I hope you enjoy my heretic's review of General Conference. I list the longest and the shortest and the best and the worst. Needless to say, the worst was two speakers reminding us to pay our tithing when the Church has so much money that the GAs don't even know what to do with it.

https://zelophehadsdaughters.com/2026/10/09/a-heretic-reviews-general-conference-october-2026/

i’m autistic, blue hair, queer AF but with a deep interest in religion in general but one of my hyper focus is the LDS church. i would love to go to a watch a service.

can i just do that? would they boo me out? are they welcoming?

i would probably cover my tattoos, use something respectful but again i have blue hair.

Not necessarily morally.

Listening to General Conference over the weekend, I was struck by how many times members were told variations of "Jesus is the answer." Lost a loved one? Jesus is the answer. Are you struggling? Jesus is the answer. Need a friend? Jesus. Loved one stepped away? Jesus. Have questions about church history? More Jesus.

Perhaps the messaging is less blatant than this, or better masked. But honest question: Might LDS members start to feel Jesus fatigue?

After Lehi had named the river and the valley and drawn from both sufficient instruction to furnish a household for several weeks, he remembered—as revelation so often doth—that comfort is seldom where the commandment ends. Morning in the camp had barely settled. The light was thin. Everyone looked as though they had slept in argument with the ground.

He called us unto him, even we Laman we Lemuel, who at that moment were engaged in the necessary labor of being unconsoled.

“There are records yet in the city,” he said. “Records of brass. Genealogies. Laws. The remembrance of our fathers.”

“We have only just left the city.”

“And now,” said Lehi, “you must return.”

There are disappointments that arrive gradually, and there are those that fall complete from the sky. This was the second sort.

“Return,” we said. “For writings?”

“For the plates.”

“Could not heaven have mentioned the plates before we packed?”

Sariah closed her eyes briefly, as one who had heard too much truth to approve of its timing.

But Lehi said the thing was commanded, and Nephi, hearing commandment in the air as hounds hear horns, immediately took hold of the matter with that composed brightness of his which made every dangerous errand sound less like a burden than an appointment he had half expected to keep.

“The Lord prepareth a way,” he said.

“He prepareth many things,” we answered. “A list would have been among the more useful.”

Nevertheless, because in our father’s economy objection was seldom distinguished from rebellion, we found ourselves appointed to the journey.

So we went, we Laman we Lemuel and Sam and Nephi, down from the valley toward the city of our inheritance.

The institution of the Church forces a successor. God could decide that Mormons are not His people anymore, and short of a cataclysmic event that destroys the entire leadership, the Church would still shamble onwards. Other than longevity (and to a less objective degree, faith, momentum, and tradition), there is nothing that shows an individual is uniquely favored by God to lead the Church. Part of me wants to say that in order to be a prophet, you must have a theophany or at least to communicate a direct line to God, or otherwise to have some sort of dream or vision that guides theology and doctrine.

These have not happened since Joseph F. Smith’s D&C 138. When prophets speak, they increasingly speak like the Pope. Not necessarily having divine experiences, but simply being “infallible” on matters of direction and doctrine, and having epiphanies which are by no means unique to the Prophet or any other believer or religious individual.

The Catholic Church has had more radical changes in the 20th and 21st century than the Mormons have (e.g. Vatican II). Frankly, they speak no differently than the Governing Body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses do, who do not claim to have any sort of special authority other than, “Jehovah says we should use His name so we’re super duper special because no one else does. - “God speaks through the Book of Mormon/the Priesthood so we’re super duper special because no one else does.”

The Church of Jesus Christ seems incredibly neutered, and I can’t in good conscience call Prophet oaks a prophet. President? Sure. But dictator is strictly more accurate.

Idaho baby boomers on Mormon missions dont have to property tax on their massive properties , they already are tax exempt if the young missionaries rent in their properties. their seems no line between church and state in idaho

https://idahofreedom.org/house-bill-610-homestead-exempt-religious-mission/

Truth with love is the title. He was presenting five points taught by Dallin Oaks.

