It was the summer of 1828, and Joseph Smith had a problem: after two months of laborious dictation, his 116-page handwritten manuscript had disappeared. His then scribe, a sheepish Martin Harris, confessed that he had lost it. They had nothing to show for their labors. Joseph Smith had just suffered the 19th century equivalent of …
Top 6 Exmormon Myths
For many, myself included, a large part of a faith transition is confronting the many "myths" that have permeated Mormonism. You know what I'm talking about: Brigham Young transfiguring into Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, the gulls and crickets, the purpose of polygamy to care after widows... at some point we had to acknowledge that these …
My Response to “129 Archaeological Evidences For The Book Of Mormon”
I recently came across an article titled 129 Archaeological Evidences For The Book Of Mormon that intends to put forth the best possible defense of the Book of Mormon in archaeological terms. I normally don't like to venture into low-hanging fruit like this, but I needed some lighter fare after the exhausting work that was …
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The 3 Witnesses – Who knew? (Part 3 of 3)
Oliver Cowdery It's difficult to tell the stories of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer without telling both of them, hence I already discussed Oliver frequently in part 2. But I saved him for last because, of the three witnesses, he was by far the most influential in the early church. Meeting the Smiths In 1827, …
The 3 Witnesses – Who knew? (Part 2 of 3)
David Whitmer Unlike Martin Harris, Joseph Smith had no known previous relationship with David Whitmer before the translation of the plates had already commenced. Whitmer lived with his extended family on his father's farm in Fayette, New York and had his life turned upside down when he made a business trip to Palmyra in 1828. There …
The 3 Witnesses – Who knew? (Part 1 of 3)
When people stop believing in Joseph Smith as a prophet, they suddenly face the prospect of reconstructing a historical narrative they've believed their whole life. Joseph Smith the Prophet becomes Joseph Smith the fraud. The Book of Mormon -once holy scripture - is now just fiction being peddled as authentic history. Under this new paradigm, the actions of early …
Learning about the Seer Stone
I recently did an informal survey through reddit. It started when I read this observation by Sandra Tanner, quoted by user Mithryn in the exmormon subreddit: "Curiously, in illustrating various instruction manuals, the LDS Church does not depict Smith using either the Urim and Thummim or the seer stone. He is almost always shown sitting …
Pre-Christian Baptisms (and why it was an early shelf item for me)
When it comes to a faith crisis, timing can be everything. Most of us found critical resources of the church through the internet. Before then, that kind of information was difficult to find. It was out there, for sure - Dialogue, D. Michael Quinn and the Tanners were all publishing good information - but you were unlikely …
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Youth Conference
I need to start this post with a little background. Although it should be clear from other blog entries that I'm sitting pretty far into the disbelief side of the faith spectrum, I still participate in my ward and hold a calling. A little over a week ago, my calling required me to take a couple vacation …
Nephi in a Waʻa Kaulua
Nephi's voyage to the promised land ranks among the best known Book of Mormon stories, perhaps partly because you'll find it near the beginning of the book, early enough for most readers to make it to before losing interest, but it's also a foundational piece of the Book of Mormon story. It's the "creation myth" of the Book of Mormon, …
Lectures on Doubt 