THEOLOGICAL ISSUES
Including Harmful Doctrines

The below list are the major theological issues that for me, indicate that the Book of Mormon and and the LDS church are not what they claim to be. Nearly all items in the list are spiritually or psychologically harmful. I haven’t really placed smaller theological issues here such as Jesus’ incorrect use of the Nephite monetary system (senine is not the smallest unit) when sharing the sermon on the mount.

Binary theology – The Book of Mormon prioritizes a binary view of theology and the world. Black and white, righteous and wicked, church of God or church of the devil, good vs evil, eternal damnation or everlasting life, Lamanites vs Nephites, us vs them, the natural man which is an enemy to God vs the saint, mercy and justice, man and woman. While there is an allure to simplify everything down to the doctrine of two ways and dualistic outcomes, reality is more complex than that. Creation is more complex than day and night, land and water. There are sunsets, dark clouds, islands, lakes, and moving beach lines. Complexity, diversity, plurality of spiritual gifts, and greater agency emerge from a theology that allows for more than simple binaries. Binaries are famously addressed in 2 Nephi chapter 2. Binaries can be useful initial primary building blocks, but unfortunately, the Book of Mormon doesn’t really build up from binaries to achieve more complex theological structures such as the three degrees of glory which came later in Mormonism. Most of the church has failed to move beyond the binaries in the Book of Mormon except in a few cases. The binary theology of the Book of Mormon stunts church theology and bleeds into the church culture, social structures, obedience to church leaders rather than to principles, Prophets can only be wrong after they are dead, an inability to even discuss what may be false in the current church because it threatens binary thinking (the church can’t have some false doctrines in it and also be God’s church), and so on. It sets up the famous house of cards that it is either all true or all a fraud. It stunts emotional and spiritual growth of members and the organization. In some cases it leads to real harm that is manifest in marginalization, the creation of strict borders with an in-group and an out-group, extremism in beliefs or actions, and so on. The LDS preference for a binary theology has produced real harm for the LGBTQ membership. Metaphorical child sacrifices occur where there is a “right way to be” and children who don’t fit the mold are in some sense socially cut off if they cannot conform. They are in some sense eternally separated from their families in the afterlife creating empty seats at the divine feast table. The Primary Hymn, Choose the Right Way states: “There’s a right way to live and be happy; It is choosing the right ev’ry day. I am learning the teachings of Jesus; They will help me and show me the way. Choose the right way and be happy. I must always choose the right. Through the gospel I learn to be prayerful, To have faith, to repent, to obey, And I know if I live by his teachings, I will truly be happy each day. Choose the right way and be happy. I must always choose the right.” When this binary is applied to gender and sexuality combined with messages that being LGBTQ is being in the “wrong way”, it creates dissonance, harm, and implies that LGBTQ persons will never be happy leading to increased suicidal ideation and the belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with them. It doesn’t really clear the path for diversity, pluralism, or for win-win compromise scenarios when there is only a right way to do something and everything else is wrong.

Cultural appropriation – The data indicates that the Book of Mormon is not historical. The narrative of the Book of Mormon has led to a form of cultural appropriation, cultural erasure, marginalization, inhumane treatment, and a savior complex by church members. Replacing a people’s history with an outside religious narrative leads to cultural and psychological harm. It replaces their group identity, justifies colonization, justifies land grabs, creates a missionary hubris where outsiders tell groups who they really are, and so on. As a child, I sang the cringy primary hymn “Book of Mormon stories” with all of its inappropriate hand gestures, feather fingers, and actions of pretending to be a Native American chief by folding my arms with a quick head nod. The Book of Mormon states that God led the American colonizers and justified the genocide of native American societies because they were wicked. “And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters. And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren (Native Americans); and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten. And I beheld that the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles (colonizers), and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people (the Nephites) before they were slain.” 1 Nephi 13:14-16. The cultural appropriation justified in the Book of Mormon may have also inspired the LDS church to create the Indian Placement Program that placed 50,000 children in foster care during the school year to provide an education for them. The program also attempted to integrate them into Mormon mainstream western society which produced some harmful results and estrangement from their culture. “In October 1960, Kimball discussed the program at the General Conference. He said that Natives who participated in the program were gradually turning lighter, becoming ‘white and delightsome’. ‘The day of the Lamanites is nigh’, Kimball said, claiming that Navajo placement students were ‘as light as Anglos’ and, in one case, several shades lighter than parents ‘on the same reservation, in the same hogan [traditional dwelling], subject to the same sun and wind and weather.” Wikipedia The program appears to have been intended to “civilize” Native American children and transform them both culturally and literally to become more white.