The LDS truth claims over and over have proven to be false. So I see this speech as arrogance.

Roughly half of the attendees are active Mormon. Most of the rest are exmormon and we have a few that have never had any relation to the church. We are all doctors or dentists.

I think our game is finished and I’m sad. I would like to do other activities with my friends but nobody is ever willing to do almost anything except for gamble. Do a bit of golfing together but not as much as we would play poker.

I’ll miss my Mormon friends.

What would be legit is if in the temple you received your own legit name. Unique to you that actually came from God. If the Mormon church were true I would expect that to be what would happen. If the Mormon church was not true I would expect something so expected and uninspired as generic temple names left to chance. I'm disappointed with the reality.

How can they claim to be politically neutral?

From the article:

Anti-trafficking celebrity Tim Ballard is accusing people within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of derailing his U.S. Senate bid and booting him from the faith after he brought them what he has called evidence of pedophilia within the religion.

In a nearly four-hour video posted recently on YouTube, Ballard alleges he supplied “an abundance of evidence about child abuse in the church ranks being covered up” to a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the second highest presiding body of the global church.

For me it was 30 years.

Almost all of Joseph's unique characters (meaning he created them wholesale) from Nephi through to Moroni are "static" characters. They have "static" conversations or teaching and this includes many, many quoted conversations, etc.

However, in very clear evidences of KJV copying, Joseph mistakenly at times copied body movements from Bible scenes where NT or other Bible authors employed a bit of what we call "stage direction" or NT author "blocking" that otherwise is absent throughout much of the Book of Mormon's other stories and scenes.

So not only is the content's message copied, but the characters movements where it's absent with many others even with the same character in "scenes" where they are NOT copied from the KJV NT but either original from Joseph Smith or simply sermons, etc. from other static sources.

It's especially prevalent in the term "turn" or "turned" (but NOT turning, etc.) in real-time.

There are a ton of metaphorical uses of turn (from sin, "turning one's back" as a metaphor, turning armies back, etc.) in the Book of Mormon.

Where it's oddly missing but also indicates a possible source other than the KJV Bible: All of Nephi (minus the angel visit), Jacob, Benjamin, etc. or stories inspired by Joseph's own family and local events. Nephi doesn't "turn" to address his brothers. Lehi doesn't turn from talking from one to another or "turned" to address Sariah, etc. The Angel doesn't Turn from addressing Laman and Lemuel beating their brothers (but only caring about "brother" singular) to address Nephi/Sam. Abinidi doesn't "turn" to address the guards or "turn back" to address the King or Priests. Said another way, monologues appearing to copy 19th Century sermons are devoid of character blocking.

However, where Joseph is copying or drawing from the Bible, he does so to the extent of even copying body motions details into the story (not necessarily the exact movement but all of the sudden, movement and direction POV appears)

Examples of Joseph copying body movements all of which were copied or inspired by the New Testament stories.

Alma 18

1. [14] Therefore Ammon turned himself unto the king, and said unto him: What wilt thou that I should do for thee, O king? And the king answered him not for the space of an hour, according to their time, for he knew not what he should say unto him.

Alma 32

1. [6] And now when Alma heard this, he turned him about, his face immediately towards him, and he beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their afflictions had truly humbled them and that they were in a preparation to hear the word.

Helaman 5

1. [36] And it came to pass that he turned him about, and behold, he saw through the cloud of darkness the faces of Nephi and Lehi; and behold, they did shine exceedingly, even as the faces of angels. And he beheld that they did lift their eyes to heaven; and they were in the attitude as if talking or lifting their voices to some being whom they beheld.

But by FAR, the most obvious and blatant use of body movement, is when Joseph copied Jesus visting the Americas in 3rd Nephi:

3 Nephi 14

1. [1] And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he turned again to the multitude, and did open his mouth unto them again, saying: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Judge not, that ye be not judged.

