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11 April 2012
The Mormon moment is now
April 11, 2012
Washington Post
He is the seventh Latter-day Saint to attempt a presidential bid — six others, including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman this year, and church founder Joseph Smith in 1844, fell short.
Many Latter-day Saints feel connected to Romney, says Darius Gray, former head of the Genesis Group, a support organization for black Mormons, and others will believe that “Mormonism has arrived.”
For so long, Latter-day Saints have had a “sense of being the underdog, due to our history and persecution we’ve experienced in our 182-year history,” Gray said. “For some, (Romney’s nomination) will be a kind of vindication. But with it will come great scrutiny about who we are as a people.”
Gray’s advice to Mormons: Don’t overreact to questions about the faith’s past and its present.
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Evangelical Leader: Mormonism Will Become A Bigger Issue For Romney
April 11, 2012
WIBW (Kansas)
A top evangelical leader who is close to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign says the candidate’s Mormon faith will be even more of an issue in the general election than it has been in the primary, predicting that the focus on Romney’s faith will present a challenge to Romney.
Richard Land, the public policy chief for the Southern Baptist Convention, said Wednesday that he expects that the news media will make Mormonism more of an issue in an attempt to get independent voters to support President Barack Obama.
“The 40% of electorate that’s independent, most of them have no idea what Mormons believe,” Land said. But they will all know what Mormons believe by the general election because the electronic national media by and large is the in the tank for Mr. Obama.”
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Evangelicals will vote for Mormon Mitt Romney, says Southern Baptist leader
April 11, 2012
Daily Caller
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will have little trouble courting the evangelical vote, Southern Baptist Convention leader Richard Land told The Daily Caller during a Wednesday interview.
“I don’t think Romney will have any kind of a problem — unless he picks a non-social conservative running mate — he should be okay,” Land, president of Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee, said about concerns that Romney’s Mormon faith could turn off evangelicals.
According to Land, evangelicals are extremely concerned about the possibility of a second Obama term and are energized to vote against him.
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Is this the Mormons’ JFK moment? Maybe, maybe not.
April 11, 2012
Washington Post
With his path now clear to the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney is on the verge of becoming the first Mormon to head a major party’s presidential ticket, a new milestone in America’s embrace of religious groups that were once shunned by society.
Mormons had it especially bad as they routinely faced mob violence and government-led crackdowns in the nineteenth century; Joseph Smith, who founded Mormonism in the 1830s, was killed in Illinois just months after he announced a third-party bid for president in 1844.
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Evangelical leader: Mormonism will become a bigger issue for Romney
April 11, 2012
CNN
A top evangelical leader who is close to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign says the candidate’s Mormon faith will be even more of an issue in the general election than it has been in the primary, predicting that the focus on Romney’s faith will present a challenge to Romney.
Richard Land is the public policy chief for the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest evangelical denomination. He said Wednesday that he expects that the news media will make Mormonism more of an issue in an attempt to get independent voters to support President Barack Obama.
“The 40% of electorate that’s independent, most of them have no idea what Mormons believe,” Land said. But they will all know what Mormons believe by the general election because the electronic national media by and large is the in the tank for Mr. Obama.”
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Evangelicals Will Vote for a Mormon Candidate, Says Richard Land
April 11, 2012
Time
Don’t believe what the national media tells you, says Dr. Richard Land, a leader with the Southern Baptist Convention, Mitt Romney doesn’t need to worry about his Mormon faith being a problem for evangelical voters at the voting booth.
“The fact that we don’t believe that Mormonism is a Christian faith doesn’t mean we would not vote for someone who is Mormon, if they are pro-life,” Land told TIME in an interview on Tuesday. “Romney’s biggest problem with evangelicals has been that he hasn’t been Mormon enough. If he had always held his positions on abortion on marriage that his faith holds, there would be far fewer doubts about him.”
Nonetheless, Land said that he expects the national news media to try to make an issue of Romney’s faith in the coming months, in an effort to damage the Republican candidate’s chances. “I predict that within a week of Romney being nominated, the news media will start running specials,” he said. And they are going to trot out all of the, how shall I put it, rather exotic beliefs of Mormonism in the hopes that it will scare independents into voting Democratic.”
