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Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011
Volume 9 Number 1 Article 18
1997
Mormonism on the Internet: Now Everybody Has a Printing Press Mormonism on the Internet: Now Everybody Has a Printing Press
Gregory H. Taggart
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Taggart, Gregory H. (1997) "Mormonism on the Internet: Now Everybody Has a Printing Press,"
Review of
Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011
: Vol. 9 : No. 1 , Article 18.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol9/iss1/18
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Mormonism on the Internet: Now Everybody Has a
Printing Press.
Gregory H. Taggart
FARMS Review of Books 9/1 (1997): 161–74.
1099-9450 (print), 2168-3123 (online)
Mormon websites include those with links to other
sites and those with something substantive to oer.
Numerous links to substantive websites are given.
Title
Author(s)
Reference
ISSN
Abstract
Mormonism on the
Internet
:
Now
Everybody Has a Printing Press
Reviewed by Gregory H. Taggart
What
to do? The info
rm
a
ti
on superhighway is true to
it
s name.
tt is loaded w
ith
inf
o
rm
at
io
n. both good a
nd
bogus. The amount
of i
nf
ormation clogg
in
g
th
e highway is worse than a
bu
sy freeway
interchange and
in
creases daily. Unfortunately. the ratio
of
good
to bad, or
at
least va
lu
a
bl
e to worthless, is not
ve
ry good. And
th
at
ratio ho
ld
s true
wh
en searching webs
it
es pertaining to Mormon-
ism. Yes fo
lk
s, the C
hri
s
ti
an Research
In
stitute, Bill McKeever, and
any o
th
er html-
li
terate with time on
hi
s ha
nd
s a
nd
a bone to pick
with the Latte
r-
day Saini C
hu
rch can
se
t up shop
ri
ght across
th
e
superhighway from the Church Office Building. Sadly, there is no
way to eradicate this blig
ht
on the h
ig
hw
ay, so you are go
in
g to
have to deal with it or lea
rn
to ignore it.
If
you can disregard the
bad,
th
ere a
re
some
wo
nd
erful resources on-line, from doctrinal to
practical, from
in
spiring to illuminatin
g.
The purpose of this article, the
n,
is to he
lp
you do a little sift-
ing of wheat from chaff, maybe even point you
in
th
e
ri
g
ht
dir
ec-
t
io
n. Be advised though that what fo
ll
ows is not an e
nd
orsement of
any
of
th
e w
eb
s
it
es me
nt
ioned. For one, each webs
it
e can
go
on
a
nd
on, page a
ft
er page,
wi
th
no end
in
sight. Nobody wo
ul
d
claim to have read an entire website. For another, websites have
none
of
th
e permanence of printed mater
ia
l.
They are amorphous
and can and do change dail
y.
What one day co
ul
d be a certi
fi
able
doctrina
ll
y correct website,
mi
ght be anti-Mormon
th
e next.
Caveat surfe
r!
Wi
th
th
at little admon
it
ion o
ul
of the wa
y,
let
's
go surfing
no
w.
You w
ill
soon
di
scover
th
at Mormon webs
it
es
fa
ll
i
nt
o t
wo
ma
in
catego
ri
es: those
th
at are simply a co
ll
ection
of
links to other
A
ll
facts and figures are correct at t
he
ti
me
of
prin
ti
ng.
but the dynamic
na
tu
re
of
the
In
ternet
may
tead
to
changes
by
th
e ti
me
you
access
th
e sites. The
website addresses 3re case· sensitive.
162
FARMS
REVIEW
OF
BOOKS
9/1
(
199
7)
websites and those thar
ha
ve
something substantive to offer.
Sometimes the two categories
mix:
it
up a bit. But
it
does
n't
take
too long
10
discover when a site has something really valuable
or
interesting to offer.
The next breakout occurs between those that are offering
something entirely
n
ew~for
example, a forum
for
discussion
of
things Mormon or a co
lle
c
ti
on
of
personal essays
on
the Mormon
expe
ri
ence-and
those that have collected previously published
material together
at
one site. The material may
be
read
il
y available
in
your own book collection or
it
may
be
something arcane or
out
of
print. For me, the net becomes valuable when the old, arcane, or
out
of
print is found there. I also appreciate the attempts
of
vari-
ous faithful members
of
th
e church who have used their access to
the Internet to publish their defenses
of
the church. Even when
their defense
is
a
si
mple
te
stimony,
it
is wonderful to see that
te
s-
timony online and available to those who may otherwise only find
anti-Mormon material on the Internet.
