http://mormonessays.com

The church sent a letter to all leaders to inform them about the essays but they neglected to include links to the essays.

This site will be a TBM-friendly resource to allow people to find the essays without going to so-called anti sites.

Future plans include detailed discussion of each essay and version history logs for each one.

I'm open to feedback, so let me have it.

Excellent idea.

Be sure to also include links to MormonThinks analysis of the essays -- devastating to TBMs.

I really like the idea of maintaining versions - not something tscc has ever been good at.

Excellent site and resource for enquiring members.
Also allowing quick and easy access to the Essays.
But I think the Morg will be anything but happy and want this site removed somehow.
A great source of information that will be disturbing to many TBM's.
Very well done. Keep up the good work.

may want to consider deleting:

"Notably absent in the letter sent to Priesthood leaders were the names and locations of these essays."

Unless future info on the site will reveal your leanings.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll be updating the wording.

An innovative website to the Church Essays.
Keep it simple, effective and member friendly.
Looks great.

I like it. Did you grab the .org while you were at it?

Great resource. I'll use it.

You may want to include instructions on how to get to the essays from the main LDS.org website for those skeptical TBMs who may think that you're sending them to some hacked church site. A few folks on this board have reported that TBMs want to see how to get there from the main page.

This has been added.

from what I've heard there's tbm's skeptical about the posting's on their own church's website. The tech savvy tbm's can always do a whois lookup. Actually even the non tech savvy ones can. If they do they'll find this.

Registrant Contact Information:
Name: Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
Organization: Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
City: Salt Lake City
State: UT
Zip: 84150-3011
Country: US
Phone: +1.8012403959
Email: Email Masking Image@irinc.org

If further skeptical they can google search Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Google god says plain as day that it's associated with the cult.

I found this interesting. https://www.lds.org/legal/terms

Trademarks

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” “Liahona,” “Book of Mormon,” and “Mormon” are trademarks of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

oh yeah... it's a church NOT a corporation.

Agreed..

A version history log is a great idea!

I've wondered how to deal with the possibility of changes in the essays, and this seems like the ticket.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2014 09:12PM by archytas.

A thread on Facebook has the question: Who created this website?

"Hold Your Tapirs:" will you be remaining anonymous?

Where is this thread?

John Dehlin posted about it on his FB yesterday. Look up on John's FB page.

I've seen his post but I don't see a message asking who created the site. Possibly deleted?

John had several people share the post... Maybe a comment on one of the shares.

I really hadn't paid attention to these essays other than what has been said on RFM. I went to the link of the OP and looked at the one on BoM and DNA, and Book of Abraham.

It is so obvious that these essays are total BS. Spin, Spin, Spin,….and BS. OMG, even if a TBM read these with even a bit of an open mind, they'd have to come away going "WTF….that's not what I was taught my whole life".

How can this be good for TSCC?

My entire faith crisis that has now led to my wife and I leaving the church all started with the "Race and the Priesthood" essay. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one whose faith was shaken by these essays.

I finally figured out why these essays really bother me.

It is NOT so much that:
- TSCC was racist
- that native americans don't have a hint of middle eastern DNA
- that JS used a rock to "translate" the BoM
- that BoA "evidence" has nothing to do with Abraham
as these essays all admit. I could sort of live with these things (not really).

What bothers me is that TSCC HID it for so long and in fact... called these facts LIES for so long.

Like a spouse who is caught and then admits that they have stepped out on their other half for years. It is not that they screwed someone else. It is that they LIED and HID it for so long.

Awesome website!

I like the suggestion of archiving your own copies of the essays in case the church pulls down or edits the essays. It would be fascinating if you kept a new copy each time there was an edit, and allowed users to view all the dated versions.

I also like the idea of providing instructions, perhaps with screenshots, of how to go to lds.org and navigate to the essays for the people who are suspicious that you might be leading them to a counterfeit site designed to look like lds.org.

Another idea in addition to the archived copies, links, and navigation instructions would be to provide the written out web addresses to each of the essays so that people could copy and paste them to their browser window.

