I have had several opportunities this past month to talk with people who have either left the Church, or who have had family members leave the Church. I am always amazed at the different worldview. Having served a mission in two countries that were not my native country, I understand how difficult it sometimes is to understand different cultures. Being an active, believing member seems to be a different culture and worldview than being a disaffected member. It seems to be difficult to live with each other.

I certainly know I have said stupid and insensitive things. I work hard not to do that, but from time to time I have slipped. I am sometimes inarticulate. I don’t always express my thoughts well. If I could take back some of my words, I would.

I have had disaffected members say things to me that have been hateful, hurtful and mean. I’m not always sure why. We probably all need to take cultural sensitivity training to get along as we are all part of the human family.

Out of my several discussions this month, I have made an internal list of the issues they brought up that they felt gave them reason to leave the Church. They were gracious to tell me their issues.  There was nothing new.  These included claims of no Hebrew DNA among Native Americans (First Nations People for my Canadian friends). No Hebrew influence in Native American languages, no evidence of steel swords in 600 BC, translation errors into bad English, Joseph Smith copying names from his environment, Church artwork showing the plates next to Joseph Smith during translation, Church artwork NOT showing a hat in the translation process, not knowing that Joseph Smith practiced plural marriage, not understanding why he married some of the people he did,  no Barley in America, and no wheels, horses or chariots in America. There were a few more as well.

A few things occurred to me during these discussions.

Every one of these things is addressed on our Website. I am fairly certain that there is an article that covers each and every topic, and has been for some time.

Some of the people I talked with were very aware of the FairMormon Website.

Even if the articles completely refuted every point they had, I doubt they would now be satisfied. One person explicitly stated that to me. One simply said he didn’t care.

There are not only facts involved. Often they are suffering from a feeling of betrayal.

This is really frustrating to me. If we write out the answers, but people don’t read them or say they don’t help, maybe we should close down and give up. But, then I think back on all of the many wonderful thank-you emails I have received from people we have helped.

I was trying to imagine the experience of the disaffected member reading an attack against the Church, and then later reading the FairMormon Website. I suppose it would be like finding evidence your spouse is being unfaithful, and then later you find evidence that your spouse has actually been faithful. Even though you found evidence to support your spouse, you may still wonder which evidence to believe. Or at least you may be more cautious.

In my experience, simply refuting evidence against the Church usually isn’t enough. One must also find positive reasons to believe. That may come as direct evidences, such as reading about the Witnesses, Lehi’s trail, NHM, or the seal of Mulek, or it may come as a simple spiritual confirmation that it is true. I find the spiritual confirmation is much more compelling and fulfilling, but, both are available. Whichever it is, one must be motivated enough to seek it.

I hope and pray that each of us study these things out. As we do that, I hope we share our findings with our children. This year they are studying the Book of Mormon in Seminary, so it is a good time to talk about this. Just like other areas in our children’s development, they are trying to figure things out. If you don’t help them, they will seek their own answers on the Internet and from friends. You may not like the answers they find. Please make use of our Wiki at en.fairmormon.org to help.

As a final thought, in case you were wondering, there really was barley in Americahttp://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Mormon_anachronisms/Plants#Barley
and steel swords in Israel pre 600 BC.http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=14&num=2&id=379.

The other answers are there too.

Best wishes in your studies this year.

We had a fabulous conference in Provo Utah this year. I was pleased to see the number of people in attendance and was gratified to meet many of you. For about 40% of the people, it was their first Conference, while about 60% have been to past conferences. Ninety-six percent (96%) of conference attendees surveyed said they would recommend their friends attend the FairMormon conference.

As we are an all-volunteer organization, we especially appreciate the positive feedback we received from so many of you who attended the conference this year. Some of the comments included the following:”I think you all are to be heartily congratulated for your excellent work!”

“You are doing a tremendous service for the LDS community.”

“You guys rock, keep it up.”

“I am deeply grateful FAIR exists and grateful to everyone who helps make it what it is.”
For those who did not make it, and for those who did but want to revisit those talks, we have a few options.

