Keep up the good work!

This is a great page, thanks for your time and effort that you put into this page. I am sure that you have helped many people with your loads of facts.

On my own I have "investigated" the LDS sales pitch. I even attended meetings with missionaries and have read a bit of the BofM. During my encounters I received instructions on what passage to read in order to get that famous "warm and fuzzy" feeling in the bosom telling you that all of this convoluted invention is "true." Now if you read "Lassie" or "Little Women" with a sincerity and an open heart you can get a warm and fuzzy feeling.. Anybody can get an emotional charge on any illusionary notion, the LDS cult banks a lot on that phenomena.

Thanks to the internet I completed my education of the cult. I now have a better understanding of why people fall into such foolishness. There are a number of sources that are useful including news groups. The "open to discussion" sites are not as slick as the LDS sites though. The LDS propaganda mill is a very powerful and well financed machine. The sales strategies themselves provide sufficient subject matter for a doctoral thesis.

I have found that the LDS church is a source of comfort to those who are anxious (for social or emotional reasons) to be relieved of their intellectual responsibilities as intelligent beings....

Once a person is in the fold it is hard for them to break away. The integrated approach (LSD is a 7x24, get your wife and children involved religion) guarantees that there will be copious family and peer pressure for the person to stay and shut up.

Dealing with true believers is tough business, laudable but tough. I have seen the nasty e-mail you have received. Their malevolence and rancor is palpable, cults hate exposure. I think that the most constructive part of your research and exposure is showing potential "Saints" just how dumb the whole concept is, it does not even qualify as creative anthropology.

If you have dissuaded even one would be "Saint" then you have done another human being a super favor and have made your efforts in this page worthwhile....

Take care of yourself and PLEASE keep up the good work.

The site's well organized, and despite the protests of one person in the "negative comments" section, I find your use of journals and talks to support your points vastly *superior* to much of what I see in genealogy research ....

As a returned missionary and former mormon, I was deeply hurt when I opened my eyes to the lies and dreams that they sell. Now, and quite unforseen, I am a single mother who will make sure her boys will be aware of this information about the church so they are never fooled as I was.

Once again, thank you.

I think that the Internet is a true blessing. Pages such as this will doubtlessly be the death-knell for quasi-Christian cults like Mormonism, since information like this is now available to the masses doing a search on Mormonism, rather than hidden away on the bottom shelf of a mainline Christian bookstore that most Mormons would never visit anyway.

... With the help of the TRUTH, I am out of the church, and my wife, a lifetime member, is on her way to the truth as well... remaining a member only for local social and "political correctness" purposes....

Unfortunatly this proof of Josephs Con wont be around for ever. These Liars make their bull more pallatable each decade.

I intend to study your website fully.

I had to drop you a note to thank you for your obvious hard work in assembling these pages.

Having followed your discussions(?) with some of the LDS on the newsgroup, it looks like you are as open-minded as it gets--yet the Mormons seem to classify you as antagonistic. The tone of alt.religion.mormon has become one that attacks either the poster's background credentials or his personal lifestyle rather than address the issue raised.

I have read some of your web page in the past in just a few seconds ago. Once again, I have enjoyed some of the things that you are trying to do with it. I have also read your criticism page and have found it full of the same over-zealous Church members who speak their point of view with pure emotion, and no reason. It's funny how often those same responses (your critics) line the walls of news-groups, web pages. "Your going to hell, bring sun tan lotion", "I hope you can find the truth", these being the most ironic. Anyway, I would like to encourage you in your ministry in showing a non-LDS influenced view of Mormonism.

Keep up the good work.

I think that the service that you are providing is wonderful. .... Keep up the good work. May God Bless You Always!

One was in the US and one was in Slovenia... and BOTH made choices not to join the church..

Thank you for all the work that went into that web site.. It by FAR is the best one on the web.

God bless your efforts..

I have prayed, fasted, done all of the things they have asked me to do. This is what happens, everytime I get online to study something positive about the "book" I end up in places like this.

My Mother- inlaw tells me it's the advisary tempting me. I say I prayed, I asked to be shown the answers..... and as I said, I always end up here.

It saddens me to think of those 9 million people who are so mislead. After I read about the Veiw of the Hebrews, what can I say but my heavens people open thine eyes!!!!!

A man in the negative comment section really sets a wonderful example of the typical "Utah Mormon" ( and yes, I have seen the difference) WHEN HE WRITES, "For those of you who have been con'ed by those like the Tanner's and other "gainsayers", they are those whom the Lord doesn't want in his fold." Hello!! Doesn't want? I am sorry, that statement galls me!

I am grateful that because "my" God is one of love, we will ALL get to be with him. Even those of you who feel the only way in is if you are baptised, married in the temple, or give a church 10% of everything you earn, ect., ect. You see it is my belief that we are ALL children of God, and he would no more turn anyone of us away, as any of us would turn our own children away.

One final thought, another negative comment asked at the end, "Why is this so important?" It is important to because we are all here to learn, progress, study, and to form our own unique and hopefully rational observations. Or if one is willing it is important to have your eyes opened.

Thank you again for a few more reasons ( not just feelings) to keep my eyes wide open.

Thanks again.

.... As a former member of the church, I can relate to many of the truths which you have exposed. The journey away from mormonism is difficult and exhaustive. Your website represents an oasis offering food for thought and drink for clarification both of which are needed by the weary traveler.

