Radio Free Mormon

Today On Radio Free Mormon, RFM and Bill Reel dissect Elder Oaks October 2018 General Conference talk from Saturday Morning.  In this talk Elder Oaks uses logical fallacy after logical fallacy and bad argument after bad argument in defending his Anti-Science prejudice and his Anti-LGBT bigotry.  This 15 minute minute talk was a brilliant attempt to entrench the Church in stances that simply don’t hold up to the data and facts.   Elder Oaks arguments are full of holes and unlike Ensign Blair’s ship, this vessel of a talk sinks faster by the minute.

Today Radio Free Mormon offers a prediction for General Conference using a quote by Elder Cook from a recent General Conference.  Elder Cook strangely imposed that Mormons will in fact always be “Small in number” due to “wickedness in the world”.  This seemed odd in light of you and me and everyone else having grown up with a Mormonism where dynamic Growth was told to us to be an indicator of the truthfulness of the Church.  As RFM goes to into detail to prove…. such seemed like blatant “Gaslighting“.  And RFM postulates that if this is the new narrative of the Church that they will need to reiterate such on more than one occasion including this weeks October 2018 General Conference.

Radio Free Mormon and Bill Reel get together for a special Episode discussion on Elder Quentin L. Cook’s Face To Face On Church History.   While Elder Cook and Church Historians Matt Grow and Kate Holbrook attempt to tell the audience that Church history is faith building and that it can withstand scrutiny, a simple look at what they say and more importantly what they don’t say seems to deeply indicate otherwise.  There is even cameo Appearances by Elder Ballard, Church historian Steven Harper, and even a sound blip from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Sit back and buckle up as we learn that when it comes to Church leaders and the Church’s historians that “Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin'”.

BREAKING NEWS:  More information has been forthcoming regarding Ensign Blair’s Miraculous rescue of his Navy Ship in a Typhoon Today RFM informs NEW additional forthcoming details along with hashing up some old ones…. ha ha ha ha ha ha muaaaahhhhhhhhhh. Ensign Frank Blair (shown in photo above) told Elder Larry Wilson a miraculous story about his inspired resolution to issues aboard his navy ship in the midst of a typhoon during the Korean War.  The trouble is the details of this story are less believable than the tale of the crew of the S.S. Minnow.  Below are a list of issues with Ensign Blair’s story. #1 – his story has a captain leaving the bridge during a typhoon to make way to Ensign Blair’s cabin. This seems to break navy code #2 –  his story has the Captain permitting Ensign Blair to go out on the deck to “gather info” during a typhoon w/ 45′ foot waves. This would be against good judgement and dangerous. #3 – Notice the reason for the fact finding mission in #3 is made null and void by the fact that Captain and Engineer are already discussing a solution to the problem (their gauges told them the issue) when Ensign Blair shows up to the Bridge.  That God in essence sent Ensign Blair on the deck to risk his life to gather info hence discovering a problem the Captain and Engineer already knew. In other words his walking the deck was unnecessary as the gauges on the bridge communicated the same info. The issue was not knowing the problem, but rather deciding a solution.  Why would God put Ensign Blair in such unneeded risk to learn something already known? #4 – Also the newspaper clipping (shown above and dated August 19, 1955) has him serving on the U.S.S. Marion County. While Elder Wilson tells us the Ship has three engines, it actually only has two. #5.) Ensign Blair claims to see the propellers (also called screws) from the deck after securing himself to the the deck in a typhoon, at night, with 45′ waves. The propellers or screws as they are called are below the boat tucked away from the outside edge. Think through what angle he would have to be at leaning off the side of the boat to see the crews as they come up out of the water in a typhoon. Think about what it would take to secure himself and manually lengthen or shorten the rope he is tied to. This story is absurd and false.( See sketch below) #6 – While the newspaper (above) tells us Ensign Blair was a Chaplain, Elder Wilson tells us that there was no Chaplain and Ensign Blair, the upright religious sailor that he was, filled in.  Who informed the Newspaper that Blair held the officer title of Chaplain?  If Ensign Blair himself, then such is a deceptive and dishonest move as to claim a title one did not officially and legitimately hold would raise eyebrows. #7 – Elder Wilson refers to the propellers as “giant propellers” but as you can see on the image below this style ship had very small propellers, due to the need to get up on land to drop tanks off. #8 – Elder Wilson starts this story with “During the Korean War”.  Except as seen in the newspaper clipping above (which was dated Aug 19, 1955), Ensign Blair did not begin his 2 year military stint until after the Korean War had ended (Korean War ended July 1953). Taken in its totality…. This faith promoting story from General Conference… well…. It simply didn’t happen.  Sorry.  God Magic still unconfirmed!!!

