So, I am in the beginning of my journey leaving the church after 29 years of being a "Molly Mormon" and a temple marriage. I want and need all of the literature resources possible to do my research so that I can make this leap. I am currently reading, "Wife Number 19", which is incredible. I have also read "The Book of Mormon Girl". I'm looking for old church publications, good historical research and any factual information I can get. PLEASE, help!

Well I developed my website exactly for someone like you: http://www.mormonprobe.com.

If you are more interested in reading books than watching videos, listening to podcasts or reading information online check out the "books" section. I list a few books that I personally recommend or I have consistently heard good things about. In addition there are LOTS of free online books available - that I link to - many of them are very good. I've also linked to some other places that have book lists and recommendations.

Personally my favorite section on the site is "By their Fruits" under "More links."

Note: You will need to do some of your own research to fall links to make things check out but I have done a lot of vetting in an attempt to only include links to information that is accurate - I've done a lot of research and following links myself to ensure that things stated really hold water.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 11:07AM by The Oncoming Storm - bc.

Thank you SO much. I can't read fast enough! I truly appreciate your time and effort to put that together.

Thank you all so much, I will be doing a lot of reading in the coming months and continuing to spend my time devoted to this.

Note if you want a good "kickstart" - if you are feeling overwhelmed with where to start - I recommend these in this order:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ac_fLUHiBw

http://www.michaelshermer.com/weird-things/excerpt/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=752V173e31o

http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/05-ZinaHuntingtonJacobs.htm
http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/23-LucyWalker.htm

http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon441.htm

http://www.bookofabraham.com/boamathie/BOA_TOC.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwUTVQ4mfNE

http://www.mormonthink.com/transbomweb.htm

http://www.mormonthink.com/personalstories/A_Letter_to_a_CES_Director.pdf

http://www.mormonprobe.com/index.php?topic=By%20Their%20Fruits



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 12:07PM by The Oncoming Storm - bc.

"In Sacred Loneliness" by T. Compton
is an eye-opening and well researched book, gleaned from old court documents and diaries deposited at the Huntington Library.

Yep - and you can get a great synopsis here:

http://wivesofjosephsmith.org/

Note: the website is accurate, but does take the most negative interpretation of the information where Compton's book is more balanced in the interpretation and actually takes as charitable interpretation as possible while not shying away from the actual facts.

Note personally I'm in process reading 3 books - mostly I've read & online:

Standing for Something - Lyndon Lamborn
- This book is excellent it starts a little slow and meandering and it goes on weird tangents sometimes but overall it is VERY insightful. The chapters on mind control are especially insightful and useful.

In Sacred Loneliness - Todd Compton
- This is an excellent book to confirm that the "rumors" about Joseph Smith and his polygamy and poyandry are really true. It also really brings home that JS was really hurting real people and destroyed a lot of people's lives. However, I think reading wivesofjosephsmith.org accomplishes the same thing with less time investment - Compton's book just provides all the details and research and references if you don't want to take wivesofjosephsmith at face value. Hearing the actual stories is the key.


Religion Explained - Pascal Boyer
- This is my top pick. This book is so insightful and I have learned SO much. But it is like drinking from a fire hose. It is a huge crash course in anthropology and how the brain works.

Done reading:

Why I believed - Ken Daniels
- In the state you are in right now - I highly recommend reading at least the first part of this book - and its free. This one is fascinating because it isn't about Mormonism but about someone leaving his evangelical faith - the parallels are amazing and really helped me work through some of the discomfort of changing beliefs and seeing I was not alone and this is a human issue not just a Mormon issue. http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ken_daniels/why.html



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 12:01PM by The Oncoming Storm - bc.

Stages of Cult Recovery Applied to Mormonism

http://www.rationalrevelation.com/library/stagescultrecovery.html

Insider's View of Mormonism by Grant Palmer, The Keystone of Mormonism by Arza Evans, Where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity by Shawn McCraney, No Man Knows My History by Fawn Brodie
Very informative reading, all authors are ex-mormons.
Good luck, hang in there it's a long road, lots of pitfallls, but your integrity is worth it!

This question comes up a lot... Wish we could make this a sticky at the top of the forum, compiled into various categories, perhaps?

That's the main reason I created mormonprobe - I was giving out the same links on here over and over and over - and I kept having to look them up over and over. Often I don't even link to my site, but I copy paste from there all the time to give links from there that answer a specific question asked.

An American Fraud. One Lawyer's Case against Mormonism by Kay Burningham

The book is in 2 segments: 1) Her personal experiences that led her out of Mormonism, plus 2) her own persuasive arguments as a lawyer. She dissects the hell out of Mormon history, gives footnotes and references and does a darn good job doing it!

Best book ever ...

Here is the text for "The Mormon Monster"

http://archive.org/stream/mormonmonsterors00folk/mormonmonsterors00folk_djvu.txt


I have read it all the way through. It was published in 1901 and written by a minister from Tennessee.

