Mormon Discussion Podcast

A former seminary teacher got the opportunity to present lots of his questions to the Church Historian recently. Wait till you hear what happened! RESOURCES: Transcript – http://radiofreemormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ELDER-BALLARD-BLOWS-UP-THE-CHURCH-TRANSCRIPT.pdf Episode – https://radiofreemormon.org/2017/11/radio-free-mormon-021-elder-ballard-blows-church/ https://mormondisc...

Rarely in Mormonism do people in disagreement sit down to enter conversations about the issues upon which they disagree with understanding and healthy dialogue being at the forefront. But LDS Faithful believer Jacob Hansen and Ex-Mormon atheist Bill Reel sit down to discuss a Mormon Testimony, how one could arrive at a LDS Testimony, and how one derives confidence in it. The goal of this conversat...

In this video we delve into the history behind how the LDS Church came to have its name and how its official name has changed from its inception to today. And along the way we learn about the use and meaning of the word Mormon as well as how the Church went from “Latter Day Saints” to Latter-day Saints” and you won’t believe how much went into a hyphen and a lower case lett...

Recently Bill Reel had a conversation with a active believer on Morality in Episodes #381 & #382. Today Bill sits down with Spencer Wright to carry that conversation further by talking about how Atheists form Morality and whether such morality can in fact take us into the future. The post Atheist Morality: Mormon Discussion: 384 appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel .

Most of us as believers had experiences we would define as spiritual. As we deconstructed our religious world we had to confront those experiences and look at them, sit with what they were and weren’t and attempt to re-define them in a way that allowed us to make sense of them within the lens of our Mormon faith not being true. Today Carah and Bill discuss their past spiritual experiences an...

Rarely in Mormonism do people in disagreement sit down to enter conversations about the issues upon which they disagree with understanding and healthy dialogue being at the forefront. But LDS Faithful believer Jacob Hansen and Ex-Mormon atheist Bill Reel sit down to discuss Faith Crises, what they are and what they mean for those going through them. The goal of this conversation as well as any tha...

Honest Conversations About Faith w/ Jacob Hansen & Bill Reel: Session 1: Morality Rarely in Mormonism do people in disagreement sit down to enter conversations about the issues upon which they disagree with understanding and healthy dialogue being at the forefront. But LDS Faithful believer Jacob Hansen and Ex-Mormon atheist Bill Reel sit down to discuss Morality. The goal of this conversation...

This past week 60 Minutes the CBS TV Journalism Show covered the event of the Church having its finances exposed by whistleblower David Nielson. We take a look at what was said…. and what wasn’t in this weeks episode of Mormonism LIVE! “David Nielsen is a former investment manager for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who became a whistleblower regarding the church&...

The story of Joseph Smith and Henry Caswall (Caswell) and the Greek Psalter incident is a historical event that took place in 1842 in Nauvoo Ill.. During his visit to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormon Church was headquartered at the time, Caswall met with Joseph Smith. Caswall showed The Prophet a ancient document which Caswall knew to be a “Greek Psalter” or book of Psalms in the Gre...

RFM and Bill sit down with Jim Bennett to discuss his recent appearances on “Midnight Mormons” and take a look at all the rhetoric around violence in Mormonism including the musket talk by Elder Holland but with an updated and focused discussion around whether such a talk is fueling the very violent threats and rhetoric that critics of Holland’s talk have suggested could be the o...

Bill Reel had the pleasure of being interviewed on the “Mormonish” Podcast.  Below are the original links to their Youtube Video and their Podcast Audio of that Interview.  Bill gets really vulnerable discussing his journey, his life and along the way delves into human development, conscious altering tools, sexuality, and spiritual awakening.   If you want to get to know Bill better th...

When the Phrase “Ongoing Restoration” showed up around 2020 Critics paused as this seemed to be the Church saying something different as if the Church now wanted the restoration to be much earlier in its stage of development than had been intimated in the past. So Bill & RFM take long look over Mormonism’s history to see what has been said and what it might mean. RESOURCES: h...

