Mormon Discussion Podcast

One of the coolest issues to dive into is Moroni’s Gold Plates.  This ancient mortal was the last to make engravings and to see them protected until he himself buried them only to as a post mortal being entrust them to the prophet Joseph Smith.  What do we know about these plates and whose testimony can we trust.  Numerous 1st, 2nd, and 3rd hand witnesses tell us much about these plates but in the end it may be Moroni himself who helps us solve this puzzle? RESOURCES: https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/10/1/S00003-50be4834f0ca03Henrichsen.pdf https://www.lds.org/new-era/2007/07/what-did-the-golden-plates-look-like?lang=eng https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/10/1/S00005-50be48520d86f5Sjodahl.pdf https://publications.mi.byu.edu/pdf-control.php/publications/jbms/10/1/S00003-How_Witnesses_Described_the_Gold_Plates.html https://history.lds.org/article/historic-sites/palmyra/smith-farm-life?lang=eng https://www.lds.org/church/news/artist-re-creates-the-golden-plates-for-museum-display-from-written-descriptions?lang=eng The post Mormon Discussion: 2018 Sunstone Symposium Gold Plates – Ancient or Modern Fabrication appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Today with Sit down with Newell Bringhurst, Author of “Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism”.  We discuss how the Priesthood ban came to be and how the false doctrines around it originated.  We talk about the 1978 removal of the ban and work up to present day discussing the Race & The Priesthood gospel topic essay and the lack of vulnerability within the Church all the way throughout.  We also hit deeply on how LDS leaders can be deeply wrong and how seemingly God allows them to believe and teach false doctrine for over a hundred years in spite of those false doctrine hurting and marginalizing and causing trauma to a segment of Church membership. Purchase the Book by clicking here The post Mormon Discussion: 307: Newell Bringhurst: Saints, Slaves, & Blacks appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

WHAT IS LEFT??????? 1.) The Church has distanced itself from power of the Priesthood every conference talk about a priesthood blessing taking place ends with the person blessed dying We have now shifted to “faith not to be healed” being greater than faith to be healed The supernatural god-magic miracles of of the past have seemingly vanished.  Once we entered an age of verifiable history and as history becomes more historically verifiable, God-magic has slowly disappeared to the point, where today, essentially nothing happens. 2.) The Church has distanced itself from leaders speaking directly to God. Elder Oaks Boise Rescue imposed that to be a special witness has nothing to do with a visitation from Christ or other heavenly messengers Youth Fireside – Elder Oaks imposes to a young lady that the experience of Alma the younger is not an experience we should expect to have. We have gone from couching revelation today as simply impressions that come from feelings.  Meanwhile the Church in Joseph smith’s day imposed that we should seek and expect bigger spiritual experiences.   3.) The Information Age has imposed that most of our faith promoting miracle stories are problematic or false Elder Holland’s story about the missionary and his brother The conference talks on the tsunami in Japan The saved art in the fire struck building Sweetwater crossing, Brigham Young transfiguration, John Taylor’s watch saving his life, Lorenzo Snow seeing Christ, Jesus born on April 6th, etc…. Manuals are full of problematic stories told to increase faith. (Marsh and Ryder along with about 18 problematic stories in the primary manual) 4.) The Church’s historical truth claims are deeply problematic and it seemingly has failed to interpret its own history so miserably that it has an increasing lost trust in its ability to interpret itself. first vision, book of Abraham, priesthood restoration, large chunks of 19th century in the book of Mormon, the three witnesses, 8 witnesses, the extensive practice of treasure digging, the unhealthy mechanisms in implementing polygamy, the deceptiveness in putting forth a certain narrative that seems to be inaccurate at every turn. 5.) The Church has essentially disavowed the majority of things that make it unique and peculiar. The Mormonism of Joseph Fielding smith and Bruce R McConkie that was the foundation of the growth the Church experienced in the 1980’s and 90’s is now in an information age now considered so absurd that much of it has been swept under a rug or disavowed. (gulf of Mexico – City of Enoch, Quetzalcoatl, evolution, age of earth, death before the fall, global flood, tower of babel and jaredite barges. Once one values the data and the science and is willing to go where the data leads rather than find support for their beliefs in order to maintain them all of these things become absurd.) Race