Mormon.ish

A $2 million donation—and a quiet return. With the LDS Church now donating $3 million to the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, TX, we’re revisiting our episode about the First Americans Museum’s decision to return the church’s $2 million gift. The LDS church also previously donated $2 million to the International African American Museum in South Carolina. The common thread? Each museum partnership includes a FamilySearch genealogy center, connecting the church’s financial support with a presence inside institutions dedicated to preserving Black and Indigenous history. Genealogy can help visitors reclaim family stories, but FamilySearch is also operated by the LDS Church, where genealogy serves a religious purpose tied to temple ordinances for the deceased. How do those overlapping interests shape these partnerships—and why did the First Americans Museum give the money back? Join Mormonish as we explore philanthropy, faith, and who gets to tell a community’s story. This episode originally aired in October 2023.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In Episode 10 of this series, Patrick presents the final, and strongest, set of textual clues that point to the Book of Mormon’s author. First, he reviews the claim that the theology in the text is the result of early Joseph Smith Sr exposure with the “seeker” movement. Next, he demonstrates that two phrases from the regional dialect of the Ohio/western Pennsylvania area (where Rigdon grew up) appeared frequently in the original text of the book. Patrick then leverages a recent Mormonism Live episode that reviews Rob Terry’s online article describing the dozens of obscure 19th century non-Biblical phrases in the Book of Mormon, and which religious books they might have originated in. This is an area of research ripe for academic study! But a few examples illustrate the point that the Book of Mormon author was likely well educated, well read, and familiar with higher level theological thought. Next, Patrick leverages another recent Mormonism Live episode that reviews Campbellism theology in the Book of Mormon. He lists two dozen points of Campbellite, or “Disciple” doctrine—most of which would be very familiar to the Mormon or LDS community—even today. He explains where the Campbell movement was physically located and which religions were primary in the Palmyra area where Joseph grew up. After a quick review of Joseph’s religious leanings (Methodist), Patrick demonstrates an amazing discovery—that the theology of the Book of Mormon lines up exactly with Rigdon’s personal theology! Further, the areas where Rigdon disagrees with the Campbells, those doctrines show up in the Book of Mormon with Rigdon’s view in all cases. There is even a change in the doctrine of the sequence of conversion that changes in Rigdon’s view during the dictation of the Book of Mormon—and his new view shows up after that point in the dictation sequence! The new view contradicts the prior position in the text. Patrick breaks out an Excel spreadsheet to compare the long list of doctrines from Campbell and Rigdon that map to the Book of Mormon and shows how the doctrines of the Methodists and other restoration churches contradict the Book of Mormon on most points of doctrine. Join us for a thoughtful look at the evidence behind one big question: who authored the Book of Mormon?This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In Episode 9 of this series, Patrick presents the third set of textual clues that point to the Book of Mormon’s author. First he reviews the likely causes that led to the many anomalies that show up in the second half of the Book of Mormon dictation, like the loss of the first 116 pages of text, changes in location and scribes, and the ongoing development of points of doctrine. Many students of Book of Mormon authorship, chalk up the late variation in the text as simply “stylistic drift”. But what actually is “stylistic drift”? Patrick reviews the definitions and common examples of such. He then sets up the important thought exercise—do all of the late anomalies in the text appear to be drift or do they appear to match the Rigdon Theory explanation. That is, that Joseph faithfully dictated the first half of the text either from memory or by reading the text in the hat, until the change in plans. The plans changed in the second half of the dictation when the 116 pages were lost, scribes changed, and doctrinal elements were adjusted with new ideas from Rigdon. This led to Joseph having to adjust his mechanics—now he is “riffing or ad-libbing” more and his unique voice begins to appear in the text, becoming more apparent from 1 Nephi to the Words of Mormon. Having set the stage for this thought exercise, Patrick reviews the primary anomalies that show up in the second half of the text: the introduction of the “Late Voice”, as defined by Rob Terry’s 3-Voice Framework, loss of mathematical cohesion, the “Black Hole” of names, Smith family content, anti-Catholic messaging, the