FAIR Conference 2026
Posted: Wed May 06, 2026 11:59 am
FAIR Conference 2026 Apologetics 101: Back to Basics
https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/con ... conference
I am not nearly as in-touch as most here, but got a chuckle at some of the speakers/topics. 30 speakers, an extract with snarky comment.
Mark Ashurst-McGee: Joseph Smith and Treasure Digging - everyone was doing it, no reason to be embarrassed by it, except that the church leaders were and so they buried it, pun intended, but now we have to normalize it.
Brian Hales: Joseph Smith: A Reluctant Polygamist - poor Joseph only cheated on his wife cause he was threatened by god cause polygamy is both celestial marriage, but if that makes you uncomfortable the church is going to disavow it.
Brett Dowdle: “Here is Brigham”: The Private Character of Brigham Young - He wasn't just a racist piece of crap publicly, but privately too. It was pragmatic that Young send wagons and men to get his alcohol, steam engine, etc. cause it would have denied blessings to the handcart pioneers to help in their suffering. Alcohol is forever, Saints' lives are expendable.
John Thompson: Framing the Facsimiles: The Book of Abraham’s Relationship to the Egyptian Vignettes - there is none, at least nothing more significant than what bored members have sat and puzzled out while sitting in class or the pews.
John Gee: Book of Abraham Research Since the Pandemic - a.k.a. "scholarship" since Robert Ritner passed away and can't criticize me or the crap Mormons make up about Book of Abraham and Egyptology.
Jasmin Rappleye: Sacred, Secret, or “Cultish”? Demystifying the Latter-day Saint Temple - It's just Freemasonry with some twists to allow women. Also there are blood oaths and stuff, but we downplayed those back in 1990.
Ron Rhodes: Understanding the Faith Crisis Industry - It's good that we are compensated for our apologetics, but critics are just doing it for the money and it is evil and priestcraft. Also we know this topic FARMs/FAIR, as John Dehlin has reported, is a significant catalyst for people's faith crises. We are part of the problem.
Matt Roper: Accidental Evidence for the Book of Mormon - More Texas Sharpshooter Fallacies than you can handle
Kendall Buchmiller: What is (and is not) Doctrine - everything is doctrine until it is inconvenient to hold and is tossed as not doctrine
Neal Rappleye: A Beginner’s Guide to Book of Mormon Apologetics - brittle arguments and proof critics of the Book of Mormon can debunk in their sleep
Brant Gardner: Can I Trust the Book of Mormon? My Half-Century Quest to Answer that Question - the keystone of the LDS faith doesn't cover anything about the temple, celestial marriage, condemns churches that build up for themselves riches, is not historical, but like the foolish man who builds his house upon the sand I can trust the Book of Mormon.
Daniel C. Peterson: Why Apologetics? The Case for Defending the Faith - look the brethren our too busy and ignorant to do this, so we have to make the weak, sometimes contradictory, arguments.
https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/con ... conference
I am not nearly as in-touch as most here, but got a chuckle at some of the speakers/topics. 30 speakers, an extract with snarky comment.
Mark Ashurst-McGee: Joseph Smith and Treasure Digging - everyone was doing it, no reason to be embarrassed by it, except that the church leaders were and so they buried it, pun intended, but now we have to normalize it.
Brian Hales: Joseph Smith: A Reluctant Polygamist - poor Joseph only cheated on his wife cause he was threatened by god cause polygamy is both celestial marriage, but if that makes you uncomfortable the church is going to disavow it.
Brett Dowdle: “Here is Brigham”: The Private Character of Brigham Young - He wasn't just a racist piece of crap publicly, but privately too. It was pragmatic that Young send wagons and men to get his alcohol, steam engine, etc. cause it would have denied blessings to the handcart pioneers to help in their suffering. Alcohol is forever, Saints' lives are expendable.
John Thompson: Framing the Facsimiles: The Book of Abraham’s Relationship to the Egyptian Vignettes - there is none, at least nothing more significant than what bored members have sat and puzzled out while sitting in class or the pews.
John Gee: Book of Abraham Research Since the Pandemic - a.k.a. "scholarship" since Robert Ritner passed away and can't criticize me or the crap Mormons make up about Book of Abraham and Egyptology.
Jasmin Rappleye: Sacred, Secret, or “Cultish”? Demystifying the Latter-day Saint Temple - It's just Freemasonry with some twists to allow women. Also there are blood oaths and stuff, but we downplayed those back in 1990.
Ron Rhodes: Understanding the Faith Crisis Industry - It's good that we are compensated for our apologetics, but critics are just doing it for the money and it is evil and priestcraft. Also we know this topic FARMs/FAIR, as John Dehlin has reported, is a significant catalyst for people's faith crises. We are part of the problem.
Matt Roper: Accidental Evidence for the Book of Mormon - More Texas Sharpshooter Fallacies than you can handle
Kendall Buchmiller: What is (and is not) Doctrine - everything is doctrine until it is inconvenient to hold and is tossed as not doctrine
Neal Rappleye: A Beginner’s Guide to Book of Mormon Apologetics - brittle arguments and proof critics of the Book of Mormon can debunk in their sleep
Brant Gardner: Can I Trust the Book of Mormon? My Half-Century Quest to Answer that Question - the keystone of the LDS faith doesn't cover anything about the temple, celestial marriage, condemns churches that build up for themselves riches, is not historical, but like the foolish man who builds his house upon the sand I can trust the Book of Mormon.
Daniel C. Peterson: Why Apologetics? The Case for Defending the Faith - look the brethren our too busy and ignorant to do this, so we have to make the weak, sometimes contradictory, arguments.