Mormon Coffee

Yesterday the Joseph Smith Web Site’s daily history column, “On This Day…” noted:

November 13, 1838

Richmond, Missouri. Over 40 witnesses appeared at court and bore false witness against the Prophet.

Just before I saw that LDS history note, I had been reading some of these same testimonies that I came across in The Missouri Mormon War section of the Missouri State Archives. The Mormon War Papers, 1837-1841 contains (among other things) evidence given in the 1838 trial of Joseph Smith. Documents containing the testimonies of seventeen witnesses are online for viewing/reading; documents detailing the testimonies of thirty others are not available, but the general content of each testimony is synopsized in the list.

Of the people who testified, some were Mormons, some were Mormon dissenters, and some were non-Mormon citizens living in the area. These documents make for interesting reading (for those interested in history). I’ve pulled out a few paragraphs from some of the available testimonies and offer them below for Mormon Coffee readers’ perusal.

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The LDS Church is in trouble – again – with the Jewish community over the Church’s continuing posthumous baptisms of Jewish Holocaust victims. (See here and here for background on the 13 year struggle regarding this issue.)

Monday (November 10, 2008) marked the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against the Jews, considered to be the beginning of the Holocaust. Some survivors of the Holocaust and their families gathered in Manhattan to remember this important date. NPR reported,

“At the event names of the victims were read out loud. But these weren’t from the history books. The names came from the official records of the Mormon Church.”

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The 100-year-old daily newspaper, the Manteca Bulletin (Manteca, CA), carried an article on October 29, 2008 written by managing editor Dennis Wyatt. The article was mainly about the way Mormons were being mistreated over their unflagging support of California’s Prop 8. To fill out the story, Mr. Wyatt wrote, “The Mormons are historically the most persecuted religion in the United States,” followed by some historical details. While the designation of “most persecuted” might be reasonably challenged, it is true that Mormonism and its followers, historically, have not had an easy time of it. Nevertheless, Mr. Wyatt’s historical overview turned out to be more propaganda than truth.

Mr. Wyatt began,

“What brought down the wrath of Congress to pass a law going after the Mormons? Yes, polygamy was part of it but when push came to shove it was the entire faith that irked the powers that be.

“The Mormons had been chased from New York…”

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Hitchens & Wilson Debate:: Aesthetics and the Existence of God – Atheism vs. Christianity (MP3)

Uh oh, it looks like some feisty Tongan Mormons got themselves into trouble by tearing down same-sex advocacy signs from a fence around the LA temple, and then getting into a fight. Though I don’t condone the violent behavior, I am in complete agreement with Mormons that the “hate crime” approach the police are reportedly taking to the incident is absolutely absurd.

As for the whole issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, let me say loud and clear: many same-sex marriage advocates have shown themselves to be shallow, unthoughtful, and irrational. The position religious conservatives take with respect to homosexual marriage is rooted in a moral system of values that is incompatible with the fierce ideological commitment of same-sex marriage advocates to have the practice of homosexuality publicly, governmentally, and socially condoned, approved, recognized, and validated. I am convinced that this agenda has less to do with rights and more to do with social approbation. The cause is a religious and/or ideological one, with a dogmatic, foundational commitment to the concept that committed same-sex relational entities should be equally privileged as heterosexual family entities.

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The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon?
An Evangelical – LDS Debate

Christ Presbyterian Church invites you to join us for a debate on whether the LDS scriptures accord with the Bible.  Our participants will be Jason Wallace and Martin Tanner.  Mr. Wallace is pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City. Dr. Tanner is an LDS apologist who has contributed to the FARMS Review of Books and The Encyclopedia of Mormonism.  He hosts KSL Radio’s Religion Today.

Location: University of Utah
University of Utah, Orson Spencer Hall Auditorium
Friday, November 7, 2008,  7:00 p.m.
Admission:  Free

For more information, call (801) 969-7948 or check out www.christpres.net.

Would anyone like to join me in attending?

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Bill McKeever, Eric Johnson, and I discuss 2 Nephi 25:23 in relation to institutional Mormonism and BYU neo-orthodoxy. This conversation is from around June 21, 2007. I procrastinated in uploading the talk and hence have not done all I can do.

Direct link to MP3

Having listened to this MP3 again, I realize how much I need to be quicker to listen and slower to speak and interrupt!

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Last Friday, in honor of John Taylor’s 200th birthday, Mormon Coffee published several quotes from Mormonism’s 3rd prophet and president. Today, the day before an important and historic election in America, we offer more, with a question.

To set the greater context for understanding President Taylor’s comments, the first quote below is from Times and Seasons, an official LDS newspaper with John Taylor as editor. Based on his worldview as expressed by his following statements, how do you think he would vote in tomorrow’s election if he were given the opportunity?

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Tomorrow (November 1, 2008) marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Mormonism’s third prophet and president, John Taylor. Taylor became an LDS apostle in 1838, then became the President of the LDS Church in 1880. Having married 16 women (8 of them in the year 1846) and fathered 35 children, John Taylor died of congestive heart failure on July 25, 1887 (see Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker,A Book of Mormons).

John Taylor is well known for the comfort he provided Joseph Smith during Smith’s last hours in Carthage Jail when he twice sang, at the Prophet’s request, “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.” Perhaps lesser known are some of John Taylor’s teachings. In honor of his 200th birthday, a few notable teachings from John Taylor are provided below.

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The Pain of Prophetic Love