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Glass Box Podcast

Join Bryce Blankenagel and Shannon Grover as we walk through deep Mormon doctrine and history, headlines in and out of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), and explore the lighter side of current events. We hope to provide good feels and a burning in your bosom that'll leave you wanting to download the next episode.
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Now displaying: 2019
Dec 24, 2019

$100 billion (yes… with a “B”) is a lot of money for the church to be hoarding. Unfortunately, the media coverage has been inaccurate in many regards and has missed some of the larger issues contained in the expose “Letter to an IRS Director” by Lars Neilsen. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has become so wealthy and powerful it seems to simply operate by its own set of rules. The size of Ensign Peak Advisors (EPA) is larger than the media has discussed and the alleged violations regarding its disbursements to City Creek Center and Beneficial Financial Group (totally $2 billion) could threaten its tax-exempt status. Also included in the expose is the whistleblower discussing with EPA director, Roger Clarke, “worst practices” which included “deleting receivables” and opening the way for “dark money” payouts EPA made to unknown entities. The actual portfolio by Nov 2019 is estimated to be closer to $124 billion. We discuss a bit of the media coverage and wrap up with talking about how the church should use that money, could use that money, and how we’d use that money. $124 billion is hard to conceptualize but we try our best. Please share if you learned anything worth sharing.

Check out our all-new merch store!

glassboxpodcast.com/shop

 

Links:

Religion Unplugged $100 Billion Stockpile article
https://religionunplugged.com/news/2019/12/16/whistleblower-exposes-100-billion-stockpile-by-mormon-church

 

“Mormons, Inc. “Kingdom Come”” Time
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986794,00.html

 

Official church response to expose
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-statement-church-finances

 

Deseret News Op-ed on expose
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2019/12/17/21026103/the-washington-post-mormon-church-whistleblower-says-billions-thank-goodness

 

Polynesian Cultural Center
https://www.polynesia.com/packages/

https://www.kitv.com/story/38903471/activist-says-mormon-church-should-pay-taxes-on-polynesian-cultural-center

 

Deseret Trust Company
https://www.deserettrust.com/about-us?lang=eng

 

Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5918641

 

Temples
https://www.businessinsider.com/fancy-mormon-temples-2014-8

 

Reuters 2012 Mormon Money article
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-mormons/insight-mormon-church-made-wealthy-by-donations-idUSBRE87B05W20120812

 

Bloomberg 2012 “How the Mormons Make Money”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-07-18/how-the-mormons-make-money

https://archive.org/stream/HowTheMormonsMakeMoney/How%20the%20Mormons%20Make%20Money-%20Bloomberg%207-18-12_djvu.txt

 

Quinn on Church Finances SLTrib
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local/2017/10/14/historian-digs-into-the-hidden-world-of-mormon-finances-shows-how-church-went-from-losing-money-to-making-money-lots-of-it/

 

Dowry is not the Lord’s Way Deseret News Article
https://www.deseret.com/2018/4/16/20643748/dowry-is-not-the-lord-s-way-in-kenya-lds-president-nelson-says-tithing-breaks-poverty-cycle#anna-waithira-has-margaret-wanaki-on-her-back-as-she-lines-up-to-attend-a-special-devotional-with-president-russell-m-nelson-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints-in-nairobi-kenya-on-monday-april-16-2018

 

List of Temples
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_temples_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#Dedicated:_2010s

 

Show Links:

 

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Dec 17, 2019

Wheeew what a doozey! We cover Mormon Money from the 1930s to the 1980s. When this much money gets involved and a church grows to have a significant international presence, money begets politics and politics feed money. Once Franklin S. Richards died another needed to carry the Mormon Money torch; here enters Henry Dinwoodey Moyle, a man with grand ideas and exponential growth intentions. He rolls out new missionary programs, local “baseball baptisms” sports leagues, carbon copy chapels, the new 28-story Church Office Building, and a litany of other aggressive expansion programs. After bankrupting many companies and chewing through untold resources, Moyle died leaving the church $32 million in debt but on a good path toward global expansion. N. Eldon Tanner, with the help of Marion Romney, takes the helm of Mormon Money and rights the sinking ship by filling leadership with more businessmen and lawyers than ever before. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also began to gain a national political foothold with George Romney running for President and subsequently being appointed Nixon’s HUD Secretary. Gordon B. Hinckley is brought in as Tanner’s protege to take the Mormon Money colossus rampaging across the planet. Part 3 will discuss the recent revelations concerning the church’s $100 billion in holdings and Ensign Peak Advisors.

