I once had a bishop who told me that if I read a chapter of the Book of Mormon everyday I would never leave the Church. I agreed with it at the time, which isn't the case now. But I can't necessarily argue against it, because I sure as hell didn't read the Book of Mormon every day, so I'm simply a validation of the sentiment. I'm sure TBMs reading agree and also feel validated. However, I did not say that I proved him right. I'm sure there is someone, if not many, out there who did read the Book of Mormon every day and still left the Church. After all, in my opinion it is one of the smokiest guns for the Church. I actually plan to read it again soon. It will be the first time I will read it from a non believer's perspective. I imagine I will feel many of the same feelings I did when I read as a believer. After all, its stories teach universal concepts of good and peace. It also promotes racist and bigoted concepts similar to the Bible. But, the fact of the matter is it changed my life and this chapter will detail my previous love for the book and how it passionately developed.

Joseph Smith called the Book of Mormon the "keystone" of Mormonism, "the most correct of any book on earth", and that "a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book".¹ Those are all phrases that I heard regularly in Church settings. I used them often myself, especially on my mission. What's more, I fully believed them. Even so, I did not personally read the Book of Mormon regularly, despite my best efforts to do so. In high school, I even carried a small pocket edition in my back pocket in effort to read when I had down time. That didn't work. Although I did get a lot of attention because of it. Most my friends thought it was pretty cool, but I'm sure some did some pretty serious eye rolls too. My personal scripture study habits would be better described as sporadic. I would go a few weeks or even months of daily reading and then go at least twice as long without reading.

Family scripture study was a different story. My family read from the Book of Mormon together nearly every day. The only reason it wouldn't happened was if there was an irregularity that popped up in our schedule. I mostly assumed the responsibility of ensuring it happened, at least through the week. We would read first thing in the morning before anyone left for the day besides myy Dad. He would leave for work at an ungodly hour and would skip out. Other than him, I was the first one to leave every morning so I was the one that woke everyone else up to read. We'd usually be half awake and have trouble concentrating. As such, it wasn't so much family scripture study as it was take turns reading a few verses each to say that we did it. There was the rare occasion in which one of us would ask a question or my Mom would expand on a verse. But we were almost always able to leave the house with the satisfaction of doing what we were supposed to.

At a young age, a Church leader told me when reading the scriptures, if I caught myself thinking about something other than what I was reading, that was personal revelation from Heavenly Father. In hindsight, I now realize that this is terrible advice, especially for a 13 year old with a very short attention span while reading mundane, religious text. But the sentiment and teaching was common among all Mormons and only reinforced by the common mantra of "If you want to talk to God, pray. If you want God to talk to you, read the scriptures." I can only imagine the crazy things I thought of and interpreted as revelation from God. It was extremely hard to concentrate on what I was reading. On my mission this experience was much different. In fact, scripture study almost became a form of meditation for me and I loved learning of the stories in both the Bible and Book of Mormon. It was always done early in the morning with soft, relaxing music playing in the background. I was able to think of solutions to my daily problems and worries while reading my scriptures in this situation, not too different from when I meditate now.

In August 2005, then Church President Gordon B. Hinckley issued a challenge to all of Church membership to read the Book of Mormon by the end of that calendar year. He promised those that completed the challenge would have "an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."² I'm positive most Mormons will remember this challenge as it was taken very seriously by many. Unofficial reading charts were released to help track your reading. President Hinckley originally said that a pace of one and half chapters a day would allow someone to finish the entire book by the deadline. As time progressed, the pace obviously increased and I remember getting more overwhelmed having decided I wanted to to complete this challenge. Most of my friends at school were doing it and my seminary teacher was hammering it as well. But I honestly believe my decision to do so was at least semi-organic within me. I had a desire to truly know the Book of Mormon was true.

Some may be questioning my choice of words "truly know the Book of Mormon was true". The word "true" likely seems vague and unreasonable. But that's the wording chosen by the Church. To demonstrate, here's a promise that is made in the introduction of the Book of Mormon:

We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah.¹

As a missionary, I shared these paragraphs with those I was teaching — referred to as investigators — frequently. As you can see, it uses a domino effect style of thinking and everything starts with the knowledge of the Book of Mormon. Essentially, they claim that if the Book of Mormon is "true" — i.e. inspired scripture written by prophets as directed by God — then Joseph Smith must have been a prophet, and if he was a prophet then his claims to the one and only true Church of Christ must be true. Notice the complete absence of nuance in that mindset. We would teach people that if they felt good while reading the Book of Mormon, that was Heavenly Father telling them it was true. Nevermind the fact that it could just be due to the various inspiring stories and hero plots in the book. This thinking presents an enormous conundrum as billions of people have felt similar feelings reading other religious texts that have nothing to do with Mormonism. This is not official doctrine of the Church, but I've heard faithful Mormons express belief that the likes of Mohammed were inspired prophets in their time but their present day followers are misled. This is just one example of the justifications attempting to explain how other writings can lead one to feel the same way as Mormon scripture.

In the last chapter of the Book of Mormon, a prophet named Moroni explains how to reach the knowledge that Mormons seek about the Book of Mormon:

Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.³

Notice that several criteria are set forth in order to get an answer about the Book of Mormon. Read the book, ponder it, pray and ask if "these things are not true" — not if they are true, but if they are not true — with "real intent" and "faith in Christ" then God will tell you. It may not be incredibly obvious from the text, but there is plenty of room for confirmation bias and circular reasoning in this promise, especially the way the Church interprets it. I was taught as a missionary that someone had to want to know the Book of Mormon is true in order to receive an answer. Apparently, that is what Moroni meant when he supposedly said "real intent". If a person prayed already believing the Book of Mormon was false, then they wouldn't get their answer. But if they were open to the idea of it being true — or even better, already believed it was true — then they could get their answer. Some people I taught would pray many times over hoping for an answer but would never get one. After shaming them by asking if they had faith and real intent, we would then ask how t