Mormonism Live!

In this episode of Mormonism LIVE we delve into the original research of this little known episode in Church history involving the Theatre, Temple Endowments, and a Ouija board Message leading to baptisms. RESOURCES:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ARFAX-zs-C36Wgs3GYcCO8kPpis1MnWA/viewhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1ucVVdrjBDAJwiIns-po2_EXM7d9u_R01/view?pli=1 Welcome to “Mormonism Live,” the ultimate talk show that delves into the messiness of Mormon history and theology while also tackling… Read More »Ouija Board Baptisms: Mormonism LIVE!: 136

Join us as we explore the intriguing viewpoints of Professor Thomas Wayment and podcaster Rick Bennett, who present perspectives that deviate from past LDS theology regarding the King James Bible (KJV) and the Joseph Smith Translation (JST). We analyze their claims, examining the ways in which their perspectives challenge traditional understandings of these revered texts… Read More »KJV & JST – The Devaluing of Mormon Scripture and Translation: ML: 135

Mormon Polygamy Nightmare: Mormonism Live: 134 Nightmares are scary and some nightmares are real. In this gripping episode of Mormonism LIVE, we delve into the extraordinary journey of a woman who lived within a Mormon polygamous relationship. Through an intimate and eye-opening interview, she shares her harrowing experiences, the challenges she faced, and the inspiring… Read More »Mormon Polygamy Nightmare: ML: 134

The Mormonism Live crew takes a much needed break for June 21st being joined by upcoming “Mormon” comedian Ben Brown known as “The Fresh King Benjamin”. Ben’s humor deeply connects to his own journey in and deconstruction of fundamentalist Mormonism and the episode is sure to be an enjoyable entertaining evening. Ben’s Stand Up: https://youtu.be/XBx5g6FOEaM… Read More »Mormonism Live: 133: The Fresh King Benjamin ( @thefreshkingbenjamin )

Dan Vogel sits down with RFM & Bill not only to talk about his new book “Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839” but to also flesh out some of the incredible ideas in his recent YouTube video “Joseph Smith, the Necromancer”. RESOURCES: Twilit Grotto — Esoteric Archives – esotericarchives.com/ Old Bountiful Museum –… Read More »Mormon Magic Parchments: Mormonism LIVE: 132

There is a raging debate within Mormon circles where those folks who are determined to maintain belief in the Prophet Joseph Smith but who abhor polygamy and the Church as ran by Brigham Young and after have found ways to dismiss the standard evidence that Mormonism’s founder was a polygamist. They interpret the evidence as… Read More »The Evidence that Joseph Smith was a Polygamist: ML: 131

A former seminary teacher got the opportunity to present lots of his questions to the Church Historian recently. Wait till you hear what happened! RESOURCES: Transcript – http://radiofreemormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ELDER-BALLARD-BLOWS-UP-THE-CHURCH-TRANSCRIPT.pdfEpisode – https://radiofreemormon.org/2017/11/radio-free-mormon-021-elder-ballard-blows-church/ https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/prophets-and-fallibility/https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/the-mormon-truth-crisis/https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/the-mormon-paradox/ RESOURCES:Joe’s Document “In Defense of Doubt” – https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/In-Defense-of-Doubt-Final.pdfElder McKay’s Letter back to him – https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Elder-McKays-Letter.pdf

In this video we delve into the history behind how the LDS Church came to have its name and how its official name has changed from its inception to today. And along the way we learn about the use and meaning of the word Mormon as well as how the Church went from “Latter Day… Read More »Mormonism Live: 129: How The Mormon Church Got Its Name

This past week 60 Minutes the CBS TV Journalism Show covered the event of the Church having its finances exposed by whistleblower David Nielson. We take a look at what was said…. and what wasn’t in this weeks episode of Mormonism LIVE! “David Nielsen is a former investment manager for the Church of Jesus Christ… Read More »Gone In 60 Minutes: Mormonism Live: 128

The story of Joseph Smith and Henry Caswall (Caswell) and the Greek Psalter incident is a historical event that took place in 1842 in Nauvoo Ill.. During his visit to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormon Church was headquartered at the time, Caswall met with Joseph Smith. Caswall showed The Prophet a ancient document which Caswall… Read More »The Greek Psalter Incident – Another Tale of Translation: Mormonism LIVE: 127

RFM and Bill sit down with Jim Bennett to discuss his recent appearances on “Midnight Mormons” and take a look at all the rhetoric around violence in Mormonism including the musket talk by Elder Holland but with an updated and focused discussion around whether such a talk is fueling the very violent threats and rhetoric… Read More »Mormons & Muskets with Jim Bennett: Mormonism Live: 126

When the Phrase “Ongoing Restoration” showed up around 2020 Critics paused as this seemed to be the Church saying something different as if the Church now wanted the restoration to be much earlier in its stage of development than had been intimated in the past. So Bill & RFM take long look over Mormonism’s history… Read More »Mormonism Live: 125: Gospel Fully Restored or Just The Beginning Of An Ongoing Restoration?