Links (there are a lot of them):

Get Quinn’s latest book in the Mormon Hierarchy series Wealth and Corporate Power
https://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Hierarchy-Wealth-Corporate-Power/dp/1560852356

Henry D. Moyle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_D._Moyle

  1. Eldon Tanner
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Eldon_Tanner

Mormon Corporate Structure
https://exploringmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Corporate-structure-image-400.jpg

Church finances (official)
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/church-finances-commercial-businesses?lang=eng

Church Office Building
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Office_Building

Consolidated Freightways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Freightways

Marion Romney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_G._Romney

George Romney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney#Local_church_and_civic_leadership

George Romney and MLK “marching together” fact check
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2007/dec/28/mitt-romney/george-romney-and-mlk-marched-but-not-together/

Tax churches for $71 bn per year
https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/how-to-make-71-billion-a-year-tax-the-churches

Show links:
Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Dec 11, 2019

We finally broach a subject that’s taken the back-burner for far too long. Mormon money is one of the most complicated subjects associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we decided it requires a multi-part series to understand with some level of depth and context. Join us for part one where we start at the beginning with Joseph Smith, get into Brigham Young and the Mormon exodus to Utah in 1847, and tie together financial strands all the way into the Great Depression. Some topics of discussion: Joseph Smith as an entrepreneur, Brigham Young as a theocrat and tyrant, polygamy and the first manifesto under President Wilford Woodruff, complicated finances with intermingling the prophet’s personal with the church’s corporate assets, Joseph F. Smith and the church in near-bankruptcy he inherited in 1901, Franklin S. Richards and his rehabilitation program, the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (COP), The Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (CPB), and the trajectory upon which the church was set going into the Great Depression.

Links (there are a lot of them):

Get Quinn’s latest book in the Mormon Hierarchy series Wealth and Corporate Power
https://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Hierarchy-Wealth-Corporate-Power/dp/1560852356

Kirtland Safety Society
https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/byu-religious-education-student-symposium-2012/kirtland-safety-society-and-its-effect-faith

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/kirtland-safety-society?lang=eng

Nauvoo Charter
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/nauvoo-charter

Sunstone and Presentation “Joseph Smith, the Entrepreneur”
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/joseph-smith-the-entrepreneur/
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com

Edmunds Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmunds_Act

Wilhelm Von Wymetal 1886 expose
https://archive.org/details/josephsmithproph01wyme/page/276

Late Corp of LDS v. U.S.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/136/1

Ann Eliza Webb Young Wife No. 19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Eliza_Young

1870 census data
https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1870_fast_facts.html?

Lorenzo Snow
https://historyofmormonism.com/2008/07/08/lorenzo_snow/

Franklin S. Richards
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_S._Richards

CPB
https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0122898D:US

COP
https://secure.utah.gov/bes/details.html?entity=553976-0145

COP Structure
https://exploringmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Corporate-structure-image-400.jpg

Church Finances (official)
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/church-finances-commercial-businesses?lang=eng

“Corporate-sole” “Corporation-sole”
http://hushmoney.org/corporate-sole_facts.htm

AgReserves Inc
https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0275969D:US

PropertyReserves Inc
https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,398698,399463

Show links:
Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Nov 27, 2019

Joe Geisner returns to spend 2 hours on one of the most iconic and influential characters in recent Mormon history, Boyd K. Packer. We discuss his inauguration into the Quorum of Apostles and how he molded and shaped the church from the highest leadership body from that time forward. We cover the internal issues between Packer and the church’s history department, discuss the shroud of secrecy he helped to foster, and then get into the outward expressions he declared from the pulpit which directly influenced members and national politics. We wrap with discussing what kind of a legacy was left behind when Packer died in 2015.