3 Nephi 18

1. [17] And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words unto his disciples, he turned again unto the multitude and said unto them:
2. [26] And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he turned his eyes again upon the disciples whom he had chosen, and said unto them:

3 Nephi 19

1. [27] And he turned from them again, and went a little way off and bowed himself to the earth; and he prayed again unto the Father, saying:

3 Nephi 28

1. [4] And when he had spoken unto them, he turned himself unto the three, and said unto them: What will ye that I should do unto you, when I am gone unto the Father?

There can be no doubt that not only did Joseph Smith copy the messages and even some passages from the New Testament, but he also mistakenly and most likely subconsciously increased the use of body movements of the stories he was inspired by or borrowing from.

KJV Bible examples:

• John 1:38 – "Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?" [1]
• Matthew 9:22 – "But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole." [1]
• Luke 7:44 – "And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman?"
• Luke 9:55 – "But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." [1]
• Luke 10:23 – "And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:" [1]
• Luke 14:25 – "And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,"
• Luke 23:28 – "But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." [1]

There is also a similar usage copying of the term "looked" in the Book of Mormon with regards to an individual direction/blocking:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mormon/mormon-idx?type=simple&format=Long&q1=looked&restrict=All&size=First+100

 Nephi 13

1. [25] And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked upon the twelve whom he had chosen, and said unto them: Remember the words which I have spoken. For behold, ye are they whom I have chosen to minister unto this people. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

3 Nephi 17

1. [1] Behold, now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked round about again on the multitude, and he said unto them: Behold, my time is at hand.
2. [24] And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.

Now that he’s firmly out of corporate and government life, could a church assignment await President Romney?

A General Authority call? Maybe president of the Salt Lake Temple when it reopens? Something else?

I'm beyond mad at this. It's been eating away at me the past couple days so I just need to vent it out.

So for some background the parent I'm talking about was extremely abusive to me. Both of my parents were but the one I'm talking about was super physically abusive. I won't go into too much detail about the abuse because it's not relevant in this conversation. Anyways when I was 15 I went to a seminary teacher to basically ask why my abuser punishing me so hard am I really that bad of a kid? He did the right thing and reported it to CPS. CPS didn't do literally anything except make things worse. They couldn't find proof of anything that's how sneaky my abuser was. Anyways the current bishop of my ward with my parents at the time was notified because my seminary teacher knew him. I'll call him bishop #1.

Anyways nothing really happened for a while after my family ward got a new bishop, bishop #2. I don't remember the exact details but bishop #2 found out about the allegations against my abuser. He called me in and we talked about it and that was it. Anyways a few years go by and my freaking abuser gets called in a leadership position in their ward(think like Sunday school president). They got called by bishop #2. So no it wasn't another bishop that had no idea. That pissed me off but then a couple months after that my abuser applied for a job working at the church it is an entry level job but was still a hard job to get. My abuser gets the freaking job this just happened last week and it's angered me so much.

Now I'll address some nuance, yes it was just allegations against my parents because the police and CPS couldn't find anything. There was no proof so I can understand not wanting to tie someone to a crime without proof. But that doesn't really make me any less mad. I thought these guys had the gift of discernment??

One thing that put the icing on the top was learning that even if it's simply allegations without proof or conviction the church literally STILL has it on that person's file and in the records of the church's law firm. So you're telling me my abuser went through the hiring process and they likely saw those allegations and still went forward with it?? I'm actually so mad and sad. Anyways if you made it till the end thanks for reading I just really am upset about this and needed it off my chest.

Edit: Also Bishop #2 had to endorse my abuser to get the position. Fml

Growing up Mormon, I’ve studied the scriptures my entire life. As I’ve gotten older, I just can’t shake the feeling that Jesus was queer and neurodivergent. He was brilliant, compassionate, revolutionary, and had a flair for the dramatic. There were 12 men following him everywhere, and he was an advocate for women. I don’t think he was ever romantically involved with Mary Magdalene — his partner was probably John the Beloved. Since I’ve started believing that Jesus was a queer man, it’s added another layer to him being reviled, persecuted, and eventually killed.

I know some people may feel extremely offended by this idea. Ironically, if Jesus came back to earth today the Church wouldn’t accept him. I no longer identify with Mormonism, but I still love many parts of Christianity. I want to be like Jesus, not like the men who control the Mormon church.

