Mormonism-Shadow or Reality or The Changing World of Mormonism by Jerald & Sandra Tanner?

How about MORMONTHINK.com ?

I'm not talking about reading a couple of pages, getting uncomfortable, and stopping. I'm talking about reading a significant portion of these.

If so, what happened?

A high percentage of mormons will absolutely not read the works by the Tanners or anything else that is considered anti-mormon. It is forbidden.

Good question. Never.

My TBM ex-husband's brother made him read "No Man Knows My History" from cover to cover, years ago, and this helped him leave the cult. He led me out, gradually, and I thank him for that.

Yes, definitely the biggest road-block is getting a Mormon to read anything challenging in the first place. They have been effectively brainwashed against any non-Mormon information. Most Mormons I knew wouldn't even read about Darwinism, or about psychology, philosophy, or even yoga. You can't get them to read anything online, either.

It's so weird because it was reading Shadow or Reality which made me realize it was all a fraud. However, I was so sure the church was true I WANTED to read these books to point out how false they were.

just get them to read sections from Journal of Discourses or the History of the Church. Of course you would have to highlight the sections you want them to read.

Then you can ask, "what do you think BY meant when he said we should love them enough to spill their blood?" Then you can in passing ask them how soon after this sermon did MMM take place.

Thinking about this still makes me feel sick to my stomach.

They don't have to read the "anti" stuff. All the best "Anti" stuff is the actual church records.

Yes, but the anti stuff puts all the damaging stuff in one book. Most TBM's are not going to dig into old books and records.

I always liked this website:

http://www.mormonhandbook.com/

It is basic, straight to the point. It doesn't contain all the info out there on the church, but there is enough to through a TBM off.

This is a great website, and it contains some information that is hard to come by.

Whenever there's a talk about pornography, I keep hoping someone will bring up the picture of an erect penis that the church added to its scriptures in 1981 (Book of Abraham Facsimile 2, Figure 7):

http://www.mormonhandbook.com/home/book-of-abraham-facsimile-2.html

I haven't been able to get them to read the BoA yet. I think they're afraid that it might sound as crazy as it does, and they won't be able to defend it. They would rather defend their ignorance.

Are you serious? That's their current scripture! Who won't read it?

Well when I was a tbm someone got me to read both of the Tanner books, plus showed me the Journal of Discourses passages where BY goes off the deep end and says Adam is God. That was all she wrote folks. A rude awakening, but one I'll be forever grateful for. It took a Baptist, his pastor, and a family of exmormons to get me to look at it. The exmormons somehow gave it more credibility because they had been where I had been and truly had empathy for what I was about to go through, but ultimately it was a nevermo -- the Baptist that had enough perseverance and understanding just how harmful Mormonism is, to push me to see for myself. Granted I didn't consider becoming Christian or exploring any spirituality for a long time. I'll always be grateful for those people who made me see the truth. I feel like they saved my life.

mormonthink.com played a major part in convincing me to exit the Church.

I was VERY TBM. I was a fierce defender of Monson, Hinckley, etc.

But I also have integrity. I'm willing to read anything. I read several books critical of the Church, some books on TRUE church history, and some website articles, and that was enough for me. Also, seeing that picture where Monson gives a secret handshake to Bush put a few hundred nails in the coffin as well.

"seeing that picture where Monson gives a secret handshake to Bush put a few hundred nails in the coffin as well."

Link???? Please, please??? INquiring mind needs to "see."

I was taught never to touch those books or check out the websites because those will cause me to succomb to the spirit and clutches of the Adversary. *rolling my eyes*

It wasn't until I accidentally come across something on the internet about BoA that I decided to dig a little further....then...bammmmmmmm......all lights went on, and that was it....

The picture with Bush and Monson......the pinkies are not crossed.....So, masonic handshakes do not require the crossing of pinkies?....

They could be part of some other denomination of secret society that we haven't heard of.

My ex-wife read a couple entries from MormonThink and agreed with the apologists.

The MormonThink site does try to provide the strongest pro-church arguments it can find in its effort to be fair. Some people do side with the apologetic arguments. I think that for people that really want to believe, they can accept almost any absurd answer to sustain their faith e.g. maybe the horses in the BOM were tapirs, etc.

AKA Alma Wrote:
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> My ex-wife read a couple entries from MormonThink
> and agreed with the apologists.

AKA Alma Wrote:
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> My ex-wife read a couple entries from MormonThink
> and agreed with the apologists.

Notice how he stated that she read a "couple" entries. For most TBM's reading only a small amount of anti is not going to throw them off the Mormon wagon. They have to read more than a couple pages and unfortunately most won't do this. She probably was disturbed by what she read stopped reading and pretended it didn't bother her.

Ex-CultMember Wrote:
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> AKA Alma Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My ex-wife read a couple entries from
> MormonThink
> > and agreed with the apologists.
>
> Notice how he stated that she read a "couple"
> entries. For most TBM's reading only a small
> amount of anti is not going to throw them off the
> Mormon wagon. They have to read more than a couple
> pages and unfortunately most won't do this. She
> probably was disturbed by what she read stopped
> reading and pretended it didn't bother her.


I was like this on my mission. People would try and throw critical things at me but I would act like it didn't bother me. However, it did make me think though and fortunately I had enough curiosity to investigate more.