{"id":7991,"date":"2026-05-08T10:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/?page_id=7991"},"modified":"2026-05-09T10:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:50:17","slug":"inside-the-archive-the-mormon-stories","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/inside-the-archive-the-mormon-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Archive: The Mormon Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Righteous Cause has built one of the most comprehensive evangelical critiques of Latter-day Saint theology and history available online \u2014 a catalog now exceeding one hundred long-form essays covering everything from golden plates and peep stones to billion-dollar investment portfolios and the corporate choreography of General Conference. What follows is a guided tour of that archive, offered as an orientation for new readers and a resource for Christians engaged in missionary conversations with their LDS neighbors.<\/span><\/p>\n

The catalog begins where Mormonism itself begins \u2014 with Joseph Smith. Multiple essays examine the founder from various angles: his folk-magic background and treasure-digging career, his psychological profile, the Kirtland bank collapse, the Kinderhook Plates debacle, the 116 lost manuscript pages, the radical theological departures of the King Follett Discourse, and the embarrassing Egyptological failure of the Book of Abraham. Taken together, these pieces build a cumulative case that Smith was not a prophet restoring ancient truth but a creative 19th-century religious entrepreneur whose revelations consistently reflected his contemporary American milieu rather than any ancient source.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the founding prophet, the catalog extends to Mormonism’s foundational text. A series of essays dismantles the Book of Mormon’s historical credibility on multiple fronts \u2014 archaeological silence, genetic evidence pointing unambiguously to Asian rather than Near Eastern ancestry, anachronistic mentions of steel, horses, wheat, and chariots, the absence of any confirmed city or inscription, and the impossibility of the Jaredite narrative. Separate essays examine the “Reformed Egyptian” language claim, the sealed portion’s function as an unfalsifiable escape hatch, and the startling fact that the Book of Mormon itself contradicts the distinctive doctrines that define modern Mormonism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Systematic theology occupies another major track. Essays contrast LDS and biblical teaching on the nature of God, the Trinity, soteriology, eschatology, angelology, demonology, and the doctrine of human nature. These comparative pieces are designed to equip ordinary Christians to recognize precisely where the LDS conversation uses familiar vocabulary to carry unfamiliar freight \u2014 where “saved,” “heaven,” “apostle,” and “revelation” mean something categorically different than they do in historic Christianity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The archive also profiles the human cost of Mormonism’s institutional machinery. Essays examine the LDS mission system’s psychological toll on teenage recruits, the structural coercions embedded in tithing and temple recommend requirements, the bishop’s impossible position as untrained lay judge and welfare gatekeeper, and the painful experiences of LGBTQ members caught between identity and doctrine. A major essay on the church’s $293 billion financial empire \u2014 and the 2023 SEC fine for concealing equity holdings behind shell entities \u2014 raises direct questions about the compatibility of that wealth with the New Testament’s call to transparent stewardship.<\/span><\/p>\n

History receives sustained attention as well. Essays cover Brigham Young’s documented false prophecies, his curse-of-Cain racial theology, and the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The story of Thomas Coleman \u2014 a Black LDS member lynched in Salt Lake City in 1866 while church records quietly listed him as “Died” \u2014 represents the archive’s most sobering historical recovery. The Mark Hofmann forgery murders receive two treatments, underscoring the failure of prophetic discernment at the highest leadership levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Across all categories, The Righteous Cause maintains a consistent pastoral purpose. These are not exercises in academic point-scoring. They are resources for the Christian standing on a front porch in Gilbert or Mesa, trying to speak the truth in love to a Latter-day Saint neighbor. The standard is 1 Peter 3:15 \u2014 always ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and respect.<\/span><\/p>\n

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David Whitmer: The Mormon Witness Who Walked Away \u2014 and the Church That Could Not Let Him Go<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n