Elder Cook and the other apostles of the Utah LDS church lead a deceptive and deceitful organization. The LDS church hides its true history. The leaders regularly lie.

He has never apologized for the bigoted and racist policies of the church.

He wouldn’t know Jesus if Jesus came up and shook his hand.

My life is so much better now that I’ve realized that the leaders of the Utah LDS church I was born into do not and have not had the special connection to God they claim.

Nobody in the world needs to listen to these men.

Decades ago church leaders claimed all non-Mormon marriages were illegal.

>“as all the ordinances of the gospel Administered by the world since the Aposticy of the Church was illegal, in like manner was the marriage Cerimony illegal and all the world who had been begotton through the illegal marriage were Bastards not sons”

-Orson Pratt, quoted in Kenney, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:260.*

In 2017 Elder Larry Lawrence repeated this despicable idea criticizing gay marriage as being satanic. Here is his article:

>The devil has been called “the great deceiver.”  He attempts to counterfeit every true principle the Lord presents.
>Remember, counterfeits are not the same as opposites. The opposite of white is black, but a counterfeit for white might be off-white or gray. Counterfeits bear a resemblance to the real thing in order to deceive unsuspecting people. They are a twisted version of something good, and just like counterfeit money, they are worthless. Let me illustrate.
>One of Satan’s counterfeits for faith is superstition. His counterfeit for love is lust. He counterfeits the priesthood by introducing priestcraft, and he imitates God’s miracles by means of sorcery.
>Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, but same-sex marriage is only a counterfeit. It brings neither posterity nor exaltation. Although his imitations deceive many people, they are not the real thing. They cannot bring lasting happiness.
>God warned us about counterfeits in the Doctrine and Covenants. He said, “That which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness” (D&C 50:23).

I saw these quotes in a LDS Mormon’s anti-gay social media post this week. This idea is alive and well.

Source: https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/ensign-april-2017/2017-04-00-ensign-eng.pdf

I love this commentary that criticizes this take in the By Common n Consent blog

https://bycommonconsent.com/2017/03/21/lets-talk-about-counterfeit-marriage/

The LDS leaders are awful for disparaging gay marriages and claiming they can’t lead to happiness.

In 2005 Merrill J. Bateman told the Salt Lake Tribune that members stay on the records until either their death is confirmed or they reach age 110. He justified this by saying in an unintentionally creepy way, "We really don't give up on people."

It’s a ruse to inflate their numbers and is deceptive.

Most people die by age 82.

Professor of Sociology, Dr Ryan Cragun was on Mormon Book Reviews with Steven Pynakker. He read the book Torn and shares positives and criticisms of the book.

In these short clips he gives three criticisms.

1. Jeff says everyone should be Mormon. (Not in those words). Ryan takes issue with that. Jeff says people need religion and the LDS church and the church needs to change to fill that need. Ryan says no, some people are just out and don’t want the LDS church no matter what it’s like.

2. Jeff says to change the social structure individuals need to be more accepting. Ryan and Steve both say no individuals at the bottom don’t change the culture and social structure of an institution.

3. Jeff doesn’t realize by say we need to accept more diversity in the church it’s a catch 22. Becoming generic the LDS church loses its market niche and it risks damaging the group.

Go watch the full episode here:

https://youtu.be/SoNZjIGem08

I’ve edited clips together from this famous podcast. This is a 7 minute summary.

It describes the steps needed to build a boat and how impossible it would be given the book (Nephi?) describes Nephi doing it with minimal help from either God or humans.

This was an invention by the author of the Book of Mormon Joseph Smith.

I also like how John addresses head on that believers will simply say that God can do any number of miracles so God made it happen. Or that some believers say we are supposed to understand this as myth.

His response is that the LDS church and Joseph Smith said this is not myth. They claim it is literal history.

Also if the level of God miraculously magic needed to do this was employed why spend 2 chapters describing in detail all this human work that was done? It makes no sense. At that point why didn’t God give them an airplane? It doesn’t work.

They needed vast amounts of resources to build a boat like this. Resources that historically are assembled from many far away places who specialize in providing them.

A family like this could not build a boat. Impossible. Not in less than three years and not ever. It’s ridiculous and I was taught it is real history. No it is not.

Go listen to the full episode it here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1YtKH75zzu0EO4rk7s1JZO

Mormon Expression episode 276: How to build a transoceanic vessel. 🚢

I was looking at the website by a group called Mormon Alliance. They seem to be one of the first in the internet age to call out child sexual abuse being a problem and calling for improvements in how the church handles it. The website says they started their group on July 4, 1992.