Therefore/Wherefore switch, Enveloping, and several examples of Early Modern English in the text. Patrick points out that “drift” would seem to be gradual. What we actually see in the anomalies is a step-shift—for example, average word frequency of say 4 uses per thousand words, consistently appearing in the first half of the text, stepping up to a consistent average frequency of 8 in the second half of the text. He also points out that the changes we do see that relate to the categories of stylistic drift (tense, tone, vocabulary) are not related to the typical drift by character or scene—they are global changes that step-shift across all characters and all scenes between the first and second halves of the text. Join us for a thoughtful look at the evidence behind one big question: who authored the Book of Mormon?This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In Episode 8 of this series, Patrick presents the second set of textual clues that point to the Book of Mormon’s author. First he reviews evidence for an ur-text or underlying text of the Book of Mormon. This section includes discussion of many themes and stories from the Bible that are reworked in a sophisticated way in the Book of Mormon. A prime example is the reworking of the narrative on Melchizedek in Hebrews 7 in Alma 13 of the Book of Mormon. The specific reworking points to an author with a deep knowledge of the Bible, one with a careful eye, one with an eye to the future development of the ideas of the higher priesthood and tithing in the future church, and an author who thought they were authorized to correct the Bible’s mistakes! Next follows an interesting introduction to the Jacobins and the anti-Jacobin sentiments in the Book of Mormon that go beyond anti-Masonry. The author had an appreciation for this larger narrative in the early 1800 culture. A few additional examples that point to an ur-text are discussed, including Numerology in the text. Next we cover a thorough explanation of the framework William Davis discusses in Visions in a Seer Stone. Patrick recaps how one-to-two hour sermons could be delivered by preachers using only a small paper with “heads” or what we would think of bullet points. The use of heads, skeletal outlines, and mnemonic cues are all present in the Book of Mormon. The author of the Book of Mormon makes very skilled use of all these techniques. The big question is whether Joseph’s sermons and writings illustrate the same skilled application? The answer is that they do not and that Davis’ entire work points away from Joseph and directly to Sidney Rigdon—a seasoned restorationist preacher as the more likely author. The “one weird trick” to understanding the likely author of the Book of Mormon? The author had a deep well of knowledge, sacred and scientific, to draw upon. There’s no shortcut to producing a complex work like the Book of Mormon. Join us for a thoughtful look at the evidence behind one big question: who authored the Book of Mormon? Thank you so much for watching Mormonish Podcast! **How to DONATE to Mormonish Podcast: If you would like to help financially support our podcast, you can DONATE to support Mormonish Podcast here: Mormonish Podcast is a 501(c) (3) https://donorbox.org/mormonish-podcast WE HAVE MERCH! **** If you’d like to purchase Mormonish Merch, you can visit our Merch store here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mormonishmerch We appreciate our Mormonish viewers and listeners so much! Don't forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to Mormonish Podcast! Contact Mormonish Podcast: [email protected] #mormonish #lds #mormon #exmormon #postmormon #religion #news, #ldschurch #comeuntochrist #churchofjesuschrist #churchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints #byu #byui #josephsmith #comefollowme #polygamy #bookofmormon #becauseofhim #hearhim #ldstemple FAIR USE DISCLAIMER All Media in this video (including the thumbnail) is used for the purpose of review and critique. The images in the thumbnail are used as the primary means of visually identifying the subject matter of the videoThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

What are the real LDS temple attendance numbers—and how close to capacity are temples actually operating? In this episode, we’re joined by Clint Kimball and Ron Yogason to explore groundbreaking new temple-attendance data from FullerConsideration.com. The website—already home to the Temple Name Oracle, Patriarchal Blessing Revelator, and LDS Unit Closure Tracker—is now estimating temple activity, including how many living and proxy endowments are performed each day and how closely individual temples are operating to capacity. The LDS Church stopped publicly reporting temple attendance figures in 1985, making this information difficult to obtain. What can these new estimates tell us about temple usage, Church growth, geographic trends, and the gap between available temple capacity and actual attendance? There’s a lot to uncover when we finally crunch the numbers. Check out