r/mormon

I sense increasing pressure for the church to change--at least do something significant.

It's hard to tell if this is a projection of my personal feelings or if this is a real societal pressure.

I'll try to list some of the possible reasons I see, but I don't think this list fully captures what I am sensing:

1. There's a new prophet. If President Oaks is going to change anything, the time is near. He's not getting any younger. We see the pattern with many church presidents, the become old and don't do much in the latter years.
2. I think it is just starting to sink in that the church is done building lots and lots of temples. Oaks has only announced 3 temples. The temple rush was the thing that showed church growth and progress. I've seen so many LDS who were deeply moved by the increasing rate of temple building, but now that's done. They'll have to find a replacement.
3. Actual membership numbers in the US are shrinking.
4. Missionaries visited us recently, and told us we were part of the highest baptizing mission in the USA. We've never had a convert baptism in our ward.
5. The rise of semi-faithful channels that are critical of the church. I enjoy watching people like Benjamin Park and was surprised to see his channel is less than 2 years old.
6. The rise of polygamy denier channels. These give believers a unique path to criticize the current church. They're everywhere online. You can find a video that criticizes Joseph Smith or polygamy that doesn't have a bunch of polygamy deniers in the comments.

I think the idea that "oh, maybe Joseph was actually a good person, and maybe it's okay for me to trust my gut about polygamy, and maybe the Book of Mormon might actually be written by a decent person, and maybe the church seems uninspired because it has entered somewhat of an apostasy"--to me at least, this view is very appealing and seems to address all my biggest criticisms while also allowing me space to maintain my most important beliefs--that's how the believing part of my mind feels anyway.

This angle of "believer but critical" seems new to me. I'm not aware that there has even been a united movement with this view before.

7. Women specifically have started to leave the church at an accelerated rate. This wasn't something you would hear about a year or two ago.

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That's some of my thoughts about way. I feel it's more than that though, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

My logical mind recognizes this might just be me projecting my own personal journey and feelings onto the broader society.

What do y'all think?

Joseph Smith made promises to a number women when he propositioned them with polygamy that accepting the marriage would save her and all of her family.

Is there a single action that I can take in this day and age that will likewise save my entire family? It seems like this “family-sized salvation package” type-deal is no longer stocked by the Mormon church. Is it because it goes against the belief that we all need to work out our own salvation?

I feel like we are living in the least impressive part of the worst dispensation. With the exception of the “miracle of the lost keys” and the “miracle of the diagnosis by the off-the-cuff examination by the neighbor who is a doctor, but this isn’t really her specialty, and little Brixton made a full, miraculous recovery” we really don’t get anything impressive these days in the miracle department.

When I hear this excuse that people just want to sin or hide sin and leave or step away to avoid criticism, I want to bang my head against a wall. It's so demeaning to real people with lived experiences of negative Mormon church interaction.

I didn't step away cuz I was steeped in sin, I stepped away out of personal self respect when confronted with the reality of the LDS church.

These guys are showing low intellect on full display.

I’ve never understood how Mormons can read the Book of Abraham and simply accept the idea that God told Abraham He lives on another planet orbiting a star called Kolob, which supposedly has a governing relationship to the other stars and worlds in the universe.

That is such a massive departure from the way Abraham and the ancient Israelites actually understood the cosmos.

The ancient Israelites didn’t have physics, astronomy, geometry, or any of the scientific framework we have today to understand the universe. Their worldview was fundamentally different. They generally understood the Earth as a flat, stationary place supported by pillars, with a solid dome (the “firmament”) overhead separating the Earth from the cosmic waters above. The sun and moon were not understood as distant celestial bodies like we understand them today. They were essentially the two great lamps placed in the firmament to govern the day, night, seasons, and appointed times.

The stars were part of the “heavenly host,” and planets were essentially understood as wandering stars. The Earth was the center of the physical and spiritual world, sitting beneath God’s heavenly realm. Heaven was not some distant galaxy millions of light-years away. It was literally understood as the realm beyond the firmament.

That was their entire reference point for understanding the cosmos.

They had no concept of the Earth as a sphere orbiting the Sun, the Moon as a satellite orbiting the Earth, or the Sun as one star among billions. They certainly had no concept of gravity, planetary motion, nuclear fusion, the physical composition of stars, or the enormous scale of the universe.

The Book of Abraham asks us to believe that Abraham looks through an ancient instrument (the Urim and Thummim) and receives an explanation of the universe that is radically different from the cosmology surrounding him. Instead of the Earth being the physical center beneath a nearby heavenly dome, Abraham is supposedly shown a vast cosmic hierarchy centered around a star called Kolob.