and Priesthood 6.) Mormonism has killed all creativity by membership and its leadership – Elder Oaks has stated in the recent ysa broadcast that if you get a revelation that is different than what the leaders have taught you can know that your revelation comes from the wrong source. (hold mike accountable to answering how he reconciles his views on race and priesthood with that?). This rhetoric kills creativity as this pushes members into a corner where they sense that anything new. – The leadership is so threatened by both the progressive voices like John Dehlin, pointing out contradictions on one side and voices like Denver Snuffer on the other, they they are paralyzed and unable to move in any direction and hence must impose that membership too stay in lockstep with them. This has created a religious institution afraid it will mis-step with any move it makes and afraid of the risk of allowing members room to do anything differently. It senses to allow creativity and new ideas simply welcomes new Dehlins and new Snuffers Once you throw out most of the miracle stories …. Once you throw out all the doctrines and theories imposed by a MConkie/Fielding Smith Mormonism and their books…… Once you acknowledge the problematic data against our historical truth claims …….. What you throw out the power of the Priesthood……   Once you throw out God-Magic…..  Once you throw out real Revelatory experiences….  Once you throw out creativity…… What is left? I mean this sincerely. What is Mormonism in 100 years once it works through all of this and all within its walls recognize all that has been sacrificed on the altar due to an internet age?   Resources: https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/oaks-ballard?lang=eng https://mormondiscussions.org/mdpodcast/2017/09/radio-free-mormon-018-faith-not-healed/ mdpodcast.org/2017/11/mormon-awakenings-episode-023-god-magic-spiritual-experiences-paranormal/ https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://zeios.blob.core.windows.net/jtz-article-images/Boise%20Rescue-Transcript.docx reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/42obsk/audio_and_outline_of_elder_oaks_youth_fireside_in/ mdpodcast.org/2017/04/extra-radio-free-mormon-april-2017-conference-autopsy-report/ reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/7ku7lq/top_ten_errors_in_the_church_history_primary/ https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/approaching-mormon-doctrine mormonstories.org/how-the-lds-q12-think/ The post Mormon Discussion: 306: What Is Left? appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Bill Reel examines within the pain of a faith transition the development from Sympathy to Empathy.  We look at what each of these look like and how they express themselves within our faith and within our faith transitions. The post 305: Empathy vs Sympathy appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Last night the Church of Jesus Christ held a 40th anniversary of its doctrinal and policy change to allow those of African Descent to receive Priesthood and Saving ordinances in the Temple.  As we all know the Church has been hush hush forever about this change and it context in our past.  And then in 2013 when the Race and Priesthood Essay came out For the first time the Church felt comfortable speaking out and disavowing the theories behind those restrictions.  But what was left ambiguous was the Ban itself.  It seemed the Church preferred to allow people to make up their own minds.  For those who needed the ban to be from God, they could read that into it.  For those who needed the ban to be a Racist man made thing, they could have their cake and eat it too.  Until that was last night…. When Elder Oaks said the following “As part of my prayerful study, I learned that in general, the Lord rarely gives reasons for the Commandments and directions he gives to his servants” – Elder Oaks June 1st 2018 Hereby rendering ineffective the ambiguity of the Essay.  Elder Oaks has taught us on several occasions to “Be One” and this celebration was no different.   And yet if to “Be One” means I have to allow this unhealthy institution to shield itself from accountability and allow it to portray God as a racist SOB who he himself on his throne reached out to his servants and implemented the Priesthood and Temple ban without allowing any safe space left to believe that this Church’s leaders simply screwed up and have less of a direct connection than they want others to believe…. No thanks. And PS You didn’t cry. The post Mormon Discussion: 304: Be One And Be Racist With Us And Our Racist God…. No Thank You appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Today On Mormon Discussion, Bill Reel dives into the idea once you grasp how fallible modern Church leaders are, taking the next step to grasp at just how fallible ancient servants of God were.  