You can watch all of the talks right now by purchasing the video streaming option. That will give you a Webpage and a password that will allow you to watch the talks on your computer.  This will allow you to instantly watch all of the talks. The talks will stay up for at least 6 months, except for Robert Kirby’s talk which will be taken down shortly as we don’t retain the rights. You can order streaming here for $25.http://bookstore.fairlds.org/category.php?id_category=77

You can purchase the videos to keep for all time. We will mail you videos in MP4 format of all of the conference talks (except Robert Kirby) on a USB drive. You can then watch them on your computer anytime. You can order them here for $29.99.http://bookstore.fairlds.org/product.php?id_product=1517

For those of you who like to listen to Podcasts as you drive to work or as you exercise, you can purchase MP3s here for $2.99 each. http://bookstore.fairlds.org/category.php?id_category=106

You can also purchase Video from the 2012 conference for $19.99 here: http://bookstore.fairlds.org/product.php?id_product=1518

Or you can order MP3s of many past conference talks at a new reduced price of $.99 here: http://bookstore.fairlds.org/category.php?id_category=91

I hope to see you at the conference next year.

FAIR survives on donations. Without your donation, we would not be here. We are an all volunteer group. Please donate $500, $300, $100, or $25. You can also set up a monthly donation amount.
Thank you for your support.
http://www.fairblog.org/donate-to-fair/

• The Original and Printer’s Manuscripts (Preview) . (Preview)  This lecture covers all the major discoveries that have been made about the two manuscripts over the past 25 years. The original manuscript, despite its incompleteness, is the most important source for determining the original text of the Book of Mormon as well as providing crucial evidence on how Joseph Smith translated the book.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW65LrdubZ0 (Preview)

• The Printed Editions (Preview) . In this review of the printed editions, Skousen identifies the most innovative changes made in each of the significant LDS editions. There is also a comparison of the LDS and RLDS textual traditions.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj2KrqPCpOY (Preview)
• The Nature of the Original Text (Preview) . This lecture examines the nature of the original text, as recovered by scholarly means as part of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRgAt4PHo_8 (Preview)

The much anticipated book Mormon’s Codex is almost here and we are taking pre-orders now. We are offering a 20% discount for pre-ordering the book.

While the word “apologetics” means to defend one’s beliefs, FAIR strives for “educative apologetics.” We’re not going to argue someone back into the Church, but we can help inoculate members against LDS-critical arguments through better education, and-for those whose testimonies are faltering-we can set the record straight on false anti-LDS claims or offer logical alternative views which fit within a framework of belief. I’ve attempted to do both in Shaken Faith Syndrome.

In a very real way SFS is collaborative effort by many of those in our audience. I received a ton of help, suggestions, and advice from lots of people in our FAIR family and for that I am grateful.

It’s been 5 years since SFS was first released. We ran out of copies at the end of last year-couldn’t even fill our Christmas order for Deseret Book. It was decided, since another printing was needed, that we would introduce a 2nd edition which would fix typos and mistakes and update and add material that had changed since 2008.  The result is the 2nd edition of SFS.

My primary purpose today, necessarily too brief, is to portray a few insights from the extant documentary record that must be considered in any appraisal of Joseph Smith and his claims as an authentic prophetic figure. This essay is part of a chapter from a book I am writing on Joseph Smith and his prophetic style.

I want to say at the outset that there have been many among the faithful scholars of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have plowed some of this ground previously, though differently than I will today. Their objective, and mine today, was to demonstrate that the study of the documentation and contextual circumstances surrounding Joseph Smith’s life corroborates and affirms the authenticity of his claims to have received heavenly visitations. To these other scholars we owe a great debt. I am one who has benefitted by the great work of the faithful explicators of the past and the present.

Perhaps, paradoxically, we also owe a great debt to the critics of Joseph Smith who, in their attempt to undermine the Prophet and the LDS Church, have demanded answers to hard questions and drawn conclusions, however misguided they have been, that have provoked us into a response. When it comes to the serious study of the Prophet’s life we can no longer assume that reliance upon a sincere testimony will be enough to allay the aggressive charges against the Prophet and his work, because they are using, or, as I contend, misusing the Church’s own documentary record.

