Criticism of Mormonism/Websites


Analysis of websites critical of Mormonism


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Critical websites initially presenting themselves as being run by active or believing Church members

Summary: These articles respond to websites that initially presented themselves as being run by active or believing Church members. The authors of these sites wrote as if they were simply believing members who were interested in researching the "truth" about Mormonism. Over time, it has become apparent that these sites are run by ex-Mormons who are hostile to the Church.


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FutureMissionary.com

Summary: The website futuremissionary.com is designed to shake the faith of prospective missionaries by blindsiding them with troubling issues related to Church history. The site's anonymous authors claim to be returned missionaries. At the time that the site first went "live," the authors initially wrote as though they were "believing" members who naively accepted controversial statements and ideas without question. Eventually, over time, they finally admitted in their "Who are We?" section of the website that they are ex-Mormons. The most prominent and detailed page on the website is "A Letter to a CES Director: Why I Lost My Testimony." The authors claim that such blatant materials will help to prepare missionaries for questions and challenges they will face. In reality, the letter and other material on the site only introduce attacks on the church without discussing crucial context and explanations that would help readers fully understand the material. The approach and tone of the FutureMissionary site resembles that of MormonThink.com before MormonThink became openly antagonistic toward the Church in late 2012.

A FairMormon Analysis of claims made on the critical website MormonThink.com

Summary: The web site MormonThink.com originally claimed to be operated by active members of the Church with an interest in objectively presenting the "truth" about Mormonism. They authors have since abandoned the pretense that any of them are "active" in the Church. The founding webmaster was, by his own admission, pretending to be semi-active in order to destroy members' and missionaries' testimonies from within the social structure of the Church. The site pretends to be "balanced" by presenting information and links to apologetic sites, however, the conclusions reached by the site consistently reflect negatively on the Church's truth claims. The site also sometimes contains a large amount of Temple content.


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Analysis of online documents critical of Mormonism


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Online documents from non-Mormon sources

Summary: These articles review online documents from non-Mormon sources.


Mormonism and Wikipedia

Summary: FairMormon regularly receives queries about specific LDS-themed Wikipedia articles with requests that we somehow "fix" them. Although some individual members of FairMormon may choose to edit Wikipedia articles, FairMormon as an organization does not. Controversial Wikipedia articles require constant maintenance and a significant amount of time. We prefer instead to respond to claims in FairMormon Answers rather than fight the ongoing battle that LDS Wikipedia articles sometimes invite. From FAIR’s perspective, assertions made in LDS-themed Wikipedia articles are therefore treated just like any other critical (or, if one prefers, "anti-Mormon") work. As those articles are revised and updated, we will periodically update our reviews to match.


Countercult ministries

Summary: These are ministries that are targeted primarily at opposing Mormonism.


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Answers to Questions All Mormons Should Ask Themselves

Summary: According to Contender Ministries, FAIR's responses are "deceptive and the original questions are still without adequate and truthful answers." The site owners also claim that "FAIR can pack a lot of deception into a paragraph or two." Apparently, this anti-Mormon ministry considers any interpretation of the Bible other than their own to be "deceptive." We invite our readers to thoroughly research and investigate our responses. If errors are discovered, we will be happy to correct them.


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Institute for Religious Research

Summary: According to the IRR website, "The LDS Church teaches a number of things that conflict with the Bible and are radically different from the beliefs of Christians down through the centuries. If Mormonism denies the core teachings of biblical Christianity, should it still be considered an authentic expression of true Christianity?"

Countercult ministries: Macgregor Ministries

Summary: The website claims that all articles on Mormonism contained therein are "all written from a Christian perspective and explain the differences between Mormonism and orthodox Christianity."


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Response to "Facts Mormons Won't Tell You When They Call at Your Door"

Summary: The alleged "facts" about Mormonism given by Macgregor Ministries contain so much hyperbole that they will greatly amuse most Latter-day Saints. Nevertheless, we respond to each of these "facts" here.


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Countercult ministries: Tower to Truth Ministries


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Watchman Fellowship

Summary: According to their website, "Watchman Fellowship is an independent, nondenominational Christian research and apologetics ministry focusing on new religious movements, cults, the occult and the New Age."

The Interactive Bible

Summary: The Interactive Bible website states that they are "the same as the church of the Bible."

Utah Lighthouse Ministry

Summary: According to their website, "The purpose of [Utah Lighthouse Ministry] is to document problems with the claims of Mormonism and compare LDS doctrines with Christianity."
    • Contradictions in LDS Scripture
      Brief Summary: Many conservative Protestant critics have reproduced a table which purports to show how LDS scripture contradicts itself. FairMormon examines the supposed contradictions, presents the scriptures cited in context, and demonstrates that claims of contradiction rest on: 1) a misinterpretation of LDS scripture and 2)comparing two verses which are speaking about different things reading Protestant meanings into scriptural terminology (Click here for full article)
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    • Sandra Tanner: Bible and Book of Mormon Contradictions
      Brief Summary: Sandra Tanner provides a feeble and long-answered short list of supposed "contradictions" between the Bible and the Book of Mormon (Click here for full article)
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Evangelical witnessing to Mormons


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