Mormon.ish

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

What makes people willing to surrender their individuality to a cause, a movement, or a group—and why can belonging become so powerful? In this episode of Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon are joined by Cameron Stringham and Kendel Christensen to discuss Eric Hoffer’s classic book The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements through the lens of Mormonism. Hoffer explores why people are drawn to mass movements, what makes someone a “true believer,” and how movements create powerful feelings of identity, purpose, certainty, sacrifice, and belonging. Together, we examine how these ideas can help us understand aspects of Mormon history, culture, belief, and the experience of both joining and leaving a high-demand religious community. Why do movements become so compelling? What happens when the group becomes part of who we are? And what can The True Believer teach us about our own need to believe, belong, and find meaning? Join us for a fascinating conversation about Mormonism, mass movements, and the psychology of belief.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

What’s changed in the 2027 Come, Follow Me New Testament manual—and what might those changes tell us about the direction of the LDS Church? In this episode, we’re joined by John Sobczak, a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who has done a detailed comparison of the new 2027 Come, Follow Me manual with the previous New Testament curriculum. John walks us through what’s been added, what’s been removed, and what’s been reframed or emphasized differently. Some of the changes may seem small at first, but taken together, they reveal some fascinating shifts in emphasis and offer clues about where the Church may be heading in its approach to scripture, doctrine, and teaching. Join us as we dig into the actual text and ask: What’s in? What’s out? And what do these changes tell us?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