Ends Justify the Means – The Book of Mormon advocates that the ends-justify-the-means. It’s ok to be passive in suffering and watch as women and children to die in fire, if it seals the the fate of the wicked to everlasting torment and the sacrificed people are received to eternal life. If we pay our tithing we did our part and don’t need to worry about the rest of the world. It’s ok for Nephi to behead Laban rather than tie him up or for the Lord to simply keep him sleeping. It was ok for Ammon to kill and chop off arms to provide a sign to the King that he had God’s power rather than try diplomacy first. Sheep are more valuable than the lives of thieves anyway. Ammon wasn’t sent to preach to the wicked theives. Adam and Eve needed to break the commandment to eat the fruit so that the world could come into existence. God set up the world so that commandments had to be broken because the ends justify the means. Jesus needed to destroy all the wicked with fire and ash so that he could create a righteous Nephite society when he visited the peopel. The ends-justify-the-means, leads to concepts like lying for the Lord is ok, lying about polygamy is ok, marrying teenagers is ok, and lying to people about the church is ok, if in the end it helps to convert them or save their souls. Milk before meat, where the milk contains white lies is good medicine if it gets them in the church. In the extreme it leads to atrocities like the Mountain Meadows massacre and the killing of native peoples from Utah to clear the way for the Saints to inherit the land, or the Indian Student Placement program to separate children from native parents in order to educate them and save them into whiteness, or the Bishop’s hotline with its advice to exercise priest privilege to not report sexual abuse if it may damage the reputation of the church. The ends-justify-the-means enables all sorts of wickedness. This may also be why Mormons are susceptible to Trumpism with all of his lies and law breaking if in the end it produces a Nation with the laws that they want. “Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better than one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle in unbelief.” This teaches that murder may be justified to prevent a loss of faith. So it is with the old death penalties that used to be in the temple endowment ceremonies should anyone betray the church as well as the prayers of vengeance on the mob that killed Joseph Smith. The ends-justify-the-means was Satan’s plan… and also sometimes the Mormon Trickster God’s plan. It’s ok if God lies to us if he can trick us or scare us into doing the right thing. “Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my glory.” “Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.” Doctrine and Covenants 19: 6 & 7. This mentality may have been why my local church leaders lied to me and also pretended to be sympathetic to various issues affecting my family so that I could be persuaded to get back in line or not leave the fold. A better, more righteous, principled, and healthy way is to be honest, sincere, speak the truth, and advocate for righteous means to the greatest extent humanly possible, and then let the consequences follow what they may. No one can be lied to or tricked into heaven, and yet that is often attempted with “milk before meat” rationalization and other slight of hand thought stopping approaches that brush under the rug harmful doctrines or place on the shelf problematic church history.