>The purposes of the Alliance are defined as: to identify and document ecclesiastical/spiritual abuse, to promote healing and closure for its survivors, to build more sensitive leadership, to empower LDS members to participate with more authenticity in Mormonism, and to foster a healthier religious community.

The organizers appear to be the following people:

>Lavina Fielding Anderson, Janice Merrill Allred, Compilers and editors of Volume 1 of case reports from 1995.

>Trustees of the Mormon Alliance
Janice Merrill Allred,
Lavina Fielding Anderson,
James E. Chapman,
Marti Lynne Jones,
Paul Swenson

Lavina Fielding Anderson was excommunicated in September 1994 for this work she did to call out child sexual abuse problems in the church. (and other types of ecclesiastical abuse). According to the webpage she was active with the Mormon Alliance group until at least 2016.

Janice Merrill Allred was put on church probation for her work in October 1994 and then excommunicated in May 1995. She wrote an article about Heavenly Mother I believe.

Here is the Wikipedia article about Mormon Alliance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Alliance

Here is their Volume one of case reports on Child Sexual Abuse:

https://mormon-alliance.org/casereports/volume1/part1/v1p1.htm

Here is an article by James E. Chapman about dissent in the church from Dialogue Journal:

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/dissent-in-the-church-toward-a-workable-definition/

The website says Marti Lynne Jones was never a target of discipline by the LDS church. She went on to become a lay leader in her Episcopal Church congregation. She was elected to the vestry which means she was an official lay leader that helps to manage the affairs of that church community and is a spiritual leader in the congregation.

Paul Swenson was the long time editor of Utah Holliday magazine that was published by his former mormon mission companion. He is credited with giving many Utah writers their start. He took out a full page ad to protest the excommunication of the "September Six" and marched with a few others in protest during General Conference. https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=53441126&itype=cmsid

The wikipedia article on Mormon Alliance says it was started by Paul Toscano, but I didn't see his name on the website. Also it appears that Francis "Nelson" Henderson has been the most recent keeper of the website. He has published a long "Exit Statement" on his own website. https://www.fnhenderson.us/FullExitStatement.pdf (warning it is 220 pages long).

What do you know about these amazing people and the impact of Mormon Alliance?

Kolby Reddish posted on his channel “Let’s Disagree Show” a discussion between him and Steven Murphy. He published it this week but I think it may be reposted from a discussion previously posted on Steven’s channel?

Kolby in this clip talks about how he questions the witnesses interpretation of what they experienced. Witnesses experiences are subjective.

He also says that over and over when you would expect to find evidence to corroborate Joseph Smith’s claims they are not there and the apologists have convenient explanations for why these things are missing.

Love the concept of Kolby’s channel which is trying to have pleasant conversations pro vs con about the LDS church.

Go watch this discussion here:

https://youtu.be/IUX0rXkkDAc

Bill Reel and RFM go over the similarities between Joseph Smith and his family’s fake and fraudulent treasure digging to the story of obtaining the Book of Mormon.

Joseph did the fake treasure digging with his father and his brother Hyrum in one account. His mother in her biography tells about “drawing circles” and soothsaying.

They never found treasure and simply pretended it was there. It would sink away and never be found. What a con!

Joseph used this approach to get money and favors from people.

When the story of the plates comes around there are rituals involved that are similar. He can’t get the plates because the guardian angel Mormons tells him he did something wrong so he must return on certain dates with certain people at night. He must do things just right.

I can’t believe my parents and teachers at church taught me this was real. I can’t believe I taught it was real as a missionary. This story is so fanciful it is clearly a continuation of the fraudulent treasure digging.

I’ve put together about 10 minutes of clips from their Mormonism live show from last night. Go see the full episode here:

https://www.youtube.com/live/bymy57qvmWU

On Mormonish Podcast, Rebecca and Landon go over the 37 special questions a bishop is given from the church to discuss with a female if she says she has had same sex experiences or attractions.

They say a former leader of the church gave them this as he was required to do this with a prospective missionary.

Apparently there is a separate set of questions for males who express a history of same sex attraction or experiences.

I didn’t include any of the discussion of the LDS church’s gross questionnaire in the post or the clip.

You can find it here if you want:

https://youtu.be/\_6BrlcYRnZ4

The discussion of the special questions is from 25:45 to 1:09:00

The LDS church proves time and time again their homophobia is strong. What an awful church.

Recent comments on Jasmine Rappelye’s discussion of the Holy of Holies include statements that the commenter believes the apostles and prophet talk to Jesus face to face or have seen him.

