepy movie.)

Here’s what IMDB said about the movie, and a couple of trailers. Read more…

I don’t know why, but I love to learn about archaeology, especially religious archaeology.  A few years ago, Simcha Jacobovici came out with a documentary and book called The Jesus Tomb.  In it, he makes a claim that the bones of Jesus may have been located in a tomb unearthed in Jerusalem.  Of course, the Da Vinci Code, while fiction, makes a claim that Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene were actually buried in France.  A few months ago, I watched a documentary called Bloodline, which actually goes further, and makes the case that yes, indeed, the bones of Christ and Mary are found in France.  (You can learn more at the official website.)  I just came across a third source, which claims that Christ’s bones are actually located in India.  See this website.

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After Lehi’s family left Jerusalem, they traveled in the Arabian Peninsula on their way to the “promised land.”  In 1994, an archeaological discovery in Yemen has the same name as mentioned in 1 Ne. 16: 34, “And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom.

Critics of the LDS church have often chortled at the fact that there is no archaeological evidence in support of the Book of Mormon.  Well, that is now changing, and I would like to discuss what we know about an archeaological site called “Nahom.”

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While there is much ado about the Sundance Film Festival, here in Park City, Utah, there is another film festival which starts today in Orem, called the LDS Film Festival.  I went last year, and loved some of the movies.  The festival runs through Saturday.

Certainly, many of the movies here are not up to Hollywood standards, but they can leave some lasting impressions.  I thought I would review some of last year’s favorites, and add some that I hope to see this year.  Unfortunately, I have to work, so I can’t see all the ones I would like to see.

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Many critics of the Book of Mormon claim there is no archeologyical evidence.  The Bible is assumed to be completely true.  MSNBC has a link about a PBS show about archeaology of Bible that recently appeared on Nova. 

William Dever, from the University of Arizona, is one of my favorite scholars.  Let me quote from the PBS Article: Read more…

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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