Hugo Olaiz’s Sunstone Presentation
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/sl10212-sacred-secrecy-in-the-teachings-of-president-boyd-k-packer/
Show links:
Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html
Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Nov 13, 2019

From Evergreen to North Star, gay-conversion therapy runs deep through Mormon tradition. October headlines blazed with the LDS church opposing a ban on conversion therapy for minors which was defended, misrepresented, and misunderstood by much of the media. We deep dive on conversion therapy in Mormonism and discuss some of the names associated with this abusive and anti-science practice. After that Braden talks about a climate change movie and some YouTubers getting together to plant some trees!

 

Sources for conversion therapy stuff:

Evergreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_International
North Star https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star_(organization)
A. Dean Byrd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Dean_Byrd
NARTH https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_Research_%26_Therapy_of_Homosexuality
https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_Research_%26_Therapy_of_Homosexuality
Joseph Nicolosi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nicolosi
Evergreen expose https://truthwinsout.org/ministry-evergreen-international/
Gay Rights and Political Correctness: A Brief History https://web.archive.org/web/20051220234201/http://narth.com/docs/schoenewolf2.html
Conversion therapy VICE expose https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jmvya8/i-joined-a-bunch-of-gay-conversion-groups
NARTH rebrand https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/ex-gay-group-attempts-rebranding-narth-conversion-therapy/
ATCSI (Formerly NARTH) https://www.therapeuticchoice.com/why-the-alliance-supports-safe-ther
September 1999 gay conversion therapy Ensign article https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1999/09/when-a-loved-one-struggles-with-same-sex-attraction?lang=eng
North Star founder comments https://truthwinsout.org/pressrelease/2014/01/38796/
North Star staff https://truthwinsout.org/news/2013/07/36344/
North Star founder defense of conversion therapy https://nypost.com/2013/07/22/a-low-attack-on-same-sex-therapy/
North Star support group criteria https://www.northstarlds.org/join-facebook-mens
North Star President’s Message https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ca12d887fdcb87df5da2b9f/t/5d3e724604588900019087ad/1564373583142/North+Star+President+Message+Winter+2018.pdf
HB 399 https://le.utah.gov/~2019/bills/static/HB0399.html
Psychologist Licensing Act Rule https://rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r156/r156-61.htm
Mormon church opposes LGBTQ ‘conversion therapy’ ban https://apnews.com/da5c04204c194e11a5836495f36d818d
SL Tribune church opposing conversion therapy ban article https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/10/21/lds-church-says-proposed/
Church’s press release opposing act https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/statement-proposed-rule-sexual-orientation-gender-identity-change
LDS Church defends its objections to proposed gay conversion therapy ban https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rXWY-HPQHA

Media of Great Price:
First Reformed (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438

Light of Gazalem:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/31/20941626/teamtrees-youtuber-charity-fundraiser-climate-change-trees-musk-dorsey-pewdiepie

Oct 30, 2019

I watched it so you don’t have to. We go through every talk given during General Conference of October 2019 from Oaks to Oaks and back to Oaks again, we try to identify what slipped through the cracks of media reporting on this semiannual GC. It’s a long one! Hopefully the length makes up for the month hiatus as Braden moved and I was on a 3-week road trip. Patrons of the show get an extra hour of podcast about the General Women’s session. Please get us to our next Patreon goal to make Braden suffer through the April 2020 Conference with me!!!

 

https://www.patreon.com/GlassBoxPod

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Sep 18, 2019
Sep 4, 2019

It’s a long episode today! Don’t let the long timestamp scare you away. We invite a guest to tell us his story of joining the church, working for the church, and eventually leaving it. His story reveals a side of Mormonism most of us know is there, but aren’t privy to. Part 2 of the conversation comes after the C segment where Michael tells a bit about his personal story. Braden and I also talk about a new documentary and discuss The Teachings of Don Juan. Then we round out the episode with a climate initiative in India.