 

Joseph Smith’s First Vision is the foundational event of the Restoration, and the model for our personal experiences of revelation.  Yet no explicit accounts of the event were recorded until some dozen years later, in 1832.  For this reason, critics of LDS foundations, such Grant Palmer and Dan Vogel, have argued that Joseph Smith crafted the First Vision narrative in the 1830s, rather than experiencing it at the dawn of the 1820s.

If Latter-day Saint belief about the First Vision is correct, Joseph’s narrative reports a memory of his early experience.  If, on the other hand, Vogel, Palmer, and other skeptical interpreters were to be correct, Joseph’s narrative was created to meet his needs as a church leader in the 1830s, bolstering his authority as prophet.

These two radically different understandings of the First Vision lead us to two radically different predictions about how well Joseph’s First Vision accounts will align with the events of the early 1820s. On the first, the believing, view, Joseph’s narrative should match the 1820s context in some detail.  On the second, skeptical, view, his narrative should match the claimed 1820s context poorly or only superficially.

Because these two views lead to such different predictions, we can determine which view is correct by testing those predictions.  And this is what we’ll do today.

We normally like to keep religion and politics separate, and this is understandable.

The separation makes sense for political reasons, since it is often best to limit political debate to negotiable stakes, to values that can be quantified and compromised.  This strategy of lowering the aims of politics to reduce conflict is a fundamental strategy of modern liberalism, and it has very often served us well.

We also have properly religious reasons for maintaining the separation between religion and politics: our highest hopes and strongest duties refer to our eternal salvation, and we would not want these to be compromised or corrupted by entanglement with political interests and ambitions.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French interpreter of American democracy, saw this very clearly:

“When a religion seeks to found its empire only on the desire for immortality…, it can aim at universality; but when it comes to be united with a government, it must adopt maxims that are applicable only to certain peoples… Religion, therefore, cannot share the material force of those who govern without being burdened with a part of the hatreds to which they give rise.” (DA 283)

The LDS Church’s official and consistent position of political neutrality therefore makes perfect sense in light of its divine mission.

The Church does not:

•     Endorse, promote or oppose political parties, candidates or platforms.
•     Allow its church buildings, membership lists or other resources to be used for partisan political purposes.
•     Attempt to direct its members as to which candidate or party they should give their votes to. This policy applies whether or not a candidate for office is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
•     Attempt to direct or dictate to a government leader.

And yet it is clear, on just a little reflection, that this wholesome distinction between religion and politics can never be an absolute separation, for the simple reason that certain common principles are essential to both. Tocqueville saw this with great clarity as well: religion and politics spring ultimately from the same source:

There is hardly any human action, however private it may be, which does not result from some very general conception men have of God, of His relations with the human race, of the nature of their soul, and of their duties to their fellows. Nothing can prevent such ideas from being the common spring from which all else originates.

Several years ago I hosted a barbecue at my home and invited several LDS and non-LDS friends. After a few enjoyable hours and as the gathering came to a close I began cleaning up with the help of one of my non-­‐‑LDS guests. His first comment to me was: “All you Mormons do is talk about Church! Don’t you ever talk about anything else?” I laughed, of course, because while my friends comment was hyperbolic and good-natured ribbing, there was a lot of truth behind his words.

For active Latter-day Saints the Church, its doctrines, leaders and people, serve as one of several important life anchors. Membership and belief in the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be all encompassing – informing many aspects of an adherent’s career, academic pursuits, hobbies, and daily interactions. Mormons tend to form tight social bonds and it true that as a Latter-day Saint you can go to nearly any country, city, or town and find a family of Church members with open arms and a plate of cookies.

 

Because a relationship with Mormonism is so central to members’ lives, it is not surprising that when doubts arise they can cause considerable distress within the doubter. Doubt chips away at what has been the core of how a member understands their purpose and place in the world. Many members who doubt do so in silence – believing that they are alone in their struggle.

Often, by the time a member comes forward with their doubts, they have reached a zenith of hurt, anger, and frustration. For months, and perhaps years, they have been reading, listening, and learning in relative isolation left to formulate ideas, thoughts, and perspectives with little or no input from others who 1) are fully aware of difficult Church-related issues and 2) have discovered ways in which to harmonize faith and doubt.

