Mormon Civil War

Peter, Paul and Mormonism – The 12 Days of Christmas Toscano Dialogues In this final conversation Paul shares his conclusions about the Godhead that the text of the Book of Mormon actually describes, and it’s nothing like the ‘Fullness of the Gospel’ deity the LDS Church thinks it is telling us to believe in.  We also talk about the what a final judgement may involve when administered by a merciful deity who is rooting for us to learn and grow and become like them.

Peter, Paul and Mormonism – The 12 Days of Christmas Toscano Dialogues In this penultimate episode we try to make some sense of 5 of the biggest conundrums in Mormon theology:   1 - How is God male and female? 2 - Who actually is Jehovah in the Temple Endowment? 3 - Disentangling who is what in the several different Mormon Godheads 4 - Who exactly is who in the world planning scene in the Book of Abraham? 5 - The nature of the Atonement of Christ.   Mormon Doctrines can be a lot wilder than even I imagined. And along the way Paul says something so profound and comforting I have already made a meme of it.

Peter, Paul and Mormonism – The 12 Days of Christmas Toscano Dialogues As we continue to ponderize how to integrate the religiously ideal with the real in our normal lives, Paul and I discuss what it means to base a religion on the glory described in Mormon scriptures of truth, light and freedom to think for yourself rather than Lucifer’s religion of militaristic acclaim for conquering and controlling other people. What a Mormonism of open minded curiosity and respect for science blesses you with compared to the miserable and lonely certainties of judgmental fundamentalism, even if it seems less secure.

Peter, Paul and Mormonism – The 12 Days of Christmas Toscano Dialogues In this meaty episode we explore all kinds of aspects of what taking the LDS temple endowment’s promises seriously can unlock for autonomous, ordained men and women empowered to free themselves from authoritarian control by General Authorities and instead replace them as the democratic, equal ‘Quorum of the Anointed’ Joseph Smith originally established. We reflect on what Community of Christ has pioneered in making Common Consent actually work as a leadership and decision-making philosophy.  What President Russell M. Nelson said when challenged by journalists to have more inclusive leadership of the Church, and what they did to heroic Elder Ronald E. Poelman of the Seventy when he dared to teach this model of mature autonomy separating the institutional Church from the true Gospel in General Conference in actual 1984.  You couldn’t make it up.

Peter, Paul and Mormonism – The 12 Days of Christmas Toscano Dialogues In the first of a 2-parter we start to learn what Paul Toscano means by ‘Chapel Priesthoods’ and ‘Temple Priesthoods’.  After a much more sophisticated beginning, how did the LDS leaders establish a male-only, correlated bureaucracy that tightly controls every expression of priesthood authority and blessing? And is there any way for an asphyxiating Church, and particularly women, to escape its iron grip?