 

Links:

Light of Gazalem: https://www.thestatesman.com/india/climate-emergency-india-offers-financial-and-technical-support-to-developing-nations-1502794652.html

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Aug 21, 2019

We finally wrap up the first Armstrong Lecture! We learn all about hell, the different degrees of the Celestial Kingdom, and Mormon trickle-down heaven! After that we talk about “The Good Place,” a sitcom about heaven and hell. Then we wrap with good news about cow farts!

 

Show links:

Light of Gazelem:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-15/seaweed-for-cows-could-be-mass-farmed-reduce-methane/11414724

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Jul 31, 2019

Now we’ve had the introduction to how heaven is structured, let’s find out how we actually get to each of the degrees. Part 2 of this Armstrong lecture describes the different degrees and who is deserving of them. Plus, Mormon reincarnation is totally a thing! After that we have Ryan McKnight of the Truth and Transparency Foundation to discuss a recent story broke by the organization.

 

Truth & Transparency story
https://truthandtransparency.org/news/2019/7/24/court-documents-show-local-mormon-leaders-failed-to-report-the-manufacturing-of-child-pornography-following-confession

Links mentioned by Ryan
@the_ttf

https://truthandtransparency.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEnp6o4S974&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3CUns_MADCRfe-U_HFfbRA087ogQburkwObdss88w4kEcyG7lGpIQGL8g

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Jul 17, 2019

We’re doing something a little different for this episode! We start with a little background on how Braden and Bryce met and use that as a launch point to discuss the main topic today. We read a lecture… Yeah… I lecture. But don’t worry! It’s a lot more fun than it sounds and we’d really like to get some feedback on it to hear what you think! After that, Braden tells us about The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and then we talk about a couple who planted 2,000,000 trees in 20 years! We round out the show with some listener feedback that is absolutely amazing.


Apostle John replaced in Temple video:
https://wheatandtares.org/2011/01/30/temple-john-where-do-the-fallen-go/

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Jul 3, 2019

Missions! Braden did his, Bryce left the Mormon church before he could do one. After Braden gives us an overview of his mission experience, we discuss the history of the “Preach My Gospel” program, the impetus behind it, how it came to be, who was involved, and how it was implemented into the field. Hopefully it will be as interesting to listen to as it was to research the topic! After that Braden talks about some media that passes the Bechdel test and we talk about a school in Iowa that’s giving out P.E. credits for service projects.

History of Preach My Gospel
https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/volume-14-number-1-2013/history-preach-my-gospel?fbclid=IwAR0BZUafYGnNOhs-PlVj7tmZRgeCe3hhH-qD9-V1pxqHCWqSdUTKJtQAWVs

Ballard: https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-06-26/president-ballard-baptize-2019-mission-leadership-seminar-50222

Mission cost increase in 2020:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900077168/church-announces-mormon-mission-lds-cost-increase.html

Light of Gazalem
https://www.wthr.com/article/iowa-school-giving-students-pe-credits-helping-elderly-people-disabilities-do-yard-work

Jeffrey Suhr’s Children’s Books
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732251703/

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Jun 5, 2019

It's been one year since the Be One Celebration; Mormonism isn’t racist anymore!!! We know the high-level overview of what the Priesthood ban included, now we take a foray into the human element. We talk about the tough paradoxes introduced when institutionalized theological racism comes into conflict with an ever-expanding global religion. An oft-forgotten aspect of Mormon conversion, Patriarchal Blessings, become the litmus test for African ancestry. Patriarchs fight with the First Presidency. The church takes no official position. Chaos and pandemonium rule doctrinal racism throughout the entire 20th century.