What I will attempt today is to examine why moving from certainty to doubt – specifically within a Mormon context – can be incredibly painful. I will do so by examining the nature of an individual’s overarching truth narrative and the potential impact of doubt on that narrative for a Latter-day Saint. Based on this examination I will propose a framework for a pastoral approach to apologetics: apologetics specifically meant to address the social and spiritual aspects of doubt.

Ultimately, all Latter-day Saints must be able to express – at least to themselves, and hopefully to others – why Mormonism matters.

Thirty-nine years ago this summer my parents attended the Utah Shakespeare Festival. They watched a production of “As You Like It,” Shakespeare’s comedy of love and transformation set in the enchanted Forest of Arden. One year later, my mother gave birth to their first child, a daughter whom they named Rosalynde after the clever, independent heroine they had met onstage. Shakespeare’s Rosalind and her beloved Orlando are the dazzling romantic leads of the play, but – if you’ll forgive the cliche – the most important character in the story isn’t a person at all, but a place: The Forest of Arden.

The Forest is a realm of simplicity, harmony, and above all enchantment. Early lore about the Forest of Arden included enchanted rings and fountains. In Shakespeare’s hands, the Forest is not so much the realm of spirits as it is the realm of the spiritual: every experience is more vivid, every word filled with significance and promise and the felt presence of a kindly intelligence guiding the action.

It’s a pleasure to be here today to talk about something I have been trying to avoid for several years now: Book of Mormon geography. It is a messy and oftentimes ugly endeavor. The Church, of course, has no official position on where the Book of Mormon took place. Nevertheless, there have been heated debates concerning its geography for the better part of the last century. Currently, the most bitter divide is between those who advocate for a Mesoamerican setting and those who believe that the “Heartland” of the United States is the true location. Despite what my seemingly inflammatory title may suggest, this paper is actually an attempt to synthesize some aspects of these two models as much as possible and build a bridge between the two camps(though I do fear the bridge may end up like the one in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom).

My basic thesis is this: The core locations and events detailed in the text of the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica, but many Nephites and Lamanites migrated and established settlements far northward of the core area and are thus simply outside the scope of the text. I am certainly not the first to make this argument or note the significance of this northward migration, but from countless conversations I have had about Book of Mormon geography over the past few years I have found that many people are unfamiliar with the ideas. Just in this audience today, I can point to the work of John Sorenson, Tyler Livingston, and Matt Roper, and I’m admittedly doing little more than repackaging their previous research and giving it a catchy name.

Which brings me to the Hinterland Hypothesis.

Bill Reel: First off all the speakers today have been, as they’ve been giving their presentations, been looking out over at you which I’m trying to do the same thing but we can’t see you because the spotlight is in our eyes so it’s all a mirage that we actually are looking into your eyes and talking to you.

My name is Bill Reel. I am the host of Mormon Discussion Podcast. It is a podcast that deals with those struggling with faith and faith crisis and I’m grateful for the opportunity to moderate this panel discussion. We have three panelists today, and I hope to participate a little as well, but we have to my immediate right is Janet Eyring. Next to her is Don Bradley who you’ve already heard from, and to his right is Maxine Hanks who just got done speaking to us.

I’m going to turn the time over to each of them to share a brief bio of themselves so that you can get a feel for them, and then we’ll go from there.

As pointed out in the last installment, Joseph Smith was not a “translator” in the Academic sense. He couldn’t read ancient languages. Somehow, through the power of God, he was able to convert the Nephite writings into the scriptural English of his day.

According to witnesses who were close enough to Joseph to get a feel for the translation process, Joseph would “see” the English translation of the Nephite text when he put is face into the hat with the seer stone. Anyone who tries to copy this process-with or without a hat-will quickly discover that you cannot see (let alone read) any text so close to your face. In the darkness of the hat it seems likely that the English text which Joseph saw was in his “mind’s eye.” Technically vision occurs in the brain. Yes, our eyes send the data to the brain, but the brain converts the signals to form the things we see.

Through the power of God-and Joseph’s faith that the seer stone in the hat operated through the power of God-Joseph’s mind was able to create an English “translation” of the Nephite text. The question becomes: What is the relationship between the English words that Joseph saw and what was written on the plates?

