Criticism of Mormonism/Websites/MormonThink

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A FAIR Analysis of: MormonThink A work by author: Anonymous

High Level Summary
Title	MormonThink.com
Type	Website
Author(s)	Anonymous; Managing editor is David Twede. Original webmaster uses the pseudonyms "LDS Truthseeker" and "SpongeBob SquareGarments"
Affiliation	"Active" members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Ex-Mormons active on the Recovery from Mormonism message board.
Accuracy	Conclusions drawn are predominantly negative toward the truth claims of the Church.
Temple content	NOTE: Extremely detailed temple content is present on the site.

A FAIR Analysis of the critical website MormonThink

Going to church, as current managing editor (other editors are not returning, are resigned or completely out) is for me to both build perspective...and to increase [MormonThink] credibility--that an attending mormon is actually one of the essential staff at MT. Most contributors to MT that are active are not for very long once all the information is viewed objectively
—Post by MormonThink managing editor David Twede on ex-Mormon message board Recovery from Mormonism, September 7, 2012

I fantasize about a full-blown faith-destroying session. In real life, I did put the bishop in his place over polygamy. He kept saying I was wrong about Joseph having other wives and being illegal and such. I proved him wrong and he ate crow.
—MormonThink's former editor, posting as "SpongeBob SquareGarments" on the ex-Mormon message board Recovery from Mormonism, Feb. 21, 2012

So that is one of the reasons I remain in the church. It gives me greater credibility when I speak about my own religion instead of it being my former religion. We all know as soon as I leave it, I am labeled as someone who left because of morality, tithing or some other issue rather than the historical problems of the church....
By subtly mentioning things in meetings I may raise some doubts...
—Comment posted by MormonThink's former editor on thread "I am the webmaster of MormonThink.com AMA", ex-Mormon reddit, Jan. 2012

You said that [MormonThink] is 'anti-Mormon, anti-Joseph Smith and anti-LDS Leadership'.
However, you never said it wasn’t true.
—Former MormonThink managing editor in a letter to his Stake President prior to his resignation in order to avoid Church discipline. Posted as "MormonThink Founder Resignation" on mormonthink.com

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Brief overview

The website mormonthink.com is designed to lead Church members into questioning their beliefs in a non-threatening manner by claiming to be "objective" and "balanced." The site claims to be run by active members of the Church. In reality, however, they are "active" only in the sense that some of them still occasionally attend Church—they do not accept the Church's truth claims, and they have no interest in strengthening belief. Instead, the site portrays Church leaders as liars, Joseph Smith as a fraud and con-man, and the Church as "an oppressive empire building corporation." FAIR primarily quotes MormonThink, its own editors and the testimonials of those it has "helped" out of the Church. MormonThink's founding editor believes that "evil" people at FAIR are lying about MormonThink's motives,

[T]here are also many, for lack of a better word 'evil' people at FAIR that will use any method possible to make the MT site or any of its members looks bad. They truly have done some bad things unbecoming a member of the church as it were. I'm sure they consider it in the same vein of 'lying for the lord' or 'milk before meat' or whatever religious justification they use to do and say things that they would not want others to do to them but as long as it furthers their agenda, then it's OK as far as they are concerned.
(Posted on MormonDiscussions by MormonThink founding editor "LDS TruthSeeker" on October 4, 2012)

However, the motives of this editor may be evaluated in the context of a Sunday School lesson he taught to a group of children in 2009. We leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine just exactly who is guilty of conduct "unbecoming a member of the church."

Lying for the "truth" in Sunday School

Summary: MormonThink's founding editor substituted his own version of "truth" and taught the children that reliance on the Holy Ghost is an unreliable method of determining if something is true. After he taught the lesson, he posted a summary of it on Recovery from Mormonism and bragged about what he had done.