Once one wrestles with that the discussion turns to how much trust one should place in God’s servants who are in a lower developmental stage and whose fruits are involve as much error as inspiration. The post 303: Conscience over Outer Authorities appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Mormonism in the past week has learned that inspite of how much members say what they think the Church expects them to say, that members are deep down struggling much more deeply with the issues within its faith.   Today on Mormon Discussion we talk about the recent Race Apology both the satire apology created by Jonathon Streeter as well as the non-existent apology and missed opportunity by the LDS Church itself.  We talk about how people crave and need belonging and also authenticity but how in the first half of life, the belonging trumps the authenticity and compels us to say what the systems and institutions we belong to expect us to say.  And in doing so our authenticity takes a back seat.  This shows its face when people believed the Church had changed its message and what follows is a change in the rhetoric around that change only to have been based on a false belief that the Church had actually shifted.  We see through these recent events that the members of the Church deep down are clamoring for a shift and deeply need the healing around issues that could only have been expressed by those members believing the Church had opened up a space for them to speak out and speak up.  We end by showing that this is one more evidence that this institution has shown that every single time it can choose between helping people heal and doing the right thing versus protecting its authority and narrative, that Mormonism will do the latter every single time.  And along the way I express my own sorrow for my blind spots in this experience. The post Mormon Discussion: 302: Racism, Parodies, and Botched Opportunities appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Today guest host Brittney Hartley sits down with Bill Reel from Mormon Discussions Podcasts and discusses his current relationship with Mormonism.  In this 2 hour interview Bill tackles what got him to this place as they discuss many of the important moments along this journey.  They tackle where he is at currently including where his wife and kids are with the Church.  He finishes by speaking to what lays ahead for the podcast.  If you have grown to appreciate Bill Reel and his voice in this space, your going to love this chance to see deeply inside his heart and mind.  We hope you enjoy this episode!!! The post 301: Bill Reel discusses the twists and turns of his Faith Journey appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Today On Mormon Discussion, We discuss Seers.  What is a Seer within the Old Testament.  How does the Book of Mormon frame such a word.  What is Jesus as heard through the D&C stating?  How about Moroni as a spiritual post-mortal being?  How does the modern Church today define a Seer?  And lastly is the statement that “President Monson is a Seer” different from “we sustain President Monson as a seer”? The post Mormon Discussion: 300: SEERS appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

Haley Wilson Lemmon sits down with us today to discuss the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible.   Haley worked with BYU Professor Thomas A Wayment in looking into what possible sources Joseph Smith used in his Bible translation.  The major discovery here was that Joseph Smith “direct borrowed” or plagiarized heavily from Adam Clarke’s Commentary in order to carry out his Bible translation.  There is a multiple of tangents we take this conversation –  What led to this research? – How pervasive this plagiarism was. – Was there any pushback from BYU or the Church leadership? – Was there any pressure to edit certain ideas out? – Joseph use of other sources in his work such as Buck’s Dictionary – How this demonstrates once again how problematic the Church’s narrative is – The imposed need to redefine what it meant for Joseph to translate – How understanding Joseph Smith on this issue sheds light on his other “translations”. – How this either speaks to Joseph Smith being a genius or it imposes that Joseph had other sources by his side in his translation work and what that means for other works including the book of abraham but namely the book of Mormon – Does the Book of Mormon utilize Clarke’s Commentary? – What can we infer about Sidney Rigdon’s involvement – How her and Wayments write-up is in their mind the most faithful way to interpret the data. – The difficult position the Church is in with its narrative falling apart – How BYU censured her regarding her blog about her faith crisis – Where Haley is at today in her faith journey Resources: BYU’s Synopsis of Lemmon’s and Wayment’s Research Adam Clarke’s Commentary   The post 299: Haley Lemmon – The Joseph Smith Translation – Revelation or Plagiarism appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.