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The Mormon challenge
April 11, 2012
Human Events
As Buzzfeed notes, the Mormon church lifted its ban on black members of the priesthood in 1978. The modern church has “aggressively distanced itself” from passages in Mormon scripture that associate negative meanings with dark skin, and “a recent survey found that only 9 percent of modern Mormons believe them.” I daresay you’ll get more than 9 percent support from Jeremiah Wright’s congregation for the hateful racist garbage he’s spewing, and that was only a couple of days ago. Or maybe a couple of hours. I haven’t checked up on his activities today.
Mitt Romney was a grown man of 31 when the Mormon church ended its ban on black members of the priesthood. He has said in interviews – an example of which Buzzfeed was kind enough to include – that he wholeheartedly supported changing the policy, and was profoundly moved when it happened.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50777
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Is the Book of Mormon the LDS Bible?
April 11, 2012
San Antonio Current (Texas)
Is the Book of Mormon the LDS Bible?
The BoM was written by Joseph Smith, who claims to have translated it from a pile of gold tablets an angel hipped him to. In addition to the Bible and the BoM, Mormons rely on additional written scriptures, but also innumerable “revelations” that the church president, believed to be a living prophet, thinks up over his morning decaf. His edicts supersede previous scripture, making Mormon dogma very fluid and often fickle.
Do Mormons practice polygamy?
Not the mainline LDS, though some breakaway sects still do. In the main church, however, polygamists are excommunicated. Salt Lake City apostles ended polygamy in 1890 after a “revelation” that serendipitously followed a federal move to seize the church and all of its assets because of the practice.
http://sacurrent.com/news/mormon-myth-busting-1.1298135
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Romney’s Black, Mormon Problem
April 11, 2012
Urban Faith
Romney Refuses to Address Mormon Race History
Romney may also have a Mormon problem when it comes to African Americans. Last week, at a Wisconsin town hall meeting, there was a “tense moment” between Romney and a Ron Paul supporter who questioned him about his views of inter-racial marriage based on teachings in the Book of Mormon, ABC News reported.
Referring to a passage that links black skin with a Canaanite curse, 28-year-old Bret Hatch asked Romney if he believes it is “a sin for a white man to marry and procreate with a black?” “No,” Romney “responded sternly,” according to ABC News, before turning away from Hatch.
http://www.urbanfaith.com/2012/04/romney%E2%80%B2s-black-problem.html/comment-page-1/
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Mitt Romney, Mormons views on Blacks as a whole.
April 11, 2012
Thy Black Man
For decades, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has taught that black people are “inferior” and “cursed” by God because of something sinister that blacks did before they were born.
“And [God] had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity,” according to a bizarre passage from the Book of Mormon. “For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God; I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.”
Shades of the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692.
http://thyblackman.com/2012/04/11/mitt-romney-mormons-views-on-blacks-as-a-whole/
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Romney’s challenge: What Bexar County’s primaries could tell America about the anti-Mormon vote
April 11, 2012
San Antonio Current (Texas)
Politics are religiously charged for Lone Star voters, so how Bexar County reacts to Romney’s faith in the upcoming GOP primary — particularly now that Rick Santorum has dropped out of the race — should matter to electoral geeks as they parse exit polls. Whether or not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints likes it, Mitt Romney’s candidacy has become framed as the “Mormon Moment,” and how that plays out in bellwether Bexar will shed light on the general elections later this year.
A University of Texas poll in February found that 65 percent of all San Antonio voters would support a Mormon candidate for president. That’s higher than the statewide proportion of 59 percent, but it still means that a third of San Antonio respondents either would refuse to back Romney on the basis of his religion or were unsure. Most of those in the anti-Mormon camp hail from the conservative evangelical Christian pillar of the GOP.
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Challenging the Mormon faith in US
April 11, 2012
News Letter (United Kingdom)
A MAN who can trace his roots back to the early days of Mormonism has his sights firmly set on the White House in Washington. His great-great grandfather, Parley P. Pratt, was among the first leaders of the figment of Joseph Smith’s imagination, otherwise known as the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/community/letters/challenging-the-mormon-faith-in-us-1-3719445#
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Baptist leader: Indie voters about to learn more about Romney’s Mormonism
April 11, 2012
Greenville News (South Carolina)
Another factor in evangelicals’ Mitt Romney dilemma? Mormonism.
It didn’t feature much in the primary race, but Christian conservatives in South Carolina have repeatedly mentioned Romney’s Mormonsim to me as something they’re not convinced many evangelicals here have yet gotten comfortable with.