The anti-Church nature of the site has become much more apparent due to the media efforts of the current managing editor, David Twede, who represents the "public face" of MormonThink. Twede's efforts to taunt the Church in the media in order to avoid facing Church discipline have emboldened the site's contributors to be more open in their bias, thus enabling members who view the site to more easily ascertain its nature. Twede recently claimed on an ex-Mormon message board,

My excommunication court has been canceled!! I now call on members to help reform the church and take it back to being a charity with love and acceptance, rather than an oppressive empire building corporation.
(Posted on Recovery from Mormonism by David Twede, Sept. 27, 2012.)

For more information on the Twede media saga, see "David Twede, Mormon Blogger And Romney Critic Threatened With Excommunication, Will Have To Wait To Hear Fate", Jaweed Kaleem, Huffington Post, Sept. 27, 2012.

The site includes links to FAIR as a way of demonstrating their claimed "balance." The true motivation behind the site is to persuade members to question their beliefs. One of the goals is to persuade the still-believing spouses of those who created the web site that the Church is false (it was for this purpose that they recently removed a large amount of temple content from the site, however, the new managing editor, David Twede, added this temple material back to the site before his local leaders asked him to remove it once again).

An overview of recent media efforts by MormonThink editor David Twede

Summary: David Twede, the managing editor of MormonThink, returned to Church after five years of atheism in order to be able to continue to support the website's claim that it is managed by active Church members. Twede blogged about his experience, which ultimately led to the local Church leaders scheduling church discipline. Twede responded, "I'm taking my fight to the media, and there, hope to encourage the LDS church to repeal their decision to discipline me over my free speech." Twede then worked with The Daily Beast to produce an article claiming that Twede was being disciplined because of his blog writings about Romney. When several reporters from other news outlets questioned this alleged motive for the discipline, Twede stated that it wasn't actually a result of anything related to Romney or politics. Within a week, media outlets began to realized that Twede had played them by using the Romney angle to capture visibility into his efforts to promote his agenda of exposing what he claims is wrong with the Church. When the media attempted to contact him for further interviews in order to clarify the matter, Twede declined to respond.

• • The "starlight012" affair: David Twede introduces himself to FAIR—
    Brief Summary: When Twede created the account "starlight012" on lds.net and posed as a concerned member, he reported a "bad member" running the website MormonThink. In private messages to FAIR, "starlight012" passed the name "David Twede" to FAIR and asked if FAIR could report this "bad member" to his bishop. FAIR did not do so, but the episode demonstrates Twede's economy with the truth, and his clear knowledge that what he was doing might be grounds for Church discipline, contrary to what he told the news media. (Click here for full article)
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  • Twede's history of posing as a questioning member online—
    Brief Summary: Twede has a long history of posing as a questioning member in online forums frequented by believers. We provide a chronology of these efforts since 2009. (Click here for full article)
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  • David Twede in his own words—
    Brief Summary: MormonThink editor David Twede has made several claims in the media that are difficult to reconcile with his public statements on his blog and on Internet message boards. In his effort to manipulate the media and harm the Church, David Twede and Steve Benson attempted to craft a narrative in which Twede was the bewildered victim of persecution by the Church for his anti-Romney views. But, a review of Twede's statements make it clear that he knew that his true purpose--weakening the Church and leading its members into doubt--would be grounds for Church discipline if his identity was known. (Click here for full article)
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Each page on MormonThink.com typically includes large amounts of block text copied from websites critical of the Church, a few references to LDS apolgetics that are followed by refutations by critics, an "Ending summary by critics," and an "Our Thoughts" section, which generally agrees with the critics. The bottom of each page contains links to critical sites, believers sites and to some sites which they consider neutral.

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Sub-articles

== Responses to the content of the website are located in the following sub-articles:

Overview of the MormonThink website

Summary: The web site MormonThink.com claims to be operated by active members of the Church with an interest in objectively presenting the "truth" about Mormonism. In general, the conclusions reached by the site reflect negatively on the Church. The former webmaster of MormonThink posts in several online ex-Mormon message boards under the names "SpongeBob SquareGarments," "mormonthink," and "LDS Truthseeker". The current webmaster is David Twede, who posts on Recovery from Mormonism as "mormonthinker." The best explanation of the purpose of the website is offered in his own words, and by the testimonials of ex-Mormons who claim that his site caused them to lose belief and leave the Church.

