Month: June 2016

Andthus it is that this post shall conclude the serialized reproduction of my lengthy reply to “Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony” by Jeremy Runnells.I doubt this is the last I'll have to say on the subject, but this is the last selection from my original reply, which I've been ... Read more

We'recoming to the end of this series of posts, which are a serialized reproduction of my lengthy reply to "Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony" to Jeremy Runnells. Jeremy Runnells insists that nobody has answered his questions, and, when people bring up my answers to his questions, he insists that I ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnells “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:(Don't worry - we're almost done!)4.Anti-Intellectualism:“Some things that are true are not very useful”:

Boyd K. Packer gave an eye-opening talk to Church Education System Instructors and faculty at a CES Symposium on the Doctrine & Covenants

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HappyFather's Day.To help me get through my first Father's Day in a post-Bob Bennett world, I've transcribed the 45-minute fireside my father delivered in the Arlington, Virginia LDS Chapel three weeks before his passing and less than 24 hours before the stroke that took his life. (In Mormonspeak, a fireside is a sermon delivered in the evening outside of regular ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnells “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:2.Church Finances:Zero transparency to members of the Church. Why is the one and only true Church keeping its books in the dark? Why would God’s one true Church choose to “keep them in darkness” over ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnells “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:Other Concerns & Questions:These concerns are secondary to all of the above.  These concerns do not matter if the foundational truth claims (Book of Mormon, First Visions, Prophets, Book of Abraham, Witnesses, Priesthood, Temples, etc.) are not ... Read more

Whenmy father, former Senator Bob Bennett, passed away just over a month ago, our family was inundated with kind messages of love and support. Glowing tributes appeared in the media, and my siblings and I read every one we could find. We also, against our better judgment, read the public comments people made online.For the ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnells “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:Scriptures Concerns & Questions:To believe in the scriptures, I have to believe in a god who endorsed murder, genocide, infanticide, rape, slavery, selling daughters into sex slavery, polygamy, child abuse, stoning disobedient children, pillage, plunder, sexism, racism, ... Read more

Science Concerns & Questions:The problem Mormonism encounters is that so many of its claims are well within the realm of scientific study, and as such, can be proven or disproven.No, the real problem is that you’re about to make a lot of scientific claims about Mormonism that Mormonism doesn’t make for itself.To ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnells “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:The Shakers and Ann Lee:The Shakers felt that "Christ has made his second appearance on earth, in a chosen female known by the name of Ann Lee, and acknowledged by us as our Blessed Mother in ... Read more