That’s an open question, but the broader electorate soon could be about to learn more about the candidate’s religion, and it could have an effect, says Southern Baptist leader Richard Land.
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Will religious conservatives support a Mormon president?
April 10, 2012
Examiner (Utah)
It is no secret that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. It has been well publicized and many still have their opinions about a Mormon in the Oval Office. But, will this be an issue with religious conservatives?
Mark DeMoss, an evangelical public relations executive and a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, has explained that he has recently fielded several calls from prominent evangelical leaders wishing to organize a summit with other Christian conservatives to start rallying behind Romney for the fall campaign.
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Tongue-Tied
Romney Keeps LDS Church’s Secrets
April 11, 2012
Salt Lake City Weekly (Utah)
Ironies of ironies–Mormons send out missionaries to preach the Gospel to every nation, kindred and tongue. They want to bring the glorious news of the Restoration of the True Church to every benighted corner of the world. But when it comes to looking closely at their beliefs, the Brethren are quick to draw the veil over their “sacred” practices. Any questioning or honest examination is swiftly dismissed as “Mormon bashing.”
Instead of shouting “smear” any time gentiles express puzzlement about Mormonism, people like Uncle Orrin should step forward and gladly satisfy their curiosity. Engage, debate or even bear their testimonies.
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-15742-tongue-tied.html
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When Mormons saved Jewish lives
April 12, 2012
Haaretz (Israel)
The best known and most influential Mormons in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s were Senators William King and Elbert Thomas, both Democrats from Utah. Both men were fervent Christian Zionists.
Thomas had visited Jerusalem in 1912. According to his diary, he sat on the Mount of Olives and read from the writings of early Mormon leader Orson Hyde about the Jews: “Consecrate this land for the gathering together of Judah’s scattered remnants, for the building up of Jerusalem again after it has been trodden down by the Gentiles so long. Restore the kingdom unto Israel, raise up Jerusalem as its capitol.”
King, for his part, was one of the founding members of the American Palestine Committee, an organization set up in the 1930s to rally Christian support for Jewish statehood.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/when-mormons-saved-jewish-lives-1.423900
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Gay BYU students say ‘It Gets Better’ on Mormon campus
April 11, 2012
The Christian Century
For young people struggling to come to terms with being gay and Mormon, 22 Brigham Young University students have a message: “It gets better.”
Lesbian, gay and bisexual students at BYU and some of their straight allies released a video on YouTube on Friday (April 6), adding to some 40,000 video messages that aim to prevent depression and suicide among gay teens as part of the It Gets Better project. Seattle writer Dan Savage and his partner, Terry Miller, launched the effort in September 2010 following a string of youth suicides.
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-04/gay-byu-students-say-it-gets-better-mormon-campus
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BYU: ‘It Gets Better’ Video Not In Violation Of Honor Code
April 10, 2012
WMUR (New Hampshire)
The students featured in a video about being gay at Brigham Young University are not in obvious violation of the honor code, according to Carri Jenkins, an assistant to the president of BYU.
Jenkins went on to say that for the video alone, the students would not be punished. The honor code, Jenkins said, is “based on conduct, not on feeling, and if same-gender attraction is only stated, that is not an honor code issue.”
http://www.wmur.com/education/30869128/detail.html
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COLUMN: Romney is a Mormon, but Obama doesn’t care
April 11, 2012
Utah Statesman
There have been several claims, and even promises, made by the Obama administration and its supporters that neither religion nor Mormonism will be — at any stage in the process — a part of Obama’s campaign strategy leading up to his winning of the 2012 election. I’ll echo what other commentators have said recently, regarding Hatch’s and others’ claims — it takes nerve to hit this far below the belt. No one, especially not a representative of the LDS faith, has any right to predict that Barack Obama or any other Democrat need use Romney’s religious beliefs against him to win the 2012 election.