Response to MormonThink's list of 25 items that would allegedly "make the Church true"

Summary: According to MormonThink.com, if the Church actually contained God's truth and authority, "we would expect the following things to have happened in this way." The following is a list of issues presented by the website followed by FAIR's response. Most items on the list are standard anti-Mormon fare, issues FAIR believes have been "asked and answered" many times. Nearly all points appeal to some type of intellectual or religious fundamentalism.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Translation of the Book of Mormon"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/transbomweb.htm) The website concludes that at least two Apostles have mentioned the use of the hat in public discourses which appeared in print, and at least one believing LDS defender of the faith has mentioned it on television. This, according to them, is "astonishing," since they conclude that if members or investigators knew that Joseph used a stone and a hat instead of two stones in a set of spectacles, and that he didn't need to look directly at the plates instead of viewing a mysterious conversion of reformed Egyptian characters to English words, that they wouldn't want to join the Church.

• • "Translation of the Book of Mormon" source quotes without critical commentary—
    Brief Summary: This is the "no spin" version. We provide all of the complete primary and secondary source quotes without the "Critic's comment," "Apologetic rebuttal" or "Our Thoughts" sections. (Click here for full article)
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A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Book of Mormon Difficulties" (Part 1)

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/book-of-mormon-problems.htm) The critics take the position that if an animal does not appear in a picture on a wall in a ruin, then it must never have existed. The critics claim that FAIR avoids mentioning certain Book of Mormon verses "at all costs," despite the verses being avoided actually appearing in the FAIR Wiki article on the subject. It is also claimed that apologists must be "embarrassed" when they correct mistakes based upon new data, and that apologists wish to redefine animals as different animals.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Book of Mormon Difficulties" (Part 2)

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/book-of-mormon-problems.htm) The critics take the position that it should be "relatively easy" to locate the first temple built by Nephi's group of 30 to 40 people among the ruins of Mesoamerica (which have only been 5% explored due to the difficulty of uncovering ruins in the jungle). This also despite the fact that Mesoamericans tended to build their new temples on top of their older ones. They also assert that the Nephites and Lamanites should have used the wheel, despite the difficulty of the terrain. It is also asserted that none of the numerous archaeological remains located in the Americas could possibly be related to the Book of Mormon, including those 95% yet uncovered in Mesoamerica. Finally, the critics conclude that despite solid evidence and correlation between the Book of Mormon narrative and the location in the Old World called NHM, that it simply doesn't count as evidence for the Book of Mormon.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Could Joseph Smith have written the Book of Mormon?"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/josephweb.htm) This MormonThink article concludes that the Book of Mormon really isn't that special, and that pretty much anyone could have written it. It is asserted that Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon or Oliver Cowdery, or some combination thereof, used the work of Solomon Spalding, or Ethan Smith, or some combination thereof, to create the Book of Mormon without any assistance from God. The authors note that non-LDS authors are not impressed with the Book of Mormon enough to believe that it could "not have been written by a man," and that the Book of Mormon is not as impressive and complex as novels such as the Lord of the Rings or A Tale of Two Cities. The authors also conclude that Joseph was indeed educated because he was "home schooled," despite Joseph's own words stating that "we were deprived of the bennifit of an education suffice it to say I was mearly instructid in reading and writing and the ground rules of Arithmatic which constuted my whole literary acquirements." Regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon, it is noted that Joseph used a curtain to shield the process of translation from those around him so that he could consult all of his notes, and that Emma was lying when she stated that Joseph openly translated in the presence of others using a stone and a hat without the use of notes, despite the numerous other witnesses that confirmed the use of the stone and the hat.

