David Pace’s American Trinity is a striking collection of twelve short stories tied together by the common thread of Mormonism. The stories were written over the past several decades, and draw from his lifelong experiences with the church. These experiences are not insignificant, and I found myself somewhat dismayed to hear some…
Category: Book of Mormon
That Time King Noah Had Our Back
by Johnny Townsend A former missionary colleague told me President Trump “has our back” in regard to tariffs, climate, and pretty much everything else. He said I was being manipulated to believe the “Angry Swedish Girl” over Trump, who is looking out for us by abandoning the Paris Agreement, which…
America’s Greatest Mystery Novel
Once you strip away all the Book of Mormon’s pretenses of scriptural import, what you have is nothing more nor less than a lusty tale of America’s favorite subject: families and murder…. Murder and ruin are written across the breadth of Joseph Smith’s pre-American panorama, and because violence always demands…
Serious Fun: “Singing and Dancing to the Book of Mormon” edited by Holly Welker and Marc Edward Shaw
Since its opening, the Book of Mormon musical has been surrounded by controversy over its degree of vulgarity, its treatment of Mormons, and various other issues. It has also been tremendously popular in the US and abroad, notably sweeping the Tony Awards. It’s natural to ask whether it’s just fluff…
Obligatory Violence and the Book of Mormon
Like so many people, I have spent the past two days convulsed with grief and horror at the events in Charleston. Also shame: America’s latest accused mass murderer claimed he had to kill black people because they “rape our women,” and it’s as repugnant to me that anyone would murder…
Have something to say about “The Book of Mormon” musical?
For the past few years, a colleague and I have been working to compile a collection of scholarly essays about “The Book of Mormon” musical. We’ve got a signed contract with a press and some really great essays, but there’s room for one or two more. If you have an…
Missionary Chat: Native Americans cursed?
I had another question I wanted to run by “Mormons on the street”: Are Native Americans cursed? Emily:Â Hello! Sam (me):Â Hello! Emily:Â What brings you to mormon.org chat today? Sam:Â I have a question about Mormon teachings. Emily:Â Okay… we will do our best to help you Sam:Â A friend of mine is LDS and…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: No planet for you edition!
As cool as it was when the CoJCoL-dS dumped its racist doctrines, it was clear (even at the time) that there are disadvantages to giving the keys of defining Mormon doctrine over to the quorum of the anonymous website maintainers. Officially endorsing questionable apologetics on the Book of Mormon (like…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: BoM DNA edition!!
The voting for the Brodies is off to an excellent start, with tons of votes coming in from the exmo subreddit and other places!! If you’ve been nominated and would like to win, you may want to send your fans here. And whether you’re in the running or not, please…
What do specialists think of Mormonism’s claims?
On August 11th, 2013 I posted a compilation on the exmormon subreddit. I worked every day for many hours during a 3-4 week period. The compilation consisted of responses from university professors who specialize in the fields of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica Archaeology, Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica Anthropology, and Egyptology. Their responses were directed…