I don’t think I can be a scholar and not have questions with occasional cultural practices or historical events related to the Church, but my testimony of the doctrine of this Church supersedes any of the times in my life when I feel uncertain about an event or issue. …[more]
The proposition of putting one’s religious convictions out on the Internet may seem ill-advised, particularly to those in the humanities where one’s politics and ideological commitments, it is fairly argued, are inseparable from one’s research and academic output. …[more]
In Mormonism, I found the living, personal, physical God, literally communicating through revelation. Here the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, as described so unequivocally in the New Testament, became real again. …[more]
As a saint in a modern scriptorium …[more]
My first contact with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came through the missionaries proselytising along our street. I can remember well that the only reason I let them into my home was because it was pouring with rain outside and I felt sorry for them. …[more]
Although I have vivid memories of spiritual feelings associated with singing hymns about Jesus Christ at a very young age, my own personal conviction of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ seemed to settle over me as I grew up….[more]
I have had a very rich and happy life and I know that my saviour Jesus Christ and his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the source and the reason for the great joy and excitement that fills my life. …[more]
For me there has been no serious difficulty in reconciling the principles of true science with the principles of true religion, for both are concerned with the eternal verities of the Universe. …[more]
When I think about all the factors that caused me to return to the religion of my youth after twenty years away, one stands out—a reexamination of the person, Joseph Smith, and his role in restoring original Christianity. …[more]
When I was a teenager living in San Antonio, Texas, my parents came into contact with Mormon missionaries through someone who worked with my father, an officer in the Medical Services Corps of the U. S. Army. …[more]
There is a stereotype about Mormons that I wish to dispel. The stereotype often propagated by outsiders is that Mormons are naïve, ignorant, and feeble-minded. Instead, we Mormons are thinkers, even critical thinkers. …[more]
I felt a peace in my heart telling me that I had finally found a purpose in life through a living religion that could combine faith and education, a religion that could teach me about prayer, about a Father that listens to our prayers, and a religion that values treasures not from this world. …[more]
The answered prayers, the feelings of love and encouragement, the guidance, and especially the non-stop nudging to do better have simply welded this notion of God in my mind so that I can’t even remember the last time I entertained the notion of there being no God. …[more]
Years ago when I was on faculty at a state university, a student asked me, “How can you have a PhD and believe in God?” My response was, “How could I have a PhD and not believe in God?” …[more]
I was born and raised in an active Latter-day Saint family and from a very young age was fascinated with history, genealogy, and religion. At a young age I wondered about my place in the world, how I was impacted by people, and, in turn, how I impacted others. …[more]
I believe in the restoration because of many personal spiritual confirmations throughout my life. I also know through the lens or window of the restoration one can correctly view the gospel of Jesus Christ. …[more]
I have wondered if I have a testimony for as long, I think, as I have been aware of how my fellow Saints around me use the word. What is it, I wondered, which entails such knowledge, and how do you know if you have it? …[more]
Others have asked me how a person with a PhD and a historian could believe in religion generally and Mormonism specifically. I don’t know how a “person” could; I only know that I do. History has not made me skeptical of God; if anything, it has made me skeptical of humanity. …[more]
As a religious, social, British, and women’s historian, I have studied many ideas and theories. As I have done so, without exception, I have found essential currents of thought that attest to the reality of God and to the spiritual dimensions of life. …[more]
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the church that has all the true teachings of Jesus Christ and that the church will lead all of us back to God and bring happiness to us in this life, if we will but follow the plan of God taught in his church. …[more]