• • "Could Joseph Smith have written the Book of Mormon" source quotes without critical commentary—
    Brief Summary: This is the "no spin" version. We provide all of the complete primary and secondary source quotes without the "Critic's comment," "Apologetic rebuttal" or "Our Thoughts" sections. (Click here for full article)
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A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "The Lost 116 Pages of the Book of Mormon"

Summary: ( http://www.mormonthink.com/lost116web.htm) Among the conclusions that the critics make in this page are 1) That Joseph must have lied and made up the story about the 116 lost pages of manuscript and 2) That a South Park episode provides "the most telling comment we've ever heard about the lost 116 pages debacle": "Wait, Mormons actually know this story and they still believe Joseph Smith was a Prophet?"

• • "The Lost 116 Pages of the Book of Mormon" source quotes without critical commentary—
    Brief Summary: This is the "no spin" version. We provide all of the complete primary and secondary source quotes without the "Critic's comment," "Apologetic rebuttal" or "Our Thoughts" sections. (Click here for full article)
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A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Moroni's Visitation"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/moroniweb.htm) The web page asserts that Moroni's visit would have awakened the rest of the Smith family, and that Church artwork does not accurately show Joseph's siblings asleep in the room during Moroni's visit, except those paintings that actually do show it. It is also asserted that if the Church continues to use artwork that shows Joseph alone in bed during Moroni's visit, that the Church is "not becoming more open and forthright about this issue." It is indicated that Moroni's visit was likely a "dream or hallucination."

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "The Kinderhook Plates"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/kinderhookweb.htm) All we have to say is: Get with the program. The new data obliterates any old apologetics on the subject. Apologists update their positions based upon the discovery of new data. Continuing to quote old apologetics and calling the new data an apologetic "ploy" is simply a load of nonsense. Joseph attempted to translate a character on the Kinderhook Plates manually by matching it to a similar character in the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (which actually had nothing to do with Egyptian). The "translation" recorded by William Clayton matched the explanation given for the character in the GAEL.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "The Witnesses"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/witnessesweb.htm) The website concludes that the witnesses may have only seen the plates in a vision, despite their repeated assertions that they saw them with their own eyes, and that some witnesses only saw the plates when they were covered, although none of the three or eight witnesses are included in this group. The website notes that most of the witnesses left the Church (which is also clearly taught in Church), but does not comment on why not a single one of these witnessed exposed the alleged scam.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "The First Vision"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/firstvisionweb.htm) The website takes the position that the First Vision "wasn't even known by church members until 1842," despite Joseph writing in his 1835 journal that he related the story to a man who happened to be visiting him. It is assumed that local newspapers would have been interested enough in a 14-year-old's claim to have seen God to have published it. They also claim that earlier accounts of Joseph's vision written by Joseph himself are not "official" (whatever that means), and that Joseph's different accounts of the First Vision are "relatively ignored" by the Church, despite an entire web page being devoted to them on lds.org and various mentions in the Ensign, including a statement by Gordon B. Hinckley. The website also repeats a claim that Joseph embellished his vision story in 1838 to bolster his leadership during a time of apostasy, despite the fact that he told the same story to strangers visiting his house three years earlier in 1835.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Polygamy"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/joseph-smith-polygamy.htm) The website concludes that Sunday School lesson manuals, priesthood manuals, seminary books, etc "almost never" mention Joseph's polygamy, despite the fact that some actually did mention it. They also claim we should believe that Oliver's claim that Joseph had an affair is true because Oliver was also a Book of Mormon witness. It is also concluded that Joseph wrote a "love letter" to one of his young plural wives and invited her and both of her parents to his single-room hideout for a tryst.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Blacks and the Priesthood"

Summary: ( http://www.mormonthink.com/blackweb.htm) The critics assert that even though the Church has refuted explanations for the priesthood ban, such as that of blacks not being valiant in the pre-existence, that they are bothered that these explanations are no longer acknowledged. Critics wish to assert that President Kimball did not actually receive a revelation ending the ban, despite his clear statement that he did. The critics believe that prophets should be "forward thinkers." Critics, therefore, take the position that the fact that prophets are influenced by the society and culture that they live in indicates that they cannot actually be prophets.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Conflicts with Science"