I've been a Mormon all my life and never entertained the possibility that the church wasn't everything it said it was. In the eighth grade I took Ancient History from an eccentric old guy who was also the band teacher. He taught us how to recognize the figures in the ancient Egyptian pantheon (this represents the sum total of my study of Egyptology), Anubis is the figure with the head of a jackal, Horus is the guy with the hawks head, and there in my Pearl of Great Price were Isis and Osiris...then I read the caption. If I remember correctly, the figure that I thought was Isis was labeled "Pharaoh". All those Mormon defense mechanisms kicked in and I closed the book and didn't think about it again for another six years. I was a missionary in New Mexico, preaching the truth and, as missionaries sometimes do, riffling through some anti- pamphlet that I had come across thinking that I had heard it all before. When I saw a small reproduction of the hypocephalus ("the round one" I called it) I stopped. The text said simply, "The Book of Abraham scrolls are really funeral scrolls called the "Book of Breathings" made for someone named Hor." "I knew it!" I thought, but the Mormon defenses, bolstered by the missionary mind set came to the rescue. I put the pamphlet down and didn't think about it again for another eight years.

Then came the Internet. The rest is history.

What really kills me is that the brethren and their monkeys over at FARMS who know about the scrolls still keep the facts to themselves and continue to spread the old party line. The latest edition of the Ensign is a perfect example. I saw it when I was at my sister's house the other night, but I didn't have a chance to look at it. Do you know if they pulled the same facsimile-on-the-papyrus stunt as a few years ago? "The Book of Abraham..." it said (paraphrasing), "...a real life, bona fide ancient record."

Keep up the good work! You don't have the edge of vengeance in your writing like the Tanners do sometimes.

Thank you again, James, for your wonderful service to mankind. May God continue to bless you and keep you.

I was born in the LDS church and live in Utah. I am no longer a believer but my name is still on the church rolls. Some of your debates with active Mormons are laughable, especially the ones who base all their arguments on their "testimony" and their feelings. It seems they are the very ones who then turn around and accuse you of trying to _ steal_ their "testimony." It seems it is quite fragile, after all. Really, though, I see no humor in their situation. They see the truth but feel compelled to rebut it, yet they have no ammunition to do so.

I suppose you realize that you will never convince someone who is determined to be a mormon of the church's shady history. That is alright; I feel that anyone should be a Mormon who truly wants to be, however, let everyone be able to make an informed choice about the matter. It is especially good to get the temple ceremonies out in the open so that potential temple goers can found out what they are getting in to before they are pressured into it.

Your web page has been fascinating! This page and all the links have been a real eye-opener! I have been reading it, because I was supposed to be endowed last August, and I keep putting it off. One of my sons joined the Marines, and does not attend the LDS church there, even though he does at home with me when he is on leave. The other has moved onto campus, and keeps "forgetting" to go to church. Both of them told me to go ahead and get endowed without them, and they would "Do it later."

I have to say there is alot of good in the church on a superficial level taking care members and teaching you to have a years' supply of food in case of disaster, etc. But I just can't make myself go that next step. I think the real reason we joined was because we were homesick westerners, and the LDS church was the first place in GA we had found any fellow westerners - AND I had been laid off, and I knew they would help me with food, etc. My sons and I prayed about it, and decided it was right at the time. They really do get you when you are down. And to think that I was married to an Ex-Mormon for 20 years, and never joined the church during that time.

I got my Patriarchal Blessing about a month ago, and found it amusing when he said, "Now these things might happen now, or in your resurrected life. So don’t get disappointed if they don't happen in this life." But then he said to read my Patriarchal Blessing and the Book of Mormon daily, and my faith would increase. Sounds just like self-hypnotism to me. Besides, when I try to read it, I find it impossible to take seriously. Especially when I read Smith's old sermons/ teachings, and they have the same wording as the BoM. Coincidence? I think not.

Today, I've been going through many web pages to help me decide what to do. I now feel confirmed in my uneasiness about becoming endowed into the Temple. I have sent this information on to my kids.

I am currently a Priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint church. I have also studied past doctrines preached to the Saints, along with Church history in general that i can not talk about with my LDS friends. The main problem with some Internet Sites on Mormonism is that they usually did not do much research on Mormonism, most of it they hear from others. Your site, on the other hand i have noticed has made Church history like black and white, and to my mind what you have written for the most part is correct.

My parents know that i have read books by the Tanners but they understand that for me, it is important to know the roots, doctrines, and practices of my Church in order to feel like i can personally make a commitment to it. Which i have.

....

Thanks for taking your valuable time to read my comments .... Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that I've distanced myself for a couple years or so. I am interested in pages like yours. I don't like the reports that totally bash this group of people. I just like to see the real picture as much as possible. I'm reading the book by Ms. Brodie for a report in College and it's brought back alot to me.

I just want you to know that it is good to have this information available to anyone on the Net.

I myself am Mormon--and a convert--and a reasonably intelligent one at that. If I am intelligent, you ask, how could I maintain my status in this church after reading of its history?

Well, I can't really vouch for how I got into it (it's a long story), but I've seen my life improve enormously in the two years since I joined the church. As such, I invoke the scientific method (since the only real changing variable in my life in the past two years has been the church) and declare that the church is correct, at least for me. I do not deny the claims made by people such as yourself--many are true, but all are not. Either way, I've been enjoying Mormonism so far, and I'll probably stick with it.

Anyway, thanks again for maintaining your pages. Your information was very well-researched and presented in an objective manner, which is more than I can say for the bulk of anti-church pages out there. Keep up the good work!

I was interested in the wives of other mormons who married Joe Smith. Quite revealing and detailed...I wish I had the knowledge and the time do attempt what you have done.