Equipping Saints • Engaging Culture • Examining Claims
Going Global While Growing Distant: The LDS Church’s Shifting Charitable Focus Introduction: The Question Jesus Asked First A lawyer once asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” It was a reasonable question, and Jesus answered it with a story about a man who crossed racial, religious, and social barriers to help a stranger left bleeding…
Image: An AI-generated image imagines the LDS theology of premortal existence, where spirits before birth were in the presence of God, where they developed character, exercised agency, and prepared for mortality. A Theological Essay from a Traditional Christian Perspective Introduction: A Different Starting Point When Elder Ronald M. Barcellos addressed BYU–Hawaii students in February 2026,…
Overview and Purpose Published in 2020 by Deseret Book, 175 Temple Symbols and Their Meanings is a 310-page reference guide by Donald W. Parry, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brigham Young University and a contributor to the Dead Sea Scrolls translation project. The book draws on President Russell M. Nelson’s teaching that “each temple is…
A Shockwave Through the Hierarchy On August 8, 2017, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a brief, carefully worded statement: James J. Hamula had been “released as a General Authority Seventy… following church disciplinary action by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.” That sentence — understated and clinical —…
Brigham Young’s Race Theology and the Murder of a Black Mormon Prologue: A Body on the Hill It was the afternoon of December 11, 1866, and a group of boys playing on the rocky bench above Salt Lake City stumbled upon something that would haunt Utah’s history for more than a century and a half….
The Shelf: When Faith Meets Unanswered Questions For many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), faith is a carefully constructed edifice. Beliefs are meticulously placed upon a mental shelf, each one bolstering the others. But what happens when troubling questions begin to accumulate, threatening the stability of the entire…
In the power vacuum following Joseph Smith’s murder in June 1844, a little-known convert named James Jesse Strang made an audacious play for control of the Latter-day Saint movement. Producing a letter he claimed Smith had written before his death — naming Strang as successor — he launched one of the most brazen religious confidence…
Part 1… Right-click and select “Save As” to download the MP3 audio file of Are-Mormons-Christian-Part-1. Part 2… Right-click and select “Save As” to download the MP3 audio file of Are-Mormons-Christian-Part-2. Part 3… Right-click and select “Save As” to download the MP3 audio file of Are Mormons Christian Part 3.
Place two of America’s most controversial religious movements side by side under the cold light of honest scrutiny, and what emerges is not merely comparison — it is a mirror. The parallels between Scientology and Mormonism are nothing short of startling. Both organizations guard their most unconventional teachings behind carefully constructed layers of secrecy, revealing…
The Vast Wealth of the LDS Church, the Doctrine of Tithing, and the Biblical Mandate of Stewardship Introduction: The Widow’s Mite and the World’s Richest Church Imagine a widow in rural Mexico. She is a faithful Latter-day Saint, a convert of ten years. She earns the equivalent of $3.50 a day making tortillas. She has…