This week’s lessons focus on the theme of missionary work. In the latter half of 1830, Joseph Smith received a series of revelations calling newly ordained elders to serve a mission to the Lamanites, and today the church says you can too!
Doctrine
A Critical Look at Come, Follow Me – Easter Edition
The Easter lessons in the 2021 Come, Follow Me manuals focus primarily on reinforcing Joseph Smith’s charismatic authority, and secondarily on promoting the penal substitution model of atonement characteristic of Christian fundamentalism.
A Critical Look at “Come, Follow Me” | March 2021
This month’s Come, Follow Me lessons cover such topics as exclusive priesthood authority, patriarchal gender roles, personal revelation, and Christian fundamentalism within Mormonism.
Eight Observations About John Gee’s Attack on the JSPP
BYU religion professor, John Gee, has published a scholastically deficient polemic against the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Here are eight observations of where it falls short.
A Critical Look at “Come, Follow Me” | February 2021
A continuation of my critical responses to the 2021 Come, Follow Me curriculum covering the Doctrine and Covenants. Topics include the 116-page manuscript and Priesthood Restoration.
The 2021 “Come, Follow the Prophet” Curriculum
The New Year brings a new Come, Follow Me curriculum for members of all ages in the LDS church, this time focused on the Doctrine and Covenants and the story of the Restoration. Here are my initial reactions to January’s lessons.
The 267 Hidden Brides of Wilford Woodruff
The temple endowment has long been a tool that indoctrinates members to accept a hierarchy that exalts men by subjugating women. Perhaps then it is unsurprising to see the earliest uses of the proxy endowment ritual for the dead being used to do the same to deceased women.
Betrayed for Loyalty: John W. Taylor and Polygamy
In 1905, two apostles were pressured to resign from the Quorum of the Twelve over their opposition to the end of polygamy. They were merely being true to what Joseph Smith taught was “the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on the earth.”