Summary: ( http://www.mormonthink.com/scienceweb.htm) The critics assert that acceptance of scientific facts and a belief in God are incompatible. They cite the incompatibility of scientific facts with the idea of a global flood, the earth being created over a period of 7000 years, and the idea that Adam and Eve could not have been the first people on the earth. The assert that if believers disagree with these fundamentalist ideas, that they must be at odds with the Church.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page" The Greek Psalter Translation"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/greekweb.htm) Joseph reportedly made a false identification about the language and contents of a Greek Psalter (book of psalms written in Greek). The website claims that this action speaks to whether Joseph was a prophet and whether he was capable of translation. Curiously, it is also claimed that no "church" sources or websites discuss this matter, although they cite the Church-sponsored Maxwell Institute and Hugh Nibley. MormonThink states that this "wasn't really a translation," but concludes that because of the "Book of Abraham, Kinderhook Plates and the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible," that the Greek Psalter story "further damages Joseph's claims to be a true seer."

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Temple"

Summary: ( http://www.mormonthink.com/temple.htm) MormonThink originally removed this page containing detail information about the temple, not because it was offensive to Latter-day Saints, but only because it was driving ex-Mormons' believing spouses away from examining their critical website. The new managing editor has added the temple material back to the site "by popular demand." FAIR responds to a number of issues raised which are not related to the explicit temple content that they currently host.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Lying for the Lord"

Summary: ( http://www.mormonthink.com/lying.htm) The critics conclude that lying is "standard operating procedure for Church leaders" from Joseph Smith's time to the present, and that pretty much every thing that the Church does is somehow related to deception (this is a standard position taken by many ex-Mormons after their disaffection with the Church).

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Tithing"

Summary: ( http://www.mormonthink.com/tithing.htm) The critics conclude that the Catholic definition of offerings is somehow supposed to affect the Mormon definition of tithing, and that the requirement by the Church for members to pay tithing and offerings is a "guilt trip." The critics also claim that the Church should divest itself of any profit-making businesses, and that any profit from those businesses should be given to the poor, classifying the Church as simply a corporation that does not provide sufficient return-on-investment to its members. Finally, the critics conclude that the Church spends little on humanitarian aid, and that members ought to send their contributions elsewhere.

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Joseph Running with the Plates"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/runningweb.htm) The website concludes that the plates didn't weigh 200 pounds, but instead that they weighed 40 to 60 pounds just as the witnesses stated that they did. The site also concludes that Joseph could not have run with the gold plates because he had a limp from his leg operation as a child (this despite Joseph's physical health demonstrated by his vaunted "stick-pulling" abilities), and that his story of running with the plates is a "tall tale."

A FAIR Analysis of MormonThink page "Joseph's Translation of the Bible"

Summary: ( http://mormonthink.com/jst.htm) MormonThink concludes that Joseph Smith's statement about the Book of Mormon being the "most correct book" means that there should be no mistakes in the text, despite the fact that the Book of Mormon title page (written by Mormon) itself states that any mistakes contained therein are the mistakes of men. They also claim that the JST footnotes in the LDS Bible are supposed to represent "correctly translated passages," yet acknowledges that Joseph was making "inspired" revisions rather than translating an ancient text. They conclude that translators who "go back to the original sources" have not "confirmed any of Joseph Smith's inspired version passages, and that the "Joseph Smith Translation" of the Bible needs to be added to the "Book of Abraham facsimiles and papyri, the Anthon Manuscript, the Kinderhook Plates, Joseph Smith’s Book of Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar and the Greek Psalter" as demonstrations that Joseph lacked the ability to translate anything.

MormonThink Table of Contents

Summary: Correlation of MormonThink's Table of Contents with FAIR Wiki responses