The issue of multiple First Vision accounts has tripped up the faith of some LDS in recent times.  The LDS church uses the 1838 account of Joseph Smith’s First Vision to teach members and future investigators of how God selected Joseph to restore his true church, focusing on the message of LDS exclusivity. As […]

I’m blogging on the Book of Mormon this year with Gospel Doctrine study.  This one is for the Abinadi story, Lesson 18: God himself shall redeem his people.  Critics look at Abinadi and see a clumsy quoting of Isaiah combined with a ripped off 19th century sermon.  A boring old man more worried about his […]

  In preparing for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 19 None Could Deliver Them but the Lord, I noticed a story that I hadn’t really noticed before that moved me about Alma’s people escaping from the Lamanites. This lesson also covers the beautiful verses that Alma describes as the covenant of baptism, which might be my favorite […]

  I like most everything from Terryl Givens, but I really liked his latest blog post titled Mormons at the Forefront published at firstthings.com. He is responding to the idea that for the most part, LDS beliefs on Jesus Christ puts them within mainstream Christianity, if only they could get rid of some of Joseph’s […]

As a heterosexual, married, Republican-leaning white male living in Utah County, I’m not a natural to speak on a political subject like the potential for the LDS church to allow gay marriage. This is going to be kind of a brain storming, thinking out loud kind of blog article, where I’m sure I’ll be educated […]