God – The Book of Mormon appears to primarily promote a modalism concept where God appears in different forms. I do note that there is some evolution in the treatment of God and that the entire book doesn’t appear to be self consistent. Starting with the translation process after the lost 116 pages which began in Mosiah (the Mosiah priority), Abinadi in Mosiah chapter 15 taught that God himself (Jesus) would descend and save his people. In this modalism, the spirit of God is known as God the Father, and when he comes down to earth he becomes Jesus, the Son of God, when he is born and takes on flesh. The spirit is the Father and the flesh is the son. This singular God, is born of Mary, pays the price for sin with his death, and then ascends back to heaven. The earliest version of the Book of Mormon stated that Mary birthed God rather than the Son of God. This single person plays three different parts as spiritual Father (or Great Spirit), Son as embodied spirit, and Holy Spirit (which is a projection of the divine spirit into us). Sometimes all three roles occur simultaneously as the spirit of Jesus speaks from heaven, a portion of which is housed within his physical body, and projects his spirit into the hearts of his followers. It’s as if I communicated with others on a social media live stream while also being present in a physical location and my words and thoughts that emanated from me also inspired your mind and heart. Described in another way, the father of my current self was my pre-earth life spirit. When my spirit entered my physical body and I was born, my new self became the son of my former self. I am a new person in birth. My former self came before my current self, and in that sense, my existence as a spirit which predated my physical existence, was the father of my current self which is its son. I am the same person, but have been changed. My previous self was the father of my current self. I have a new type of existence, even though I always existed. This isn’t too much different than the concept of baptism and being born again. Who decided that I should be baptized? Wasn’t it my previous self that in some sense fathered my transformation? In Alma 11, Amulek taught that the Son of God is the very Eternal Father and that there is only one Eternal God. The Book of Mormon title page states that Jesus is the Eternal God. The concept of God later evolved after the Book of Mormon was published. Along the way, a singular God transformed into the Godhead which included two persons. This was explicitly taught in the Lectures on Faith that was published by Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and F.G. Williams in Kirtland 1835. “How many personages are there in the Godhead? Two: the Father and the Son.” In the two person Godhead, the Holy Spirit was conceptualized as a shared mind or having an alignment of thought between Father and Son. In this way, Christians could have a transformation of mind through this union of minds, or alignment of minds, called the Holy Ghost. Eventually the three person Godhead emerged where the Holy Ghost became their own distinct person. Versions of the first vision also evolved from Jesus appearing alone, to Jesus and God appearing as two distinct persons. If one looks closely, the God of the Book of Mormon is not the same God presented throughout the Doctrine and Covenants or within the church today. In my search for Jesus in the Book of Mormon, it is very clear that Jesus (also believed to be Jehovah by Latter-day Saints) was called God throughout the text. I have numerous examples on my names of Jesus in the Book of Mormon list that I built over several years.

Hierarchies – The Book of Mormon is built on a foundation of various hierarchies. Hierarchies of prophets, priests and kings. Family hierarchies are assumed in the text as the book is about a chosen family line. Patriarchy is also very prominent in the Book of Mormon. Women and children are treated as commodities and background characters in the text even among the Nephites prophets. Nephi’s sisters are are afterthought after the group reaches the Promised Land. Only then does he think to mention them. Women in the Book of Mormon don’t have authority and provide very little dialog. Joseph Smith’s concept of hierarchies was also extended beyond social systems in the Doctrine and Covenants (the Word of Wisdom and the hierarchy of foods) and the Pearl of Great Price with the hierarchy of intelligences. The early LDS church also taught a hierarchy of priesthoods and levels of faithfulness in the pre-earth life, with Black members being denied ecclesiastical authority and priesthood in the church for nearly 150 years. Hierarchies are harmful because it denies that all are equally loved and valued by God. It subjugates people based on sex, race, tribe, and so on. In contrast to hierarchies, Jesus taught a more egalitarian gospel centered in divine love. So many of Jesus’ parables were about upending the concept of hierarchies based on status, sex, ecclesiastical position, tribe, religion, one’s works, and so on.

One Dimensional Characterizations – Most of the main characters in the Book of Mormon are one dimensional, except perhaps during a period of transformation. Once they are good, they stay good. It is very difficult for me to think of examples in the Book of Mormon where a prophet actually repented for a serious infraction. In contrast, there are many places in the Bible where prophets repented. For the most part, prophets in the Book of Mormon are treated as being almost infallible after they are called to lead the people. The best examples I could think of where characters sinned are below. An example of a when a prophet erred in the Book of Mormon is when Lehi murmured due to the lack of food (1st Nephi 16:20) revealing a slight character flaw. Another case of self reflection is when Lehi states that he knows that he is a visionary man. Another example is when Nephi laments because of his weakness, but does not explain what that weakness might be. The text suggests his weakness might be that he was at times angry with his brothers for their several murder attempts and abuses that he suffered at their hands. An example of a repenting not associated with sin is when Alma plans to leave a wicked people and never return, but later repents (changes his mind) from that decision after an angel told him to go back (Alma 8:24-25) and declare repentance to the people. Moroni (who is not a prophet) has maybe the biggest blunder in being angry with Pahoran the chief judge for not sending his armies supplies due to internal challenges with the king-men. The text suggests that this was a righteous anger (even if it was misplaced against the chief judge), and the chief judge supports Moroni’s efforts to throw down the king-men. The one dimensional characters in the Book of Mormon support the concept that prophets are almost infallible. In today’s church, Mormon leaders are often also treated as almost one-dimensional. If prophets error, it is a small misstep and not really a moral failing or serious issue. To criticize the actions of modern prophets is to also criticize the church or God himself. There is not really any separation between them. The lack of real human flaws and weaknesses in the almost one-dimensional good guys suggests the stories are fictional like early Superman comics raising up an archetype of the good-guy, rather than real histories of people with moral failings and real challenges. This leads to viewing others around us as one-dimensional which is bad theology. It leads to in-groups and out-groups, mind-guards, border monitoring, us vs the them mentality, and so on.

