Balance. Perspective. Valuable and rare commodities in the market of religious exchange. The husband-wife team, Richard and Joan Ostling, weave both throughout their book Mormon America. This may be the best general introduction to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints available today, in part because it has so much to offer — both to members and non-members of the LDS Church.

Organized for fast reference, this text comments on passages from the Book of Mormon and Bible texts to show how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints redefines words to hide a human-centered, polytheistic theology. Verse-by-verse format in canonical order.

When Judy and Jim Robertson felt a spiritual void in their lives, they found "the finest people in the world" to embrace them and a beautifully packaged religion to entice them. Once drawn into Mormonism, they quickly climbed to leadership positions and became worthy temple Mormons, only to become disillusioned with the teaching and demands of the LDS church. From her unique insider's viewpoint, Judy shares her life as a Mormon woman, her rediscovery of the Jesus of the Bible, and how she and Jim found freedom as they left the LDS church in the face of persecution and confrontation.

The average person couldn't even begin to locate original copies of the Journal of Discourses, first editions of The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, or copies of the early Mormon newspapers, journals or diaries.

Such books and newspapers are the source documents for the original teachings of the Mormon churches. However, when Mormons see some of these "unbelievable" statements made by their leaders, they will often dismiss them by saying, "That is obviously out of context of misquoted!" In most cases they have never even seen the original source material themselves and what they really mean is, "I cannot believe that my founding prophets and apostles could have meant what they said!"

Thus, the whole purpose for the existence of this volume is to make actual photo-copies of these original documents available to everyone. You now have at your fingertips, selected pages from several thousand dollars worth of rare books, pamphlets, diaries and manuscripts as well as companion quotations from many current Mormon sources. Use them well in your search for truth!