All the rivers and valleys he makes Lehi name with new names.
John Hyde Jr., Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs (1857), 223.

From Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert (1988), 75-76.

By what right do these people rename streams and valleys to suit themselves? No westerner would tolerate such arrogance. But Lehi is not interested in western taste; he is following a good old Oriental custom. Among the laws “which no Bedouin would dream of transgressing,” the first, according to Jennings-Bramley, is that “any water you may discover, either in your own territory or in the territory of another tribe, is named after you.” So it happens that in Arabia a great wady (valley) will have different names at different points along its course, a respectable number of names being “all used for one and the same valley. . . . One and the same place may have several names, and the wadi running close to the same, or the mountain connected with it, will naturally be called differently by members of different clans,” according to Canaan, who tells how the Arabs “often coin a new name for a locality for which they have never used a proper name, or whose name they do not know,” the name given being usually that of some person. However, names thus bestowed by wandering tribesmen “are neither generally known or commonly used,” so that we need not expect any of Lehi’s place names to survive.

Middle Bronze Age autobiographies from Syria are, in the words of A. L. Oppenheim, “without parallel in texts of this type from Mesopotamia and Egypt.” They are very distinct in form and features. They also differ considerably from the same kinds of texts from the same area from a later date. As it turns out, however, those distinct features appear in the Book of Abraham which depicts Abraham as coming from Middle Bronze Age Syria.

I explore the connections in an article, which just appeared on Friday. The article is:

John Gee, “Abraham and Idrimi,”  Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 22/1 (2013): 34-39.

I do not know that it has appeared in electronic form, but it has appeared in print. (Interested parties can find the reference for the Oppenheim quote in the article.)

So here is the problem. The Book of Abraham was published by Joseph Smith in 1842. The first Middle Bronze Age Syrian autobiography was published in 19 49. If Joseph Smith had made up the Book of Abraham, he would have had to compose an autobiography set in a certain time and place and use the correct literary features and publish it a hundred years before anyone else would publish one from an archaeological dig. The process by which he may or may not have done it is simply irrelevant. None of the proposed processes can account for the literary parallels.

Fascinating new research regarding the Book of Abraham has been published in the most recent edition of the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture, published by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. The two articles are by Egyptologists Kerry Muhlestein (PhD, UCLA) and John Gee (PhD, Yale)

A Cimeter (more commonly spelled scimitar) is a sword  “having a curved blade with the edge on the convex side” or “something resembling a scimitar (as in sharpness or shape); esp: a long-handled billhook” (Webster’s Third International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged 1993). Critics have long claimed that the scimitar was unknown before the rise of Islam and that references to this weapon in the Book of Mormon is anachronistic.

“There will be a convergence of discoveries (never enough, mind you, to remove the need for faith) to make plain and plausible what the modern prophets have been saying all along… do not expect incontrovertible proof to come in this way…, but neither will the Church be outdone by hostile or pseudo-scholars.” (Neal A. Maxwell)

In 1997 a group of Latter-day Saints who frequented the Mormon message boards of America Online  found that they were responding to the same LDS-critical arguments over and over. They decided to form a non-profit organization so they could share information and create a repository of responses. That organization was The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, or FAIR. In 1999 FAIR held their first conference in Ben Lomond California. A large percentage of the few who attended this first conference were the speakers themselves. Two weeks ago FAIR held their fifteenth annual conference in Provo, Utah, with about 400 attendees.

Through the years many people have questioned the meaning of the word “apologetics” in FAIR’s title. Why are Mormons apologizing? What are they apologizing for? The word “apologetics” comes from the Greek “apologia” and is used four times in the Greek New Testament. It means to “defend” one’s believe or faith. FAIR is not apologizing for anything, but rather defending LDS beliefs from critical attacks.

A lot of things have changed through the years in the FAIR organization. While the group was originally formed because of the combative nature of the message board atmosphere, FAIR eventually separated themselves from the contentious message board environment and focused on “educative apologetics.” As Gerald Bay once said, “You can never argue a person into faith; Christian theology and apologetics exist in order to make sense of the world for the believer, but they do not in themselves create that belief.”