Patriarchy – Family hierarchies where the Father is the king of the family are assumed in the text. Women and children are treated as commodities and background characters in the text even among the Nephites prophets. Nephi’s sisters are are afterthought after the group reaches the Promised Land. Only then does he think to mention them. Women in the Book of Mormon don’t have authority and provide very little dialog. The book advances the perspective that God’s plan includes benevolent patriarchy and purity culture. The seeds of Book of Mormon patriarchy provided fertile ground for later Mormon polygamy.

Racism and Stereotypes – The Book of Mormon states that the descendants of the Lamanites (i.e. the Native Americans) are degenerate, without culture, backwards, and so on. They were cursed with a skin of blackness. Apologists have attempted to reinterpret these verses as indicating that the Lamanites marked themselves with paint or had a spiritually dark countenance. The text is fairly clear that physical skin color is what is intended. The interpretation from the Book of Mormon that a physically dark skin is a curse from God also aligns with racist teachings in the Pearl of Great Price, historical interpretations by church leaders, and the Priesthood Racial Ban that was in place until 1978. The Book of Mormon advocates that God has favored tribes of people.

Tribalism – The Book of Mormon advances the concept of familial hierarchies, tribes and strict social boundaries. There are chosen tribes, chosen peoples, chosen lands, and so on. There are in-groups and out-groups that create boundaries of conflict. Members are adopted into one of the twelve tribes of Israel when they receive their Patriarchal blessing. I wonder which of the twelve tribes of Israel, the people who lived before the sons of Israel will be adopted into?

Virtue is virginity as a commodity – The Book of Mormon states that the wicked Nephites raped the Lamanite women who were their captives taking away their virtue which is precious above all. “For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue” Moroni 9:9. Treating a woman’s virginity as social capital reveals that it is a social rather than a biological construct. Equating virginity as virtue is a Victorian idea. In Victorian society, female virginity was treated as a woman’s highest moral and social virtue, serving as the summation of her social worth and respectability. It creates a harmful purity culture propped up by a form of benevolent patriarchy that places women on a pedestal removing their equality and humanity. Women are viewed as prizes whose worth is maintained so long as they don’t leave the pedestal. Losing virginity outside of marriage meant a near total loss of social capital. It turned a woman into a social outcast. Women who had premarital sex were supposed to feel immense shame, be shamed by others, and overall be considered as tainted goods. This concept also meant that a woman’s virtue and worth could be taken away by a man who raped her, causing her to become damaged goods, literally treating a woman and her virginity as a commodity. This theology is in opposition to the principles that Jesus taught. Jesus interpreted virtue as spiritual power rather than virginity. Jesus felt virtue (or spiritual power) leave him when the hem of his garment was touched by someone of great faith who was healed. The Psalms of the virtuous woman describes a virtuous woman as one who is industrious. She is a business woman with both spiritual power and business acumen enabling her to care for the poor. She is worth more money than rubies because she can make more money than rubies are worth. She is industrious and uses her money to help others. A woman’s virtue is not lost if she has sex. Else what of the virtue of married women? The Book of Mormon’s backwards concept of virtue is to define it as a virginity commodity to be enjoyed by men. In reality, a woman remains chaste if she was raped. An attacker cannot deprive someone of their chastity. Such ideas are backwards and harmful to rape victims. It is harmful to treat women as commodities rather than as equal humans. It is bad doctrine that has resulted in immense suffering and abuse. Throw down the Patriarchy and its unholy hierarchies!