Ah,
th
e anti-Mormons. They are a busy little bunch. Give
them anything resembling a printing press, and the
y'
ll
inundate
you with helpful hints to recovery a
nd
everlasting life. A word
of
warning: You get on the wrong
page-literally-on
the Inte
rn
et,
and you will soon find that you have spent hours linking
through
and
re
ading some very dispiriting stuf
f.
And believe me, you
will
feel dispirited. Take care. Answers exist to everything you read
out
th
ere. Take the time to link back to a site developed by a
faithful Mormon to refresh your memory
of
that fact.
Substantive
Websites
Church
Doctrine
Deseret News Conference Talks (http://www.dcsncws.com!
confer/talks.htm)
To
my
knowledge,
thi
s is the source for almost immediate ac-
cess to general conference talk
s.
One link to
thi
s site claimed that
the talks were on
li
ne within two hours after they were g
iv
en. For
th
e really
hun
gry among you, this site
is
a must!
FARMS
Horne Page (http://www.farrnsrcsearch.com)
This site
is
a great improvement over the initial effort. You can
now find current issues
of
the monthly newsletter, Insights.
You
MORMONISM
ONTH£
INTERN£T(TAGGART)
16
3
will also fmd articles from
th
e Journal
of
Book
of
Mormon Stud·
ies. FARMS
Re
view
of
Books. var
io
us criticism papers, numerous
transcriptions of ta
lk
s from
th
e Book
of
Mormon lecture se
ri
es,
and mon
thl
y spec
ial
s.
Joseph
Smith's
Documentary History
of
the
Church,
1935
Edition (http://www.math.byu.cduJ-smithwfLdsILDSlHistory/
History
_oC
the
_C
hurch
)
Do
you think somewhere
in
there he said something
th
at
could be interpreted to mean that he wou
ld
someday
be
published
in
html language?
BYU
Department
of
Religious Education (http://reled.byu.edu)
Apparently, you
will
find a
ll
kinds
of
information here. For
example.
th
e information on the General Authorit
ies
di
scussed
be
low comes from this s
it
e; unfortunatel
y,
the sear
ch
eng
in
e for
the site is curre
ntl
y disabled.
Standard
Works
of
the
Church
(http://erdos.rnath.byu.eduJ
-smithwILdslLDSILDS·scriptures)
The complete Standa
rd
Works are
on
li
ne; however,
th
ey are
not formatted well.
BYU
Religious Studies
Center
(http://rcled.byu.edulreistctr/
relstctr.htrn)
Other than
th
eir free newsle
tt
er, which you can order from the
si
te, not much is here.
Jeff
Lindsay's
Unomciallntroduction
to the
Church
of
Jesus
Christ
of
Latter-day
Saints (http://www.athenet.netl
-jlindsayILDS_Intro.shtml)
Jeff. a research scie
nt
ist
for Kimberly-Clark, lives
in
Appleton,
Wisconsin, with his family.
He
is a 1986 g
ra
duate of
BYU
w
ith
a
Ph.D.
in
chemical eng
in
eering. Kimberly-Clark appare
ntl
y isn
't
keeping him too busy because
he
obviously spends a lot
of
time
on his websit
e.
Much
of
the site
is
devoted to
an
introduction to
th
e c
hu
rc
h; however, a wealth of well-researched and well-wrilten
answers to some
of
the more interesting questions a critic
of
the
church might ask
is
in
cluded.
Of
particular
int
erests are J
eff's
answers to Freque
ntl
y Asked Questions (FAQs). For example.
there
is
an
exce
ll
e
nt
discussion
of
the temple ceremony and
164
FARMS
REVIEW
OF
BOOK
S
9/1
(1997)
Masonry, as well as the age-old grace/wo
rk
s contro
ve
rsy. All
in
all.
Jeff' s
is
one of the better LDS websites. My favorite spot on
hi
s
site is se
mi
commercial, J
eff's
CultMaster 2000 Softwar
e.
As Jeff
warns,
it
is not for the
"co
mi
ca
ll
y impaired." To develop
hi
s
revolutionary software. Jeff used
th
e powerful concept
of
"Se-
mantic Redefinition for Exclusiv
it
y," a marvelous pr
og
rammin
g
technique.
WWW
LDS Visitors
Center
(http://www.mich.com/
-romulansllds.html)
The creator
of
this site has brought toge
th
er a lot
of
pr
evi-
ously published material about
th
e church under the title
of
On-
line LDS
In
st
itute. Included arc the
Te
ach
in
gs
of
the Pr
ophet
Jo
seph Smith and Gospel Doctrine.
Book
of
Mormon
(www.hti.umich.eduJreliglmormon)
Topical/searchable Book
of
Mormon
by
word or phrase. Very
useful.
LDS Resource Page (http://www
.primen
et.com!-kitsonkJ
mormon.html)
Among other links and information, you
will
find seven
separme accounts
of
the first vision.
World Wide Web
Links
Related to
Mormonism
(http://
www.sas.upenn.eduJ-dbowielmormwww/mormonwww.html)
This s
it
e,
run
by
David B
ow
ie,
ha
s
its
share
of
links to Mor·
mon s
it
es, including a passel
of
those anti·Mormon critters
(euphe
mi
s
ti
ca
ll
y called "s
it
es unfricndly to Mormonism"). But
my reason for
co
ming 10 Bowic's site
is
hi
s Disputed
Mormon
Texts
Page
(hUp://www.sas.upenn.cduJ-dbowicldisputcldisputc.
html),
w
hi
ch conta
in
s a
ll
sorts of documents purporting to be au-
thentic and
in
viting a response from someone as to their authen-
ti
city. Another reason to vi
si
t
is
Lighten Up! (http://www.sas.
upenn.cduJ
-
dbowie/armlc
/
armlc.html),
a site that says
it
repre·
se
nt
s
th
e best
in
LDS humor. No, I
don't
think
th
is
is the
ca
rto
on
page
of
the New
Era.
Check
it
out and let Dav
id
kn
ow what
you
think.
MO
RM
ON
ISM
ON
T
HE
I!'.TER
NEf
(TAGGART)
Religious
and
Sacred
Texts
(http:
//webpages.marshall.edul
-wiley6
/
rast
.htmlx)
165
If
you are looki
ng
for links to most of the world
's
re
li
gious
texts online, look no furthe
r.
And of course, you w
ill
find
Mormon texts here too. Lots of
th
e "best books" to "seek ye out
of. "
F
ac
ets
of
Religion, Virtual
Library
of
Religion (
http
:
//
sunfly.ub
.
uni-fr
eiburg.de/religion)
An award-winning s
it
e, provid
in
g a
wi
de a
rr
ay of interesting
a
nd
inf
ormati
ve
ma
terial on
th
e world
's
re
li
gions, including
Mormonis
m.
wh
ic
h is f
ou
nd
un
der Christ
ia
nity.
LDS
Index
(
http
://www.cybe
rhi
ghway.
netl-v
chopinel
Idsinde
x.
htm)
This is a
no
ther link s
it
e, but
wi
th
a difference:
Th
e cre
at
or of
th
e s
it
e links o
nl
y to a
rti
cles on
an
o
th
er s
it
e.
So
in
stead of a link to
FARMS, for exampl
e,
yo
u go to a to
pi
c on
th
e LDS Index s
it
e
an
d
click on
th
e to
pi
c. An index of a
rti
cles on t
he
we
b on
th
at top
ic
appears with links to the various articles. I found
it
ve
ry easy to
use, quite well-organized, and usef
ul.
Allen Leigh
's
Mormon
Pa
ge
(
http
://www.
shire
.
netlmormon
)
Ano
th
er ef
fo
rt by a
fa
ith
f
ul
member of
th
e LDS Church to
he
lp
p
eo
pl
e
un
derstand LDS be
li
ef
s.
You w
ill
find A
ll
en's
book
The Immorra
Lit
y and Ete
rn
al LIfe
of
Man here.
History
Mormon
History
Res
ource
Page (http:
//
www.indirect.com/
www/
crock
ettlhistory.html)
Wh
at
a resource! Here you
wi
ll
find links to
th
e Encyclopedia
of
Mormonism, to
jo
urnal
s,
an
d to short biogra
ph
ies of impo
rt
a
nt
Mormon peo
pl
e. You w
ill
find a li
nk
to D
av
id
Kenison
's
Church
History Sto
ri
es Collection, also
fo
und at www_xmission.com/
-dkenisonlldsl
ch
_histlchron.html. The story of Mary Fielding
Smith and
th
e
bl
essing of her oxen is here. So is the
in
spiring
journal entry of Joseph Millet, "the Lord
kn
ew there
was
such a
person .
..
"
166 FARMS
REVIEW
OF
BOOKS
9/1
(1997)
Joseph
Smith
Daguerreotype (http://www.comevisit.comlldsJ
js3pholo.hlm)
Maybe I have been on another planet. Maybe I have seen
it
and
ju
st failed
to
pay attenlion. Visiting this site and actually
paying attention,
for
the first time I saw what is supposed to
be
the
only actual photograph
of
the Prophet.
It
stirred
my
blood to look
into
th
e
eyes
of
the
man
I
ha
ve
kn
own
and
l
ove
d,
but
have never
actually seen. A must visit.
Dave
's
LDS Resources
(http
://www.xmission.com/
-dkenisonlldslindex.html)
I rea
ll
y enjoy
Ihi
s s
it
e for two reasons: Dave Kenison created
the
LOS
-Gems
Li
stserver. and you can sign on here. He has also
collected over 280 church
hi
story sto
ri
es, all available here.
Genealogy
Cyndi's
List
of
Genealogy Sites on the
Internet
(http://www.
oz.netJ-cyndihow!sites.htm)
This lady is not about to let you for
ge
t to redeem
th
e dead.
At
th
e time of printing, her web page advertises over 16,550
genealogy link
s,
"categorized and cross-referenced,
in
over
60
categories."
If
you
are into
red
eeming your dead, you cannot
pass up
thi
s
we
bsi
te.
Kindred
Konnections (http://www.kindredkonnections.com)
This is ano
th
er
in
credible gene
al
ogic
al
site with free down-
loadable softwa
re
and
ex.
tensive databases. This s
it
e is already
ge
tting over 11,500 hits a day, and that is
ju
st from this side
of
the
ve
il.
The
Genealogy Lady
(http://www.new~jerusalem.com/
genealogy/questions.html)
Go ahead and ask her. She promises answers within three
working days. I have talked to very knowledgeable genealogists
who g
iv
e her
hi
gh ma
rk
s.
MORMO
N
ISM
ON
THE
INT
ERNE:T'
(TAGGART) 167
Missionary
The
Official Home Page
of
the
Church
of Jesus Christ
of
Latter·
day Saints (http://www.lds.org)
If
you know nothing about the
LDS
Church.
you
may find
this s
it
e interesting. If you want to know
th
e top
ten
languages
spoken by members or which countries
hav
e the largest member-
ship, you
may
want to visit this page, which
al
so features a Global
Media Guide with bas
ic
information about the church.
If
you
hope that this page
will
grow and someday take advantage
of
the
Internet as a publishing medium. you may want to vi
si
t
thi
s page
to be there when
it
happen
s.
General Authorities
of
the
Church
(http://relcd.byu.edul
pres/genauthlgenauth.htm)
Photographs and biographies of all curre
nt
General Authori-
ties
of
th
e ch
ur
ch.
Ju
st click on
th
e picture and read awa
y.
World Wide Web 1st
Ward
(http://www.uvol.com/wwwlst)
A
fun
si
te with some good
re
source
s,
built around the theme
of
"
Pr
oclaim the Gospel, Perfect
th
e Saints, Redeem
th
e
Dead
."
You
will find
re
so
ur
ces here, whatever your calling
in
the church,
from ideas for ward Christmas parties to inspiring testimonies.
New
Jerusalem
(http://www.new-jcrusalem.com)
This
is
one
of
the
mo
st complete
LOS
s
it
es on
the
Internet.
with links g
al
ore.
Th
e Book of Mormon Answc
rman
(Wa
lt
er
Martin reincarnated and repe
nt
a
nt
?)
is a
fun
place to stop for
the weird quest
ion
and the appropriate answer. Home of the
Genealogy Lad
y.
The
LDS Second Coming
of
Christ Research
Group
(hUp :lIusers.aol.com/cli ntg777/p
ri
vatellastda ys.htm I)
A
li
s
t,
with
sc
riptural refere
nc
es.
of
events leading
up
to the
second coming.
Gene's
LDS Page (http://wymple.gs.net/-genellds.html). which
includes the
"Anti"
Rebuttal Page (http://wymple.gs.netJ
-gene/anti.html)
One
of
many pages on
th
e Internet devoted to answering the
numerous Mo
rm
on critics who have set up shop
in
cyberspace.
168
FARMS
REvIEW OF BOOKS 9/1 (1997)
All
about
Mormons
(http://www.mormons.org)
A well-constructed site with excellent introductions to basic
Mormon beliefs.
mo
st of which come from
th
e Encyclopedia
of
Mormonism. There are also attempts by unidentified writers to
an-
swer critics. I think
it
was at t
hi
s site where I first became a little
fru
st
rated that ve
ry
few websites on Mormonism identified the
people behind them.
LDS Evidences Home
Page
(hUp:llwww.geocitics.c
om/
WaIlSt,,,,VI777 ndsstulT.html)
I like this page;
it
is
one man's attempt to meet the
cr
itics head
on. Most
of
th
e
mat
erial is written
by
Gerald Smith, the creator
of
the site.
Mission.net (http://www.mission.net)
If
you are looking for the place on
th
e net where you spent
the best two years of your life,
thi
s is the place.
It
links to five dif-
ferent s
it
es
of
ind
exes
of
mi
ssion home pages, describing the
advantages
of
each.
Mormon
lnvestigatorlNew
Member
Home
Pag
e (
http://
www.ne
tta
lly.comlldslchur.html)
The
si
te
is
almost entirely home spun
by
Richard Hardison
of
Tallahassee, Flori
da.
In
the main,
it
seems to do a pretty good
job
of
explaining the church to its intended audience.
He
even points
out that new members shou
ld
soon expect home teachers to show
up. One unintended funny spot:
In
his questions and
an
swers o n
Mormonism, he respo
nd
s to the following question: Do Mormons
dress funny? "No, just modestly. Perhaps you are
co
nfus
in
g us
with the Amish of Pe
nn
sylvan
ia
."
So
it
is
th
e Amish who dress
funny? Now, I remembe
r.
Testimonies and Personal Essays
Nauvoo (
http:
//
nauvoo.com)
Nauvoo is an effort
of
Orson Sco
tt
Card and o
th
ers to create,
among o
th
er thin
gs
,
an
online forum for discussion
of
issues
of
interest to faithful Latter-day
Sa
in
ts. Origina
ll
y only avail
ab
le on
America
On
lin
e,
it recently moved to
th
e Web. Hav
in
g used the
AOL site, I can say that the new website h
as
potential if
it
follows
in
the footsteps
of
it
s predecessor. You
will
find
th
e Nauvoo
MORMONISM ON THE INTERNt7 (TAGGART) 169
Forum for discussion and Vigor and the Red Brick Store for
Mormon fiction and essays.
Caleum Fides (http://members.visi.neti-atom/totallytrEST_
MAIN
.
hlml)
This site
is
wor
th
visi
tin
g to read the
fe
r
ve
nt
testimonies and
th
oughtful conversion sto
ri
es
of
fa
ithful Mormon websurfers.
Miscellaneous
LDS Statistics
Center
(http://www.webcom.comlgutches/
statist.hlml)
Drew Gutches, the creator
of
thi
s s
it
e,
makes no claims to
accuracy; nevertheless, this
is
a fun site for those interested
in
th
e
growth
of
the church, viewed from many different angles.
Unfortunately, the
si
te is
in
trans
it.
You
can reach Drew
at
gutches3@aol.com
to
get the new address.
Brigham
Young
University Home
Page
(http://www.byu.edul
newhome.html)
Ricks College (http://www.ricks.edu)
BYU-Hawaii
(http://
www.
byuh.edu)
BYU Athletics (http:
//
www.byu.edul-byusport)
These s
it
es include just about anyth
in
g you need to know
about church colleges and uni
ve
rsities,
in
clud
in
g
fa
cu
lt
y and
student directories. program descriptions, and coming events.
FatherWork
(http://fatherwork.byu.edulfathrwrk.htm)
An
interesting
si
te developed
by
Drs. Dollahite and Hawkins,
together w
ith
Family Science students
at
BYU,
to promote good
fathering. Here you
will
find the sto
ri
es
of
fathers
in
all kinds
of
circumstances, as
th
ey
do their best to
be
fathers
to
their children.
Bonneville LDS Radio Network (http://www.bonneville.com/
Ids)
Ju
st what the name says. You will find
all
you need to know
about what, where. and how to receive their signa
l.
170
FARMS REVIEW OF BOOKS
9/\
(1997)
Nick
Litcrski's
Latter-Day
Saint
Temple Home Page
(http://www.vii.com/-nicksVindex.html)
Nick's done
hi
s homework. This site includes every published
temple dedicatory prayer. He has even worked with the webmaster
of
the online version
of
the Billillgs Gazette to
hav
e a link to that
paper. so members can keep up on the Billings, Montana, temple
news.
Davidic
Chiasmus
and
Parallelisms
http://www.geocities.
com/CapitolHiIU3500/index.html)
Prepared jointly
by
Jared Demke and Scott Vanatter, this s
it
e
contains one of the
mo
st comprehens
iv
e discussions
of
chiasmus I
have seen. I am not an expert on chiasmus. but
if
the breadth
of
this s
it
e and
it
s organization are any indication
of
content, this is
worth a sto
p,
but bring a lunch. You may be here a while.
The
LDS
Deaf
Connection
(http://www.bolingbroke.com!
LDCldeaOds.html)
Hats
off
to Drew GUlches. This is apparently
th
e second site
developed
by
him. each filling an important
ni
che. The first is
th
e
LDS Statistics Center, devoted to an interesting array
of
church
statis
ti
cs. The LDS Deaf Co
nn
ection, on
th
e other hand, is d
evo
ted
to
deaf
church members. Symposia, meetings,
mi
ssions. and
Ih
e
like. all pertaining to the deaf, are
li
sted her
e.
This
si
te also
includes Mormon's Story,1 an adaptation
of
the Book
of
Mormon
"w
ritten for anyone who has difficulty understanding the Book
of
Mormon."
LDS
Hymns-MIDI
Page
(http://www.uleth.ea/-anderson/
midLhtmlx)
I cannot vouch for the contents
of
this page. I can only te
ll
you
it
is
here. [Ed. notc: the midi files are good quality.}
My
browser is not
se
t
up
to listen to
mu
sic.
If
your browser is set
up
properly and you have
th
e
ri
g
ht
equipment, you can listen to LDS
hymns. the childr
en's
songbook, and other music stored here.
See Camille
S.
Williams. review
of
Mormon's Story:
An
Adaptation
Based
on
tile
Hook
oJ
Mormon.
by
Timothy
B.
Wilson, Review oJ Books
on
the
Book
0/
Mormorl
7
11
(1995): 3-12.
MORMONISM ON THE l
NTE
R
Nt7
(TAGGART)
LOS Scouters Page (
http
://
www2.dtc.netl-mpearce/scoutsJ
scouts.htm)
171
For you who think scouting came first and
th
en
th
e
Bo
ok of
Mormon, this is
th
e place.
LOS·Singles Connection
(http
://www.singles.lds.net)
LOSSingles.com (http://www.ldssingles.com)
LOS Singles.online (hUp:llwww.lds-singles.com)
LOS
Friends
Worldwide(hUp:llwww.downtown-web.comlcfw)
You can tra
ck
the divorce rate
in
th
e church by
th
e number of
webs
it
es devoted to
ma
tchmaking for
th
e hea
rt
brok
en
.
Th
ese are
my four favorites (I am divorced
).
The first two gi
ve
you a t
ri
al
me
mb
ership and then char
ge
for
th
e
se
rvice thereafter. The third
is free.
Around
the
Punchb
o
wl
(http
://members.aol.com/itstessie/
sngUindex.htm)
Th
is is not
an
o
th
er da
tin
g
se
rvice. Instead,
it
tries to fi
ll
th
e
needs of
th
e LDS s
in
gles commun
it
y with ta
lk
s to
si
ngles by
General Au
th
o
rit
ies, s
in
gles confere nce announceme
nt
s,
and oth
er
things of interest to s
in
gle members
of
th
e church.
Za
rahemla
Book Shoppe (hUp:llwww.xmission.coml
-
zarahmla)
The Ama
zo
n.
com of Mo
rm
o
ni
sm.2
Links
to
Websites
of
Fa
i
thful
Mormon
s
Eby's
CyberScroll
(htl p :lIwww.teleport.coml-ardenlreligium.htm )
Mainta
in
ed by
Ar
den L. Eby, t
hi
s s
it
e has links to websites
pe
rt
aini
ng
to most of
th
e wo
rl
d's
rel
ig
ions,
in
cluding a large
num
be
r of LOS link
s.
A very good place to sta
rt
.
LDS Info (http:
//
www
.ldsinfo.orglindcxl.html)
Ano
th
er, of
man
y, comprehensi
ve
link
si
tes. Lin
ks
to
LO
SSA,
ward a
nd
st
ak
e homepages,
th
e Book of Mor
mo
n. And on and on
and on.
2 Amazon.com is argua
bl
y t
he
largest sour
ce
of
books on the Internet.
currenliy al 2.5 million in and out
of
print.
172
FARMS
REVIEW
OF
BOOK
S
911
(
19
97)
YAHOO! (http://www.yahoo.comlSociely_and_C
ulture/
ReligionlChristianityfDenominations_a
nd
_Sects
IC
hurch
_oC
Jesus_
Chl'isCoCLatter
_
day
_S
aints)
The Yahoo
li
st
of
resources on the LOS Church on the In-
te
rn
et. This fairly extensive
li
st incl
ud
es what Yahoo labels as
op-
posing views, which include much
of
the same
an
ti-Mormon
in
-
formation you are familiar
wi
th
and a new stripe you may not
know about: Recovery from Mormonism.
LDS
World
(hUp:llwww.ldsworld.com)
Brought to you by Infobases, the company that brings you so
many
of
the LDS CD-ROM on the market. Though this
si
te has
its
commercial aspects,
it
provides
we
ll
-organized links to a
va
ri
ety
of
Mormon s
it
es. including news s
it
es such as KBYU and Bonneville
Interna
ti
onal, and mission homepages. It also purports to have
493 links to o
th
er
Mormon sites.
Pearls,
The
Best LDS Websites (http://drzeus.cache.netllds)
Pearls appears to be the
un
of
ficial
judge
of
LDS site
s,
based
on sugges
ti
ons to and the opinion
of
Pearls's creato
r,
John Visser
(OrZeus@cache.net). Vis
it
hi
s site first and you are assured of the
best on the net, maybe.
By
the t
im
e I reviewed Pearls, I had
al~
ready written about 34 websites and had vis
it
ed many more.
Th
e
color
of
hypertext
on
th
e Pearls s
it
e te
ll
s me
th
at I ha
ve
visited
o
nl
y half
of
th
e 37 s
it
es
li
sted there. Better get a move on!
Mike
Pearce's
LDS
Church
Page (http://www2.dtc.netl
- m pea rce/chu rch.h
1m)
Yet another page of links 10 LOS
si
tes with a nice addition:
Mike has a link to his page
of
LOS Graphics.
And
Now
for
Something
Completely Different
I ha
ve
held
off
as lo
ng
as I can. There is another side to
Mormonism
on
th
e Internet, and
it
looms large. I even read
one
post
in
the Nauvoo Forum (http://nauvoo.com) where an LOS web
surfer complained
th
at
a
ll
he found on
th
e Inte
rn
et was
anti~
Mormon material. You get into the wrong set of links, and
you
will
begin to think
th
e same thin
g.
If
you are just dying to
ge
t
mad
at
th
e distortion, the misrepresentation, or the condescension
(this is the only
wo
rd that describes Ihe Recovery from
MORMONISM
ON
THE INTERNET
(f
AGGART) 173
Mormonism mo
ve
me
nt
)
of
the a
nti
*Mormon faction on the
Internet,
th
en let me be your guide. But I
will
on
ly take you so far
because I cannot sta
nd
it
any more. Your
fi
rst stop shou
ld
be the
Ya
hoo Search site at (hUp:llwww.yahoo.com/Socicty_und_
CultureiReligioniChristianityfDenominations_and_SectsiChurch
_oCJesus
_C
hrisCoCLatter
_day_Saints). Click on Opposing
Views. and
yo
u are off. The first s
it
e, Alpha Internet Ministries
(hUp:/I www.alphamin.org) asserts
th
ei
r objecti
ve
pretty clearl
y:
We
cordia
ll
y invite you to come
in
and find a seat in
th
e Main Reading Room. We have built our s
it
e entirely
in
the spirit of a statement made
by
Mormon Apostle
Orson Pratt, who,
in
1853 sa
id
th
ese
wo
rd
s:
"
...
convince
us
of
our errors
of
doctrine, if
we
ha
ve
an
y,
by
reason, by logical arguments, or by the word
of
God, and
we
wi
ll
be ever gratef
ul
for the info
rm
ation,
and
yo
u w
ill
ever have the pleasing reflection
th
at
you
have been
in
struments
in
the hands
of
God
of
redeem*
ing
yo
ur fellow beings from the darkness which you
m
ay
see enveloping
th
e
ir
minds."
Th
e Seer, pp. 1
5-
16
(1853).
If that
is
all they are doing, no problem. But
of
course, the
cordiality goes out the door
as
quickly
as
yo
u can say, "Fawn
M.
Brodie," and
it
is
all down hill from
th
ere.
Mormon
Matter
(http://www.rainfrog.comlbiIVmormon.
shtrnI)
ge
ts rave reviews on
th
e anti*Mormon circ
ui
t.
T
his
site is
where
th
e word condescension came to
mi
nd
as
I prepared this
article. I guess if you are going to
ex
pose
my
r
el
igious beliefs
as
a
fraud,
it
is
nice to be c
ut
e.
Mormon
Links (
htlp:
ll
www
.c
alifornia.com
/-
rpcman
l
MORMON.HTM)
is about
as
good
as
it
ge
lS for comprehensive
links
10
what is "wrong"
wi
th
Mormonism. The creator
of
th
e s
it
e
brings B. H. Roberts to do battlc for him and takes on FARMS
("
th
e Foundation for Acquiring
Ri
ch Mormons' Salary," he ca
ll
s
them)
by
Ou
l ad hominemiling
th
em.
He
even provides you
wit
h a
link to the defin
iti
on of
ad
hominem (in case
yo
u
are
Mormon
and don't know what
it
means, I s
up
pose).
174
FARMS
REVIEW OF BOOKS
9/1
(1997)
Of
course, this is
ju
st a short
li
st of all the websilcs dealing with
Mormonism, pro- and ant
i-
alike. Remember. Infobases's s
it
e
claims to link to over 493 sites, and that
was
just the so-
ca
ll
ed
faith-promoting sites. Still. in my opinion these are the best of the
l
ot.
If
you
wander
the
web
enou
gh,
yo
u
will
discover
th
at
man
y,
if
not most,
of
those 493 sites are little more than links to other
si
tes
(now you know why
th
ey call
it
th
e Web) with liule new and s
ub
-
stantive added. Besides.
yo
u should be study
in
g your
sc
riptur
es
anyway.
If I have left a great s
it
e off the
li
st-and
I am positive I
have-please
feel free to e-ma
il
me at gtagga
rt
@fiber.ncl.
And
remembe
r,
spamming (offensi
ve
practice
of
se
nd
ing unsolicited
e·
mail to vast numbers
of
individuals) is not good Internet etiquette.