Kolob is presented as being so close to the throne of God that it becomes, in effect, the closest thing to a literal cosmic center of God’s presence. The Book of Abraham describes governing stars, planets, times, and relationships between celestial bodies in a way that sounds much more like a later cosmological framework than anything resembling the ancient Israelite worldview.

How was Abraham supposed to understand any of this, and what reference point did he have? How could he suddenly comprehend a completely different model involving governing stars, planetary relationships, celestial time, and a cosmic hierarchy?

It would be like trying to explain nuclear physics to someone who has never even conceived of an atom. You could give them the words, but the words wouldn't give them the underlying concepts. Abraham would have had no reference point for what he was supposedly seeing. Charlie Brown's teacher explaining it to him (“Wah Wah Wah”) would be about as meaningful. He wouldn't even have had the mental framework to process it; it is so radically different!

If God miracously gave Abraham this revolutionary understanding of the cosmos, where did it go?

Why didn't this knowledge transform the ancient Israelite understanding of the universe?

Look at the story of Joshua stopping the sun. The sun is described as standing still in the sky. The imagery fits perfectly within the ancient conception of the sun moving across the heavens as a lamp. If Abraham had already been taught that the universe was structured around Kolob, that celestial bodies existed in a hierarchy, and that there was an entirely different understanding of planetary motion and celestial time, why doesn't any of that knowledge appear to have survived in ancient Israelite literature?

Why does the ancient worldview continue to look exactly like the worldview we would expect from the ancient Near East?

Where is the influence of Abraham's supposed cosmic revelation?

Why did nobody else seem to know about it?

And then, thousands of years later, the Book of Abraham appears with a cosmology that sounds completely foreign to the worldview that Abraham lived in.

The problem isn't simply that ancient people didn't understand modern astronomy. Of course they didn't. The problem is that the Book of Abraham asks to believe that Abraham somehow received and understood concepts that were completely outside his cultural, scientific, and conceptual framework and then somehow none of that knowledge meaningfully entered the Israelite tradition.

Galileo and others eventually dismantle the old Earth-centered model in the 17th century, and astronomy eventually revealed a universe governed by physical laws, gravity, planetary motion, and enormous distances. The sun became a star, planets became physical worlds orbiting stars, and the Earth became one planet among many rather than the literal center of creation.

The scientific revolution fundamentally dismantled the mythological architecture through which ancient people understood the heavens. The universe went from being a human-centered spiritual theater beneath a heavenly dome to an enormous physical system governed by mathematical laws.

And yet the Book of Abraham presents itself as an ancient revelation to Abraham, but its description of the cosmos doesn't fit comfortably within the cosmology of the ancient Israelites surrounding him.

So, If God really showed Abraham a radically different understanding of the universe, why does Abraham's world show virtually no evidence that he had the conceptual framework to understand it? Why does the ancient Israelite tradition show virtually no evidence that this knowledge was ever passed down?

Abraham was missing the entire language necessary to understand what he was supposedly being shown!

What do you believe regarding the Bible, the church (not Lds but mainline churches) and other Christian sects like the JWs? Is mormonism generally supportive of them or not? Would love to hear form some real mormons.

Mormonism sounds to most Christians like polytheists claiming they are christian because their later added, human made, created add on to the word of God contains the words Jesus and Christ. How do Mormons call themselves christian if they believe one can become god, and there are three distinct gods in mormonism?

My husband and I recently got married civilly because he was unable to get his sealing to his ex wife canceled in time for our wedding. He recently met with his stake president, who apparently got a letter from the first presidency denying my husband’s request for a cancellation on grounds that he and I had sinned too recently for the cancellation to be approved. He was told (2 days ago by his stake president) in a letter from the first presidency that the soonest he could reapply for a cancellation would be March 2027 (in 7 months). For reference, we had sex one time in October 2025.

Let it be known that he and I both have temple recommends back, and the sex was a one-time thing. It feels like he is just being punished for a sin that happened one time, and almost an entire year ago. It feels like a huge abuse of power to me (and him), since getting his sealing to his ex wife canceled should have NOTHING to do with a one-time sin involving me and him. Curious to any feedback here/ to make this make sense.

I'm a 14 year old member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I have a lot of gender dysphoria. I was born male, but over the last year or so I've been feeling as though my gender at birth does not align with who I am or want to be.

The church has rules that state that, in short, I shouldn't go transgender. I have tried accepting that fact and praying about it but it has never helped me. I still feel deeply that my biological gender does not align with who I am.

I am not willing to leave my church over this. No matter what I choose, I know that I believe in Jesus Christ, but other than that, I'm not sure.