Today we dissect the Mormon Channel’s video titled “How to Answer Questions about Church History” hosted by  Amy Iverson where she interviews Steven Harper on how he as a Church Historian deals with tough issues within Church history. You might expect a Church historian who is on such a program due to his immersion and professional understanding of LDS Church History to use Church history to show that the tough questions have solid answers.  You might expect him to encourage members who come across a tough issue to dive deeper, to find original sources, or refer them to the Gospel Topic Essays, or at least the Joseph Smith Papers Project as he had a major hand in it.  You might expect him pick out a few tough issues and then show how a more informed understanding of Church history helps to sort these issues out.  BUT……  As you will see he does anything but this. – Notice his hesitancy to discuss the specifics of Church history.  He seems to, as a Church historian, not want to talk about Church history, and it feels his reason is he senses there is little there to build faith on. – Notice when asked if Church history has built faith and has resolved his questions he constantly deflects from answering such questions directly and imposes that his testimony is not based in Church history. – Notice his progression from A.) Questions always resolve themselves  B.) We have some questions that are yet unresolved but We have a lot of answers and I have faith the unresolved will yet be resolved.  C.) There are both several questions resolved as well as several questions unresolved.  D.) I have way more questions than answers and the more I learn Church history, the unresolved questions grow exponentially. and finally where he ends up E.) I hate to burst your bubble but dealing with the data causes us to reconstruct the Church in ways that have our faith in “what the Church is” being similar to how we reconcile Christmas after deconstructing the literalness of Santa Claus. While Amy imposes that Church history has been, to Steven Harper, “an illumination to his soul”.  Radio Free Mormon and Bill Reel’s analysis shows it to have been anything but. In the end it becomes obvious that not only does a Church historian avoid using Church history to resolve concerns, but also that he realizes avoiding Church history is the only way to tackle the difficult questions as to dive into the history is anything but faith promoting.

Today we dissect the Mormon Channel’s video titled “How to Answer Questions about Church History” hosted by  Amy Iverson where she interviews Steven Harper on how he as a Church Historian deals with tough issues within Church history. You might expect a Church historian who is on such a program due to his immersion and professional understanding of LDS Church History to use Church history to show that the tough questions have solid answers.  You might expect him to encourage members who come across a tough issue to dive deeper, to find original sources, or refer them to the Gospel Topic Essays, or at least the Joseph Smith Papers Project as he had a major hand in it.  You might expect him pick out a few tough issues and then show how a more informed understanding of Church history helps to sort these issues out.  BUT……  As you will see he does anything but this. – Notice his hesitancy to discuss the specifics of Church history.  He seems to, as a Church historian, not want to talk about Church history, and it feels his reason is he senses there is little there to build faith on. – Notice when asked if Church history has built faith and has resolved his questions he constantly deflects from answering such questions directly and imposes that his testimony is not based in Church history. – Notice his progression from A.) Questions always resolve themselves  B.) We have some questions that are yet unresolved but We have a lot of answers and I have faith the unresolved will yet be resolved.  C.) There are both several questions resolved as well as several questions unresolved.  D.) I have way more questions than answers and the more I learn Church history, the unresolved questions grow exponentially. and finally where he ends up E.) I hate to burst your bubble but dealing with the data causes us to reconstruct the Church in ways that have our faith in “what the Church is” being similar to how we reconcile Christmas after deconstructing the literalness of Santa Claus. While Amy imposes that Church history has been, to Steven Harper, “an illumination to his soul”.  Radio Free Mormon and Bill Reel’s analysis shows it to have been anything but. In the end it becomes obvious that not only does a Church historian avoid using Church history to resolve concerns, but also that he realizes avoiding Church history is the only way to tackle the difficult questions as to dive into the history is anything but faith promoting.

Today, boy do we have a “Whale Of A Tale” for you.  First RFM starts us off by explaining how Paul H Dunn of the seventy set a high bar for false faith promoting stories in the Church.  Then Radio Free Mormon runs you through the past false faith promoting stories that have come through Mormonism in recent years.  And he finishes by laying out the most recent example in Radio Free Mormon fashion, Elder Larry Y. Wilson’s Take the Holy Spirit as Your Guide      Where good ole’ Ensign Blair saves the day.

In the LDS Church, we have the Priesthood of God.  One of the magnificent things that comes with that Priesthood is the power and authority to call upon God through the laying on of hands in blessing the sick and afflicted to be healed.  Healing power is one of the evidences in the LDS Church’s truth claims.  And As RFM points out, it appears to be a gift no longer present in the Church.  He takes the last General Conference as a prime example and shows that in the 11 cases in conference where surely a Priesthood blessing did or should of taken place, the afflicted individual does not fare to well even with access to God’s Priesthood army.  If the game were baseball – People dying would in an offensive onslaught while throwing a no-hitter against those being healed!!!

McKenna Denson found early on that she had someone who believed her story. That person was Radio Free Mormon. From that moment on RFM has sought to help her and all of us get to the bottom of what the Church and the Police continue to hide. No one has helped us understand this story like Radio Free Mormon. And tomorrow morning his 2 part interview with McKenna Denson will release to the general public!!!! On one side RFM asks questions in his lawyerly fashion to get to the bottom of this case, and McKenna tells the story from her mouth. You won’t want to miss this!!!! Radio Free Mormon—After Dark: The McKenna Denson Interview

McKenna Denson found early on that she had someone who believed her story. That person was Radio Free Mormon. From that moment on RFM has sought to help her and all of us get to the bottom of what the Church and the Police continue to hide. No one has helped us understand this story like Radio Free Mormon. And tomorrow morning his 2 part interview with McKenna Denson will release to the general public!!!! On one side RFM asks questions in his lawyerly fashion to get to the bottom of this case, and McKenna tells the story from her mouth. You won’t want to miss this!!!! Radio Free Mormon—After Dark: The McKenna Denson Interview