In this week’s edition, RFM and Bill sit down with Dan McClellan, former scripture translation supervisor for the LDS Church. Dan received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in ancient Near Eastern studies, where he focused on Biblical Hebrew and minored in Classical Greek. He completed a master of studies in Jewish studies at… Read More »Biblical Scholarship with Dan McClellan: Mormonism LIVE: 124

Years ago Jonathan Streeter wrote a blog post titled “Fix your faith crisis with this one weird trick!” that was deeply influential on Bill. So tonight we bring Streeter into the studio to discuss Wood Tools vs Steel Tools and tom recognize when wood tools are being used. RESOURCES: https://thoughtsonthingsandstuff.com/

This General Conference had lots of interesting twists and turns that have now had time to ruminate in the minds of RFM and Bill Reel. And this weeks episode involves a dive into the Mormon phenomena known as the April 2023 General Conference of the LDS Church. RESOURCES OF TALKS DISCUSSED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYdM8WyYM – Elder Ahmad… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 122: GenCon CXCIII

Joseph Smith’s First Vision ushered in the restoration of the Gospel. It had Heavenly Father and His Son coming through the Heavens to visit the young boy in the spring of 1820. This vision leads to the founding of Mormonism. But what is not as well known is that in the late 1700’s and early… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 121: Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Context: A Comparative Analysis

Tonight RFM and Bill take a look at how both Top Church Leadership and local leaders extend pressure for dissenting voices to be silent. The episode will include individual stories along with the general instruction by top leaders to diminish dissenting voices and at times to altogether silence them. RESOURCES: Oaks “Its Wrong to Criticize… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 120: Silencing Dissent – Mormon Style

RFM has received the the video and audio from his second information request and report back regarding what was turned over by law enforcement. Once again we learn new details that both add clarity and complexity to this case. BONUS AUDIO: We inserted the cut up audio clips of all three witnesses that we had… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 119: Cordon Homicide – Epilogue

Many are going through great lengths to justify the massive hoards of wealth the Church has accumulated on the backs of its believers, even going as far as to use scripture. But do these scriptures REALLY justify the accumulation of wealth as the Church and its members would have you believe?

In this week’s episode we discuss the recent news of the Temple Changes and just how far the original Endowment has been altered. And the Second half of the show will involve the recent legal settlement with the LDS Church and it’s Ensign Peak Advisors and culminating with RFM’s lightbulb moment sensing that the Landscape… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 117: Changes To The Temple & The Ethics of Ensign Peak Advisors

On June 27th 1844, Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, was martyred at Carthage Jail by a mob. Or at least that is how the generally accepted story goes. In the last 8 months, Justin Griffin (Director & Producer) and Steve Sorensen (Film Maker), have shared their research that maybe things are not what we have… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 116: Who Really Killed Joseph Smith?

On this week’s episode we sit down with Brent Bokovoy, Writer and Director of the upcoming film “Ronald’s Little Factory”, and we discuss all the twists and turns in Mormon Cinema including your favorites, along with movies you have likely forgotten, as well as one’s you never heard of. We finish out the episode discussing… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 115: Mormon Cinema

RFM and Bill review the recent set of Documents and other items sent by Florida Law Enforcement in RFM as part of a Freedom of Information Request. ***TRIGGER WARNING***This episode will contain details of an alleged Homicide of a child. Please skip this episode if needed and please keep kids away from this episode. NEW… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 114: The Derek Cordon Homicide Investigation

The Salt Lake Tribune recently published a book review on the book “Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints” published by the Maxwell Institute. Both the book and the Tribune article make note that what Latter-day Saints believed about early Christianity and the Great Apostasy may not only “overly simplistic, if not (a) completely false… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 113: What Ever Happened To The Great Apostasy?