When people first learn that Joseph Smith practiced plural marriage, many jump to the conclusion that this is another example of someone who used religion for power and sex. In this podcast interview with Dr. Brian Hales, author of Joseph Smith’s Polygamy , Dr. Greg Smith asks Dr. Hales some of the most difficult questions that are ever posed regarding polygamy. Smith asks, what do we know about why plural marriage was instituted? What did Emma know, and when did she know it? What was her reaction to plural marriage? How can we begin to understand polyandry, or instances in which Joseph married women who were married to other men? Is it possible that polyandrous marriages were not consummated? Even though there’s no good evidence for consummation of polyandrous relationships, what do we know about sexuality in the other marriages to single women? How can we begin to understand why Joseph married several women who were under the age of eighteen, including two brides that were likely 14 years old? Did Joseph send men on missions to “steal their wives” or marry them? Did Joseph threaten or manipulate women into being married to him? Could and did women refuse him? What were the consequences of doing so?

Christian minister George MacDonald, a primary inspiration to C.S. Lewis, once said “It is often the incapacity for defending the faith they love, which turns men into persecutors.” Adding to this, Elder Neil A. Maxwell said, “Defenders beget defenders and one of the significant side benefits of scholars who are devoted, . . . is that we will at least reduce the number of people who do not have the capacity to defend their faith and who otherwise might ‘grow weary and faint in their minds.'”

Why do people leave the Church? What was in the missing 116 pages of the Book of Mormon? How do we explain the appearance of horses in the Book of Mormon? Did Joseph Smith make up the story of the first vision long after it was supposed to have occurred? Is there any evidence that supports the authenticity for the Book of Abraham? Does the mention of grains in the Book of Mormon provide evidence of its truthfulness?

Joseph Smith Scholar Don Bradley and Dr. Dan Peterson take calls on K-Talk radio and answer a wide variety of questions in this interview that took place on July 25, 2013 on Drive Time Live with Mills Crenshaw.

Joseph Smith Scholar Don Bradley and Dr. Dan Peterson take calls on K-Talk radio and answer a wide variety of questions in this interview that took place on July 25, 2013 on Drive Time Live with Mills Crenshaw.

In this episode of Religion Today, which originally aired on KSL Radio on June 2, 2013, Martin Tanner analyzes the methodology used by those who write anti-Mormon literature, and directs listeners to sources for answering attacks against the Church.

Richard Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, discusses the issues that loomed in his mind as he wrote his books on Joseph Smith. One conclusion he has reached is that “we will not always be able to give satisfactory answers to our critics. We will never placate our critics completely and we should not seek to do so. If we placate them completely we are making our gospel, our history, conform to their  sense of what life should be and what the path should be. In a sense, we’re caving in if we become too pleasing to those around them. We have to state it as we see it and recognize that there will be differences from what our critics expect of us and of what actually happened to our people.”

The Maxwell Institute has started a podcast and subscribers to the FAIR Blog will especially enjoy this interview with Fiona and Terryl Givens. They talk about their recent book,  The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life, and also discuss their recent string of firesides and symposia discussing the navigation of faith crises. Former Mormon FAIR-Cast host, Blair Hodges, conducts the interview as they cover subjects like the character of God, the pre-earth life and human agency, the balance between faith and the intellect, individuality and Mormon culture, and many other topics.

This is a parallel podcast to the presentation made by Greg Kearney at the FAIR conference in 2005.  Greg used the title “Message and the Messenger” to distinguish how a teaching, principle or concept can be illustrated by symbols.  There are those who see this system as a secret combination designed to avoid public inspection.  Yet in this podcast we explore the symbolic teaching method used in Masonry and in the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints in more detail, to offer insight into what might be considered a deeper understanding of the sacred commitments we make to each other and Deity.

In the summer of 2013, the United Kingdom is playing host to the first official pageant of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints outside of North America. In the USA, pageants are a big part of Latter-day Saint culture in the summer months, with annual events in Manti UT, Palmyra NY, and Nauvoo IL. These events commemorate important events from Church history and the scriptures, and attract audiences of thousands each year.