 

Links:

Mormons and Lineage: The Complicated History of Blacks and Patriarchal Blessings by Matt Harris
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1erugEZ1LYvyMwMfFiQD1H_y0bZP16pFBNnjy-8ScP0E/edit?usp=sharing

 

Black, White, or Brown? Racial Perceptions and the Priesthood Policy in Latin America by Jeremy Talmage and Clinton D. Christensen
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FqDep89418UPnrN2r5wFg0GAJn7Mx_Li6o13bfEBjJc/edit?usp=sharing

 

Race and the Priesthood (Faithful & Official)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FqDep89418UPnrN2r5wFg0GAJn7Mx_Li6o13bfEBjJc/edit?usp=sharing

 

Race and the Priesthood (Critical & Skeptical)
http://www.mormonthink.com/essays-race-priesthood.htm

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

May 22, 2019

World tour time! Rusty and his apostle friend travel the world and meet Pacific Island dignitaries to bless the masses with their presence. Also, when a religion creates new political operatives as “specialists” and opposes a bill with ‘Equality’ in the name, it’s never a good sign. After that, Braden and I both bring books to the table for our Media of Great Price. We round out the episode with a company that froze CEO wages to pay the bottom-line workers more and Costa Rica progressing on Abortion restrictions.

 

Links:

Mormon policital ‘specialists’
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/05/14/lds-church-is-assigning/

 

Rusty world tour
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/president-nelson-pacific-ministry-2019-samoa

 

Light of Gazalem

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/15/executive-pay-salaries-carecentrix-senior-team-employees

https://ticotimes.net/2019/05/18/morning-after-pill-legal-without-prescription-costa-rica?fbclid=IwAR1jJcOdoBj9G8tC5sLsutIx5by6ADHSHCaH5QXu3NqEDXjXE23ejNCjLfM

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

May 8, 2019

We finally discuss the Temple Endowment Ceremony changes as of January 2019! But not so fast! Before that we get into the Strengthening Church Members Committee (SCMC) and the awkward phone call between Elder Timothy Dyches and Radio Free Mormon. Lesley, Colleen, and Bryce call the number and debrief over on Mormon Happy Hour (links below). Then, Braden and I finally get into how the endowment ceremony was slightly altered with “massive implications” in order to remove some of the overtly sexist theology. We give you a play by play so you don’t have to watch it and go through exactly what the changes mean, along with a little history where applicable. The changes simply don’t go far enough.

 

Links:

 

Mormon Happy Hour SCMC
http://angelsonfire.org/mhh73-part-1-call-to-elder-dyches-of-the-strengthening-church-members-committee/

 

Radio Free Mormon SCMC
https://radiofreemormon.org/2019/05/radio-free-mormon-064-spying-for-the-lord/

 

Temple Endowment Stuffs

SLC Live secret cam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8sbYtFOnxk&t=814s

Endowment as of Jan. 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VOb0XNjdXE

 

Adam-God Doctrine

http://www.mormonthink.com/QUOTES/adamgod.htm

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Apr 24, 2019

Just as the title states, Braden and I go through the Sunday April 2019 General Conference talks. We [I] watched it so you don’t have to! Plus Media of Great Price about Abducted in Plain Sight and a Light of Gazalem about Morgan Freeman single handedly saving the planet! We wrap with a short listener mail segment.

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

 

Apr 24, 2019

Just as the title states, Braden and I go through the Saturday April 2019 General Conference talks. We [I] watched it so you don’t have to!

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Apr 10, 2019

November 2015 exclusion policy? What November 2015 exclusion policy? Today is an historic day! The Mormon church ceased to be bigoted against LGBTQ+ people! Oh, wait… no. It didn’t. Not included in the show, but maybe this has something to do with the recent anti-hate crime bill that passed in Utah this week.

In November 2015, while Thomas Monson was president of the church, a policy from the Mormon church leaked stating that children in a home with homosexual parents couldn’t be baptized.

A few months later, Russell Nelson stated it was actually “revelation” born by 15 witnesses. This was before he was called as president of the church.

Now the church announced this policy has been reversed.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900063943/church-lgbt-gay-lesbian-policy-mormon-baptisms-blessings-apostasy.html

Additional links:

Video of Church leaders defending the policy 2015-2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSPBxFEttiI

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/first-presidency-messages-general-conference-leadership-session-april-2019

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Mar 27, 2019

What’s the deal with cannabis in Utah? We resurrect this old headline to see if any new developments have occurred. We also invite Andrew Torrez from Opening Arguments Podcast to help us understand the law behind Utah legislature overturning the cannabis bill ballot initiative. Elections have consequences… After that Braden talks about The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and we discuss a new U.N. proposal to help get African countries closer to green energy!