The people who’ve made a big deal about Romney’s status as a Mormon are his fellow Republican contenders, his own campaign staff and his Republican supporters, such as Orrin Hatch. I applaud Romney for his confidence as a Latter-day Saint. I do not support all of his political beliefs, and, like Hatch, he doesn’t hesitate to take swings at Obama; but I promise every single one of you that Obama won’t need to attack anyone’s religious beliefs to retain his seat in the Oval Office or his residency in the White House. It never would have crossed my mind that our first black president would ever dip so low below his own character as to commit an act of spiteful bigotry. After all, we may remember Obama faced his own unwarranted and undeserved share of filthy, baseless accusations regarding nativity and religious beliefs.
http://www.usustatesman.com/column-romney-is-a-mormon-but-obama-doesn-t-care-1.2728055#.T4YZW1FrPd4
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Mormon temple opens to faithful, curious
April 11, 2012
Kearney Courier (Missouri)
The Mormon church has built a 32,000-square-foot edifice where “qualified” members can go to leave the world outside and be reminded of the promises of their faith.
But for a few weeks leading up to the Sunday, May 6, dedication of the Kansas City Missouri Temple, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is inviting the world to tour its newest House of the Lord.
Sunday worship is held in a chapel, or meetinghouse, adjacent to the temple. That building and its services are open to the public. The activities of the temple are reserved for Mormons with a recommend card signed by their ecclesiastical leader, according to Elder William R. Walker, executive director of the Temple Department for the church.
http://www.kccommunitynews.com/kearney-courier-community-living/30874090/detail.html
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Inside The New Mormon Temple In Liberty
April 11, 2012
KCUR (Missouri)
On this Wednesday’s Central Standard, learn what the erection of the new Mormon temple in Liberty, MO means for area Mormons, and join us for a virtual tour.
We’ll go inside and learn about the baptismal font, to the changing rooms, and to the sealing room with our guide Jeremiah Morgan, President of the Liberty Stake of the Church of Latter Day Saints.
http://www.kcur.org/post/inside-new-mormon-temple-liberty
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Mormon role in 2012 presidential campaign
April 10, 2012
La Voz (Colorado)
Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of the LDS Movement in the 1820s in western New York sought to restore the early Christian Church and its doctrine that he felt had been corrupted by “Greek and other philosophies” and had lost its priesthood authority because of the “martyrdom of the Apostles” under Roman rule.
“Smith told his followers that he had seen a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ in the spring, 1820 … Sometimes called the ‘First Vision,’ Smith’s vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ as two separate beings was reportedly the basis for the differences in doctrine between Mormonism’s view of the nature of God and that of orthodox Christianity.”
Given the Mormon definition of God, the Father’s relationship with Christ, we seem to be back to 325 CE and the main issue before the Council of Nicaea, which challenged the notion of the Holy Trinity. In that instance, Arius and his followers were declared heretics to be persecuted.
http://www.lavozcolorado.com/detail.php?id=6352
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NBC’s Andrea Mitchell Suggests Mormons Are Racist
April 11, 2012
Fox News
Although many members of the media downplayed the controversial aspects of Barack Obama’s connection to the radical Jeremiah Wright, MSNBC on Tuesday began to investigate the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney and “its particular attitudes towards race.”
Host Andrea Mitchell highlighted McKay Coppins of the liberal Buzz Feed. She quizzed her guest: “What challenges do you see for Mitt Romney as more and more questions will be asked along the way about his faith and its particular attitudes towards race?”
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In Utah’s Covert Community of Democrats, Faith And Politics Align
April 11, 2012
Huffington Post
The Utah Democratic Party has an official caucus for Latter Day Saint (LDS) Democrats. This caucus is proof that not only Democrats but LDS Democrats exist in Utah, and that the LDS Church is home to more than just conservative political sentiment.
It remains true, however, that Utah on the whole is a breeding ground for conservatives. According to a Gallup Poll of Americans’ self-identified political ideologies, Utah is one of only three states in which a majority of pollees identify as conservatives. The only state with more conservatives is Mississippi. The “conservative advantage” in Utah, moreover, is 37 percent, meaning that there are 37 percent more conservatives than liberals.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jake-rush/utahs-covert-community-of_b_1418365.html
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UCLA’s Xavier Su’a-Filo is on a different kind of mission
April 10, 2012
Los Angeles Times (California)
Xavier Su’a-Filo is trying to shake loose the cobwebs from two years away from football, when the sophomore offensive lineman was on a Mormon mission. He’s also trying to adjust to an offense with a tempo he described by snapping his fingers three times in quick succession.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ucla-football-20120411,0,7058252.story
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It gets better video creates conversation on BYU campus
April 10, 2012
The Universe (Utah)
Gay BYU students have created an “It Gets Better” video in order to promote conversation and understanding for those with same-sex attraction on campus.