I have not brought this up to my parents, and I'm struggling feeling comfortable to do so. I know that my parents would be supportive of me, but I'm really shy and I can't bring myself to tell them.

I'm looking for help/advice from anyone who would like to give me some.

This one directly ties therapy to destroying faith. Here is the last article that was posted as well.

https://www.deseret.com/entertainment/2026/07/14/therapy-nation-jonathan-alpert-how-to-find-a-therapist/

I was sent for 2 years to Melbourne, Australia, and I have to say it was the BEST worst 2 years of my life.

Before my mission, I thought it was going to be this spiritually filled experience where I would see God’s hand every single step of the day, leading us to the Lord’s chosen and elect investigators. I imagined I would baptize families after families who all desired to follow God and join His true Church.

Of course, the reality was far from what I imagined.

In reality, it was 2 years of knocking doors for 8 to 10 hours almost every day in the Australian heat, in a place where people are extremely secular. You constantly get rejected, have doors slammed in your face, get mean things said to you, and sometimes even have things thrown at you. On top of that, you might get paired with some really difficult or even abusive companions.

So in that aspect, it really was the worst.

But at the same time, it was also the best because I learned a lot, grew a lot, and learned some super valuable lessons about dealing with people. I learned how to handle rejection, how to deal with difficult personalities, and how to keep going even when things don't turn out the way you expected.

It definitely wasn't the mission experience I imagined before I left

There’s a dung pile of failed Smith prophecies but I don’t know of any that came true. I’m talking about things that happened that he didn’t control. Predicting I will go to lunch on Tuesday doesn’t make me a prophet. I start by blowing away the most commonly cited example.

1832 prediction of the US civil war: From late 1832 to the spring of 1833 there was a standoff between President Jackson and South Carolina now called the nullification crisis. That prophecy was a prediction of a war that never happened as the conflict was resolved. The church clearly moved on as the claimed revelation is missing from the D&C in both 1835 and 1844.

In 1851 the prediction showed up in print as the 1850 comprise really resolved nothing. If the noise hadn’t been concentrated again in South Carolina, this would never have seen the light of day. Predicting a war in South Carolina was like predicting the Super Bowl would happen on a Sunday.

But let’s examine the text, D&C 87

>1 Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls;

Wars did not come. One war came decades later than expected. Wars tend to be miserable and kill people.

>2 And the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place.

Complete fail. War has never been poured out on all nations, not even the world wars. And those did not start in South Carolina. That war ended.

3 For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations.

North vs South was the plague of US politics from the beginning. Both sides called for help because, duh, why wouldn’t they? The southern states calling on Britain was an obvious choice since people thought Britain was eager to see the US fail out of revenge. The South did appeal to Britain who basically told them to pound sand. They called on France, Mexico, Spain and Russia. They stayed neutral except Russia whom the union asked for help. It send squadrons to San Francisco and New York. That seems to be missing from the prophesy. War was not poured out on all nations.

Citing obvious conjecture while missing Russia and making a false prediction about the results makes this a failure.

>4 And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war.

Slave revolts were not new and happened periodically throughout the antebellum period. This is obvious conjecture of any war involving a slave-holding state.

>5 And it shall come to pass also that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall become exceedingly angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation.

The remnants of the war were gentiles. There was no marshal to persecute gentiles. This verse is nonsense.

>6 And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations;

Wars by sword, famine, plagues earthquakes, thunder and lightning have been a staple of the human experience for centuries. He is stating the obvious. There was no significant increase due to the war except famine which the losing side suffered. Duh. There has been no full end of all nations. At best this is untestable. It’s non-specific blah-blah.

>7 That the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies.

The war had nothing to do avenging the saints.

>8 Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.

Just more blah-blah.

This prophecy is a fail. Can you name any that aren’t?

My husband cheated on me but not all the way. He says the chick is crazy and just wanted him to leave me for her. She got a restraining order tho but he’s contesting it. She is accusing him of assault. But he showed me the texts and she was speaking inappropriately to him. And went over to his room / wanted to hang out. He’s been posted on a lot of Facebook groups but he’s saying it’s the same chick.

He got fired and I think she’s trying to press charges but it got dismissed.

Do you think he’s going to keep doing this? The FB group says he doesn’t take no for an answer. I’ve never had that experience. Do you think he will continue? Or just get better at hiding it? Or do you think she’s lying. He’s been on dating apps as well. Idk what to believe.

Also we are Mormon and is claiming to love me or whatever saying he won’t ever do it again and it was a mistake

& i love him / have kids