 

Check out these episodes of OA to hear Andrew’s amazing legal takedown of big headlines!
https://openargs.com/oa13-hillary-clintons-damned-emails/

https://openargs.com/oa2-the-2000-election-neverforget-part-1/

https://openargs.com/oa12-tax-protesters-sovereign-citizens-wackiness/

https://openargs.com/oa21-second-amendment-masterclass-part-1/

https://openargs.com/oa154-stormy-daniels-is-a-legal-genius/

 

Prop 2 headlines

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/02/08/its-commerce-bill/

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2018/12/06/medical-cannabis/

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/02/14/utahs-biggest-health-care/

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/02/19/former-business-leader/

 

Light of Gazalem

https://mygoodplanet.com/african-billion-funding/

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Mar 13, 2019

Something slipped through the cracks and it smells fishy. We go through some of the quality control mechanisms used in Mormon genealogy research at the ward level. The Church collects and digitizes a lot of information and history, what do they do with it? We tie a few stories together to figure out what the church is planning with a recent $2 million investment into the International African American Museum in South Carolina. After that we bring on Weird Alma to talk about the recent Masonry and Mormonism essay published by the Church. Then we talk about the uptick in EV sales in America and what it might mean.

 

Headlines:

 

Temple and Family History Consultants
https://www.lds.org/family-history/temple-family-history-consultant?lang=eng

Family Search blog post
https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/elder-dale-g-renlund-2019-temple-and-family-history-leadership-instruction/

Church donates $2mn to IAAM
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-donation-2-million-international-african-american-museum-center-family-history

Church sells data to Ancestry.com
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865585877/LDS-FamilySearch--Ancestrycom--1-billion-new-historical-records-online.html?pg=all

Church data collection timeline
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/3fi88e/exploitation_and_spin_how_the_lds_church_is/

 

Check out Weird Alma here:

http://www.WeirdAlma.com

 

Light of Gazelem

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/010319-us-ev-sales-jump-725-on-year-in-2018-top-354000

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Feb 27, 2019

Even if it takes Black History Month to spur the conversation, we dive into racism in the Mormon church. We take a brief high-level overview of how non-white people have been treated throughout the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even though the Priesthood ban was lifted in 1978, racism didn’t go anywhere. From overt examples of prophets advocating slavery, to covert and insidious racism pervading our everyday lives, if we don’t talk about it it’ll never stop being a problem. We wrap with talking about 12 Years a Slave and an initiative in New Orleans to curb homelessness in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

 

Links:

 

Racism in Mormon Scripture
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/racialstatements.htm

 

Book of Abraham 1:26-7
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/abr/1?lang=eng

 

Green Flake
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/flake-green-1828-1903/

 

Five Time Mormons Changed Their Position on Slavery
https://gregkofford.com/blogs/news/five-times-mormons-changed-their-position-on-slavery

 

Slavery in Utah
https://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/pioneers_and_cowboys/slaveryinutah.html

 

Be One celebration
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/be-one-celebration-optimism-overcoming-prejudice

 

Healing the Wounds of Racism by Darius Gray
https://www.lds.org/blog/healing-the-wounds-of-racism?lang=eng

 

MormonNewsRoom fake racism apology
https://www.apnews.com/8453dce99ccf46c2a938a4e65c5addc5

 

Light of Gazalem
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/02/19/new-orleans-reducing-homeless-hurricane-katrina

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Feb 13, 2019

Braden did a thing! We start with an interview he had with Milo and Angela about their creative muse: healing after Mormonism. It’s alright to be you, everybody! After that we talk about An Honest Liar, a documentary about The Amazing James Randi, and we wrap up with a story about science winning in a world besieged by “alternative facts”.