The British Pageant follows the same format, but with a focus on the history of the Church in the British Isles, and is written and performed by members from around the United Kingdom. Throughout their history, the British people have demonstrated their desire to do God’s will, requiring personal sacrifice and tremendous courage. This pageant will tell the story of Latter-day Saints who sacrificed much to build their faith and strengthen their communities. Through their abiding faith and deep love for one another, and for the Saviour, the Saints discovered their lives were full of the joy of the gospel. This they taught their children, who carried on a legacy of devotion to the principles of the restored Gospel. Today, families and youth in the British Isles know this joy and continue to take it to all the world. The pageant explores events surrounding the beginnings of the Church, and the impact of these events in the British Isles through the years.

FAIR LDS BOOKSTORE

Come to the FAIR Bookstore to find the Internet’s best selection of materials for LDS apologetics. Whether you are looking for books, study aids, DVDs, or audio products, the FAIR Bookstore has what you need. You can begin your browsing by going to our main site.

http://bookstore.fairlds.org/

Be sure to check out the Clearance Section.  We have many older books and some new books with slightly damaged covers that offer great deals to buyers.
http://bookstore.fairlds.org/category.php?id_category=19

Clearance Special:

Treasures in Heaven
Limited to stock on hand

Compiled and published by George C. Lambert. Salt Lake City, Utah, 1914. Republished by Archive Publisher, 2007.  Softbound, 5″x8″, 96 pages.
(Volume 15) No lesson taught by the Savior during His ministry in mortality was more frequently and thoroughly impressed than that of unselfish service. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do no break through nor steal.”…The recital of some typical examples of sacrifices unselfishly made in the interest of others, and the joy experienced therein, may tend to promote faith in those who read the same and incite them also to lay up treasures in heaven…(Preface Excerpt)

Retail Price: $7.95
Special FAIR Price: $4.93 (38% Discount)

► Mormon Culture: Four Decades of Essays on Mormon Society and Personality
 Limited to stock on hand.

John L. Sorenson. Salt Lake City, Utah: New Sage Books, 1997. Softbound, 6.5×8.5″, 195 pages.

The founder of anthropology at Brigham Young University has been doing research on the Mormon “tribe” since 1955.  This volume makes available fifteen of his papers, some unpublished and others not readily accessible until now.

Retail Price: $16.00
Special FAIR Price: $8.00 (50% Discount)


► Penny Tracts and Polemics: a Critical Analysis of Anti-Mormon Pamphleteering in Great Britain (1837-1860)
 Limited to stock on hand.

Craig Foster, Draper, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2003, cloth hardbound, 268 pages, 94 illustrations (many of them full page reproductions of title pages and rare pamphlet covers.)
By 1860, Mormonism had enjoyed a presence in Great Britain for over twenty years. Mormon missionaries had experienced an unprecedented success in conversions and many new converts had left Britain’s shores for a new life and a new religion in the far western mountains of the American continent. With the unprecedented success of the Mormons had come tales of duplicity, priestcraft, sexual seduction and uninhibited depravity among the new religious adherents. Thousands of pamphlets with sensational titles such as, The Gates of the Mormon Hell Opened!…, Appalling Disclosures! Mormon Revelations, Being the History of Fourteen Females…, The Prophets; or, Mormonism Unveiled, and, Female Life Among the Mormons were sold or given to the British populace as a way of discouraging people from joining the Mormon Church. Foster places the creation of these English anti-Mormon pamphlets in their historical context. He discusses the authors, the impact of the publications and the Mormon response. With illustrations and detailed bibliography.
“This work contains the contents of the author’s 1989 Brigham Young University master’s thesis, now appearing in an attractive edition. In this book Foster provides historians and others with the essential overview of British anti-Mormon literature of the period (1837-60). It also includes helpful biographical sketches of obscure anti-Mormon writers, providing insight into their backgrounds and motivation, as well as supplying an important bibliography of the primary and secondary literature. Vignettes of selected pamphlets illustrate the book.” –“Book Notes”, The FARMS Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2004)
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Mormon Church History within the American Context.
3. The Beginnings of Mormonism in Great Britain, 1837-1841.
4. The Development Of Anti-Mormon Imagery, 1842-1852.
5. “The Gates Of The Mormon Hell Opened!” 1853-1860.
6. Conclusion
Appendix: A Short List of Anti-Mormon Literature, 1837-1860.
Bibliography, Index

Retail Price: $39.95
Special FAIR Price: $23.97 (40% Discount)

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► Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847, The: Norton Jacob’s Record

Ronald O. Barney. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2005.  Softbound, 6×9″, 398 pages.