The timing was very I interesting historically because Mormonism was entering the United States, Smoot hearings were going on, polygamy was still going on, and you get a strong sense of the Mormon us and them mentality. To this day I still am dismissive of that simple Mormon that protests their amazement at why people don't choose to just get along with Mormons or leave them alone. "We are such good people and mean no harm to others! We just want to be left alone and exercise our US constitutional rights to believe and act upon whatever craziness we choose to believe an act upon!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 12:10PM by gentlestrength.

I'm in a similar situation as you, except I'm trying to get my wife to read some literature. She has agreed to do so with some conditions. My story is here:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,932761,934303

Here's my game plan:

1. Start with the CES letter - http://mormonthink.com/personalstories/A_Letter_to_a_CES_Director.pdf

2. I liked this link here about how the doctrine is changing so I was going to pass that along as well - http://www.ifeaftermormonism.net/profiles/blogs/attention-lds-faithful-your?id=2425233%3ABlogPost%3A15544&page=3#comments

The link directly above will not work if you click on it. So, it will require that you insert an 'l' when you copy and paste the URL into your browser. I think we're not supposed to link from that web site on here, but the article is really good so I don't want you to miss it.

3. Then I ordered her these two books:
In Sacred Loneliness, about the plural wives of Joseph Smith - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156085085X/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In addition to the sacred loneliness book I'm also going to print out the PDF version of this site in case she doesn't want to read such a long book about polygamy - http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/PDFBooklet/PDFBooklet.pdf

I saw some good advice from someone else on here (thanks MormonProbe) that the most egregious abuses of power for Smith were on Zina, Lucy, Helen, Emily and Eliza so I'll tell my wife to focus on those ones. Interestingly, the word Zina in Arabic means adultery.

The Keystone of Mormonism - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0972881301/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Best of luck to you! I hope your thirst for knowledge is quenched and that you find the truth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 02:12PM by marriedtoexmo.

I think you should consider adding the Youtube video "Top 10 mormon problems explained" to your game plan.

Also consider starting with Here be Dragons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=752V173e31o

The nice thing about this video is it doesn't even attack religion at all but it attacks how Mormons have to think to believe - if you can reset that mindset a little it may be helpful.

Another real "Kapow" thing you can look at is the scan of the original of JS' slimy letter to Sarah Whitney:
http://user.xmission.com/~research/family/strange.htm

(Basically it reads - come over for some sex but make sure Emma isn't back yet first.)

Oh and just reading D&C 132 together and really working out what it is saying is another possibility - a potentially good approach if she is resistant to non lds sources.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 03:53PM by The Oncoming Storm - bc.

I pretty familiar with most of the good books out there on Mormonism and I compiled a list of books that I felt were essential reading. I have placed a star next to my favorite recommendations since most people would obviously not read all of them. Go to Signature Books website too. They publish most of the scholarly books on Mormonism.

History/Joseph Smtih
* Mormonism - Shadow or Reality? (or The Changing World of Mormonism) by Jerald & Sandra Tanner
* An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins by Grant Palmer
* No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith by Fawn M. Broadie
* The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power by D. Michael Quinn
* The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Mormon America, The Power and the Promise by Richard Ostling, Joan K. Ostling
One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman
Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet by Dan Vogel
Joseph Smith: The First Mormon by Donna Hill
The Prophet Puzzle: Interpretive Essays on Joseph Smith by Bryan Waterman
Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon by David Persuitte
The Keystone of Mormonism by Arza Evans
The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past by D. Michael Quinn
Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters - John Sillito and Susan Staker

Polygamy
* In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith by Todd Compton
* Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith by Linda King Newell
Mormon Polygamy: A History by Richard S. Van Wagoner
Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage by B. Carmon Hardy
Nauvoo Polygamy: “… but we called it celestial marriage” by George D. Smith

Book of Mormon
*New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology by Brent Metcalfe
*Quest for the Gold Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson’s Archaeological Search for the Book of Mormon by Stan Larson
*American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon by Dan Vogel and Brent Lee Metcalfe
Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church by Simon G. Southerton

Book of Abraham
*By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri by Charles M. Larson

Folk Magic/Occult Practices
* Early Mormonism and the Magic World View by D. Michael Quinn

Temple
Evolution of the Mormon Temple Ceremony: 1842-1990 by Jerald and Sandra Tanner
The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship - David John Buerger

Mountain Meadows Massacre
Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley
The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Brooks, Juanita

Misc
Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine by Gary James Bergera
Power From On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood - Gregory A. Prince

Wow, thank you all SO much! It's touching to have a safe haven with people who care and understand.

A couple more I should highlight that are specifically what you asked for in regards to history:

http://www.mrm.org/journalgems
http://journalofdiscourses.com/

http://www.bookofmormonbookoflies.com/pdfs/LucySmithBiographicalSketchesofJosephSmith.pdf (watch for the parts where Lucy talks about all the stories that Joseph Smith would invent before he got the gold plates and watch for Joseph Smith Srs. dreams that are just like 1 Nephi 8)

An American Fraud by Kaye Burningham. It doesn't present the most comprehensive case against Mormonism or Joseph Smith, but the memoir portion of it is unforgettable. Her first Mormon husband was highly abusive and she had a professor at BYU who propositioned her to be his second wife.