Was Joseph Smith Credible? w/ Sandra Tanner - LDS Discussions 65 | Ep. 2077

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 192 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sandra Tanner is back with us on LDS Discussions to conclude our conversation on three new church essays recently published by the LDS Church. In this episode, we’ll finish our coverage of the essay on polygamy and move on to the final essay, which addresses the character of Joseph Smith.

Topics include:

-Joseph’s failed prophecies

-Joseph’s treatment of Emma

-Joseph’s 21 criminal cases

Join us as we unpack these final issues and reflect on what they reveal about Joseph Smith and early church history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast, LDS Discussions Edition.
0:05.5	I am your host today, John DeLinn. It is September 8th, 2025.
0:10.5	And today we are going to be covering the character of the prophet Joseph Smith.
0:16.9	So recently the Mormon Church came out with three new gospel topics essays or pages or essays,
0:23.7	I don't know what to call them, where it's trying to update or improve its transparency around
0:29.9	Mormon church history.
0:31.6	Last time on LDS discussions, we covered the new essay or page on the Book of Mormon translation. and then we got most of the way through the new polygamy essay.
0:42.6	I really recommend you go back and watch that before you watch this.
0:46.2	We didn't quite finish the polygamy essay or page.
0:49.4	So today we're going to start by finishing our polygamy discussion because we had to run last time.
0:56.0	And then we're going to spend the bulk of today's time on the new essay on Joseph Smith's character.
1:02.7	Really quickly, for those of you who don't know, this LDS discussion series is something like 60 or 70 episodes in.
1:10.6	Many years ago, we brought on our friend Mike,
1:13.5	who has a website called LDS Discussions, who put out a bunch of essays on LDS Church
1:18.9	Truth Claims. So we started a series on Mormon stories where we've covered something like
1:24.2	60 or 70 episodes going deep on Mormon Church Truth Claims as objectively and as
1:31.6	neutrally as we could possibly muster. It's definitely been one of the most important things
1:36.9	Mormon Stories podcast has ever done. We highly recommend you consuming these episodes sequentially,
1:43.1	which means, in theory, pause this episode,
1:46.5	go back to the beginning of the LDS discussion series, watch the 60 or 70 episodes,
1:51.6	and then enjoy today's episode.
1:54.1	If you can't do that, you're also welcome to join us now.
	...

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