Recommended order of study?

[Thoughtful]

Spouseman has agreed to study the essays, and anything on LDS.org OR cited by LDS.org to try to get a shared perspective.

Where do I start? I'd like his eyes to be opened, but gently.

[Mormorrisey]

Essays, essays, and essays. The only challenge is, one needs to actually STUDY them, look at the footnotes, and try to identify spin. My own experience? Everyone I've suggested to read the essays to better understand my point of view hasn't actually read them when I've questioned them on the material; except for one individual, who was troubled by the Fanny Alger story but then just put it up on the shelf. But generally, I've found most people just skim them, IF they know about them, and won't really read them to gain some kind of understanding. So it might be a good thing to go over it together. Sister M has "read" some of them, but won't really discuss them. It's a challenge.

But on the other hand, the essays are on the lds.org site, so at least it's "official," and shouldn't scare away any TBM. So they are beneficial in that sense. I wish you luck, my hope is that your spouse will read them with the goal of understanding you. That's a good journey.

But then, I really didn't answer your question about which essay to start with, did I? They're all so much fun. Race and priesthood is a fun one to start with, if you couple it with some of the statements of doctrine from the 1940s, like this one from FairMormon. You can tell hubby that Fair Mormon is part of the Maxwell Institute at BYU, so it has SOME church sanction:

https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Morm ... Statements

The one I would avoid off the hopper is DNA and the BOM, it's a tough slog jargon-wise, and might put him off further study. Hope that helps!

[oliblish]

The book In Sacred Loneliness by Todd Compton was cited by the polygamy essay in the footnotes. So maybe that is fair game?

[Thoughtful]

The book In Sacred Loneliness by Todd Compton was cited by the polygamy essay in the footnotes. So maybe that is fair game?

Yes, the deal is if it's cited in LDS.org, we can use it. I'm thinking Fawn Brodie is also cited somewhere.

The essays take a lot out of context. I'm going to insist we check the references, I want him to see how things have been deliberately spun and in some cases outright mislead.

[Hagoth]

Yes, the deal is if it's cited in LDS.org, we can use it. I'm thinking Fawn Brodie is also cited somewhere.

Yes, Brodie is cited in the essays. So Is Todd Compton's In Sacred Loneliness

[Hagoth]

Here's something to think about when you read the essays. Consider whether or not they really give an authoritative, or even reasonable answer. You will find that most are choose-your-own-adventure stories; they throw out a lot of "perhaps," and "it could be" kinds of answers with the hope that one of them will work for you but in the end they offer no resolutions to the problems. I think this is very important for any discussion that goes along with reading them. Example: was there a 40-foot missing Book of Abraham scroll? Is the BoA actually on the existing papyri but it has become unrecognizable to us by centuries of copying? Did the Joseph Smith papyri merely serve as a catalyst for a revelation? All of these answers are given in the essay, and each has serious problems, but no REAL answer is given. The Nauvoo Polygamy essay tries to say both the Joseph and other prophets were merely human products of their time, so we should cut them some slack, AND that Joseph was doing everything exactly as the Lord commanded.

Here are some detailed rebuttals to three of the essays (Nauvoo Polygamy, Book of Abraham, Book of Mormon DNA), if you're interested:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vd_ ... sp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Log ... sp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tz7 ... sp=sharing

[Thoughtful]

Here's something to think about when you read the essays. Consider whether or not they really give an authoritative, or even reasonable answer. You will find that most are choose-your-own-adventure stories; they throw out a lot of "perhaps," and "it could be" kinds of answers with the hope that one of them will work for you but in the end they offer no resolutions to the problems. I think this is very important for any discussion that goes along with reading them. Example: was there a 40-foot missing Book of Abraham scroll? Is the BoA actually on the existing papyri but it has become unrecognizable to us by centuries of copying? Did the Joseph Smith papyri merely serve as a catalyst for a revelation? All of these answers are given in the essay, and each has serious problems, but no REAL answer is given. The Nauvoo Polygamy essay tries to say both the Joseph and other prophets were merely human products of their time, so we should cut them some slack, AND that Joseph was doing everything exactly as the Lord commanded.

Here are some detailed rebuttals to three of the essays (Nauvoo Polygamy, Book of Abraham, Book of Mormon DNA), if you're interested:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vd_ ... sp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Log ... sp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tz7 ... sp=sharing

Thanks!

[moksha]

Do any of you have a preference for the unwritten order of study, the unspoken order of prayer, the well-proven order knowing and the unconscious way of being?