Gospel Tangents Podcast

As we close #BlackHistoryMonth here in February, I wanted to introduce you to an amazing Grammy Award-Winning artist and flimmaker Mauli Bonner. We'll discuss his award-winning film, "His Name is Green Flake" about the first black Mormon slave who entered the Utah Territory before even Brigham Young! Mauli is a Grammy Award-winning artist and we'll find out some of the big names he's been working with, including Katie Perry, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Ariana Grande to name a few. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/0JdikyOm_9g Don’t miss our other conversations with Mauli: https://gospeltangents.com/people/mauli-bonner Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission Grammy Award Winner Mauli Bonner Interview GT  00:27  Welcome to Gospel Tangents. I'm excited to have my first Grammy Award winning artists on the show. Could you go ahead and tell us who you are, and how did you get that Grammy? Mauli  00:39  Yes, Mouli Bonner, and the Grammy came from writing on Gladys Knight's gospel album, One Voice gospel album. GT  00:47  Oh?! Mauli  00:47  Yeah. Gladys, in Vegas, was in my family's same ward growing up. GT  00:53  Oh really? Did you grew up in Vegas? Mauli  00:55  I did. I grew up in Vegas. Yeah. GT  00:56  So, Runnin’ Rebels, is that your team? Mauli  00:58  Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Running rebels, that's right. GT  01:01  Is this the Larry Johnson years? Mauli  01:03  Yes, it is, the good years. GT  01:07  They were very good years. Mauli  01:08  Yes. So yeah, I mean, so we did music later on, though, because she ended up being my manager, which is also interesting. GT  01:17  Gladys Knight was your manager. Mauli  01:18  Yes, yes, I know. I was in a man group. People say boy band, I don't do boy bands. I was in a man group. I was in a man group, and she was our manager. And that's how I ended up getting involved with her with songwriting. And so, I wrote on her gospel album. GT  01:34  I'm going to have to talk to you. I would love to get Gladys Knight on here. She's incredible. Mauli  01:39  She's incredible. She’s a legend, a living legend. GT  01:41  Oh, of course. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, very good. And it's not just Gladys Knight. You've worked with Katy Perry, Ariana Grande. Mauli  01:50  Yeah. I mean, LA was where I went after Vegas. And, you know, my mom grew up teaching voice and everything. And I learned the voice just because I grew up in the home, and she made sure all the kids learned it. So, when I moved to LA to do music for myself, artists would come up to me like, 'Hey, can you help me with this, help me with that?' And I was like, yeah, sure, just an unknown artist. Then then it became known artists, and then it became reality TV shows, so I just became the guy to develop artists. And so yeah, Katy Perry, Kesha. Then songwriting, as well with like, Gladys Knight's and Stevie Wonder, stuff like that. GT  02:31  So you've hung out with Stevie Wonder? Mauli  02:34  Yeah, yeah. We were working on his gospel album. It's great. GT  02:38  Wow, that's awesome. It's funny, we met last year. I'm trying to remember what that was. It was at BYU. Mauli  02:47  Education Week. GT  02:48  Oh, it was Education Week. Mauli  02:50  Yeah. GT  02:50  I think you're right. Yeah, that's what it was. And I just assumed, because I've seen the Bonner Unity Choir, which you're a part of, as well. Mauli  03:01  Well, it's my mom's choir. GT  03:03  Because, to me, they're so ubiquitous, I just assumed that you lived in Utah. So, I texted you a couple weeks ago. And I'm like, hey, we need to get together. We're going to talk about your movie, which we'll talk about in a minute. And then you texted me, you're like, well, I'm flying in at this time. I'm like, you don't live here? Mauli  03:27  Flying in?