There are no historical events that have more iconic significance for the people of Utah than the trek of the vanguard company of Mormons west in 1847. Its meaning may vary, but overall, the march has a highly symbolic and seminal historical importance for virtually all Utahns. While the journey has been widely celebrated, memorialized, and even sanctified and various books have been written about it, there is more that can be said and understood about the migration’s place in western history; about its context, including events preceding and following it; and about the real experiences of its participants. Particularly lacking in most published accounts are the stories of the rank and file members, the individuals who, in contrast to the well-known leadership, with Brigham Young at the top, might fittingly be called foot soldiers. The 1847 company had a military-like organization, which is captured by Ronald Barney’s term brigade in the title. Norton Jacob was such a man of the ranks in 1847. He had no special status in the Mormon Church, and there was little to make him stand out in the historical record than that he left what is regarded by many trail historians as one of the best and most informative journals of the early Mormon emigration. While the heart of Jacob’s record concerns the 1847 journey, there is much more to it. The diary published here begins in 1844, the year of church founder Joseph Smith’s murder. It continues through the crisis events that followed: the Mormons’ flight from Nauvoo, their trudging journey across Iowa to Winter Quarters, and the beginnings of mass migration to Utah. After the apex of 1847, the arc of the narrative moves through accounts of Jacob’s return to Nauvoo late that year and of the much larger Mormon emigration in 1848. It reaches denouement in a short record of his first years in Salt Lake Valley. 

Retail Price: $22.95
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► Forgiving Ourselves: Getting Back Up When We Let Ourselves Down

Wendy Ulrich.  Salt Lake City, Utah:  Deseret Book Company, 2008. Softbound, 6×9″, 275 pages.

All sin, many repent, but few really forgive themselves and find peace. Latter-day Saints believe in becoming better – we work hard at it – but we’re also among the most self-critical people. Too often we fail to fully claim the “amazing grace” of the Atonement. How can we help our loved ones – and ourselves – let go of past mistakes? Wendy Ulrich, an experienced psychologist, maps the journey from self blame to self-forgiveness. She shows how the pure doctrines of the restored gospel, coupled with the practical perspectives of psychology, can help us stop harrowing our souls and start planting the seeds of faith, healing, and joy.

Retail Price: $17.99
Special FAIR Price: $13.49 (25% Discount)

► Eloquent Witness: Nibley on Himself, Others, and the Temple: The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Volume 17

Hugh W. Nibley. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute For Religious Scholarship, 2008. Hardbound, 6 ¼ x 9 ¼ , 552 pgs. ISBN: 1606410035

In the tradition of Approaching Zion,  this book represents Nibley at his best. It is loaded with stunning insights on the temple, trenchant social commentary and fascinating autobiographical details.
One of the stunning aspects of Dr. Hugh Nibley’s genius was his persistent sense of wonder. That trait induced him to range widely through very disparate subjects of study – all covered in volume 17 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley on Himself, Others, and the Temple . In this compilation of materials, most of which have been published previously outside the Collected Works volumes, Nibley explores the ancient Egyptians, the temple, the life sciences, world literature, ancient Judaism, and Joseph Smith and the Restoration. The contents of this volume illustrate the breadth of his interest through autobiographical sketches, interviews, book reviews, forewords to books, letters, memorial tributes, Sunday School lessons, and various writings about the temple.

Retail Price: $39.95
Special FAIR Price: $27.97 (30% Discount)

► Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, The (CD)
Read by Rex Campbell.  American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, 2003. 
12 CDs
 
The entire Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price on CD.  Listen for 15 minutes a day and complete both books in less than 9 weeks!

Retail Price: $24.95
Special FAIR Price: $18.71 (25% Discount)
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