I know I've heard/seen this mentioned often, that Mormons are stuck because something in church teachings/doctrine/scripture tells them that they have to interpret the Bible literally rather than allegorically or symbolically, but I missed _what_ causes that.

The tower of babel reference in the Book of Mormon - in Ether.

passage? Interesting

The tower of Babel is also from Joseph Smith's own words.

"In this important and interesting book the history of ancient America is unfolded, from its first settlement by a colony that came from the tower of Babel, at the confusion of languages to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era."

Sources:

Wentworth letter: Times and Seasons Vol. 3, No. 9, March 1, 1842, page 707
http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/utils/getfile/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/9801/filename/4893.pdf

Latter Day Saints, written by Joseph Smith, in "An Original history of the religious denominations at present existing in the United States", Daniel Rupp, 1844, page 406,
http://archive.org/stream/originalhistoryo00unse#page/406/mode/2up

About the Wentworth letter -

“Church History” (familiarly known as the “Wentworth letter”) and its near-twin document “Latter Day Saints,” both of which Joseph Smith signed as author, are important declarations to the non-Mormon world of the history and beliefs of the church. They include the statement of beliefs now known as the Articles of Faith.
http://josephsmithpapers.org/site/church-historians-press-inaugurates-histories-series

Ether 1

Chapter 1

Moroni abridges the writings of Ether—Ether’s genealogy is set forth—The language of the Jaredites is not confounded at the Tower of Babel—The Lord promises to lead them to a choice land and make them a great nation.

1 And now I, Moroni, proceed to give an aaccount of those ancient inhabitants who were destroyed by the bhand of the Lord upon the face of this north country.

2 And I take mine account from the atwenty and four plates which were found by the people of Limhi, which is called the Book of Ether.

3 And as I suppose that the afirst part of this record, which speaks concerning the creation of the world, and also of Adam, and an account from that time even to the great btower, and whatsoever things transpired among the children of men until that time, is had among the Jews—

4 Therefore I do not write those things which transpired from the days of aAdam until that time; but they are had upon the plates; and whoso findeth them, the same will have power that he may get the full account.

5 But behold, I give not the full account, but a apart of the account I give, from the tower down until they were destroyed.


33 Which aJared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at the time the Lord bconfounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the cface of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered.

34 And the abrother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not bunderstand our words.

35 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared; therefore he did not confound the alanguage of Jared; and Jared and his brother were not confounded.

It's more than just the Book of Ether in the BOM. the Garden of Eden, the Fall, Enoch and the City of Zion, Noah, the Tower of Babel, the Exodus, and a host of other events that never happened are presented as necessary events in the doctrine of the LDS church. They take it literally because to do otherwise would be to invalidate the entirety of their doctrine.

Yep.

The tower of babel is just the most clear cut one.

For all of the others you can try to use the apologetic arguments that prophets are not infallible - e.g. Nephi believed the Old Testament was literal but was wrong - he could have still been a prophet and have been wrong about this. (Of course that breaks down pretty fast since Nephi also claims to have seen a vision of the complete history of the world.)

But with the tower of babel you are 100% locked in. If the tower of babel didn't happen the Jaredites didn't happen. The narrative is 100% dependent on it.

Not to mention Abraham, which led to the Abrahamic covenant and the justification for polygamy, as well as the Book of Abraham.

TBMs that really think they need to follow the Bible literally should read one of these books:

"The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible"

"A Year of Biblical Womanhood"

and then they should ask themselves how literally they really are living the Bible, or whether they just like to say they are when it's convenient for them to back up their discrimination and hate....

It goes back to Joseph and the Articles of Faith ----- We believe the bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. Obviously, Joe came up with the inspired version of the bible to get rid of the translation problems so LDS inc has put itself in a corner. No way have people lived here for more than 6,000 years ------ any Mormon knows this by getting a warm feeling. Of course there was a universal flood, so the earth could be babtized, that would have killed all plant and most animal life when the carnivors would have been so hungry after being on the Ark they would have eaten the other animals before they could reproduce (obviously the Ark was so big it probably had 5-10 times the animal species now on the earth) --- so we can find all these fossil remains of all the animals and humans the flood killed if any lazy archeologists would really look, Sure the Jaradites language was not confounded so they could come to America and formed great nations that of course made war against each other and died like any hollywood movie to the last man standing ------ those lazy archeologists just aren't looking hard enough! Lucky the LDS have profits that can tell them what to believe and when to believe it so they do not have to exercise any common sense ---- of course I was once one of those!

It's not just mormons...bible thumpers in the South take the bible literally too.

They're also stuck with the literal Adam and Eve thing. The temple teaches that there really was an Adam and Eve, Adam was Michael, Eve came from one of Adam's ribs. It's stupidly childish to believe this, but they're stuck. To change that belief would nullify the temple ordinance.

They might say they do, but actually no one takes it literally. To do so would land them in prison, as today's legal authorities take a dim view of stoning your children or wife to death for disobedience, or keeping slaves. sacrificing animals on your back-yard altar may also run you afoul of animal cruelty laws...

And as comfortable and easy-to-care-for as those cotton-polyester blends are, it needs to be realized that blending textile fabrics is forbidden. Also, put down that ham sandwich, lest ye be stoned.