This has been refuted by Dallin Oaks in 2016

>"I've never had an experience like that and I don't know anyone among the 1st Presidency or Quorum of the 12 who've had that kind of experience."

https://youtu.be/GrMJ2YZD62M

I consider the statements of some LDS that leaders have seen Jesus to be delusional. There is no evidence it is true.

A webpage titled "Deseret Demographer" shows graphs of various LDS membership and activity numbers.

When comparing the LDS claimed membership in the USA to the percentage in US surveys where people self report they are a member it shows that in 2025 an estimated 69% of the LDS stated members claim to be LDS. Self reports in surveys can include people who no longer attend or who claim to be LDS because of association to other break off denominations. US LDS membership as reported by the church is 6,929,770. This would suggest 4.79 million self report as LDS.

In looking at weekly attendance, this website estimates weekly attendance per ward of 103 versus LDS church stated membership of 526 per ward. This is 19.6%. This is attendance world wide.

It makes sense that weekly attendance would be less than self reported religion as many who still claim to be part of the religion do not regularly attend for various reasons.

I believe the attendance rate in the USA is not far from that 20% level. What do you think?

Here is the link to the website:

https://www.fullerconsideration.com/DeseretDemographer/

The Second Annointing is a secret ordinance reserved for priveleged leaders of the church. It’s been described by a few members over the history of the church and in the Joseph Smith papers.

Those who do it believe they have already achieved all that is necessary to qualify for Godhood and exaltation. Before this ordinance members are blessed in the temple only to become such in the future.

The ordinance involves washing the feet and receiving a special blessing and believing with all your heart these things actually work.

You can learn more here from Mormon Stories Podcast:

https://youtu.be/zdS28ZVAsNM

And here:

https://youtu.be/Sfwh5gDUTRg

And here:

https://youtu.be/I6TQRlrgwFo

Thank you John Dehlin and Mormon Stories for helping me learn the truth about the Mormon religion I was raised in. I was never told about this ordinance for the privileged class of the church. The official church representatives refuse to speak about this.

We don’t know of a language called “Reformed Egyptian”. Apologists say “well there is Hieratic and Demotic in addition to Hieroglyphic Egyptian.”

Julia, Nemo, John and Kolby on Mormon Stories podcast look closer. They show that Hebrew is more condensed than any of those three forms of Egyptian. So the Book doesn’t match reality.

It appears Joseph Smith wanted to claim it was in a language nobody could read because he was the one dictating the story and it was not from ancient plates. We invented a story that would be difficult to verify.

At the time nobody could read Egyptian. But they could read Hebrew.

Kolby emphasizes that the book makes claims about itself and its origins that are just not true. Therefore the book is not what it and Joseph Smitb claimed it to be.

See the full episode here:

https://youtu.be/lJzmRH9q3Go

This new podcast titled “His Hands” has two currently serving missionaries as hosts. The christus statue as the logo.

At the beginning of the podcast Greg Prince reviews the facts. Some of the facts include that there is not evidence that Josèphe Smith talk d about the first vision or any persecution because of it t until after the church was organized. Many other people in the region claimed to have had visions of God around that time. The church didn’t use the story in missionary work until the 1880s.

It was not for the first 50 years the origin story of the church as it is today.

They discuss how some try to say the accounts all mesh together.

Greg discusses how most members are literalists and don’t want to use any nuance to accept that there are contradictions in the accounts. Jim believes that a faith crisis waiting to happen. Greg says it works for many their whole lives.

Podcast is here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4eLa2eseTcAPfFUllHJkof

Reality TV personality Taylor Frankie Paul posted online about her patriarchal blessing. Alyssa used this as topic for her most recent video about the Mormon religion.

She talks about the special magical powers a patriarch in the LDS Church has. She explains how a teen typically experiences a patriarchal blessing. She goes over her own and parts of others blessings with commentary.

Of course as a no longer believing member she doesn’t believe they are really words from God.

What do you think about your patriarchal blessing?

Here is the full episode.

https://youtu.be/LnOm2e4HXjk

In this episode of Mormon Book Reviews, the host, Steven Pynakker interviews Matthew Gill (prophet/revelator) and his father Philip Gill of the *Restored Branch of Jesus Christ in England.*

The discussion focuses on their experience being sued by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) roughly 10 years ago over trademark disputes, specifically relating to their use of various terms such as Mormon, Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints. The church also tries to tell them they can’t use the Book of Mormon.

Full episode here:

https://youtu.be/Yoz4rAxwk8Y