Recently Bill did a solo episode away from Mormonism LIVE walking members into the historical analysis of the initial Doctrine of tithing as 10% of one’s Surplus or Interest to help believers sense they had an option backed by historical documentation that allowed them to save themselves Thousands of Dollars a year while remaining faithful.… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 112: Tithing – What’s In A Word

The running narrative within Mormonism is that Joseph Smith was an uneducated backwoods farm boy and that his lack of sophistication leaves the the Restoration as a miracle that no country bumpkin could have pulled off. But what happens when, with critical thinking skills, we take a look at the the Education he did have… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 111: Joseph Smith’s Secret Education – The Dartmouth Connection

Bill & RFM take a look at the Life of Francis Gladden Bishop, another Latter-day Saint who claimed to be the rightful heir to Joseph Smith after the martyrdom as part of the Mormon Succession Crisis. RESOURCES:https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/license-for-gladden-bishop-14-april-1840-extract/1 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145852385/francis-gladden-bishop https://atom3.lib.byu.edu/mormonbib/11107/. https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/francis-gladden-bishop-1809 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladden_Bishop, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/subjects/francis-gladden-bishop https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/bc-jsp/content/jsp/images/1168/1168_ms155_3_05_001_med.jpg https://archive.org/details/addresstosonsdau01bish https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-c-1-2-november-1838-31-july-1842/215, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/bc-jsp/content/jsp/images/1168/1168_ms155_3_05_001_med.jpg https://smile.amazon.com/Ensign-Shepherd-Remembrance-Classic-Reprint/dp/1333273819/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VOHXKME6OJK6&keywords=%22francis+gladden+bishop%22&qid=1672953250&sprefix=francis+gladden+bishop+%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-1 https://smile.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AFrancis+Gladden+Bishop&s=relevancerank&text=Francis+Gladden+Bishop&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1 https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-from-francis-gladden-bishop-26-september-1843/1 https://mormonpolygamydocuments.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/JS0428.pdf

Bill and RFM take a deep look at how sex and sexuality were presented within the LDS Church over the last 200 years. What was taboo and sin and to what degree did Leaders impose what could and could not go on the Bedroom. RAPE & VIRTUE A.) BOM teaching – Moroni 9:9 ORAL SEX… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 109: The LDS “Mormon” Church’s Teachings on Sex

RFM and Bill take a deeper look at the “Book of Mormon” and compare what we know about it with what we know about other books to see if it is as un unique as believers claim it to be and we even get Mormon Scholar, Brian Hales opinion on the matter. RESOURCES:https://archive.org/details/sorrytaleastory01currgoog/page/78/mode/2up https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1542&context=jbms#:~:text=Some%20critics%20of%20the%20Book,claimed%20communi%2D%20cations%20with%20spirits https://www.urantia.org/urantia-book/read-urantia-book-online… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 108: Is The Book of Mormon Unique?

Sheri Dew recently gave a Devotional Talk titled “Prophets Can See Around Corners” at BYU Hawaii on Nov 1st 2022. Bill and RFM take a deep look into this talk to see if what sort of apologetic tricks and absurd claims Sheri Dew makes this time around. Make some hot chocolate, grab a slice of… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 107: Sheri Dew You Know – A Not So Christmas Special

This week we explore DezNat or a loosely connected group of folks who claim to be Deseret Nationals. We explore their violent rhetoric and their problematic ideology and we even have a former DezNat follower to help us add context to this story. #DezNat  RESOURCES: Wiki DezNat – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DezNat DezNat Twitter – https://twitter.com/DeseretNation DezNat Exposed… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 106: DezNat Exposed

Since 1830 Mormonism has, as likely a part of it’s persecution complex, used violent rhetoric and has taught its members to use violent means. That rhetoric either leads to further violence or at least creates safer spaces for violence to occur. Today we look into Mormonism Past and Present to expose a history wide pattern… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 105: When Mormon Leaders Encourage Violence

What happens when a Member of the LDS Church stands opposed in a sustaining vote of Church leaders, follows the process the Church has laid out around “common consent”, and shows conclusively that current LDS Prophets, Seers, and Revelators have lied to the members. Well, you are about to find out, because Nemo does just… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 104: Captain Nemo VS The LDS Church

As a follow-up to episode 101 on the Third Convention, Thomas Murphy joins us to add clarity and context to all the ground we covered and to add details that make this story even more interesting.   RESOURCES: The First Part – Video Version – https://youtu.be/Gmjk3Kht0S8 Slide Show used by Prof Murphy in this episode –… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 103: Thomas Murphy on the Third Convention

What is the greatest problem in the LDS Church? That question is at the heart of this week’s episode. Jim Bennett is our guest this week on Mormonism LIVE, as we explore this question and some of the territory surrounding it.

