Mormonism is a religion largely based upon faith inspiring stories. In 2013, the LDS Church began releasing a series of Gospel Topics Essays, to explore frequently questioned aspects of its doctrine and history. Following upon prior works, the Church recently published Saints: The Standard of Truth as the first in a four-volume history. While many have lauded the Church’s efforts to enhance openness and transparency, others suggest that the Church’s narrative remains incomplete and excessively apologetic.

Mormon Stories Podcast is excited to announce a bold new project entitled “Examining Mormon Truth Claims.”  Over the next 12-24 months, we will explore various LDS topics in both written and podcast form. The primary audience will be Mormons who are investigating their church’s truth claims. The intent will be to author the essays that should have been released by the LDS Church.

The project will include:

  1. Essays: Several in-depth essays which seek to explore Mormon truth claims as accurately and succinctly as possible.
  2. Podcasts: A podcast series involving subject matter experts to explore the topics in greater depth.
  3. Advertising: A prominent billboard has been secured in the Salt Lake City area to increase awareness of the project. Billboards may be extended to additional geographic regions as donor support merits.
  4. Book: Upon completion of the essay and podcast series, a book may be published. The overriding goal is to provide increased access to a simplified narrative to all who desire to thoroughly examine Mormon truth claims
Topics: A sampling of the topics that will be addressed in this project include:
  1. Book of Mormon Authorship
  2. Treasure Digging
  3. Book of Mormon Historicity
  4. DNA and the Book of Mormon
  5. Witnesses to the Book of Mormon
  6. The LDS Priesthood Restoration
  7. Joseph Smith’s First Vision
  8. The Book of Abraham
  9. Masonry and the LDS Endowment Ceremony
  10. Joseph Smith’s Polygamy
  11. The Council of 50
  12. The Word of Wisdom
  13. Race/Skin Color
  14. The LGBT Mormon Experience
  15. Women in Mormonism
  16. Tithing
  17. Mormon Church Finances

Honoring Existing Resources: As few today can dedicate hundreds of hours to navigating countless websites, books, blogs and private chat groups, our intent is to aggregate the fruits of our labors into a single place – to share the answers we found. This project attempts to honor, stand beside, and build upon the incredible resources already created to explore Mormonism, including: UT Lighthouse Ministry, MormonThink, CES Letter, and Letter for my Wife.

Feedback: While the framework of the core essays is largely complete, various editors remain actively engaged in the early stages of an ongoing work in progress; many updates and improvements will be made. We value your feedback on tone, content, length, sources, etc. as each topic develops. Please feel welcome to email us at mormonstories@gmail.com with any comments or questions.