Category: Reviews of LDS Media
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Movie Review: Mobsters and Mormons
Reviewed by Bill McKeever If our oversensitive culture has robbed you of being able to laugh at typically funny stereotypes, then Mobsters and Mormons may be a film you may want to bypass. If you don’t fall into that category, have a good sense of humor, and are somewhat familiar with both the Mormon and…
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Book Review: A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-day Saints
By Robert L. Millet. Reviewed by Bill McKeever
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Movie Review: The Work and the Glory
Reviewed by Bill McKeever
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Book Review: Jesus & Joseph: Parallel Lives
By Rodney Turner. Reviewed by Sharon Lindbloom
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Movie Review: Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration
Reviewed by Bill McKeever Despite the fact that Article 13 in the LDS Articles of Faith states that Mormons are to be honest, the LDS Church refuses to be completely truthful when it comes to its history, especially when the subject is Joseph Smith. As part of its celebration of the 200th anniversary of the…
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True and False Prophets
By Bill McKeever Speaking at the October, 1999 General Conference, LDS Apostle M. Russell Ballard warned his audience to “beware of false prophets and teachers.” Ballard stated “there are false prophets and false teachers who have or at least claim to have membership in the [LDS] Church.”
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Movie Review: An American Prophet
By Bill McKeever “Millions of people around the world know of him. Yet this frontier prophet of the early 1800’s found little honor and eventual martyrdom at the hands of an angry mob in his own country. Who was this Joseph Smith and what was it about his remarkable life story, which inspired such impassioned…
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Singlehood in Mormonism
By Eric Johnson In the January 2005 Ensign, an official monthly LDS Church magazine, LDS Seventy Clate W. Mask Jr. referred to Doctrine and Covenants 14:7 where Jesus supposedly told Joseph Smith, “If you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the…
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Is Mormonism Moving Toward a Protestant View of Grace and Works? Seventy Calls Such a Notion a "Misconception."
By Bill McKeever In recent years some Christians have insisted that the Mormon Church has been slowly abandoning its heretical roots and coming closer to embracing a more biblical soteriology. While we would like nothing more than to see this actually happen, we have been reluctant to engage in similar optimism. A speech given by…
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Book Review: I ♥ Mormons: A New Way to Share Christ with Latter-day Saints
I ♥ Mormons: A New Way to Share Christ with Latter-day Saints (Baker Books, 2005) By David Rowe Reviewed by Bill McKeever and Eric JohnsonDavid Rowe has pooled his experiences into a “how to” manual for Christians interested in sharing their faith with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, Mormon).
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Mormonism and Murder
In October a new book hit the shelves: The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson. Dubbed a thriller by Publishers Weekly, The Open Curtain is a story about Mormonism and murder. Evenson (Altmann’s Tongue) explores some controversial Mormon history in this thoughtful thriller rooted in an actual century-old murder case. When Rudd, a disaffected, fatherless Mormon…
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Commandment-Keeping and God’s Grace
My October, 2006 edition of Ensign just arrived. I wish more of my Christian friends who think Mormonism is abandoning its heretical past would take closer notice of what the LDS Church is still teaching; for instance, in an article titled “Plain and Precious Truths Restored.” On page 53, Clyde Williams, BYU assistant professor of…
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Review: Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration
I’ve spent the last 4 days in Nauvoo, Illinois, the historic town used by the Mormon Church for faith-promotion and proselytizing. On Sunday, at the LDS Visitors Center (pictured at left), a friend and I viewed the movie, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. Produced as part of last year’s celebration of the 200th…
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Mormon Politics and Big Love
I have been naive. I thought the disdain of the LDS Church toward the HBO series Big Love was due to concern for the image of the Church (see last Friday’s blog, Fundamentalist Mormons and Big Love). But The Guardian Unlimited, published in the UK, has a different perspective. According to an article published today,…
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Fundamentalist Mormons and Big Love
The LDS Church is upset over the new HBO series, Big Love. The TV show, which premiers March 12th, is about a polygamous family living in suburban Salt Lake City. Bill Paxton plays Bill Hendrickson, the husband of three wives; the family is depicted as members of an LDS offshoot group. The Mormon Church has…
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Polygamy Is in the News Again
On Tuesday (17 January 2006) the FBI offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a Mormon Fundamentalist denomination. Mr. Jeffs has been on the Fugitives Wanted By The FBI list since August 2005. He…
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Worship of Joseph Smith?
Reading the December 31, 2005 issue of Church News I came across this: “As Latter-day Saints we no more worship Joseph Smith than we do Peter or any of the other ancient apostles. Peter, in fact, is an apt comparison. Both Joseph and Peter fearlessly obeyed the Master in conveying His gospel to every nation,…
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Brigham Young Testifies of Joseph Smith—and Then Some
I just received my December 31st issue of Church News. This issue is pretty much dedicated to “Remembering Joseph Smith.” The first article (which is all I’ve read so far) is titled Prophets Testify of Joseph Smith. It consists of short excerpts from the sermons and talks of Latter-day prophets. Each of the 14 prophets…