What would Jesus say to a Mormon?

As part of Southern Gables’ Sound Living 2007 What Would Jesus “Say” Summer Preaching Series, Dr. Craig L. Blomberg of Denver Seminary, was assigned to speak on the topic of What Would Jesus Say to a Mormon (mp3 audio here 42:19).  Professor Blomberg is the interlocutor with Stephen E. Robinson in the watershed book “How Wide the Divide: A Mormon and Evangelical in Dialogue” (Intervarsity Press, 1997).  I want to highlight his introduction because I believe it is highly significant.

“Let me tell you two things that I’m not going to do this morning. I’m not going to read one specific passage of scripture at the outset and then confine my remarks primarily to that text. This will be what is called topical rather than expositional preaching…

“The other thing that I’m not going to do this morning, which maybe somebody wondered if a guest speaker would, is to preach some harsh or condemning message.

Blake Ostler on Interfaith Voices

Blake Ostler was interviewed by Interfaith Voices on May 31, 2007. Ostler’s interview comprises the first 27 minutes (listen to audio and mp3).  The original topic is Mitt Romney’s candidacy.  However, before this topic is discussed, Ostler is asked to explain the position of the Church on polygamy, homosexuality, abortion, and whether a Mormon politician would be required to hold political positions in conformity with Church doctrine, the view of the trinity in Mormon theology, and differences between Mormons and other Christian faiths such as Catholics and Protestants.  Ostler is also asked to explain the Book of Mormon, explain baptism for the dead.

A Richard Bushman Audio Archive

Since publishing his book, “Rough Stone Rolling: A Cultural Biography of Joseph Smith,” Professor Richard Lyman Bushman has been widely interviewed concerning Mormon history. As someone who enjoys Bushman’s explanations of things Mormon, I’ve decided to collect the resources I know about that are available online for this post, partly because they are excellent, and partly to belatedly coincide with the celebration of Pioneer Day.

May 6, 2005.  Bushman speaks at “The Worlds of Joseph Smith” International Academic Joseph Smith Conference at the Library of Congress.  Bushman’s talk is titled “Joseph Smith’s Many Histories.” Both audio and video are available.

December 14, 2005.  Interviewed by Dennis Prager (audio available here or here).  35 minutes. This was an excellent interview, I really liked it. They had some interesting callers too.

January 22, 2007. Interviewed by John Dehlin at Mormon Stories Podcast. Excellent Interview. Audio format. Do yourself a favor and download them to your iPod.

January 22, 2007.  Rough Stone Rolling Interview, Part 1 of 5 – MP3 FILE
January 25, 2007.  Rough Stone Rolling Interview, Part 2 of 5 – MP3 FILE
February 1, 2007.  Rough Stone Rolling Interview, Part 3 of 5 – MP3 FILE
February 4, 2007.  Rough Stone Rolling Interview, Part 4 of 5 – MP3 FILE
February 7, 2007.  Rough Stone Rolling Interview, Part 5 of 5 – MP3 FILE

May 14, 2007.  Text only.  Mormonism and Democratic Politics: Are They Compatible? Bushman is asked a bazillion questions by reporters from Newsweek, the Washington Post, NPR, CBS News, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, US News and World Report, the Economist, and other news media at Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life.  Whew…and by the way, answering them probably the best I’ve ever heard these questions answered by anyone hands down. It’s too bad we don’t have the audio.

July 5, 2007.  Interviewed by NPR “Explaining the Underpinnings of Mormonism.” 7 minutes.

July 24, 2007.  Interviewed by Doug Fabrizio about his book “Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.” Rebroadcast.  52 minutes.

July 28, 2007.  And just as I write this post, it’s come to my attention that Dan Gilgoff at the New York Times has written an article on Bushman titled Scholar Becomes Chief Explainer in a ‘Mormon Moment.’

Gilgoff notes, “In fact, as his teaching and research focused on colonial American history, Professor Bushman also managed to become something of an ambassador for Mormonism to the outside world.”  I think that is extremely accurate. In my view Bushman speaks the language of the outside world, the academic world, in a way that I think few have been able to.

March 5, 2008. “Rough Stone Rolling and the Intellectual Prospects for Mormonism.” given at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Life on Gold Plates blog. (transcript only).

July 29, 2008. “Introduction.” To the 2008 Summer Seminar: Joseph Smith and His Critics. Life on Gold Plates blog. (transcript only).

January 14, 2010. “Nibley and Joseph Smith” part of the “The Work of Hugh W. Nibley” lecture series.

February 26, 2010. “Joseph Smith and the Routinization of Charisma.” BYU Church History Symposium, 2010.  No audio or transcript available.  However two individuals took notes on the talk: Juvenile Instructor; Life on Gold Plates.

October 12, 2010. FAIR Podcast, Episode 3: Richard L. Bushman p.1 Approximately 61 minutes.

Helen Whitney’s “The Mormons” four months later

Nearly four months have passed since the airing of the PBS American Experience four-hour documentary The Mormons on May 1, 2007 (video here). I’ve found discussion about the documentary, and discussion in reaction to the documentary, to be more fascinating than the documentary itself, which I personally found excruciatingly slow paced and unexciting.

Earlier this month, UTAH Now with Doug Fabrizio rebroadcast a one-hour show called ‘Viewing the Mormons’ dealing with the reaction and responses of the documentary (listen to audio – watch video).