Great website! Thanks for doing this.

I will add this today. :)

I don't see the average TBM reading a couple of the essays and NOT looking around the web at other, more critical sites.

I think the Morg made a big mistake by starting to expose its dirty laundry. They put out a couple of dirty socks and the members are going to find the soiled Gs, used condoms, and other nasties! The Boner.

byuboner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't see the average TBM reading a couple of
> the essays and NOT looking around the web at
> other, more critical sites.
>
> I think the Morg made a big mistake by starting to
> expose its dirty laundry. They put out a couple of
> dirty socks and the members are going to find the
> soiled Gs, used condoms, and other nasties! The
> Boner.


To say nothing of the shitty dildoes in their drawers.

Did I say that?

Omygodmybad.

"I think the Morg made a big mistake by starting to expose its dirty laundry."

I agree. I actually think that the motivatoion for the essays was more along the lines of protection against getting sued (thank you Tom Phillips).

But seriously, yeah.

We can plainly see the guiding hand of Elder Oaks in these times of trouble, travail, and Tom Phillips.

Remember how he deftly steered the Morg clear of the Salamander crisis.

Shummy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But seriously, yeah.
>
> We can plainly see the guiding hand of Elder Oaks
> in these times of trouble, travail, and Tom
> Phillips.
>
> Remember how he deftly steered the Morg clear of
> the Salamander crisis.


Yeah but do you recall brother Grimm and uncle brown finger? Not a laughing matter and made "OL sack Phillips" situation se quaint!

Great idea..
Some TBMs think that the fact that these have authors (no names anyway) means that the CULT is NOT responsible for writing them. I wonder if that was the CULT's intention...
to make it seem like some disgruntled ExMo wrote them.

I think all ExMos I know would be way more honest than these spinning out of control essays. These are more spun than cotton candy.

This is, as in the words of Bill and Ted.....EXCELLENT! *guitars*


I really like it, it looks very well done. I am going to link it on my blog, if that is ok. A great place for people to find the essays easily.

Sure. Link all you want.

Great website! That's a stroke of genius.

Stroke of genius, yes. But I like it too!

Playing devil's advocate for a sec, if your intention is to keep archives of the essays, and to hold their feet to the fire, in case there are changes made down the road....

Don't forget that LD$, Inc has a long history of dismissing anyone outside as spreading anti-mormon lies & misinformation. They will likely ignore this effort, but should it come to their attention, be prepared to be "dismissed," or to be accused of making your own changes to the essays.

I do hope that a TON of TBMs, including many of my family members, find your website and wake up to the real truth about their church.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2014 11:21AM by PapaKen.

This... and also keep in mind that TSCC has the essays copyrighted. So be sure to not post a complete copy yourself and only post fragments. You may want to check into copyright laws and limitations.

Anyone know why this website does not yet appear on Google search? I scrolled through 8 pages before giving up. Does it just take time for a number of hits to get it up in the ranks?

It takes a while for google to index new sites. It will hopefully start showing in searches soon.

I still need to do more SEO work on it as well.

That's whats so great about this site! All the links point right to the lds.org page. So there can't be any copyrighted issues. The only probably I can see is the church changing the location, or just removing them completely.

I've shared this in many groups on FB...

From
A Thoughtful Faith Support Group (Mormon / LDS)

I got this response

"Thanks for sharing this link! I didn't realize they had gathered them all together in one central place. I will be sure to include this link in my wards sacrament bulletin I put together."

I don't think she was serious...but it made me laugh

I hope she was serious...

haha - me too!

This is such a good idea, I wish I had thought of it.

Not that I am remotely capable of doing any type of website.

I will be referring my TBM wife to it.

my AV (Bullguard) blocks this site ???

AV?

antivirus

it says its a spam site. after clicking through the warning, I can get on the site, and it looks good... exactly the sort of resource that people need.
I dont have any 'problem' with going to the site, but if it blocks me, it's going to affect other people too
even if it's only bullguard users, its a lot of people



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2014 01:46PM by EssexExMo.