Simple Utah Mormon Politics

It seems to be unusually common among those acquainted with the Book of Mormon to imagine that when Lehi's family came across the ocean to the Americas that they encountered no other peoples.  There are, however, multiple subtle references in the Book of Mormon itself that point out that Lehi, Nephi, and their clan did engage with native populations shortly after they arrived.  In this article, I give one such example.

Is the Book of Abraham true?  Yes, I think so.  But this volume of LDS scripture very likely didn't come about in quite the way that you were taught in seminary or Sunday school. I've recently come across a great podcast called Mormon Sunday School by Jared Anderson. In one of his episodes, Jared and his panel of guests have some very insightful looks at the value of the Book of Abraham and how it came to be.  The podcast can be found here .  My interpretive notes and quotes from the podcast are included in this blog article. Note : Jared and his guest panelists come at this topic from a believing perspective.  They all agree that the Book of Abraham is authentic and teaches profound eternal truths. For some who may not be sure that they can accept the traditional story of how Joseph Smith brought about the Book of Abraham, the 3-hour podcast discussion will be a treat!

The story of Enkidu and Shamhat seems similar to that of Adam and Eve.  See what similarities you can find in my description of the story of Enkidu, Shamhat, and Enkidu's alter-ego, Gilgamesh below.

Although I am as comfortable with my testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Christ's gospel as I am in my own skin, I realize that there are people who aren't. But whether someone leaves or questions their testimony of the LDS Church is not a litmus test for whether they are my friend or not.  I hope they always will be. I recently read an article about those who question or leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I was especially struck by this poignant thought that the article contained: "I worry that many younger Mormons are going through a very difficult and at times traumatic break from the Mormon church without resources and support that might have better informed their decision about staying or leaving or anything in between. "

I listened to almost all of the interview with Jeremy Runnells the other day on Mormon Stories.  The following comment was submitted, but was not accepted by the blog editor.  I include it here.

As Mormons, perhaps under the influence of Enlightenment thinking, we seem to subconsciously accept the idea that nothing good occurred during the "Great Apostasy" or the Dark Ages. That's not really correct.

Was it ever an LDS doctrine that blacks were less faithful in pre-mortality?  NO.