The video was posted on March 29, and has been viewed more than 320,000 times, most of which have been since the past weekend. It has even caught the attention of national news organizations such as CNN, Time and Yahoo! News.
Kendall Wilcox, a former BYU professor and member of Understanding Same-gender Attraction (USGA), volunteered to film and produce the video. Although both The Trevor Project, which focuses on preventing suicide in gay adolescents, and It Gets Better, a project whose mission is to show LGBT teens the potential for happiness in their lives, are mentioned in the video, it was made independently by BYU’s branch of USGA.
http://universe.byu.edu/index.php/2012/04/10/it-gets-better/
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Mormonism is not a Christian religion
April 11, 2012
Catholic Herald (United Kingdom)
Barak Obama is not and has never been a Muslim, yet this crazy belief persists; however, the American public seems able to let Mitt’s Mormonism pass. There is a reason for this. While Islam is seen as the religion of the other, Mormonism is in fact a home-grown religion, rooted in the American continent, and rooted in American experience. Say what you like about Joseph Smith Junior, the prophet of Mormonism, but his was a typical American story.
But what this obscures is the fact that, despite their protestations to the contrary, Mormonism is not a Christian religion. It is not even a Christian heresy. It is a religion that has no real connection with Jesus Christ, except at a semantic level. It has been allowed to pass itself off as another manifestation of American Protestantism – some Catholics have been remarkably lax on this front – but it is nothing of the sort, denying as it does the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith – the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the exclusivity of revelation in Christ. Oddly enough, Mormonism is further from Christianity than Islam itself. There are indeed interesting parallels between the two.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2012/04/11/mormonism-is-not-a-christian-religion/
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Russ Beck- On Crying in Sports and the Mormon Church
April 11, 2012
Huffington Post
Once a month in the Mormon church, members are invited to testify of the things they believe. This usually results in tears–tears from toddlers, mothers and men.
Remember, Mormonism is a religion that leans heavily on patriarchal order. Women aren’t allowed to hold the highest positions in the church (or even the second, third or fourth highest positions). And yet, many men still monthly do something that is viewed by most as being unmanly, even womanly. Because I was raised in the heart of Mormondom (in the geographic center of Utah) it took TV years to teach me that crying wasn’t manly. The Duke Boys didn’t cry. The Fall Guy didn’t cry–but the Vietnam Vet who lived down the road did cry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/russ-beck/russ-beck-on-crying-in-sp_b_1417228.html?just_reloaded=1
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With Santorum out, Romney poised to become first Mormon presidential nominee by major party-white horse top contender for Kentucky Derby-White Horse prophecy to be fulfilled?
April 11, 2012
God Discussion
With Santorum out, prospective Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney may find himself the focus of a unique religious phenomena-the prophecy. In 1843, a prophecy was purported to have been made by Joseph Smith. This prophecy said that The Latter Day Saints would “go to the Rocky Mountains and … be a great and mighty people”, identified figuratively with the White Horse described in the Revelation of John. The prophecy further predicts that the United States Constitution will one day “hang like a thread” and will be saved “by the efforts of the White Horse”.
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Why Is Romney Avoiding Religion and Race?
April 11, 2012
The Root
In an opinion piece for BlackAmericaWeb, Michael H. Cottman says that ignoring these issues is probably sound strategy because the GOP candidate’s faith teaches that black people are cursed by God.
Even though the overwhelming majority of African-American voters will support President Barack Obama in the general election over Romney, black Republicans have been particularly silent about how Mormons view black folks.
For decades, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has taught that black people are “inferior” and “cursed” by God because of something sinister that blacks did before they were born.
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/why-romney-avoiding-religion-and-race
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Mormon FAIR-Cast 83: The Book of Mormon as World Literature
April 11, 2012
FAIR Blog
FAIR member Kerry Shirts shares the insights he has gained into the study of the Book of Mormon as world literature as it has been made more possible through the Book of Mormon Critical Text project conducted by Royal Skousen.
This is part of a YouTube series Brother Shirts has posted as The Backyard Professor. Brother Shirts loves to study and was first called the “Backyard Professor” by his wife because he takes his books everywhere with him. The video of this audio recording can be viewed here.
http://www.fairblog.org/2012/04/11/mormon-fair-cast-83-the-book-of-mormon-as-world-literature/
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