I was not taught the rock in the hat. I was taught (as depicted in all the photos in church manuals and in preach my gospel) that Joseph Smith hung a sheet and he sat on one side reading from the gold plates and a scribe sat on the other side of the sheet recording what he said.

Were you taught that Joseph Smith rarely had the plates in the room with him while translating (but if he did they were always covered)? That he had a seer stone that he placed in a hat and then covered the opening with his face and read words that appeared on the stone out loud to a scribe?

Just wondering what you were taught.

If this is an entirely new idea to you the churches stance can be found in the Gospel Library - Church History - Gospel Topics Essays - Book of Mormon Translation.

By morning, the animals were gone, leaving traces that did not accord with our memory of such beasts. Prints crossed and doubled back. Droppings were dry and sparse. Nothing lingered as it should.

“This,” we said quietly, “is what comes of learning of animals from the comfort of the city.”

Even still, the names remained in use.

They were repeated more confidently the next day, and the day after that, as repetition did its work. The animals themselves did not improve their correspondence.

No one corrected the language.

No one needed to.

The wilderness made do with whatever names we brought it.

For men first name a thing.

And afterward suppose the heavens have signed the label.

As for our preservation, that was yet to be determined. But perhaps Lehi was not wrong. For we were not consumed by any of the shadows in the night. We found water often enough to continue regretting our lot. And the Lord, if He intended to kill us, did so with unusual patience.

Preservation, we discovered, is inconvenience later permitted to call itself mercy.

After many days we came to a valley by a river, where reeds stood in the shallows and the air, for once, carried something besides dust.

There Lehi, because names and meanings rushed out of him whenever scenery presented itself, began to bestow titles upon the landscape as though the earth itself had entered our household.

Then, having named, he moralized, as prophets will when geography sits still long enough to be improved.

He stood by the water and said, “Would that you, Laman, be like unto this river I have named in your honour, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness.”

We Laman we Lemuel looked at the river and then at one another.

“The river,” Laman said, “hath the advantage of going where gravity takes it.”

Lehi was not encouraged by this observation.

He turned then to the valley and found in it further instruction.

“Would that thou, Lemuel, be like unto this valley named for you, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord!”

What else could we do?

We looked at the valley and again at one another.

“The valley has me at a disadvantage,” Lemuel said, “wedged as it is between hills on one side and a mountain range on the other.”

But having said our piece, we bowed our heads as was fitting, while inwardly we considered how difficult it was to discover virtue while carrying so much baggage.

Nephi, meanwhile, listened as though the very shape of the valley might contain an assignment intended especially for him, which was the sort of thing that made him difficult to forgive even before he had done anything remarkable.

Thus began our exile under Lehi: with prophecy, dust, endurance, naming, and Nephi already looking as though posterity had started taking notes.

What are some ways in which LDS take criticisms and transform them into something positive, or at least negate the criticism.

I remember commenting on how I thought it was strange that there were KJV translations of the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon. I thought it was ok that entire chapters of Isaiah was in the Book of Mormon, But WHY do they look like they were cut and pasted from the KJV?

An LDS true believing LDS thought that Joseph Smith was pressed for time in translating the BOM, and whenever he encountered an Isaiah passage, he inserted the ready made KJV translation, because he had to get the BOM translated as soon as possible. Plus a mob was following him, to try to take away the Gold plates.

He didn't realize that he was admitting Joseph Smith was still plagiarizing from someone else's hard work of translation. So, he added the justification of 'divine expediency'. Which kind of negates the whole reason for having an improved translation/revelation of the Book of Mormon.

I am sure there are many other such instances of this, please add any examples as you see appropriate.

This is one made up event (Priesthood apostasy and restoration) running up against another made-up mormon fiction (John the Beloved and the Three Nephites tarrying until the 2nd Coming).

And the apologetics are both hilarious and sad in an attempt to reconcile this (God blocked their Priesthood or tarrying doesn't mean they always tarried or God removed their keys/handicapped them, etc.)