Apostasy is something the LDS Church show serious concern over. And why shouldn’t they knowing James Strang, Lorin C. Wooley, Denver Snuffer, Julie Rowe all have led Splinter Factions of one sort or another that have had influence over segments of Latter-day Saints. The idea that a few voices or even a single voice can… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 101: The Third Convention

To celebrate our 100th episode, we invite all of you to join us as we take a look back at the past 99 episodes and share which have been most meaningful and which are our favorites and we will be taking calls from you our listeners and letting you share with us which ones meant… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 100: 100th Episode Super Show

On this week’s episode we take a deeper look at the 1826 trial in Bainbridge, NY. We examine what led to the trial, what witnesses claimed, what we know about the trial proceedings, how Smith and Stowell got introduced to each other, and a few other interesting facts along the way that make this such… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 099: The 1826 Trial of Joseph Smith The Glass Looker

In this Episode Bill and RFM will go into a story few members know about in regards to the Prophet Joseph Smith and one of his young plural wives. It involves some re-gifting, a land deal, and Harsh Measures T-Shirt Contest Voting takes place here – https://forms.gle/MzBroWzRvk7EFEpQ9 A.) Lucien Woodworth born April 3rd 1799 becomes… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 098: Gold Gifts, Deeds, & Harsh Measures

A listener was able to have a candid chat with Elder Bednar recently and agreed to share with us how it went! This is part 2 of that conversation. Join us live!

RFM and Bill Reel will sit down with author Cheryl Bruno to discuss her book “Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration”. Synopsis of her book – “While no one thing can entirely explain the rise of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the historical influence of Freemasonry on this religious tradition cannot… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 096: Mormonism & Masonry

Please consider donating today. Visit https://mormondiscussions.org/ or https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/ and Click the Donate Button and select your favorite podcast or donate to the entity generally by selecting “Mormon Discussion Inc.” Please help us help the next wave of folks who will need support OTHER WAYS TO SUPORT US Donorbox – Simply visit https://donorbox.org/umbrella-entity and simply fill… Read More »Join Our Team & Help Us Support Those Navigating a Faith and Belief Transition

A listener was able to have a candid chat with Elder Bednar recently and agreed to share with us how it went! Join us live!

Dan Vogel joins RFM to discuss the Occult in the Life of Joseph Smith and his family.

In Mormon parlance, the Tar and Feathering of Joseph Smith is a faith promoting story about a mob of mean men punishing Joseph Smith for being a prophet. But it doesn’t take one long when their ears are to the ground in non-correlated circles to hear rumblings that the tar and feathering is connected to… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 093: The Tar and Feathering of Joseph Smith

RFM and Bill sit down with Movie Director Richard Dutcher to explore his career directing the movies God’s Army, Brigham City, & States of Grace. We take a look at these films through the perspective of Richard’s faith journey and take an evening to get to know the man who kicked of Mormon cinema. RESOURCES:… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 092: Mormon Movie Maker

Throughout multiple talks including one released just a few days ago, Sister Bonnie Cordon, Young Women general president, has spoke about the loss of her Grandson, Derek within Church approved channels. What she doesn’t say is that the death of this child is surrounded by horrific details that contradict witness statements that involve allegations of… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 091: Bonnie Cordon & The Breath of Life #HearHim

This week RFM and Bill sit down with the creator and musical artist known as Weird Alma. Weird Alma has brought us musical parodies such as Gaslighting, S.C.M.C., Tapirback Rider, You’re (Several Months Shy of) Fifteen, and many more. Weird Alma shows us firsthand that humor and music can play a role in our processing… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 090: Weird Alma Strikes Again

Mormonism LIVE: 089: Manipulation, Money, & Mormon Sex Abuse On this Episode Bill 7 RFM take a look at the recent Sex Abuse Scandal trying to explore the legal process and try to better understand the LDS Church’s perspective. We look at the Arizona Law, talk about the when , how, and why about the… Read More »Mormonism LIVE: 089: Manipulation, Money, & Mormon Sex Abuse

A USAF sergeant explains how the strict demands of Mormonism broke him as a young man, making him feel completely alone and unaccepted by God, even causing eating disorders. After every solution the Church offered failed, he finally found healing through secular means.