Salt Lake Tribune: New database unlocks the history of an LDS congregation unlike any other. “From 1880 to 1966, more than a thousand of these Indigenous members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found ways to blend their Native identities with the young faith. In doing so, they left behind thousands of records — photos, letters, maps, personal histories and more — now all […]

I work with many Mormons. I truly appreciate them as a culture. I tolerate their faith.

One of my Mormon peers just called to check on me. I didn't have the heart to tell them I was 3 fingers deep in a rye and micro-dosing a THC tincture.

But the funny thing is, they may not have understood but would have accepted it and not judged me for it. Mormons are pragmatists. Take a look at their state legislation. They look more like a Minnesota than a Texas.

This is why I like Mormons, among other reasons. This coming from an atheist.

#mormons #mormonism #atheism

In the FLDS are the women's dresses color coded? I see some wearing red, others blue or green. Is it like Star Trek uniforms? If Emma is in red she works engineering or security? And if Abigail is in blue she works science or medical?

#flds #mormons #fundamentalism #religion #cults #skepticism

So rises the Book of Mormon, and an American sensation

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1991189/so-rises-the-book-of-mormon-and-an-american-sensation

A Falsa Teologia das Origens: A Instrumentalização da História como Ferramenta de Poder

Assistindo a um vídeo nas redes sociais, vi um jovem perguntar a um senhor de idade se ele era cristão. O senhor, em vez de responder diretamente, rebateu com a mesma pergunta. Quando o rapaz confirmou que sim, o senhor se identificou como teólogo e ‘conhecedor profundo das palavras de Deus’, passando então a contradizê-lo e a invalidar sua fé. É nítido como essa ideia de unificação religiosa é usada de forma preconceituosa e, por vezes, criminosa para desfazer das demais religiões. Essa postura revela que, para muitos, o título de ‘teólogo’ serve apenas como ferramenta de intimidação.

Diante disso, é engraçado (para não dizer outro termo) a ignorância de quem se diz estudante de teologia e afirma que mórmons, adventistas e testemunhas de Jeová vêm dos judeus, quando, na verdade, todos têm origem documental nos Estados Unidos do século XIX. Confundir apropriação temática com linhagem histórica é uma distorção deliberada. Essa narrativa ignora a historiografia para validar uma visão antissemita de substituição e um sionismo de conveniência.

O objetivo é fabricar uma autoridade bíblica que esses grupos americanos não possuem, justificando o massivo apoio econômico e militar dos EUA a Israel como parte de uma agenda profética que, no fundo, ignora a soberania do povo judeu em favor de interesses geopolíticos americanos. O fato de essa visão partir de um brasileiro evidencia que não se trata de uma coincidência, mas de um projeto de expansão ideológica de longo prazo que se infiltra em diferentes nações. Em última análise, essa ‘teologia’ não serve a Deus nem ao povo judeu; serve à manutenção de um poder que usa o antissemitismo como estratégia e o dinheiro como finalidade. Pode-se ter a fé que quiser, mas não se pode inventar uma história que os fatos, as datas e os documentos desmentem.

Book of Enoch

This is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic religious text. The author of this book, by tradition, is the patriarch Enoch. Enoch was the dad of Methuselah (the oldest man in the Christian & Hebrew Bible) & the great-grandpa of Noah.

The Book of Enoch has some quite unique passages on the origins of demons & the Nephilim, why some angels fell from Heaven, an explanation of why the Genesis Flood was morally necessary, & a prophetic explanation of the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah.

3 books are traditionally attributed to Enoch, including the distinct works of 2 Enoch & 3 Enoch.

1 Enoch isn’t considered to be canonical Scripture by most sects of Judaism & Christianity. Although it’s a part of the biblical canon used by the Ethiopian Jewish community, Beta Israel. As well as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church & the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The older section of 1 Enoch is dated to circa 300-200 BCE. The latest part (Book of Parables) is probably from circa 100 BCE. It’s believed that Enoch was originally written in either Aramaic or Hebrew. The 1st languages used for Jewish texts. No Hebrew version is known to have survived.

Copies of the earlier sections of 1 Enoch were preserved in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves. The full Book of Enoch survives in its entirety only in the Ge’ez translation. Ge’ez is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originated from what’s known as Ethiopia & Eritrea.

The 1st part of the Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who sired angel-human hybrids called the Nephilim. The rest of the book describes Enoch’s revelations & his visits to Heaven in the form of travels, visions, & dreams.

The book consists of 5 major sections:

• The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)
• The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71; sometimes called the Similitudes of Enoch)
• The Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72-82; sometimes called the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries or Book of Luminaries)
• The Book of Dream Visions (I Enoch 83-90; sometimes called the Book of Dreams)
• The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)

The most extensive surviving early manuscripts of the Book of Enoch are in Ge’ez. Also, there are manuscripts used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church to prepare the deuterocanonicals from Ge’ez into the targumic Amharic in the bilingual Haile Selassie Amharic Bible.

Judging by the number of copies found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Enoch was widely read during the Second Temple period. Today, the Ethiopian Beta Israel community of Haymanot Jews is the only Jewish group that accepts the Book of Enoch as canonical & still preserves it in its liturgical language of Ge’ez. It plays a central role in worship.

However, the Book of Enoch was excluded from both the formal canon of the Tanakh (the Jewish/Hebrew Bible) & the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament, the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew). Also from the writings known today as the Deuterocanon.

By the 5th century, the Book of Enoch was mostly excluded from Christian biblical canons. It is now regarded as Scripture only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church & the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The Book of Enoch was considered as Scripture in the Epistle of Barnabas & by some of the early Church Fathers (like Clement of Alexandria & Tertullian) who wrote circa 200 that the Jews had rejected the Book of Enoch because it purposely contained prophecies about Jesus.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) don’t consider 1 Enoch to be part of its standard canon. Although it believes that a purported, “original” Book of Enoch was an inspired book.

The Book of Moses (1st published the 1830s by the Mormon Church) is part of its standard works & has a section that claims to contain extracts from the “original” Book of Enoch.

This section has a number of similarities to 1 Enoch & other Enoch texts, including 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch, & The Book of Giants. The Enoch section of the Book of Moses is believed by the Church to contain extracts from “the ministry, teachings, & visions of Enoch.”

Though it doesn’t have the entire Book of Enoch itself. The Mormon Church considers the potions of the other texts that match its Enoch excerpts to be inspired while not rejecting but withholding judgment on the remainder.

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The FLDS Rabbit Hole

https://ericfoltin.com/2026/04/12/the-flds-rabbit-hole/