Lucifer's Lantern

  This article appeared in 1904, during the height of national scrutiny surrounding the LDS Church and the U.S. Senate investigation into whether Apostle Reed Smoot should be seated as a senator. At the center of that inquiry were questions the public had debated for decades but rarely heard addressed in sworn testimony.  What actually happened inside the Endowment House ?  What oaths were required?  Do the oaths conflict with civic loyalty, democratic norms, and basic transparency? The reporting below relies on testimony given under oath to the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections and presents the claims exactly as they were reported to a national audience. This was not written as theology or internal instruction. It was written as political journalism, aimed at informing a non-Mormon public that largely had no access to temple ceremonies and relied on secondhand descriptions. THE WASHINGTON TIMES DECEMBER 14, 1904 MORMONS TAKING OATHS OF ENDOWMENT HOUS...

  Disclaimer: the following is entirely satire. Aaron: Did Nephites really practice Christmas? The answer might be less straightforward than you think, because critics of the LDS church have pointed out that the Book of Mormon says that Nephites were separated from the Old World centuries prior to the rise of not only Christmas as a holiday but the Christian religion as a whole. But that's what we're going to talk about today, especially because this actually turns into kind of a surprising evidence in favor  of the Book of Mormon when you actually get to the bottom of the criticism and what the actual evidence says. So Mason, did Nephites celebrate Christmas? Mason:  Uh, well, obviously, they're Christians, they don't just practice "happy holidays." Aaron, Mason, Dean: *laughing* Mason: Only joking, and it's important to note that we aren't going to know for sure what festivals developed in the Nephite civilization. Dean: We do have a good idea abo...

 Jeffrey R. Holland, who died in December 2025 at age 85, was one of the most prominent and polarizing leaders in modern Latter-day Saint history. Known for his emotional delivery and uncompromising rhetoric, Holland helped shape the public tone of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a time of growing internal strain. His sermons consistently framed belief as a matter of loyalty and resolve rather than inquiry. Doubt was often described as weakness or spiritual failure,  a posture that resonated with committed believers but alienated members grappling with historical, doctrinal, or personal concerns. One of the most vivid examples of that tone came from an April 2016 devotional address in Tempe, Arizona, often referred to in online communities as the “Stay in the Boat” or “Tempe Rescue” talk. It became infamous for the way Holland framed belief as a test of loyalty and resolve and cast doubt and departure as signs of weakness or betrayal.  View th...

The “Locating Members” page on the church’s Tech Wiki, now removed from the public site, explains that when a member moves without providing a new address, local leaders are expected to try to find out where that person went. The responsibility usually falls to the ward clerk, working under the direction of the bishop. The record isn’t automatically dropped just because attendance stops.  The full set of instructions is found below, but first, here are some points you need to consider about the religion systematically tracking down "lost" members. Form provided by the wiki First, the system does not recognize disengagement as a valid outcome. The wiki makes clear that when someone stops attending or moves without updating records, the organization treats this as missing data, not a personal decision. Silence is interpreted as a problem to solve. That alone creates an unhealthy dynamic because it removes a person’s ability to quietly exit. Second, the responsibility is instit...

In the past two months, I have blazed through two different Bart Ehrman books: How Jesus Became God , and Jesus Interrupted . Both give a thorough overview on the consensus of Biblical scholarship on the New Testament, its authors, and questions of its historicity. More than once, and to my surprise, Ehrman demonstrates logical fallacies employed by the broader Christian community in rejecting Mormonism, that could just as easily have been used to reject Christianity in the first centuries of its own development. Ehrman recognizes Mormonism as being on the fringes of Christian society, which comes as no surprise to me, as Ehrman did not grow up a Mormon or a member of the LDS church. But I did. I repeatedly took note that Ehrman, perhaps inadvertently, also provides commentary that runs counter to the LDS truth claims about their own holy text, the Book of Mormon: in the case of this essay, the grand apocalyptic vision of Nephi, son of Father Lehi, who was the Israelite patriarch said ...

 One of the stranger ironies in Mormon history is this. The Book of Mormon outright condemns Polygamy with only one exception. And it does so in some of the strongest language found anywhere in LDS scripture. This is striking given that the church later became publicly defined by the very practice the book denounces. The clearest statement appears in Jacob 2. The prophet Jacob addresses his people and accuses them of committing “whoredoms” and “abominations” by taking more than one wife. He explicitly ties this behavior to immorality and broken hearts. The passage does not hedge or soften its language. It is blunt.  Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord: I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch, from the fruit of the loins of Joseph. Wherefore, I, the Lord God, will not suffe...