The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has been around for almost two centuries. It has ebbed and fluctuated in such a predictably adaptive manner throughout it's relatively short life in the religious realm. This Church has a very sordid past, which it does a very good job of teaching for itself, whether the history is slanted or not, is yours to decide. Join me on a journey through the history of the LDS Church through the eyes of the people that were actually there. We will learn about the founding members, where the practices came from, where the Book of Mormon (Mormon Bible) came from, and most importantly, we will examine Joseph Smith in every aspect possibly available to us today.

Most of the past week and a half has been driving, but I've been in Northern Utah for 4 days now and had to post up another log recounting everything so far. Utah is full of such cool Mormon history and many museums related to the entire pioneer era. Another small addition, Christopher Nemelka is an interesting guy to have a conversation with. He was nice enough to set up an interview at his studio on his Marvelous Work and Wonder monthly video broadcast. It's posted up on the Naked Mormonism Facebook page, all 2.5 hours of it, try to watch without spontaneous aneurysm...

Direct download: Travel_Log_041817.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:15pm EDT
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Most of today was driving, however the morning was spent in Palmyra and Fayette at the Smith farm, Sacred Grove, and Whitmer farm. The church has put out some really slick videos trying to explain the history, but somehow they still obfuscate the reality. Now on to a fun evening with friend of the show Jonathan Tindell of Secular Stories podcast!

Direct download: Travel_Log_040817.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:53pm EDT
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Most of today was driving, however the morning was spent in Palmyra and Fayette at the Smith farm, Sacred Grove, and Whitmer farm. The church has put out some really slick videos trying to explain the history, but somehow they still obfuscate the reality. Now on to a fun evening with friend of the show Jonathan Tindell of Secular Stories podcast!

Direct download: Travel_Log_040817.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:53pm EDT
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Most of today was spent looking through microfilms of Luman Walter's probate file. He must have been somewhat wealthy because the surrogates who handled his possessions afterwards did a fantastic job of cataloging all of his personal inventory. The rest of the day was spent at the Hill Cumorah visitor center talking with a delightful elder missionary.

Direct download: Travel_Log_040717.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:45pm EDT
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Isaac Hale didn't like Jo when him and Emma began courting. Luckily for Jo, Hale's heart softened and allowed Jo to move in to the farm once "persecution" in New York became too much to bear. We cover two days in this travel log because the majority of them were spent driving. The rest of the log includes my musing on an interview I conducted with a professor at Boston University about Joseph Smith's possible entheogen use.

Direct download: Travel_Log_04030417.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:36pm EDT
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Kirtland Day 3 landed me at the Sidney Rigdon church in Mentor, Ohio; finishing the day with a conversation with Seth Bryant and Tom Kimball of the Church of Christ. Not quite as eventful as the last few days, but still very productive.

Direct download: Travel_Log_040217.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:37pm EDT
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Kirtland Day 2 involved touring the CoC owned Kirtland Temple as well as the Isaac Morley farm. The day ended with my recounting of a deep Mormon history discussion with Karl Anderson, known locally as Mr. Kirtland. He didn't like the entheogen theory, but the exchange was incredibly respectful and I'm happy to call him a friend.

Direct download: Travel_Log_040117.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:33pm EDT
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It's a good thing this tour is spending 3 full days in Kirtland! I began with a tour of historic Kirtland at the Whitney store and home, ending at the sawmill and ashery. After that it was on to the temple to make an appointment for the basement to belfry tour. Then on to Hiram, OH wherein lies the John and Elsa Johnson farm. The rainy day made it so nobody else was on these tours so I took full opportunity to engage with all the missionaries and hear a number of touching personal stories.

Direct download: Travel_Log_033117.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:12am EDT
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