Episodes

Is there a hidden temple theology in the Book of Mormon temple theology waiting beneath the 1830 text? That question, sparked by my friend Boyd in an online forum, turned into a three-part answer, and this is the final installment. While preparing, an AI tool handed me a word I had to look up: palimpsest, a manuscript scraped clean and written over, where the earlier text still shows through faintly. It turned out to be the perfect frame for the debate. https://youtu.be/b2hHdOXPDRA Temple Theo...

Raising Kids in Polygamy Raising kids in polygamy comes with a hard truth: many children raised in plural families walk away as adults. Some join the LDS Church, some leave religion altogether. So what do plural families hope for their own kids? In the final part of my interview with Joshua, Charlotte and Melissa Erickson of Lehi, Utah, we talk about their hopes for their children, a new fundamentalist fellowship Joshua leads, and why so many fundamentalists still won’t talk to outsiders. http...

Was Joseph Smith a socialist? Economist Mark Skousen was surprised—and more than a little irritated—when he discovered that a BYU economics professor had classified the founder of Mormonism as a utopian socialist. But when I challenged Mark about Joseph Smith’s economic teachings, his answer was more complicated than a simple yes or no. https://youtu.be/J9AVMBliFvo Don’t miss our other conversations with Mark Skousen: https://gospeltangents.com/people/mark-skousen Copyright © 2026 Gospel Tang...

Was Eisenhower Soviet agent? That extraordinary accusation came from John Birch Society founder Robert Welch, who believed President Dwight D. Eisenhower was secretly serving Communist interests. But economist Mark Skousen, nephew of the famous conservative author W. Cleon Skousen, thinks the accusation was outrageous. https://youtu.be/5Hol7hUZExc Don’t miss our other conversations with Mark Skousen: https://gospeltangents.com/people/mark-skousen Copyright © 2026 Gospel Tangents All Rights R...

Community of Christ apostles have undergone one of the biggest leadership shakeups in years. With a new prophet-president and major changes among the church’s top leadership, six vacancies opened in the Council of Twelve. Some apostles retired, while others moved into different leadership positions—and six new apostles stepped into the vacancies. https://youtu.be/y5lKYsFEcnw With a new prophet-president and major changes among the church’s top leadership, six vacancies opened in the Council of...

James Strang is one of the strangest turns in Restoration history, including being crowned as a Mormon King. Historian John Hamer opens part four of this series by explaining just how unexpected his rise was. https://youtu.be/eUVN58NugEg Don’t miss our other conversations with John: https://gospeltangents.com/people/john-hamer/ Copyright © 2026 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Almost as soon as Joseph Smith died, and right after Sidney Rigdon’s own short-lived church fizzled out, Strang ...

Where did Joseph Smith get the idea of temples? It sounds like a simple question, but historian John Hamer’s answer stretches from the Bible to a domed assembly hall in Independence, Missouri, and includes a temple that was called for by revelation, designed by an architect, and never built. In this first conversation of his return to Gospel Tangents, John, a Community of Christ Seventy and co-editor of Scattering of the Saints: Schism Within Mormonism, walks me through the building blocks. ht...

Brigham didn’t dissolve Relief Society! That’s what Katie Rich’s recent article on Brigham Young & the Relief Society claimed. It goes against the historical consensus and won an award at the Mormon History Association. She will explain her reasons here. We’ll also discuss how Exponent II accepts multiple positions on controversial issues. Is it hard to keep disparate opinions together? https://youtu.be/5xqbPUh1Djo Check out this playlist for more info on this topic! https://www.youtube.com/wa...

Over the past three segments, Dr. Thomas Murphy, author of Unsettling Scripture: Iroquois and the Book of Mormon, has walked us through his research connecting Haudenosaunee history to the origins of the Book of Mormon — from the Dartmouth/Moor’s Charity School connection, to the prophet Handsome Lake, to overlooked ties between Native nations and the Revolutionary War era. But all of it has been building toward one question we haven’t asked him directly yet: can the Book of Mormon be both ficti...

Did Native Americans use seer stones? What if the roots of the Book of Mormon’s narrative trace back not just to revelation, but to a classroom? Book of Mormon Ties to Darmouth? In this second part of our conversation with anthropologist Dr. Thomas Murphy, we explore a detail of Smith family history that rarely gets discussed: Hyrum Smith’s education at Dartmouth’s Moor’s Indian Charity School, where he studied alongside Haudenosaunee students. It’s a small historical fact with potentially lar...

In this engaging temple Q&A session, host Rick Bennett fields questions from a Community of Christ group following a presentation on restoration temples inside and outside the LDS Church. The discussion spans a wide range of captivating topics in Mormon history, theology, and architecture: https://youtu.be/vn7odpxo7Kc Don’t miss our other conversations on temples: https://gospeltangents.com/mormon_history/lds-temples/ Copyright © 2026 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved What you will discov...

We’re taking a deep dive into Virtual, Vodou, and Fundy Temples. It’s a fascinating look at secret and highly controversial world of divergent temples and modern groups of the Restoration. Following the assassination of Joseph Smith, the temple liturgy fractured like a prism, scattering the sacred rites of the Restoration in vastly different directions. https://youtu.be/L6vQWsbxxaE Don’t miss our other conversations on temples: https://gospeltangents.com/mormon_history/lds-temples/ Copyright ©...

What happened to the Latter Day Saint movement after it fractured? We discuss the fascination history on RLDS & Bickertonite views about temples. While Brigham Young led his followers West to build physical temples in Utah, multiple restoration branches took a completely different path—formally rejecting Nauvoo theology, secret endowments, and polygamy https://youtu.be/-tjIZUJcOqo Don’t miss our other conversations on temples: https://gospeltangents.com/mormon_history/lds-temples/ Copyright © 2...

Many people think there aren’t non-LDS temples, but that’s not true. When Joseph Smith was assassinated in 1844, the restoration did not just fracture geographically—it shattered the unified theology of the temple. While the LDS Church went on to build a massive global network of private temples, several other branches of the restoration developed highly unique, surprising, and divergent temple traditions of their own. https://youtu.be/AiIf0-7mOIE Don’t miss our other conversations on temples: ...

Was Hugh Nibley wrong? Is global capitalism compatible with a Zion society? And when is a Latter-day Saint actually justified in defying a corrupt, oppressive government? https://youtu.be/IWZgHZT5Q9w Don’t miss our other conversations Nathan: https://gospeltangents.com/people/nathan-oman Copyright © 2026 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Hugh Nibley was wrong? First, Professor Oman challenges the popular anti-capitalist teachings of the legendary LDS scholar Hugh Nibley. While Nibley vi...

Have you wondered what’s behind the energy in the polygamy revisionist movement? Are these the same as RLDS polygamy arguments? Back in 2010, Newell Bringhurst wrote a chapter in “Persistence of Polygamy” on the evolution of RLDS thinking on Joseph Smith’s polygamy, how it got forgotten, and recycled among a new generation of LDS members who weren’t aware of the previous history. https://youtu.be/wD-ZHracUnA Are the modern arguments that Joseph Smith was a strict monogamist actually new? In th...

What do you do when your personal conscience clashes with official LDS Church positions? Why did the LDS Church transition from the fiery, anti-communist speeches of Ezra Taft Benson in the 1960s to the strict political neutrality we see today? https://youtu.be/cDExXX00Y0o Oman is the author of 2 volumes of Law and the Restoration Volume 1 and Volume 2, from Greg Kofford Books. Don’t miss our other conversations Nathan: https://gospeltangents.com/people/nathan-oman Copyright © 2026 Gospel T...

Why was Joseph Smith killed? Did early Mormons try to start their own independent country? And did you know 19th-century Mormon bishops literally served as civil judges? In this episode of Gospel Tangents, host Rick Bennett sits down with Nathan Oman, law professor and author of Law and the Restoration, to uncover some of the most explosive and fascinating legal history of the Latter-day Saints. We dive deep into the unique world of 19th-century Mormon church courts, where bishops bypassed the ...

Some call new LDS Prophet Dallin Oaks a prophet, seer, and litigator. We’ll see what Nathan Oman thinks of Dallin Oaks. Nathan is a legal historian at William and Mary University. He discusses how law has affected Latter-day Saints over the past 2 centuries. We’ll discuss Dallin Oaks perspectives on Joseph Smith’s martyrdom and polygamy up to modern polygamy cases, politics, and LGBT issues. Oman is the author of 2 volumes of Law and the Restoration Volume 1 and Volume 2, from Greg Kofford Books...

Why do conversations with Church leaders go wrong so often? Why do conversations with Church leaders go wrong so often? Former mission president Jeff Strong says talking to leaders and parents is one of the least helpful things to do in a faith crisis. It’s 4.5 times worse than talking with siblings. Why do some family members quit speaking to those who leave? Should Church leaders better model Christian disagreement? Can a bottom up movement like this succeed in a top-down organization? Check ...

Author Jeff Strong details the “tectonic plate shifting moment” when his son, while serving in the Missionary Training Center (MTC), suddenly wrote him about leaving the faith: both his mission and the LDS Church. At the time, Strong was serving as a Bishop. He admits that he and his wife initially handled the situation poorly by assuming their son had committed a serious sin. This personal crisis spurred Strong to conduct extensive research into disaffiliation, including qualitative work in 40 ...

I did a livestream recap of the Mormon History Association (MHA highlights) conference, broadcast straight from my hotel room in lovely Las Vegas. Guided by some slightly out-of-order, AI-generated slides, this recap covers the most fascinating historical deep dives, unexpected gems, and award winners from the weekend. https://youtube.com/live/wy_-u8OCLMs Unexpected MHA Highlights & Gems: Pro Wrestling and Gnosticism One of the absolute standout presentations explored “The Mormon Giant,” Don L...

Why are people really leaving the LDS Church? In Part 2 of our deep dive into LDS disaffiliation, we continue our conversation with Jeff Strong, author of the groundbreaking book “Torn: Why People We Love Are Leaving the Church and What We Can Learn from Them.” This episode moves beyond the statistics to explore the complex, personal “waves” of modern faith loss. https://youtu.be/AkKkxe5sOP8 Don’t miss our other conversations Jeff: https://gospeltangents.com/people/jeff-strong Copyright © 2026...

Is the LDS Church actually shrinking? We’re talking about LDS disaffiliation with Jeff Strong, author of the new book Torn: Why People We Love Are Leaving the Church and What We Can Learn from Them. While official membership records show steady growth, the reality of active participation tells a much more complex story. In this episode, I’ll sit down with Jeff to break down the startling data behind modern disaffiliation. https://youtu.be/O5VWoDOPamw Don’t miss our other conversations Jeff: htt...