Mormonism Research Ministry

Tag: mormons

  • Ever Wondered What Mormons Believe?

    Sharon Lindbloom

    The LDS Church recently released seven new one-minute videos via its web presence geared toward non-Mormons, Mormon.org. The videos discuss parenting, prayer, and basic beliefs held by Mormons. The three videos that fall into this last category are “60 Mormon Beliefs in 60 Seconds,” “Do Mormons Really Believe in Jesus?” and “Do Mormons Believe in…

  • Mormons, Please Consider the Lesson of the Unwise Bee

    Sharon Lindbloom

     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…

  • Book Review: Mormons Believe…What?! Fact and Fiction About a Rising Religion

    Eric Johnson

    Check out a five-part Viewpoint on Mormonism podcast that originally aired on March 20-24, 2017  concerning Lawrence’s book:  Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5 Written by Gary C. Lawrence Synopsis: A Mormon pollster writes a book criticizing the views of outsiders of the Mormon Church who he believes present a wrong portrayal of…

  • “Because Joseph Smith was a prophet…”

    Sharon Lindbloom

      Mormonism was in the news a lot last weekend. Saturday and Sunday were the days of the LDS Church’s October General Conference. During the Church’s semiannual conferences, leaders of the Church are understood to encourage, challenge, and educate Mormons with inspired spiritual talks. Last Saturday morning the talk by Craig C. Christensen (of the…

  • Mormonism’s “Near Deification” of Joseph Smith

    Sharon Lindbloom

    Mormon blogger Mette Ivie Harrison posted an intriguing article on August 23rd at Huffington Post. She titled it, “Do Mormons Worship Joseph Smith?” In the article Ms. Harrison expressed her dismay that some non-Mormons might misunderstand the way modern Mormons feel about the faith’s first prophet and wrongly conclude that Mormons worship Joseph Smith. Latter-day…

  • “The Mormon Jesus Is Not Our Jesus”

    Sharon Lindbloom

    On May 23, 2016 One News Now published a short article noting that “Seminary leaders disagree about Mormons’ beliefs.” The seminary leaders in question are Richard Mouw (who thinks Mormonism is approaching orthodoxy), and Richard Land (who disagrees). The One News Now article merely summarizes the essence of this disagreement, using barely 200 words to…

  • The Mormon Amazon Challenge

    Sharon Lindbloom

    March 1, 2016 The LDS volume of scripture, the Book of Mormon, is available on Amazon.com. As with all things for sale at Amazon, the book is open to reviews. The Book of Mormon had apparently not been faring well enough, receiving too many negative reviews. According to KUTV.com in Salt Lake City, local LDS…

  • Joseph Smith is Triggering Faith Crises Among Mormons

    Sharon Lindbloom

    The Salt Lake Tribune recently conducted a survey, asking readers (Mormons) “if they have experienced a faith crisis, what triggered it and how they resolved it.” The newspaper received just over 1700 responses. The demographical breakdown was roughly in thirds: no longer members (538), inactive members (637), and still active members (532). The faith-crisis triggers…

  • A Scriptural Twin Study: Nature Versus Nurture

    Sharon Lindbloom

    A guest post by Mike Turnlund. One of the enduring issues in the science of psychology is nature versus nurture. Is a person’s behavior, at least in part, motivated by the person’s nature, that is, genetic factors; or by nurture, that is, environmental factors? To answer this question, psychologists have employed twin studies. Here identical…

  • Mormonism’s View: The Bible We Have Today “Is Rather Incomplete.”

    Sharon Lindbloom

    Mormonism has always held to the position that the Bible we have today has been corrupted. In 1st Nephi 13 the Book of Mormon talks about the “many plain and precious things taken away from the book”; that is, the book identified in the Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual as the Bible (see…

  • The Holy Ghost, Scriptures…and LDS Church Handbooks

    Eric Johnson

    Some Christians have a difficult time understanding just what is authentic (read: “official”) LDS doctrine. For instance, former Fuller Theological Seminary president Richard Mouw and others like him want to believe that Mormonism can be comprehended by talking to scholars at BYU. This way of thinking completely ignores what has been taught over and over…

  • “As Mormons, We Worship…?”

    Sharon Lindbloom

    At the Mormon.org website, visitors can learn about Joseph Smith and what he means to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Under the sub-heading, “A Martyr of the Restored Gospel,” the site says, “Joseph Smith gave his life for the cause of truth. “Some people mistakenly believe Mormons worship Joseph Smith.…

  • The Continuing Call to Follow the Prophet

    Sharon Lindbloom

    It was 35 years ago today that then-LDS apostle Ezra Taft Benson (President of the Quorum of the Twelve) delivered his now-famous speech, “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet,” to a devotional assembly at Brigham Young University. According to historian D. Michael Quinn, the Mormon Church’s president, Spencer W. Kimball, “was concerned” when he learned…

  • Mormon Church Does Not Apologize

    Sharon Lindbloom

    In January 2015, apostle Dallin Oaks caused quite a stir in late January. In an interview related to the Church’s news conference on LGBT issues and religious discrimination, Mr. Oaks expressed his view that apologizing for the Church’s “harsh rhetoric of the past” wasn’t a good idea. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, “‘I know…

  • Mormons Don’t Believe In the Trinity

    Sharon Lindbloom

    In an October (2014) blog, Latter-day Saint Greg Trimble sought to explain “Why Mormons Don’t Believe In the Trinity.” As Mr. Trimble pointed out, it is imperative that we “know who and what God is,” for Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom…

  • The Danger of Mormon Idolatry

    Sharon Lindbloom

    In October (2014) Mormon blogger Jana Riess wrote about the “shadow side” of Mormonism: the “tendency to idolize – as in actually make idols of – the men who run our church. An idol is anything we use as a substitute for God,” Dr. Riess wrote, “and I feel that sometimes, we cross that line…

  • Mormon Church Posts Essays on Joseph Smith’s Polygamy

    Sharon Lindbloom

    It’s all over the news. The Mormon Church has finally “admitted” long-buried facts about Joseph Smith’s polygamy. The new Church essays were actually posted at lds.org sometime around October 22nd (2014), but for some reason the news only hit the big-time mainstream media this week. Once the New York Times picked up the story, many…

  • The Most Difficult Book

    Eric Johnson

    I recently discovered a new witnessing tactic. Don’t get me wrong, quoting from Spencer W. Kimball’s book The Miracle of Forgiveness has been used by Christian apologists for quite some time. But instead of just quoting this book, I decided to try to give it away, which has proven to be a very powerful tactic.…

  • President Monson’s Views Don’t Represent the Mormon Church?

    Bill McKeever

    I’ve often said that while the Mormon church claims to be the only church on the face of the earth that has the authority to speak for God, no one within it seems to speak with any authority. I received a phone call from my friend Russ East who drew my attention to a book…

  • Why I Wish Mormonism Would Excommunicate or Disfellowship All of Its Unfaithful or Unbelieving Members

    Aaron Shafovaloff

    When Mormonism excommunicates or disfellowships people who aren’t faithful to Mormonism or believing in Mormonism, it helps both Mormons and evangelicals. It adds clarity to identity and worldview. It contributes to religious integrity. It speeds up the process of people re-evaluating their beliefs. We’re better off interacting with Mormons as Mormons, agnostics as agnostics, and…