In this week’s edition, RFM and Bill sit down with Dan McClellan, former scripture translation supervisor for the LDS Church. Dan received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in ancient Near Eastern studies, where he focused on Biblical Hebrew and minored in Classical Greek. He completed a master of studies in Jewish studies at the University of Oxford in July of 2010 and a m...

Years ago Jonathan Streeter wrote a blog post titled “Fix your faith crisis with this one weird trick!” that was deeply influential on Bill. So tonight we bring Streeter into the studio to discuss Wood Tools vs Steel Tools and tom recognize when wood tools are being used. RESOURCES : https://thoughtsonthingsandstuff.com/fix-your-faith-crisis-with-this-one-weird-trick/ https://mormondis...

This General Conference had lots of interesting twists and turns that have now had time to ruminate in the minds of RFM and Bill Reel. And this weeks episode involves a dive into the Mormon phenomena known as the April 2023 General Conference of the LDS Church. RESOURCES OF TALKS DISCUSSED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYdM8WyYM – Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWY...

Joseph Smith’s First Vision ushered in the restoration of the Gospel. It had Heavenly Father and His Son coming through the Heavens to visit the young boy in the spring of 1820. This vision leads to the founding of Mormonism. But what is not as well known is that in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, everyone and their brother was having visions and many of them appear to be very...

Tonight RFM and Bill take a look at how both Top Church Leadership and local leaders extend pressure for dissenting voices to be silent. The episode will include individual stories along with the general instruction by top leaders to diminish dissenting voices and at times to altogether silence them. RESOURCES: Oaks “Its Wrong to Criticize Leaders” – https://www.youtube.com/watch...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims to be led by Prophets, Seers, and Revelators.  That these men are special witnesses of Christ.  That they speak to God and discern his will for us.  Latter-day Saints are taught that these men are like Moses, Noah, and Abraham.  We take a look at these claims to see if in fact there is observable evidence that can help us evaluate if these men...

Many are going through great lengths to justify the massive hoards of wealth the Church has accumulated on the backs of its believers, even going as far as to use scripture. But do these scriptures REALLY justify the accumulation of wealth as the Church and its members would have you believe? The post Mormonism LIVE: 118: How Mormons Twist Scripture to Worship Wealth w/ David Bokovoy appeared firs...

In this week’s episode we discuss the recent news of the Temple Changes and just how far the original Endowment has been altered. And the Second half of the show will involve the recent legal settlement with the LDS Church and it’s Ensign Peak Advisors and culminating with RFM’s lightbulb moment sensing that the Landscape of Mormonism has changed and his novel idea around such. T...

On June 27th 1844, Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, was martyred at Carthage Jail by a mob. Or at least that is how the generally accepted story goes. In the last 8 months, Justin Griffin (Director & Producer) and Steve Sorensen (Film Maker), have shared their research that maybe things are not what we have been told. They present their experts, their research, and their conclusions that it w...

On this week’s episode we sit down with Brent Bokovoy, Writer and Director of the upcoming film “Ronald’s Little Factory”, and we discuss all the twists and turns in Mormon Cinema including your favorites, along with movies you have likely forgotten, as well as one’s you never heard of. We finish out the episode discussing the upcoming film “Ronald’s Littl...

The Salt Lake Tribune recently published a book review on the book “Ancient Christians : An Introduction for Latter-day Saints” published by the Maxwell Institute. Both the book and the Tribune article make note that what Latter-day Saints believed about early Christianity and the Great Apostasy may not only “overly simplistic, if not (a) completely false narrative”. But wh...

Recently Bill did a solo episode away from Mormonism LIVE walking members into the historical analysis of the initial Doctrine of tithing as 10% of one’s Surplus or Interest to help believers sense they had an option backed by historical documentation that allowed them to save themselves Thousands of Dollars a year while remaining faithful. After that episode a listener sent Bill and RFM an...

The running narrative within Mormonism is that Joseph Smith was an uneducated backwoods farm boy and that his lack of sophistication leaves the the Restoration as a miracle that no country bumpkin could have pulled off. But what happens when, with critical thinking skills, we take a look at the the Education he did have or had potential access to. Was Joseph Smith uneducated? Was he a middle schoo...