As we conclude our conversation with the first member of the Sept Six, Lynne Whitesides, I asked her about her spirutality now. It's a long way from Mormonism. We also discusses her family's reaction to her church discipline. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/QN2fSsHQj_g Don't miss our other conversations with Lynne! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk4ldrx61TI&list=PLLhI8GMw9sJ7fveXlF645QDhoAUGnCyYf   Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission Forgiving the Church Interview GT  00:34  Well, that's what I want to get into a little bit, because it sounds very interesting to me. So, a few years later, it sounds like you sent a letter where you were forgiving. You're asking for forgiveness because of your own anger. But you had no intention, really, of coming back. Lynne  00:54  I wasn't coming back. I never said I was coming back. That wasn't the point of that letter. GT  00:59  Okay. Lynne  01:00  The point of that letter was: I see that I was asking you to hear me and you couldn't, because it's hard to hear someone who's really pissed about the way things are. Not that it's a problem to be pissed, but I was pretty pissed. I was saying things, like, I can do sound bites, and that was part of the problem. I was doing talk shows and that kind of stuff. But the other thing is, I really wanted to say, "You can't give me what I already have. And that is my own authority, my own power as a human being, as a woman. And I was somehow asking you for that." So, I began to realize that, because I wanted their approval, I was dancing around the patriarchy, instead of going to do something that I really wanted to do. And so when I realized that, I sent them that letter, and then I moved into the direction. I was already in the direction of going in that direction where I am now, because of things that had shown up in my life and the work that I do that has a lot to do with going to Peru, and some of the stuff that I talked about in my talk at Sunstone. But, no, I was never [coming back.] I never even had a moment of thinking of coming back when that happened. GT  02:15  Okay, so was this was, for lack of a better word, a way to get forgiveness with the Church, where you were forgiving the Church? Lynne  02:28  Yeah. GT  02:28  So this is your own personal forgiveness. Lynne  02:30  Absolutely. The only reason to do forgiveness is for yourself really. Tight? To let yourself off the hook; I really wanted to let all that go. I have come to this conclusion: The Church is doing exactly what it needs to do. Well, whatever that is, for me, was the perfect amount of patriarchal authority that I needed to find myself and to go, okay. I don't believe that. That is not good for the world. Patriarchy, in my opinion, is what is crushing the world at this point. And so, I don't want that. I want something else. And so that sent me on my way. And without the Church, I don't think I would have become who I am, really. GT  03:13  So do you regret being baptized? Or was that just part of your journey? Lynne  03:17  Nope, I actually think every single step was exactly what I needed.   Own Spirituality Interview GT  03:23  Okay. And so, as you're looking at this, you basically forgave the Church, and then said, I'm moving in this other direction. Can you talk about your spirituality now? Because it sounds like you've just got a different kind of spirituality. Lynne  03:39  Yeah, Let me also say, I mean, I still work on the Church. Sometimes I hear stories, and I'm just like [ugh.] People will come and talk to me because of my background. Being part of the September Six has got a shadow and a light. You never know. My own spirituality comes out of working with the medicines I work with. I go to Peru every year. And I work with Ayahuasca down there, which if you are aware of the psychedelics tha...

Some scholars have claimed that people like Nephi are unreliable narrators. That is Nephi makes himself look better than he probably was. Dr Michael Austin believes Alma was an unreliable narrator as well. We'll look further into Michael's book, "Testimony of 2 Nations." Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/zrM2uPqKKGI Don’t miss our other conversations with David: https://gospeltangents.com/people/michael-austin transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved

There are many different ways to approach the Book of Mormon. Dr Michael Austin is Mormon Studies scholar and Provost at Snow College. In his new book, "Testimony of 2 Nations," he discusses 4 ways scholars have approached the Book of Mormon & the Bible. Does these books need to be historical to study them? Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/i4gKdY1wyYw Don’t miss our other conversations with David: https://gospeltangents.com/people/michael-austin transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved

In our final discussion with Bob Roylance, he'll discuss the kings of Tikal as another evidence of the Book of Mormon on the Yucatan. We'll also discuss a tough problem: DNA. How will Bob handle that? Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/j5x5600Cuwg Copyright © 2023 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission Kings of Tikal GT  00:33  I'm trying to remember what else there is. I don't want to play too much of a critic, but I feel like I do have to ask the critical questions. Bob  00:38  Oh, yeah, we're here for... GT  00:41  What else is there? GT  00:43  You know, we could talk about the kings of Tikal, if you want to talk about that. Bob  00:47  Okay, how do they relate to the Book of Mormon? Bob  00:50  We have got a publication out where we identify 34 connecting periods or dates between the Tikal, the Lamanites. We figured that was a Lamanite stronghold. And the Kings, the most impressive date connection is when that final war took place, at 375. And then, when the first time that the people started to leave the church after Christ came was around 90 AD. That's about the same time kings started up again. So, we think that that was—and then the fact that the 350 AD treaty happened the same time a new king arrived, that was very aggressive in his fighting. And then, the general from Teotihuacan, was in various cities on the west side of the land of Cumorah. It appeared like he was preparing for the battle there in Hamel, and also in Ria Azil, there just on the very edge of the land of Cumorah. And the fact that the sacrifice of children was in that area [adds to the evidence.] And we have about 35 of these things all planned out. It just is beyond any—to have all that many connections, which is pretty impressive. GT  02:31  Do we have any Book of Mormon names in there? These are Mayan names, I'm guessing, so they probably might be hard to match them up. Lamanai perhaps. Bob  02:46  I don't know how that got there. But, anyway, that whole area there is just really amazing. The final Jaredite war just fits like a glove, how the waters of Ripliancum and the Hill Comnor and the route that they took, fits really well. And so, these are all things that just start to add up, keep adding up. And one of the things that I love to do when I go there, whenever I go through, there's a narrow strip of wilderness that goes from the East Sea to the West, until it hits the Pacific Ocean. And I think that's almost a consensus amongst the Mesoamerican people that that is the narrow strip of wilderness. Well, there's one place where there's a gap in that strip, where people go through. And like the Book of Mormon says, Moroni did a lot of fortifications to keep the Lamanites on the south side of the narrow strip of wilderness. Well, if you go through that gap, you can see these fortifications right there. And then I just sit there and say, okay, now just envision, the people of Ammon all going through he narrow neck. Just envision the sons of Mosiah going through that narrow neck, and you go down the list and it's kind of fun to sit there and say, "Hey, this is where it really happened." And that's just a very persuasive part of the Book of Mormon. That's where it all took place, where those things took place. Bob  04:31  Another thing that really fits is the Hill Riplah war. Man, we've got a place that nails that. The Lamanites were attacking the Ammonites in Jershon. And Moroni had such an army there that they decided to go another place to fight. So, they then go to Manti. So, they went around the south wilderness, which we've got nailed, I think, really well to the headwaters of the Sidon river, the Pasion river. And there's two rivers that come together at just about the right spot. And then the Lamanites went to this hill, and they had to climb the hill. Now,

We're going to dive into Matthew 7 to discuss more LDS Temple theology. Dave talks about approaching the veil in Matthew 7. Does it match with the Book of Mormon? Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/1oqDbbW4qXo Don’t miss our other conversations with David: https://gospeltangents.com/people/david-john-butler/ transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved

Dave Butler continues to look at the Bible for temple texts, and says the Lord's Prayer is another example. Why does he think so? Check out our conversation.... https://youtu.be/_h9eT3Wy1ng Don’t miss our other conversations with David: https://gospeltangents.com/people/david-john-butler/ transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved

Are temple oaths consistent with Matthew where Jesus said we shouldn't swear oaths? Dave Butler answers that question and discusses veiling at the temple for women, and the significance of temple clothing. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/_oULsYcD-TY Don’t miss our other conversations with David: https://gospeltangents.com/people/david-john-butler/ transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved

Dave Butler says the Sermon on the Mount is a temple text! Are temple oaths consistent with Matthew where Jesus said we shouldn't swear oaths? Dave Butler answers that question and discusses veiling at the temple for women, and the significance of temple clothing. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/ENyEJAQbLQs Don’t miss our other conversations with David: https://gospeltangents.com/people/david-john-butler/ transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission transcript to follow Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved

In Denver Snuffer's book "The Second Comforter," Denver claimed he knew how to see Jesus. We also call our temples "The House of the Lord." Is it possible to see Jesus in the temple, or even outside the temple as Denver claims? Dave Butler weighs in on that. Check out our conversation... https://youtu.be/nwmSqygIXYg Don’t miss our other conversations with David: https://gospeltangents.com/people/david-john-butler/ transcript to follow Copyright © 2023 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission transcript to follow Copyright © 2023 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved