Doc,
Six or so hours is an investment in time, so I understand where you’re coming from. In the other thread, Drumdude provided a summary, IIUC, he got from Reddit.
https://www.discussmormonism.com/viewt ... 4&t=156123
I’ll post the summary below.
Dr. Mason asked some pointed questions to John toward the end that I don’t see in the summary that was posted.
The New Mormon Apologetics - Patrick Mason on Mormon Stories Podcast
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Unread post Fri Sep 16, 2022 6:01 pm
General authorities know what Mason does. (1:29)
Mason says that banning Blacks from the priesthood was a sin on Brigham Young’s part. (1:30)
Unnamed high-ranking general authority tells Mason that Mason will not be stopped from giving firesides declaring that banning Blacks was a sin. (1:31)
Deseret Book published Mason’s book “Planted” in which Mason says that Brigham Young sinned with the priesthood ban. (1:33)
Mason says that the Church should apologize (for racism, sexism, etcetera). (1:44)
Mason says that members should be allowed to criticize the leaders (though it shouldn’t be personal and should be done with a spirit of love and by giving the benefit of the doubt). (1:51)
Mason says that Elder Holland was wrong to give his talk at BYU encouraging faculty to take up metaphysical muskets to defend the Church. (1:54)
Mason says that the work of addressing difficult specific problems in Church doctrine and history has not been sufficient. (2:03)
Mason says that the first nine chapters of Genesis are not literal history. He points to fact that Brigham Young thought Genesis contained “baby stories.” (2:12)
Mason says that the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith treat Genesis as literal. [For example, the Book of Mormon mentions allegedly literal people who allegedly migrated to America from the Tower of Babel.] Either Joseph Smith or Nephite prophets assumed literalness incorrectly or they were writing metaphorically. (2:15)
Mason is comfortable with the idea that Joseph Smith at least partially created the Book of Mormon from his own mind, even though Mason cannot say which parts of the Book of Mormon are from Joseph Smith’s mind and which are not. (2:18)
Mason says that there are lots of “19th-century-isms” in the Book of Mormon. (2:25)
The 19th century influences of the Book of Mormon causes Mason to accept the idea that Joseph Smith was an active participant in the creation of the Book of Mormon, either consciously or subconsciously. (2:26)
Mason says that Joseph was not translating. The Book of Mormon was a product of revelation. (2:27)
Mason thinks that God is doing a work through people who don’t understand their role in that work, so Joseph Smith could easily think that he was translating, when he wasn’t. (2:28)
Mason thinks that scripture has errors and contradictions. The Book of Abraham isn’t a one-to-one correspondence with an ancient text. (2:30)
Mason says that the jury is out whether the Book of Mormon is history and whether the characters in the Book of Mormon were historical people. But Mason talks like they were historical characters in the same way that you talk about any fictional character doing or saying things. (2:32)
Mason does not like polygamy. (2:34)
Mason does not think that he has to believe in polygamy because he thinks that scripture, including D&C 132, can be in error. (2:35)
Mason hopes that he would have rejected any advance Joseph Smith made to marry his twelve-year-old daughter. He doesn’t want to call any of Joseph’s behavior in regard to polygamy sacred. (2:41)
Mason doesn’t “want to put lip stick on a pig” in regard to Joseph’s polygamy. (2:42)
A lot of Joseph’s polygamy looks like sin to Mason. But Mason still believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. God can work through morally revolting people. (2:44)
Mason believes that Mother Theresa was closer in moral living to Jesus that Joseph Smith was. But Mason thinks that Joseph was a prophet because God “mysteriously and inextricably” revealed truths to him. Being a moral exemplar is not required to be a prophet. (2:45)
Mason thinks that while the Church heals some people it also hurts people, and he wants the Church to be better. Mason thinks that God works through the LDS Church, but not only through the LDS Church. (2:56)
Sniffling and wiping tears from his eyes, Mason says that he is so sad that the Church has hurt people. (2:57)
Still sniffling, Mason says that sometimes the Church goes backwards. (2:58)
Mason says, “We can’t even see Zion yet. It’s not even on the horizon. We have a long way to go.” (2:59)
Mason says that Christ is not a capitalist. (3:01)
Mason says that it’s time to put the Church’s wealth to use helping people. (3:02)
Mason hopes that there is pressure on the Church to do more with its wealth. (3:03)
Mason says that the Church should have a policy of reporting sexual predators when it is legal to do so. (3:05)
Mason says that Mormon scripture has racist passages, and that God doesn’t inspire racism. (3:12)
Mason rejects all scripture and all prophetic teachings that conflict with the life of Jesus. (3:14)
Mason says that prophets don’t have a good track record of foretelling the future, but that’s ok because the main jobs of a prophet are to show God’s fundamental relationship with the world, call people to repentance, and witness the name of Jesus. (3:15)
Mason says that racism in the Church is a failure of prophetic witness. (3:17)
Mason says that the Church needs to figure out its theology of gender and sexuality. (3:19)
Mason says that the Church needs to figure out what it means to have a prophet, and what the role of a prophet is. (3:20)
Summary courtesy of exMormon Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comme ... defenders/
Full episode here:
https://youtu.be/9WmKEkoI0-k
