Category: Mormon Coffee Blog (2007-2019)
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A Birthday Wish for Thomas Monson, the Mormon Prophet
21 August 2017 Today (21 August 2017), LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson celebrates his 90th birthday. President Monson’s service to the Mormon Church has spanned his entire adult life. According to the Deseret News, “He was called as a bishop at age 22, a mission president at 31 and as an apostle at 36.”…
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The Mormon Testimony and Wishful Thinking
At the Mormon Church’s 2017 Seminar for New Mission Presidents last month, LDS apostle D. Todd Christofferson spoke on the power of the Book of Mormon in converting people to Mormonism. In his remarks, Mr. Christofferson told the story of a returned missionary who was struggling with his faith after learning of several conflicting accounts…
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Finding Nahom: The Continuing Search for Archaeological Confirmation of the Book of Mormon
On 17 June 2017 a new video produced by Book of Mormon Central appeared on the scene. LDS Living announced it with the headline, “How One Book of Mormon Location Was Archaeologically Confirmed.” I’m accustomed to seeing LDS assertions related to Book of Mormon archaeology, but they most often come wrapped in ambiguous language, using…
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Mormon Pioneer Mary Lightner’s Mythic Heroism
Latter-day Saint Glenn Rawson, writing for the Idaho State Journal, recently published an article, “‘I’m A Full-Blooded Mormon’: Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner.” Drawing from Mary’s autobiography, Mr. Rawson relates a story that demonstrated Mary’s “uncommon courage for her faith.” Mr. Rawson explains that near the close of the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, the commander…
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Mormon Endowment Ceremony Origins
One hundred eighty years ago this month (June 2017) W.A. Cowdery, the Mormon editor of the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, told readers about ancient Greece. He explained, “The history of Greece for a period of three hundred years preceding the Trojan war, is intermixed with fables; but contains, notwithstanding, many facts entitled to…
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The Supreme God of Mormonism
In its “Until We Meet Again” feature, the April 2017 issue of the LDS Church’s Ensign magazine includes an article titled, “The Power of God.” This is a 500-word excerpt from a longer (2300-word) General Conference address titled, “The Doctrine of the Priesthood.” Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie delivered this address in April 1982 during…
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Inaccurate Presentations of Mormon History Persist
On Sunday (7 May 2017), LDS General Authority Kim B. Clark of the Seventy addressed young adult members of the Mormon Church in a Worldwide Devotional. Within his talk, Elder Clark spoke a great deal about the history surrounding the Book of Mormon translation. To augment his talk, Elder Clark introduced dramatic video clips, saying,…
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The Creator-Gods of Mormonism
The LDS Church has recently released new scripture-themed coloring and activity books for children. One is an updated version of an older Book of Mormon coloring book, while the other is based on the Mormon scripture volume, Pearl of Great Price. Both are available to download for free. The books are intended to not only…
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Perfect Mormonism
At a blog site titled “Relationship Refinery,” Mormon blogger Kate wrote about her “Lifelong Wrestle with Mormonism.” In her article, Kate writes that there is one factor to which she attributes “any lasting peace or happiness” she has experienced. “that, unequivocally, has come from fully living my religion. And I mean, the real religion. “One issue is that…
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“Additional Perspectives and Insights” on Joseph Smith’s First Vision?
The LDS Church released a new video of Joseph Smith’s First Vision a few weeks ago (an explanation of this Vision can be found here). “Ask of God: Joseph Smith’s First Vision” begins with the explanation that, as there are “at least nine accounts” of this visionary experience recorded by Joseph Smith and “some of…
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Only “After All We Can Do”
LDS author and blogger Mette Ivie Harrison recently addressed the question, “Can Christ Love Me In My Sins?” From a traditional Mormon perspective, the answer would be “No.” But Ms. Harrison is not a traditional Mormon. For her, unlike many other Latter-day Saints who actually hold to the teachings of the Mormon Church, the answer…
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Mormons, Please Consider the Lesson of the Unwise Bee
The LDS Church’s February 2017 issue of Ensign magazine includes a parable written by LDS apostle James Talmage, originally published in the Improvement Era in September 1914. “The Parable of the Unwise Bee” poetically tells the story of a wild bee who becomes unwittingly trapped in Mr. Talmage’s office. No effort on Mr. Talmage’s part…
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Leaving Nauvoo, 1846
Last week the Fort Madison [Iowa] Daily Democrat reported on the LDS commemoration of the 171st anniversary marking the start of the Mormon pioneer trek from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah. Beginning in early February 1846, Mormons left Nauvoo for a new home in the west. Every year since 1996 a gathering of…
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Two Sets of Official Book of Mormon Witnesses
In his continuing effort at “Defending the [LDS] Faith,” BYU professor Daniel Peterson has recently tackled the testimonies of the eleven Book of Mormon witnesses. He notes that the two signed testimonies appearing in the front of each Book of Mormon (one signed by three witnesses, the other signed by eight witnesses) are “distinctly different…
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Mormon Business: Paying the Church’s Unpaid Clergy
Last week MormonLeaks (formerly MormonWikiLeaks) posted documents related to the salaries the LDS Church pays its full-time top leaders. These documents include several bi-weekly paystubs for LDS apostle Henry B. Eyring (dating to the year 2000), as well as a 2014 notice to LDS Seventy Bruce Porter confirming that he, along with all the Church’s…
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An Alarming Misunderstanding of Joseph Smith’s Significance to Christianity
An article appeared online this week with a title that grabbed my attention. In “The Alarming Truth Behind Anti-Mormonism,” LDS author Dustin Phelps tells his readers, “I intend to expose what anti-Mormonism is and what its objectives really are.” What follows is a lengthy argument against Atheism; it’s the way Mr. Phelps ties Atheism…
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For Mormons, It’s Not Jesus’ Birthday
December Christmas celebrations notwithstanding, according to LDS leaders past and present, Jesus was born on 6 April 1 B.C. This fact was pointed out recently at LDS Daily in an article titled, “Was Jesus Christ Really Born in December?” Here journalist Aleah Ingram noted that James Talmage, a now-deceased apostle of The Church of Jesus…