We continue our tour of the Gospel Topics Essays and with the essay Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints. The Goal- To share the LDS Church’s Gospel Topic Essays and help the both the believing member and the non-believer get a sense of the why these essays were written, who the intended audience is, whether these essays resolve the concerns of the faithful and non-believer and why they perhaps these essays even add to the disbelief of those who skeptical of the issues they find in Mormon History.
Co-Hosts of this episode
Allan Mount is Co-host of the Marriage on a Tightrope podcast with his wife Kattie. After 35 faithful years in the church, it was the Gospel Topic Essays that acted as a catalyst to his faith transition. He is a sales director for a technology company in South Jordan Utah. Kattie and Allan have 4 children.
Anthony Miller is an entrepreneur and education enthusiast in Billings, Montana, with Masters degrees in Business Administration and in Financial Services. After a lifetime of faithful membership in the church, he experienced a faith transition after he stumbled across the Gospel Topics Essays and similar materials in 2016, while he was searching for resources to support his adult gay son. Anthony blogs at UnpackingAmbiguity.com and is a frequent contributor to post and progressive Mormon support communities.
Bill Reel is a media producer and Pawn Shop Broker and lives in Southern Utah. bill experienced a deep faith shift while serving as a LDS Bishop in 2012. Since then has has worked to be a voice to help others reconcile the complex issues of Mormonism. He is the the lead contributor of the Mormon Primer and host of Mormon Discussion Podcast
RESOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hawk_War_(1865%E2%80%931872)#Circleville_Massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Creek_massacre
http://files.lib.byu.edu/mormonmigration/articles/YouNastyApostatesJMHVOL30_NO2.pdf
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V49N01_201_1.pdf
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/pdfnewsletters/77saltlakecitymessenger.pdf
https://jod.mrm.org/10/104?fbclid=IwAR0Lx8PfPadGulO3SvhOauwSh0Zov0t4BybmtgRdHwROlLOYhvBFFTXcBsk
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=6041&context=etd
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43200959.pdf?seq=1
Sunstone Podcast and Text on the Danites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_and_the_Mountain_Meadows_massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_violence
The Dark History Of Mormonism — From Child Brides To Mass Murder
http://www.mormonthink.com/QUOTES/bloodatonement.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killings_and_aftermath_of_the_Mountain_Meadows_massacre
https://library.dixie.edu/special_collections/Juanita_Brooks_lectures/2002.html
http://mountainmeadows.unl.edu/archive/mmm.anti.lyford.1886.html
https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/four/mountain.htm
Radio Free Mormon – Apostolic Coup D’ Etat Part 1
Radio Free Mormon – Apostolic Coup D’ Etat Part 2
How those who leave the LDS Church are viewed
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I would also love to hear an episode where you flesh out the narratives spun out in the most recent book titled “Saints”
You invite people to check wikipedia concerning the essays and other topics. My skeptic side I’m convinced the mormon machine also controls the narrative in wikipedia on these topics. Even the church may even have employees hired to look at questions raised about these topics and write or rewrite narratives to whatever they can get away with.
I cringe when ever I hear the term loss of faith, or any use of the term faith used by religious community. They do not have a monopoly on faith. I believe, my faith grew, or was forced to grow when I left religion.
Why am I still Mormon again?
Thank god we re-wrote history.
Perhaps that was the intention all along, not to portray things as they actually were, but how we wish we could actually be.
That’s the ideal that our religion is pointing us to aspire to, even though it lacks the moral ground to ask that from others… at least now I can be more compassionate with my own short comings and perhaps of that from others as well.
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