 

Light of Gazalem:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/vaccinations-jump-500-in-antivax-hotspot-amid-measles-outbreak/

 

Interview show notes:

Song: https://soundcloud.com/angela-soffe/alright-to-be-you/s-laqLD

Angela Soffe: https://angelasoffe.com/about

Miles Germer (Milocraft): http://milocraft.net/music/bio

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/angelasoffemilocraft

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Jan 25, 2019

REVELATION! Braden and I go through the history of Mormon Temple ceremonies. Remember folks, religion has ceremonies, cults have rituals… there’s totally a difference. We use history to provide context for the ceremony changes of 2019 and the move toward equality between sexes in the passion narrative. “Between” sexes, not “among”. After that, Braden tells us about Kumare and how private citizens are making due during the Government shutdown.

 

Temple changes

https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/abwknz/summary_of_temple_changes_we_know_so_far_morning/

 

Summary of changes

http://www.ldsendowment.org/timeline.html

 

SL Trib article
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/01/02/lds-church-releases/

 

MORMON newsroom release
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/temple-worship

 

Alonzo Gaskill post
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsHKYi1gwaK/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=10360gliwoswi

 

NewNameNoah Temple Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VrsFEiTpsQ&t=1765s

 

Media of Great Price:

Kumare (documentary)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumar%C3%A9

 

Light of Gazaelem:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/national-parks-shutdown-clean-up.html

 

Show links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Jan 18, 2019

Join us for the epic conclusion to our discussion about disunity in Mormon leadership and censorship of General Conference addresses. We pick up with a long segment about Boyd K. Packer and censoring his various talks, including his address from 2010. Then Joe and I draw some conclusions based on everything discussed in our conversation as a whole.

Links mentioned in the show:

To the One
https://archive.org/details/ToTheOne/page/n1

To Young Men Only
https://archive.org/details/ToYoungMenOnly

Harold Lee talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/harold-b-lee_ye-deceived/

Benson BYU talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson_safety-face-danger/

Rector talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/hartman-jr-rector_roots-branches/

Henry Eyring talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/henry-b-eyring_family/

Quinn telling about his conflicts with Packer
http://signaturebookslibrary.org/on-being-a-mormon-historian/

Review of Packer's talk in FARMS
https://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1426&index=11

Packer provokes academics in Sunstone
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/issues/066.pdf

Lost Sermons
https://eadview.lds.org/findingaid/CR%20100%20912/?componentid=427210

Further Reading:

http://signaturebookslibrary.org/essential-james-e-talmage/

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V26N01_23.pdf

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/046-38-39.pdf

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/045-44-57.pdf

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/015-43-46.pdf

Show Links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

Jan 17, 2019

Joe and I pick right back up where we left off with J. Golden Kimball. Joe walks us through nearly 80 years of Mormon history discussing disunity among General Authorities and censorship of General Conference addresses. As we broach more modern General Authorities we discuss how the modern conservative bend of the Mormon church was moved and shaped by prominent figures in the Quorum of Apostles. Ezra Taft Benson and the John Birch Society are the focus for a substantial part. Then Joe documents the lengths the Church will go to cover up controversial opinions from the pulpit, even going so far as to retape a portion of General Conference with a superimposed “cough track” at the cost of $10-15,000. Joe was nice enough to give us over 5 hours of his time, making this episode part 2 of 3.

Links mentioned in the show:

To the One
https://archive.org/details/ToTheOne/page/n1

To Young Men Only
https://archive.org/details/ToYoungMenOnly

Harold Lee talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/harold-b-lee_ye-deceived/

Benson BYU talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson_safety-face-danger/

Rector talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/hartman-jr-rector_roots-branches/

Henry Eyring talk
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/henry-b-eyring_family/

Quinn telling about his conflicts with Packer
http://signaturebookslibrary.org/on-being-a-mormon-historian/

Review of Packer's talk in FARMS
https://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1426&index=11

Packer provokes academics in Sunstone
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/issues/066.pdf

Lost Sermons
https://eadview.lds.org/findingaid/CR%20100%20912/?componentid=427210

Further Reading:

http://signaturebookslibrary.org/essential-james-e-talmage/

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V26N01_23.pdf

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/046-38-39.pdf

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/045-44-57.pdf

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/015-43-46.pdf

Show Links:

Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast

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