the site here: https://fullerconsideration.com/ Better Information: A collection of original source documents on church history. No commentary. No analysis. The Temple Name Oracle: The popular database that unlocked the rotation system behind how New Names are given out in temples. The Patriarchal Blessing Revelator: An archive that helps us understand whether patriarchal blessings tell us more about the recipient or the patriarch. Unit Tracker: A live list of where wards, branches, stakes, and districts are being opened and closed around the world. The Deseret Demographer: A large data-driven analysis that shows how many of the church's reported membership actually consider themselves members, and how many are showing up to church. Past episode with Fuller Consideration: https://youtu.be/8I8hWkcc6iUThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

What was it like growing up as a girl in Mormonism? What about in Seventh-day Adventism? You might be surprised by how much these two very different religions have in common. In this episode, Melissa Duge Spiers joins Mormonish for an honest conversation about purity culture, modesty, dating, shame, and the expectations placed on women in our respective faith traditions. Melissa shares her experiences growing up Seventh-day Adventist, while I reflect on my own upbringing in the LDS Church. Along the way, we discover striking similarities in the messages we received about our bodies, our worth, and what it meant to be a “good” young woman. This isn’t about comparing which religion was “better” or “worse.” It’s about exploring the lasting impact of these teachings, sharing our stories with empathy, and talking about what healing and growth can look like on the other side. Whether you were raised Mormon, Seventh-day Adventist, or in another faith tradition, we think you’ll find plenty to relate to in this heartfelt conversation. We’d love to hear your own experiences in the comments! SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@melissadugespiers BOOK: https://www.lakedrivebooks.com/books/holy-disobedience/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/the.glory.whole/ TIK TOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@theglorywhole YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@theglorywhole3831This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Growing up in the LDS church, we experienced a lot of mythologized history. A lot of this was tied to the founding fathers and the origins of America. We heard stories about Moroni appearing to Christopher Columbus and George Washington. Mythology narratives about Washington’s prayer or the founding fathers appearing to Wilford Woodruff at the temple. All of these ideas were narratives designed to push a very specific idea of American identity and Mormonism’s place inside that identity, many of these ideas are directly tied to ideas of Christian nationalism. Promoted by people like a Benson, Skousen, Tim Ballard, Glenn Beck many others these mythology became part of our religious identity. Over the past two decades, Warren Throckmorton has become one of the leading voices examining the historical claims behind Christian nationalism. Through books such as "Getting Jefferson Right and The Christian Past That Wasn’t," he has carefully documented how influential activists and organizations have reshaped American history to promote the idea that the United States was founded as an explicitly Christian nation with a unique covenantal relationship with God. In this interview, we’ll explore how these narratives developed, why they remain so influential, how they compare with similar ideas found in Mormonism and other religious traditions, and what the growing influence of Christian nationalism could mean for American democracy, religious liberty, and the relationship between faith and political power.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In Episode 3 of this series, Patrick begins by responding to excellent audience feedback on the overview of stylometry; he presents a chart that shows when in the Book of Mormon each anomaly first appears. He then reviews the usable Book of Mormon wordprint study from Episode 3. The heart of this episode focuses on the first two wordprint studies, both from BYU academics. Patrick explains how the authors of these first two studies make the clear claim that their studies show—in two different types of analysis each—that there are multiple authors of the Book of Mormon! The second of the studies did what no other study does—compare the wordprint of the primary authors “narrative” text voice separately from their “sermon” text voice. What conclusions should we draw from this well-designed study about the two voices? Patrick reviews the critiques of the studies and discusses limitations and most reasonable conclusions to draw from the studies. Join us for a thoughtful look at the evidence behind one big question: who authored the Book of Mormon?This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy