From Baptist Preacher to Mormon Teacher


Book Description

Wain Myers thought he knew what he believed, but after a revelation from God, something had to change. This former Baptist preacher tells his fascinating story of following the Spirit's voice and ultimately becoming a convert in the LDS church. This remarkable true story will inspire you to follow your own promptings and share truth wherever you find it.




A Baptist Preacher's Buddhist Teacher


Book Description

In this inspiring, soul-stirring memoir, Lawrence E. Carter Sr., founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, shares his remarkable quest to experience King's "beloved community" and his surprising discovery in mid-life that King's dream was being realized by the Japanese Buddhist philosopher and tireless peace worker Daisaku Ikeda. Coming of age on the cusp of the American Civil Rights Movement, Carter was personally mentored by Martin Luther King Jr. and followed in his footsteps, first to get an advanced degree in theology at Boston University and then to teach and train a new generation of activists and ministers at King's alma mater, Morehouse College. Over the years, however, Carter was disheartened to watch the radical cosmic vision at the heart of King's message gradually diluted and marginalized. He found himself in near despair—until his remarkable encounter with the lay Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International and a life-changing meeting with Ikeda, its president. Carter knew that King had been inspired by Gandhi, a Hindu, and now Ikeda, a Buddhist, was showing him how King's message of justice, equality, and the fundamental dignity of life could be carried to millions of people around the world. What ensued was not a conversion but a conversation—about the essential role of interfaith dialogue, the primacy of education, and the value of a living faith to create a human revolution and realize at last Martin Luther King's truest dream of a global world house. In these dark and frustrating times, the powerful dialogue between Carter and Ikeda gives hope and guidance to a new generation of reformers, activists, and visionaries.




Almost a Mormon


Book Description

One family vacation to Utah back in 2002 changed Adams entire summer. One Mormon girl in his 9th grade English class altered his path over the following year. One book changed his outlook on faith. One true church had him hooked. Suddenly, one unexpected dream from God transformed the course of his entire life. Join Adam on his quest from Mormonism to the one true FaithChristianityand youll soon realize your own story is about to unfold before your very eyes. Youre about to meet and encounter the One True God!




The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is an outstanding reference source to this controversial subject area. Since its founding in 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has engaged gender in surprising ways. LDS practice of polygamy in the nineteenth century both fueled rhetoric of patriarchal rule as well as gave polygamous wives greater autonomy than their monogamous peers. The tensions over women’s autonomy continued after polygamy was abandoned and defined much of the twentieth century. In the 1970s, 1990s, and 2010s, Mormon feminists came into direct confrontation with the male Mormon hierarchy. These public clashes produced some reforms, but fell short of accomplishing full equality. LGBT Mormons have a similar history. These movements are part of the larger story of how Mormonism has managed changing gender norms in a global context. Comprising over forty chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into four parts: • Methodological issues • Historical approaches • Social scientific approaches • Theological approaches. These sections examine central issues, debates, and problems, including: agency, feminism, sexuality and sexual ethics, masculinity, queer studies, plural marriage, homosexuality, race, scripture, gender and the priesthood, the family, sexual violence, and identity. The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, gender studies, and women’s studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, politics, anthropology, and sociology.




Mafia to Mormon: My Conversion Story


Book Description

I learned early that if you don't want to go to school for a career . . . then this was the life. And there were rules. You better not drink, you better not be a big shot and you better always stay low and keep your mouth shut. If you're going to play the game, you've got to play smart. Thus began Mario Facione's slow descent into the Mafia world. With a desire to please his father, Facione kept the rules taught him - don't get caught, know your people. . . never let them have control of what you're doing, and never let anyone fully know what you're up to. So when two clean-cut young men in dark suits showed up on his doorstep, Facione's main concern was to figure out the scam they were selling. Instead, he became surprisingly relaxed as these two answered every question he had unsuccessfully asked other clergymen. He learned real truth and began a journey towards knowledge. Yes, there is a reason why we are here on earth; yes, you can re-remember who we are and yes, it's true, Heavenly Father still speaks through a modern-day prophet. Marion Facione's story is one man's extraordinary journey through the darkness into the light. Reading his story will confirm again that the gospel is truly for every child of God who is willing to change . . . even someone who wants to go from Mafia to Mormon.




It's True


Book Description

From an early age, Tom Scott's thirst for truth led him to serve the Lord and seek the Spirit, ultimately going from participating in church choirs to serving as an evangelical pastor for 27 years. Then, he and his wife, Maggie, had a rather strange encounter-an interaction with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-the Mormons. Completely taken aback at first meeting the people he believed-and had preached-were part of a cult, Tom set out to investigate what this Mormon religion was all about. It's True tells of Tom's initial reaction, what he learned about the Mormons and what he discovered-that the LDS people are, indeed, Christians and the precepts they teach are true.




Second-Class Saints


Book Description

On June 9, 1978, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) president Spencer W. Kimball announced a revelation lifting the church's 126-year-old ban barring Black people from the priesthood and Mormon temples. It was the most significant change in LDS doctrine since the end of polygamy almost 100 years earlier. Drawing on never-before-seen private papers of LDS apostles and church presidents, including Spencer W. Kimball, Matthew L. Harris probes the plot twists and turns, the near-misses and paths not taken, of this incredible story.




Passport to Heaven


Book Description

“You have a call, Elder Wilder.” When missionary Micah Wilder set his sights on bringing a Baptist congregation into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he had no idea that he was the one about to be changed. Yet when he finally came to know the God of the Bible, Micah had no choice but to surrender himself—no matter the consequences. For a passionate young Mormon who had grown up in the Church, finding authentic faith meant giving up all he knew: his community, his ambitions, and his place in the world. Yet as Micah struggled to reconcile the teachings of his Church with the truths revealed in the Bible, he awakened to his need for God’s grace. This led him to be summoned to the door of the mission president, terrified but confident in the testimony he knew could cost him everything. Passport to Heaven is a gripping account of Micah’s surprising journey from living as a devoted member of a religion based on human works to embracing the divine mercy and freedom that can only be found in Jesus Christ.




People of Paradox


Book Description

In People of Paradox, Terryl Givens traces the rise and development of Mormon culture from the days of Joseph Smith in upstate New York, through Brigham Young's founding of the Territory of Deseret on the shores of Great Salt Lake, to the spread of the Latter-Day Saints around the globe. Throughout the last century and a half, Givens notes, distinctive traditions have emerged among the Latter-Day Saints, shaped by dynamic tensions--or paradoxes--that give Mormon cultural expression much of its vitality. Here is a religion shaped by a rigid authoritarian hierarchy and radical individualism; by prophetic certainty and a celebration of learning and intellectual investigation; by existence in exile and a yearning for integration and acceptance by the larger world. Givens divides Mormon history into two periods, separated by the renunciation of polygamy in 1890. In each, he explores the life of the mind, the emphasis on education, the importance of architecture and urban planning (so apparent in Salt Lake City and Mormon temples around the world), and Mormon accomplishments in music and dance, theater, film, literature, and the visual arts. He situates such cultural practices in the context of the society of the larger nation and, in more recent years, the world. Today, he observes, only fourteen percent of Mormon believers live in the United States. Mormonism has never been more prominent in public life. But there is a rich inner life beneath the public surface, one deftly captured in this sympathetic, nuanced account by a leading authority on Mormon history and thought.




O Me of Little Faith


Book Description

In this O Me of Little Faith Ebook, author Jason Boyett brings you a transparent and personal account of his own of struggles with doubts and unbelief in living out his faith. With humor and frankness, Boyett uses personal anecdotes and a fresh look at Scripture to explore the realities of pursuing Christ through a field of doubt.After three decades of knowing God, understanding Christianity, and living a Christian life, Boyett has come to the place where he can voice the tough questions and travel the road of uncertainty with blinders off, candor on. The message along the way is one of encouragement: Relax. Rely on the grace of a merciful God, a kind father who realizes that his finite creatures must have doubts, should have questions, and will have trouble making sense of an infinite Creator. Ultimately, Boyett concludes that doubt and faith are not polar opposites, but actually work together, existing side-by-side. Uplifting, entertaining, hopeful, O Me of Little Faith will strike a chord with you and any Christian who's dealing with the uncertainties of living life in pursuit of a God who occasionally seems to disappear.